Summer time is the perfect time to plan a barbeque event and refresh your memory with summer BBQ recipes. it is not going to hurt to memorize certain things to make sure your barbecue gathering goes smoothly.

Lots of meats and side dishes may be used while barbequing. Pork, beef, and fish are the most used for grilling. You may easily get meats that are already cut and packaged for barbeque in your local grocery store.

Side dishes historically include beans, coleslaw, and potato salad. all these sides work well with different meats and they really are easy to prepare and keep until it is time to eat. Pickles, onions, and relish are need to be included as part of your conventional condiment bar.

1. For sure, marinating prior to cooking adds flavor. But if you cover your meat in barbecue sauce, it is going to dry out the meat and may even cause it to burn. What cause this to happen are great amounts of fat and sugar in most barbecue sauces that burn easy. although lightly seasoning the meat will not produce any adverse effects and works very well.

2. every time spray the cooking area with a nonstick spray prior to you start cooking. this procedure helps to prevent your meat from sticking at the time you are rotating or removing it. Sticking and tearing will cause the meat to lose plenty of juice and it also may dry out.

3. never put food on the grill until the heat is right. The fluctuation in temperatures will cause your food to dry out or burn. For a charcoal grill, ensure that the coals are gray before placing the food on the grill.

4. Though searing the meat locks in juices and taste, do not cook your meat at that high temperature the whole time. when you have seared both sides, change the heat to the lower setting. it will guarantee that your meat is full of flavor and tender.

5. while cooking the meat, never poke it. Poking the meat can make the juice to leak out. The meat may become dry and unappealing in the end, and you also might ruin your barbecue grill.

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Summer BBQ Recipes - Competition BBQ Secrets

Anyone can cook food on a grill. but, very few can do it correctly or well. if you follow these cooking tips for gas grills, you will soon be known as the local grillmaster of the neighborhood.

1) Safety first, check for leaks - most grills use highly flammable gas to cook, it’s important to make sure that there are no leaks along the hose running from the tank to the burners. The way to do this is to take a small cup filled with water and a bit of dish detergent. Rub the solution along the joints of all the connections along the hose. Turn the gas on and look along hose. The gas will make the detergent/water solution bubble up if there are any leaks.

2) Let the grill heat up - It’s important to give a gas grill a few minutes to heat up. Turn the grill to high on all burners and letting it sit for 5 or 6 minutes. not only will this burn off anything stuck to the grill, but it will also allow you to get the grill temperature to the correct setting before you start cooking.

3) Wipe the grill with a bit of oil - This is one of the cooking tips for gas grills that everyone seems to miss. Before cooking, always wipe the grilling area will a small amount of oil. This will keep the food from sticking down. Using tongs, take a small piece of paper towel and dip it in oil. Rub this along the grill. you don’t need a lot, just enough to keep the food from sticking down.

4) keep the cover closed - It’s hard not to peek at whats cooking, especially when it starts to smell. but, it’s very important to fight this urge. Everytime you open the grill cover you are releasing the hot air that’s helping to cook the food. This will extend the time it takes to finish cooking. The longer the food is on the grill, the more likely it is to burn on the outside.

5) use tongs for meat, not forks - while this one doesn’t just fall under cooking tips for gas grills, it’s still a very important and deserves to be mentioned here. Using a fork with meat is going to poke holes. This is going to allow the juices building up inside the meat to drain from it. not only will this make the meat dry, you are also in danger of causing grease fires as the juices fall into the flames.

6) Let it cool down before cleaning - This is the last of my cooking tips for gas grills. It’s far easier, and safer, to let the grill cool down before trying to clean off the mess. It’s recommended to leave it for a few hours or overnight and to clean it once it’s completely cool.

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Eating lots of meat, especially if it is overcooked, increases the risk of bladder cancer, say experts.

Frying, grilling and barbecuing until meat is charred can form cancer-causing chemicals, research shows.

In a study, people whose diets included well-done meats were over twice as likely to develop bladder cancer than those who preferred meats rare.

The research findings, based on over 1,700, people were presented at a US cancer research conference.

