It’s true, a great BBQ sauce can elevate your grilled dishes from good to exceptional, but even better news is that it’s really easy to make your own BBQ sauce that is just as good, if not better than your supsermarket staples. This means not only can you impress your guests with your homemade BBQ sauces (they won’t believe its not shop bought), you can also very easily have control over all the ingredients - no chemicals, reduced salt, manage the spice levels. While there are plenty of commercial options available, nothing beats a homemade BBQ sauce tailored to your taste preferences. In this post, I’ll go through the process of crafting your own ultimate BBQ sauce, once you know the basics, you can freely adapt them and adjust to make it however you like, want an apple BBQ sauce? Sure thing! Want it more smokey? You got it.
Lamb always works well on the BBQ, if you ask me. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was so expensive in the UK, I’d be eating a lot more of it. Thankfully, lots of BBQ cuts are slightly cheaper (but still pretty flipping expensive!), shoulder, breast etc are a bit cheaper. Generally, for the quantity lamb chops are more expensive, so a bit more of a special treat, but if you find that you have some they are superb. Quick to cook, beuatifully flavourful and nice and soft if cooked properly.
Another favourite side of mine - not only because they are super easy (put them in the coals whilst BBQing other stuff, that’s literally it!), they also plate up great, taste great and as usual, are a little but different that can add a bit of wow factor (or at least a conversation piece) if you are entertaining.
I love rotisserie cooking and thankfully, it seems the BBQ manufactures have all caught on now as rotisserie attachments are far more common place - you can get them for Kamado Joe, Weber’s, gas grills, charcoal etc - so lots of possibilities. Rotisserie cooking is by favourite method to cook a whole roast chicken, and these kebabs are always a crowd pleaser and absolutely delicious!
Cauliflower is one of my favourite vegetables, to cook and to eat. It’s incredibly versatile, takes on other flavours really well, and has a deliciously savoury, nutty, flavour when browned nicely. There is a reason that lots of steak houses offer cauliflower steak as a vegetarian option. It sears well, tastes great, and works so well with classic steak sauces (or even just butter/oil).
Lamb shoulder is another underrated cut of meat that I highly recommend adding to your BBQ rotation. Sure, lamb is often quite expensive compared to other meats, but its flavour is really something else and works so well on the BBQ. Lamb shoulder is also generally on the cheaper end of the various cuts of lamb on account of it being a fairly tough and usually fatty piece of meat.
Cheeks always seem to be a great muscle, I probably said in my beef-cheek recipes that beef cheeks are one of my favourite cuts to cook, and pork cheeks are also a great option on the BBQ. They can be a little harder to get hold of (I haven’t seen them anywhere other than butchers) but they are super easy, really delicious and pretty quick.
Given cooking is essentially one big, creative, science experiment, I figured it about time to get in to some details about the science of cooking, heat and the different techniques we use for cooking. Lots of this has been mentioned in passing elsewhere (such as when I wrote about humidity in cooking, we went through some science about braising, and when I wrote about bullet smokers we touched on convection), so this is going to be a run down across these topics.
Ok, so I have a confession. Of all the random kitchen tools and gadgets I have (BBQs, pizza ovens, sous vide, fryers etc) the items I have most enjoyed receiving, and look forward to the most, have been one of two categories: Saucepans or knives.
