Its National BBQ week and we have put together recommendations for cleaning, cooking and even choosing the right BBQ for your business. From charcoal or electric to meat or vegetarian style, this guide will help you decide for National BBQ week. Read on to find out more...

What's the difference between Charcoal and Gas BBQ's?

Charcoal

Charcoal BBQ's provides a smoky chargrilled flavour to anything you cook and can reach higher temperatures than a gas BBQ. It can also be cheaper as you will only need to buy charcoal and wont need to buy any additional gas canisters. However, Charcoal BBQ's can be difficult to light and takes much longer to reach cooking temperature than a Gas BBQ. It is also harder to control the temperature and more difficult to clean due to the charcoal.

Gas

Thanks to automatic ignition, a gas BBQ is mush easier to light and to control the temperature. It is also easier to clean and sometimes comes with extra features. However, the downsides of a gas BBQ is that is can be much more expensive than a charcoal BBQ due to having to buy the additional gas canisters and they tend to be bulkier and need more room to store. As well as this, you wont get the smoky flavour on all BBQ designs.

What about Electric?

Electric BBQ's are great for controlling the temperature and they don't produce any gas or charcoal fumes. They are also super easy to clean and are generally quite small which is ideal for storage and space issues. However, if you will be cooking for a large group, it may cause an issue as they are usually very small.

Cleaning your BBQ

Watch the video on how to deep clean your BBQ.

How often should you clean your BBQ?

When it comes to cleaning your BBQ, there are two ways of doing it. Firstly, there is the surface cleaning which you will need to do before you start cooking. This is simply cleaning the grills/grates that food comes in contact with and this wont take up to much time as long as you have the right tools-see below.

However, for a deep clean, we recommend once or twice a year-depending on how much you use it. If you want to keep it in great condition, you will want to do more deep cleans throughout the year.

Tools and Equipment

Essential tools:

Cleaning and safety equipment:

Which meat option are the best to cook on a BBQ?

According to ChurchButchers, different meats are either easier or more difficult to cook. If you are a new to the grill, it will be best to start of with a tomahawk steak, chicken thighs, minted lamb chops or a leg of lamb. However, if you are a more experienced cook behind the BBQ, then you should try a pork shoulder, spare ribs, beef ribs or a beef brisket.

What about vegetarian/vegan options?

BBQ's don't always have to have meat sizzling away on them as there are many vegetarian/vegan options to choose from. For example: Grilled BBQ Tofu Kebabs made with tofu, courgettes, tomatoes, peppers and onions or cauliflowers steaks coated in paprika and cumin dry rub.

Twitter Poll Results

For the past week, you have been voting on our twitter page for your preferred meat to cook on the BBQ and the winner is chicken! From the results, we recommend heading over to Jamie Oliver to check out how to perfectly cook barbequed chicken.

Overall, however you are celebrating National BBQ Week, make sure you do it safely, your BBQ is clean and most importantly, enjoy cooking and eating the food!

How will you be celebrating National BBQ Week? let us know on our social media @bunzllockhart