You've decided to invite friends or family over for dinner on a beautiful Saturday night in the summer. People might arrive early, enjoy the pool, talk loudly, get drunk, and let the kids eat way too much popsicle . At the end of this memorable day, especially since your patio will be stained with all that sweet and colorful ice cream that will have melted, you will have to feed this happy band of hungry people. Then you come up with the idea of making a very large piece of meat to feed everyone at once.
This same piece of meat that will be cooked for a very long time and that is eaten at the same cooking temperature for everyone. No management of:
• I eat it rare!
• I eat it blue!
• I like it well cooked, slightly burnt and tasteless… why isn’t your meat in the fridge? What!?! You let your meat cool down, but there, bacteria, have you thought about that? Go wash your hands…
My sincere apologies, I will no longer let my mother play a role in my blog posts… Excuse me one more second.
- These are super good quality organic steaks, you have to let them rest... The bacteria will burn in the embers directly, my hands are clean, I washed them two seconds ago.
Good!
So you think inviting a lot of people and cooking for a long time is a good idea. It might not be.
To achieve long, often smoked cooking, you need to cook food that is stable. So, unless you have a pellet smoker handy, you will have to spend more time at your BBQ than you will spend with your guests.
If you're like me and don't like being told what to do by some stranger on the internet, I'm going to give you my tips for making your cooking enjoyable and spending time with your guests in the pool making the biggest whirlpool the world has ever known.
A BBQ, it moves :
Whether you own a Kettle, Kamado, Off-Set or even a propane BBQ, you will need to constantly keep an eye on the BBQ temperature. Be strategic. You know your backyard activities. Place your BBQ so that it is visible no matter what activity you are doing.
If you have children invited or you have that friend who always drinks too much, think safety. Place chairs around the BBQ to prevent someone from falling on it and burning themselves.
Unity is strength:
I don't know about you, but my guests are always asking me what they can do to help. It's time to seize the opportunity and let the leader in you take flight. Assign the task of supervising the BBQ to people you trust. They will feel very useful and it's still nicer than being asked to do the dishes.
A hungry guest is not good:
The charm of BBQ is that it is often very difficult to predict when it will be ready. As they say so well in French: Don't cook the time, cook the temp ! Don't cook according to the cooking time, cook according to the internal temperature of the meat.
Also, Murphy's Law being what it is, whatever happens when it doesn't, happens.
The solution for guests who start complaining that they are hungry, that they thought they would eat at 6 o'clock, that they need food because the combination of sun and sangria is starting to hit hard, is to prepare snacks. If there is room in your smoker or BBQ, throw a few sausages on the grill for small bites that will satisfy the most whiny of happiness.
Go Go Gadget at the BBQ:
There are tons of gadgets to simplify your cooking experience. Here are my favorites for three different budgets:
Low Budget: The Thermoworks DOT. It is a probe that can be planted in the piece of meat. The dial is on the outside of the BBQ. Simple, effective, of impeccable quality. It is also possible to put a probe for the ambient temperature. I use it to easily see the internal temperature of my BBQ. For slightly more than $50.00, it is really a must-have.
Mid-Budget: The iGrill II. Again, a probe thermometer that can accommodate up to 4 different probes. Its advantage: it is possible to connect the iGrill to an application on your phone and receive notifications on the temperatures of the meat or the ambient temperature of your BBQ. Around $130.00 but you will have to add a few dollars to have an ambient temperature probe.
Big Budget: The Flame Boss. This device allows you to control the temperature of your BBQ automatically. A small fan is placed on the air inlet of your BBQ and the probe keeps an eye on the temperature for you. You just have to choose the temperature you want to keep while cooking with the application that connects to the device. The small fan takes care of sending air or cutting the air in order to keep a constant temperature. An investment of about $300.00 that is worth every penny spent.
So if you decide not to listen to me and still receive in low'n' slow , I hope at least that my little tips and tricks will help you enjoy your day with your guests…
No mom, it's well cooked brisket , pink is not because it is rare, it is a smoke ring … It's a chemical reaction because of the smoke… No I haven't started smoking again… The smoke that smoked the meat makes it pink, but well-cooked pink not undercooked pink… It's not the same pink… Worst case scenario I have some soda crackers and margarine for you.
I promise I won't invite my mother into my posts anymore.