Last week we went to one a mate invited us to and the burgers were not cooked too well nor was the sausage.!!
The next day some were lets say stuck on the toilet but not us.
This week it's my turn all food ready and lighting the logs soon and a few cold ones in fridge.
Do you have one?
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If the food doesn't look cooked thru risk offending your host, either by pointing it out out or not eating it.
Top tip for your own BBQ - partly pre-cook the food in a microwave and then put it on the BBQ to finish the cooking and acquire the smoke cooked taste.
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Trust me you do not want food poisoning. I got it in Madeira after eating half an egg and ham roll that had been in my rucksack the previous day, it tasted a bit strange but I was so hungry I got through half before binning it. Needless to say, I was seriously ill that afternoon and the next day. Stuff coming out of every orifice. Too much information? Maybe.
I got over it and thought I was fine, but then spent the next year and a half feeling nauseous after eating, having extreme tiredness attacks, and generally feeling like carp. I went to the doctors and had all sorts of blood tests, but nothing of note could be found. Anyway, somehow I slowly pulled through and today I'm pretty good, with only the occasional tired lapse that doesn't last long. Then I heard a programme one lunchtime on Radio 2 about the above, and people were ringing in saying that a bout of food poisoning was affecting them years after the actual incident - one woman had problems with the colon twenty years afterwards to the extent that she had to take a course of pills to control things. The bacteria can affect your whole digestive system, really upsetting the natural balance, and it can take a long time for the body to recover. I certainly take it very seriously now.
It's not worth eating something that you think might be a bit dodgy. I do admit that I have a weak stomach, but some strains of bacteria can be really nasty.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 4 May 11 at 00:53
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My commiserations. I ate some dodgy lamb on holiday in 2001, and got a bad case of 'grandma's gravy'. After three weeks of not being able to eat anything but plain bread or rice, I visited the doctor who said I had colitis, and recommended that I eat lots of live yoghurt, which made a huge difference. Reset the bacterial balance in my stomach, I suppose...
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Take several pounds of best butcher's sausages. Fry savagely in iron frying pan over fire of small, blazing twigs until outsides of sausages are charred and sticking, while centres are bursting but still pink and bloody, all swimming in rancid sausage fat.
Serve with selection of cottonwool sliced white bread, strong English mustard gone brown and stuck to jar, dregs of watery, flyblown ketchup in unclean plastic squeezer, limp paper plates, too few forks, no salt; and preferably in a muddy, dank area of woodland with nothing dry to sit on as the drizzle sets in again.
Dejeuner sur l'herbe! Alfresco foodie bliss!
No wonder the French so admire our cuisine and flock here for their hols every easter.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 19 Apr 11 at 01:02
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>> Dejeuner sur l'herbe! Alfresco foodie bliss!
Heh heh
:)
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I find others tend to cook the stuff far too hot, so it's burnt on the outside and raw in the middle.
I use briquettes and start off with the food high on the BBQ and slowly move it closer to the coals.
I like my meat rare, but hot enough to kill anything nasty.
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>> I find others tend to cook the stuff far too hot, so it's burnt on
>> the outside and raw in the middle.
>>
>> I use briquettes and start off with the food high on the BBQ and slowly
>> move it closer to the coals.
Yeah, for some foods that ok, but you want your steaks seared/sealed on both sides hot and fast, then move them to a cooler part to finish cooking.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 16 Apr 11 at 18:06
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This sounds terribly boastful, but stuff that comes off my BBQ is properly cooked* and does not have burnt shells! Nothing goes in the oven or microwave first. I have probably done about 300 BBQs in the last 10 years, and no-one has been poisoned.
* Steaks medium rare, Tuna with a nice red stripe in the centre, Sausages cooked all the way through, Sardines, Swordfish steaks, corn on the cob, Burgers, all juicy yet cooked.
Its an art and hard work, but the taste is second to none!
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That sounds like Australian training Z, they are the professional BBQ users. I think the BBQ's installed in the public parks and camping areas out there are an excellent idea. Never work here though, they clean up after they have used them, here they would be destroyed.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 16 Apr 11 at 18:19
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>> That sounds like Australian training Z, they are the professional BBQ users. I think the
>> BBQ's installed in the public parks and camping areas out there are an excellent idea.
>> Never work here though, they clean up after they have used them, here they would
>> be destroyed.
Yeah, the best barbie I had was done by Nicoles cousin in the bush. He brought a steel plate and a grid with him, and the food in an Eskie.
Built the fire surround out of rocks, the fire was bits of dry gum tree, and we had surf and turf, the steaks done on the grid and the chile prawns (as you know the size of crayfish) on the plate.