The University of Texas investigators found the risk was highest for those who ate well-done red meat such as steaks, pork chops and bacon.

But even chicken and fish, when fried, significantly raised the odds of cancer.

Three major types of the cancer-causing chemicals, collectively called heterocyclic amines (HCAs), raised cancer risk by more than two-and-a-half.

And some people appear to be genetically more susceptible to this diet-linked cancer risk, the researchers found.

In the study, which took place over 12 years, the researchers analysed the DNA of all the participants to look for any differences in the way individuals metabolised the cooked meat.

Having particular genes made some people almost five times as likely to develop bladder cancer when they ate a lot of red meat.

Stacking up risks

Lead author of the study, Professor Xifeng Wu, told the American Association for Cancer Research: "This research reinforces the relationship between diet and cancer.

"These results strongly support what we suspected - people who eat a lot of red meat, particularly well-done red meat, such as fried or barbecued, seem to have a higher likelihood of bladder cancer."

According to the National Cancer Institute in the US, experts have identified 17 different HCAs that "may pose human cancer risk".

Charred meat has already been linked to pancreatic cancer.

Cancer experts said that more research was needed before we can say for sure whether or not regularly eating red meat affects bladder cancer risk, and if the way it is cooked has an impact.

Slow-cook

Dr Panagiota Mitrou, of the World Cancer Research Fund, said: "When we looked at all the evidence on meat and cancer, it did not suggest meat increases risk of bladder cancer.

"There is, though, convincing evidence that red and processed meat increase risk of bowel cancer.

"This is why we recommend that people aim to limit consumption of red meat to 500g - cooked weight - per week and to avoid eating processed meat."

Dr Alison Ross of Cancer Research UK said: "Smoking is the most important preventable cause of bladder cancer, so giving up is the best way to cut your chances of getting the disease."

The UK Food Standards Agency says people can reduce their risk from chemicals that may cause cancer by not allowing flames to touch food when barbecuing or grilling, and cooking at lower temperatures for a longer time.

But warns that undercooked meat can cause food poisoning.

More than 10,000 new cases of bladder cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK.

Around 5,000 people die from it every year, and almost 90% of deaths are in people over 65.

Cut your bladder cancer risk in half by eating meat rare

Even though it’s only April, the unexpected warmth makes it feel like summer. at the weekend, I could smell wood smoke wafting over from the neighbours’ gardens and hear the seductive sizzle of meat on the griddle. This year, the barbecue season has opened early.

When it gets hot, the Blumenthal Sunday lunch usually goes outdoors and we get the coals going for a bit of flame-grilled food. There’s a definite macho, alpha-male aspect to barbecuing — even men who don’t cook take fierce pride in their prowess at cooking over flame. It’s as though there’s still a residual caveman gene triggered by the sight of red-hot charcoal. when I was developing the burger recipe for my Perfection series a few years ago, we set up a barbecue outside a butcher’s in Knightsbridge. Within minutes I had a crowd of male onlookers, drawn to and mesmerised by fire.

I’m equally hooked, so it’s normally me who handles the barbie at our house — generously piling on the briquettes and getting them burning for a good couple of hours before anything gets put on to the grill. Zanna does lots of the prep work. As for the kids, I’d like to say that, given the fine weather, they’re larking about in the garden with our boxer and sausage dogs but in truth they’re more likely to be inside watching TV (as are the dogs!).

For me, a really good barbie means keeping it simple — not loading the grill with kebabs and sausages and chops and chicken breasts and whatever other flesh you can find. The fewer things the better. We often treat the barbie as just the last stage in cooking process anyway — a way of giving meat a wonderful, flavourful browned exterior that is completely different from what you get if it’s blow-torched or fried in a pan on a high heat. so we might stud a leg of lamb with rosemary, anchovies and garlic and slow-cook it indoors, in the oven, for a few hours first and then finish it off outside on the barbie. while it was cooking we would make a ratatouille and a gratin Dauphinois to serve with it — keeping it simple, as I said.

