Food & Drink 

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Are barbecues bad for you?

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Keep meat portions small so they need only a brief time on the grill – kebabs are ideal.

Fix the drips. Use tongs or a spatula to turn food instead of piercing meat with a fork. Covering the grill with punctured foil and not putting meat directly over coals will reduce the risk of flare-ups.

Flip frequently. Recent research has found that cooking hamburgers at a lower temperature and regularly turning them accelerates the cooking process and is equally effective in killing off bacteria.

Don’t baste food with used marinading liquid – make a separate batch for basting. Remember to bring the marinade to a rolling boil before using as a sauce on cooked foods.

Prepare the barbecue. The first time you use the barbecue, turn it up to a high heat to remove old grease and debris. Gas barbecues are increasingly popular and allow better preparation times and cooking control, but the same safety tips apply. To reach a proper cooking temperature for gas and electric grills, turn the grill on high and close the lid for 10 minutes.

Use a meat thermometer. Advice from the US, home of the barbecue, is to use a meat thermometer to make sure foods reach the proper temperatures (not all meat cooks at the same rate). They recommend that beef should be cooked to 145F for medium rare and 160F for medium, while poultry should reach 180F and hamburgers should be 160F.

When the food is cooked, fetch a clean plate to hold or serve the food – not the plate used to carry the meat, poultry or fish to the grill. Serve the food piping hot and throw out any leftovers.

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