Of course the fire was well put out and checked afterwards
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>> Its an art and hard work, but the taste is second to none!
I believe you Zero. My nephew isn't bad at barbie either, but the best person who ever came here was a slightly rough cousin of an Algerian friend, Marlowe by name after the fictional detective Philip Marlowe. Marlowe was a pro who actually did run a barbecued meat outlet - a brochette joint - in a provincial town in Algeria. Took some good fillet steak, kept slashing it with a knife as it cooked - quite rapidly - and squirting something on it from a bottle, oil and lemon or something.
Looked as if he was wasting some really expensive meat, but he wasn't. The result was sublime.
Of course my English-cuisine post above wasn't about barbecue but about badly fried sausages.
By the way Marlowe, like other proper barbecue folk, paid a lot of attention to the state of the fire and its distance from the meat at all times. You don't have to buy charcoal, you just have to have a proper fire - oak is good - of the right size, not too big or small, and rake it down so it does the job well.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 16 Apr 11 at 18:23
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Zero, I see that the one meat you do not mention, chicken, is the single biggest cause of D&V infections in BBQ eating humans, in particular thru an unpleasant organism called salmonella virchow. This not unknown in chickens at the point of sale and is hard to kill by BBQ alone. Hence my mention of pre-cooking in a microwave. Any chicken with a hint of pink should not be eaten.
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I simmer frozen chicken breasts in water with a little chicken stock until they are more or less cooked before transferring them to the BBQ to finish them off. They remain succulent and flavoursome but still get that smoky crispness. I find chicken in particular can dry out otherwise.
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Yeah good one humph, I wrap mine in foil, put them in the barbie with the lid down, heat on one burner and the legs on the other side. 20 minutes and they cook in their own juice, then 10 mins unwrapped over the flame to crisp up.
Steaks cook superbly well on the throw away self lighting foil barbies. Day at the sea side, salad and steak, what could be better!
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>>Day at the sea side, salad and steak, what could be better!<<
A nice veggie burger, and some alcohol free Lager.
:-D
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Barbie heat is hard to control, but failing to cook a burger or sausage thoroughly is incompetent.
On t'other hand, good beef can be eaten raw, and I'm surprised an undercooked burger would cause a gastric explosion.
Pork in the sausages is the more likely cause.
Last edited by: Iffy on Sat 16 Apr 11 at 19:36
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>> Barbie heat is hard to control
Decent briquettes, and sufficient quantity is the key.
AND STOP PRODDING THEM!
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you can't control barbie heat, you have to use its variability, its not the same temp all over so use it to cook stuff quickly or slowly.
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tell me more, Zero.
We know nothing of outdoor cooking in this neck of the woods.
:)
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you guys dont cook meat, you just spice it with dung and dry it in the sun or under your saddle. Or throw a burning tyre round the neck of a kudu.
I was adding to iffys post tho.
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>you guys dont cook meat, you just spice it with dung and dry it in the sun or under your
>saddle. Or throw a burning tyre round the neck of a kudu.
They then export it to the UK where Harrods charge over £50 per kilo. Kudu biltong accompanied by a cold Windhoek Export is one of life's supreme pleasures.
I consider myself pretty good at BBQ (Southern Africa braai training) but I have to concentrate and take a scientific approach. Our afrikaner friends just seemed to throw stuff on, go grab a beer or two and still get perfect results.
A couple of years ago, a bunch of friends from Texas stayed with us for a weekend while they were in the UK. They'd brought a friend with them who was a chef from New Orleans. Best damn BBQ and cajun I've ever tasted.
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>> >>Day at the sea side, salad and steak, what could be better!<<
>>
>> A nice veggie burger, and some alcohol free Lager.
Sorry , cant make your house warming party BBQ.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 16 Apr 11 at 19:45
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I was brought up in Scotland. Outdoor cooking was limited to leaving the back door open to let the steam out...
:-)
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Burnt midges make a good sauce.
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Passes for black pepper in the Trossachs...
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>>Sorry , cant make your house warming party BBQ. <<
No, me neither - I'm coming to yours & Kevin's!
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"This not unknown in chickens at the point of sale and is hard to kill by BBQ alone. "
Well I have a Weber kettle BBQ and I regularly cook whole chickens on it. In fact I cooked the Christmas chicken on it.
With the lid on a medium chicken takes 1hours 20 mins to cook and will be cooked perfectly all the way through and will be a beautiful golden colour. To check if a chicken is cooked thoroughly shake its leg. If it feels as if it will detach easily it is cooked.
In general the mistake people make when grilling food is to have the fire way too hot. Alway cook on a dying fire, not one that is still to reach its peak.
