When good weather comes, there is nobody not wishing to enjoy a good barbecue.
There are hundreds ways to make a good barbecue, but all of them share some common basic rules:
1- Planning
First, you have to take into account the number of people enjoying the barbecue. We may calculate around 200 grams per person for the “starters” – chorizo, bacon, spicy sausage, morcilla blood sausage, brochettes…- and, as the main dish, serve 250 grams of healthier lean meats, such as chops, entrecotes, hamburgers or ribs.
Before starting the fire, make sure your barbecue is perfectly clean, somewhat of impossible if it is a year since you used it for the last time. It is recommendable to clean the barbecue just after use. When finishing cooking, being the grill still hot, you have to put salt galore and rub it with newspaper paper. This prevents the grill get impregnated with smells. If you did not do so last time or your barbecue has not been used for a while, before cooking, heat the barbecue from five to ten minutes to remove smells and grease from the last time you used it.
2- Lighting
Starting a good fire is not difficult, but you have to take your time, therefore, it is recommendable to light the hot coal like one hour before starting eating.
We do not have to be mean when pouring coal. Depending on the amount of meat we are cooking, we will need more or less coal, but the recommendation is to use a single fire. Adding more coal after the meal has started as we are running out of coal will make the meal longer and at the time you have the fire ready again, nobody will want to eat anymore.
The secret of a perfect barbecue lies in its hot coal. The perfect moment to start cooking is when most of the flames are extinguished and the coal gets the characteristic reddish colour.
If during our barbecue, flames relight, we will have to extinguish them. The best trick is to reduce flames with salt.
3- Preparing
For meat to be juicy, it is important not to constantly turn it around: you must not turn the meat around until it is not cooked on the same side. Salt must be added after cooking, as if it is added before, this will release meat juices and it will end up dry.
Meat must always be at room temperature, never cook after taking it out from the fridge.
These are the cooking times for each type of meat:
- Pork
All pork products need around 10 minutes on each side. Attention, for your bacon and chorizos not getting burnt on the outside and raw in the inside, and taking into account they will be cooked first and the hot coal will be hotter, you´d better place the grill at about a 10-centimetre distance from the hot coal, so that they do not get done too quickly.
- Veal and beef
The T-bone steak, the entrecote and the hamburgers are the star dishes in a barbecue. As this type of meat are done quickly, people usually like them not much done, we can leave them for the end. The cooking time is from 2 to 5 minutes on each side, and the grill must be near the hot coal for higher power: around 5 centimetres above.