Using the barbie in this fashion — as a great way of getting the Maillard reactions going: a quick blast of high heat to brown, rather than the be-all-and-end-all of cooking outdoors — unlocks a whole range of things you use it for. certainly the classic Sunday lunch chicken can be done in this way.

That said, the thing my family and I really go for on the barbie is burgers. Making your own really isn’t that difficult (though I have to admit that Zanna has probably made far more of ours than I have). at its simplest, get the best minced meat you can (if you’re really going for it, try to use a mix of a chuck, brisket and dry-aged short-rib; there’s no place here for low-fat mince, which won’t work well) and combine it with plenty of salt: 0.5 to 1 per cent of the weight of the meat.

This is one of the keys to a good burger. The salt acts as seasoning but, more importantly, it also binds the proteins in the meat, helping it all to hold together, so really mix it into the meat. then form it into patties and refrigerate to allow it to firm up.

When the barbie’s ready — white-hot and uncomfortable to stand too close to for any length of time — you can get the patties out of the fridge and you’re ready to flip them on to the barbie. And keep flipping them. a couple of minutes or so turning the patties every 30 seconds means that they cook evenly and get the perfect seared crust.

Then they’re ready for the bun and whichever garnishes you find essential for a proper burger experience. For us, there has to be a really crisp lettuce, such as an iceberg, for that freshness and crunch, some dill pickles to bring a touch of acid to cut the richness, and of course tomato slices, which, combined with the meat, bring in a real umami taste.

All that plus the terrific flavours from the seared stripes across the burger make for an outdoors eating experience that’s hard to beat.

And, for a bit of theatre that makes full use of the freedom of being outdoors (and Man’s primordial fascination with fire), sometimes we mix together salt, dried chilli flakes, a lot of grated lime and lemon zest and a generous amount of ground coriander and pack this round some smoked mackerel fillets for a couple of hours. Here the salt not only seasons but also gives the fish a sticky surface — a pellicle — that helps to produce an attractive golden yellow colour during the smoking to follow.

Once the salt is washed off, the fillets can be wrapped in hay and placed in a fishclamp. (We actually use a squirrel cage trap instead, which is better because it allows the air to circulate better.) Put the clamp on the barbecue and there’ll be a big billow of smoke followed by great tentacles of flame and the hay will swiftly blacken and shrivel up. It’s amazing to watch and gives the fish a delightfully delicate smoked flavour. Serve it with a potato salad, or some beetroot and grated horseradish.

How Heston Blumenthal does a barbecue

Barbecue Marinades
Marinades are basically an enzyme or a acidic liquid that break down protein fibers and soften hard and dry meats. Combine that with an emulsifier that (helps pentetrate the meat deeper and faster) Extra-virgin olive oil & other oils naturally contains monoglycerides (emusifier) and is a good choice for marinades, it can also help replace a little moisture on your very lean dry meats like chicken breasts, skirt steak, round and brisket.

Popular marinades(acidic)
Pineapple Juice
Citrus Juices
Tomatoes & Juice
Buttermilk & Yogurt (mildy Acidic)
Wine
Vinegar
Lemon Juice
Beer
Colas(my favorite for fajitas beef & chicken)
Soy Sauce
Teriyaki Sauce
Add extra virgin olive oil and your favorite spices to any of the above, and you've got a tenderizing marinade. Keap your chicken marinades at about 2 hours, they tend to toughen after that, and soy sauce no longer than 3 hours.(to much salt content in soy sauce will dry the meat out) I usually shake my marinade all up in a large freezer bag to blend the contents, add the meat, squeeze out the air and marinate in the refrigerator.

Meat Tenderizers
100's of years ago cooks found that wrapping meat in papaya leaves before cooking made it more tender. The active enzyme in the papaya leaves is papain, now refined from papayas and available in your common supermarket meat tenderizers (basically just salt & papain) Meat that comes in direct contact with the protein-digesting enzymes gets broken down and softened.
These softening or tenderizing enzymes also reduce the capability of the meat to hold its juices, and combined with the added salt will result in dryer meat, so use it on your quick (grill) meats and not your slow cook indirect heat barbecue, it will tend to dry it out.

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