The other problem is that for some curious reason men who never venture into the kitchen have a curious idea that they know all about cooking over an open fire!
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...Alway cook on a dying fire, not one that is still to reach its peak...
Yes, light the barbie and throw on the burgers is not the way to do it.
Light the barbie, give it 20 minutes, then have a beer, then throw on the burgers.
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>> Light the barbie, give it 20 minutes, then have a beer, then throw on the
>> burgers.
or
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkO269-Ru7k
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Yes CGN. I think the answer lies in your long slow cooking and cooking thru. What I was suggesting was that the scorch the outside and hope for the best, leaving the inside pink(ish) method won't cook it and won't 100% kill organisms of any sort
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Just had some ostrich steaks from our favourite store - LIDL.
SWMBO and I were sure we'd had ostrich before, but couldn't remember what it was like. We were right, it's unmemorable.
Thank goodness we bought some venison steaks at the same time.
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Not to mention campylobacter. Once experienced, never forgotten. Greatest weight loss agent I've ever known. But the process is highly unpleasant, not to mention that the local EHO turns up to quiz re the possible source - which is fine. Strange how she turned down a cup of coffee though:)
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Well we lived another day no bad guts and a nice tea for a saturday afternoon & a few cold ones to go with it.
Off to buy another bbq as this one is the one i take camping and ok for 2x not much use for a family.
So what can you recomend? Been to Asda one or two look fine not having gas thats a grill in my opinion.
Need something with at least two levels if not three, the small one i made another shelf for it as said above they burn on the lowest.
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BT - not quite sure you mean about gas, do you like it or not? Gas does not give the flavour of a wood fired grill and it is not as hot as wood either. Charcoal needs patience and a bit of skill but the results are worth it. I admit to using gas in the past but the flavour was enhanced by using oak chippings made from Jack Daniels whisky barrels to make some good smoke. Tasty!
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>>Gas does not give the flavour of a wood fired grill and it is not as hot as wood either<<
That's right PP, and it's not as carcinogenic either.
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>>Sorry, cant make your house warming party BBQ
>>A nice veggie burger, and some alcohol free Lager.
I'll be there. Do you mind if I bring my own vino?
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The smoke is probably more risky than the charred food and two together are probably less life threatening than walking round Central London for an hour and crossing the road a few times!
www.mcld.co.uk/blog/blog.php?95
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>>life threatening than walking round Central London for an hour and crossing the road a few times!<<
Could well be true PP - my ole mum walked around central London all her life, and she lived to age 88.
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BT - not quite sure you mean about gas, do you like it or not? No deffo not.
Coals or as yesterday those was wax filled bags that you light and burns the coals much faster.
Still i preffer the other way with fire lighters and patience then crack open the beers till it's ready to cook. :-)
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>> Coals or as yesterday those was wax filled bags that you light and burns the
>> coals much faster.
>>
Another thumbs down for Botox then... :0
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I alway light the charcoal BBQ in the same way I light a coal fire i.e. with some shredded newspaper and and some wood kindling. Effective and cheap.
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Barbies ? Not in this house, thank you.
We are in the fortunate position of having a fully operational kitchen 10feet from the patio.
Used to get cajoled into doing one 20yrs or more ago but SWM always went mad on salad, rice and French bread...mostly thrown away later. If the Sun was out, the butter melted and the bread got hard and if it wasn't out it was raining or too cold. I was usually well gone before the food was ready !
After many frustrating attempts to light it I hit on the idea of using the welding torch....but I could have cut out the barbie and just used the torch to cook the damn stuff.
Sausages should be eatem with mash, butter and a dash of HP...not in a bun. If you want a burger, then go to Burger King !
Ted
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I always use the gas blowlamp - first time lighting every time. The french visitors always look on in amazement.
The Weber does seem to set the gold standard though.
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I always use the gas blowlamp - first time lighting every time. The french visitors always look on in amazement. PMSL....................
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>>
>> Barbies ? Not in this house, thank you.
>> We are in the fortunate position of having a fully operational kitchen 10feet from the
>> patio.
>>
+1
I'm not anti-BBQ by any means. Those people who like them - great! Enjoy them!
What I don't like are those zealots who look down their nose at me because I don't share their enthusiasm for BBQs. (I've worked with a few of this type, unfortunately!)
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My neighbour at Iffy Towers went through a barbie phase a few years ago.
OK, live and let live, but with my back door open his smoke blew into my kitchen.
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>> with my back door open his smoke blew into my kitchen.
Think yourself lucky Iffy. It might have been Zero smoking a stogie and making discourteous comments.
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Wonder why iffy only got the smoke and not an invite to the barbie?
