Barbecue season is well and truly underway and we’re all ready to enjoy outdoor family feasts! But hold your horses, as we have some pre-grilling warnings you might want to take heed of…

Before you sizzle those sausages and break out the baps, here’s a guide on how to avoid common barbecuing mistakes and ensure perfection with your garden grilling.

Mistake 1: Cooking on a dirty grill

Grimy grates and burnt-on food can affect the taste of your food and increase the risk of it sticking. Before you start your barbecue, give it a good scrub with BBQ cleaner and a scourer or stiff brush. Check out more of our tips for cleaning your barbecue right here.

Mistake 2: Overheating!

Standard barbecuing practice usually means the hotter the better! But actually, having it too hot means there is nowhere to place your sausages when they start to go black. You need to have a hot side and a cooler side to achieve the perfect results.

To do this, divide your coal into two zones. Lay an even distribution of coals on one half, and have none (or a thin layer) on the other half. Sear on the hot side and use the cooler side for more gentle cooking. You can use the cooler side with the lid on to create an oven-like setting for bigger joints. This will give you a lot more control over your cooking, meaning no more burnt sausages!

Mistake 3: Adding food straight from the fridge

It makes sense to take out the meat from the fridge and cook it straight away. But, when barbecuing, it’s different. The colder the meat, the longer it takes to heat up so your cooking times will be thrown off.

Take your meat out of the fridge at least half an hour before cooking, or an hour for big cuts of meat. This will give your food a good head start and help avoid the whole ‘cold on the inside, cooked on the outside’ dilemma.

Mistake 4: Using lighter fluid

Good things come to those who wait and this is certainly true when it comes to barbecuing. Whilst lighter fluid will give you an instant fire, it will subside and die pretty quickly and you won’t have a lot of heat.

Go old school instead. Crumple up some newspaper into a mound with coals around it and light with a single match. Nurse the flames by keeping the lid off and letting oxygen feed it so it heats the coals efficiently. Or, you could invest in a chimney starter.

Mistake 5: Grilling without a guide

Meats may look cooked on the outside, but this might not always be the case on the inside. Take the guessing out of the cooking and invest in a meat thermometer to ensure your meat has reached the right temperature. Just be sure to clean it between cooking and check your meat as it cooks.

Mistake 6: Taking your eyes off the prize

While that cold beer looks tempting, don’t get distracted from your barbecuing! Set timers and reminders to ensure you stay on top of your task and don’t get shouted at for burning the burgers!

Mistake 7: Not soaking skewers

It’s not a barbecue without kebabs! Putting meat, veggies and everything in between on a skewer stick is a barbecuing favourite. However, with unsoaked skewers, the wood can burn before the food is cooked – nightmare!

Living in Britain, we don’t usually get much time to prepare for a summer’s day barbecue. If you can, check the weather and plan ahead and soak your skewer sticks in water the night before. If it’s a last-minute garden dash, soak them for at least 30-60 minutes. The end result will be worth it!

Mistake 8: Reaching for the sauce too soon

Spreading on the cooking sauces makes you feel like a barbecuing pro! But pasting these on too soon could result in a bitter outside layer forming and the taste of burnt meat when it’s served. No one wants that.

Hold off on the sauces until later in the cooking process so you and your family can enjoy all its yummy flavours. If your sauce is sweet, add it within the last 10 minutes of cooking time so it doesn’t caramelise too much.

Mistake 9: Checking it too often

It’s tempting to keep checking on your food and smelling its goodness… but opening your barbecue lid too often will mean loss of heat and a longer cooking process, just like in your oven. Doing so on a coal grill will bring in more oxygen and make it hotter than you want it.

When you’ve got your desired heat, leave the barbecue to do its thing! If you need to check it, decide on a time nearer to the end of the cooking process and leave it until then.

Mistake 10: Not letting the meat rest after cooking

Your food is cooked, it smells delicious and all you want to do is get it in your belly! But doing so will mean your meat won’t have time to take in all the juices and taste as good as it should.

Place your food on a plate and leave it to cool for around 5 minutes before serving. If you’re worried it will get cold, flash it on the grill for 30 seconds each side after cooling time and then serve. It may be 5 minutes of torture but it will definitely be worth it!

So there you have it, your guide to the perfect barbecue! While you’re here, why not also check out these super cool barbecues and grilling gadgets that will make you look and feel like a pro?

Tags: Barbecue, Barbecue Advice, summer