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>> Think yourself lucky Iffy. It might have been Zero smoking a stogie and making discourteous
>> comments.
Thank you for broadening my mind AC. The wiki description of a stogie could almost have been written by you.
" The term stogie is often misused to refer to any ciger with a foul stench, or as slang, to a cigarette. Many stogies are made of flavoured tobacco's, and given that a stogie may last half an hour, as opposed to the 2-8 minutes that a cigarette normally lasts, there can be quite a pungent and pervasive aroma produced"
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>> What I don't like are those zealots who look down their nose at me because
>> I don't share their enthusiasm for BBQs. (I've worked with a few of this type,
>> unfortunately!)
>>
>>
There is nothing better than a good barbecue.
And there is nothing worse than a bad one.
Unfortunately most folk don't have the prerequisite skills to produce the former.
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Aldi have an emphasis on BBQ related items on special offer on Thursday 21st
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I hate Barbecues, sure fire way to indigestion if not food poisoning..........
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>>I hate Barbecues,
And me. I'd sooner have something cooked where it's supposed to be cooked - in the kitchen.
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Cannot be bothered with them myself.
Did manage a barbecue for 60 on a domestic BBQ. Judicious use of the oven for sausages, finished off for show on the BBQ seemed to do the trick.
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I do love a good barbie. We have a nice big 3 burner outback gas job that heats brickettes. Tastes good, but can be controlled a bit more. And much easier to clean.
Key for me is the quality of the meat. My wife's Irish family like Richmond sausages. While they tase ok, the amount of fat that comes out will send foot high flames shooting up. I prefer quality sausages that release much less fat, and cook evenly without burning. I can recommend those by the Black Farmer as very tasty and high quality. And gluten free to, so good for coeliacs. If you're near Beckenham in Kent, Village Sausages on the high street make the absolute best bangers I've ever had, in about 200 varieties. Award winning, too.
These are my top beer choices, in no particular order:
- Czech Pilsener (Budvar, Urquell)
- German Helle (Paulaner, Augustiner)
- Belgian golden ale (Hommelbeir, Duvel)
- Hoppy straw-coloured ale (Deuchars IPA, Hopback Summer Lightning).
Think I need to bbq tonight...
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>> - Czech Pilsener (Budvar, Urquell)
Budvar isn't a pilsener lager though is it? Obviously Pilsner Urquell is being the originail pilsener lager named after the town.
Both very nice in this weather. I also would say Mythos is very good but hard to come by in the UK.
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. I also would say Mythos is very good but hard to come by in the UK.
A big thumbs up for that was going down too well in Greece. :-)
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Mythos £46 for 24 x 500cc bottles, delivered. Does not seem to be sold in shops - home delivery only
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So far as I'm aware Pilsner is a style of beer from a particular brewing method, named after the town where it was invented, Plzen, rather than an indication of origin, as with Champagne for example.
Any beer brewed in the Pilsner style can be labelled Pilsner without fear of persecution, I believe. I don't think the town of Plzen has exclusive rights over the name.
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But Budvar is not brewed in the Pilsener style. At least I didn't think so.
Last year Aldi had a Greek specials offer and had Mythos... should have bought loads.
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Mythos only tastes good in Greece. In England it turns into a a rather average lager.
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...But Budvar is not brewed in the Pilsener style. At least I didn't think so...
Wiki - and other sites - think it is.
Pilsener is bottom fermented, apparently, and usually includes loads of hops.
This produces clear, golden, hoppy, spicy lager of which Budvar is one of many.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilsner
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I stand corrected ;-) I like both Budvar (Beer of Kings as opposed King of Beers which is horrid) and Pilsener Urquell.
When I briefly visited Plsen it looked like we were in the set of a World War II movie! And that was 1990.
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>> Hopback Summer Lightning.
Oh YES!! Nectar.
Have you tried Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted? Available in my local Waitrose. My favourite beer for the summer.
A good cider is the bomb, also. I pray the weather holds to the weekend, I shall likewise be wheeling out my 6-burner Outback gas barbie.
Yah boo sucks to the naysayers, both general anti-barbiers and anti-gassers. Hiss.
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>>Yah boo sucks to the naysayers, both general anti-barbiers and anti-gassers. Hiss.
Their more trouble than they're worth. Just give me the beer!
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>>Richmond
>> sausages. While they tase ok, the amount of fat that comes out will send foot
>> high flames shooting up. I prefer quality sausages that release much less fat, and cook
>> evenly without burning.
Squirty bottle full of water. Or shake a beer, put thumb over neck of bottle, and douse the flames a bit.
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BBQ weather how many more cases of food poisoning. - Perky Penguin
