BBQ Briquette Lighters

You love barbeques, but you hate lighting the charcoal. You can make a great starter that is easy to use.

Take an empty cardboard egg carton and cut it in half. Place a briquette into each egg holder (6 in total) and close. Place this in the bottom of your cooker and sprinkle lightly with some lighter fluid.

Place more briquettes on top of the carton, leaving a corner exposed.

Now just light the corner and the paper will burn hot enough to ignite the rest of the briquettes.

BBQ Success

You like to BBQ with briquettes, but you always tend to have issues. Here are a few tips to help your next BBQ turn out a success.

Open your grill and lay out the amount of briquettes that cover the bottom of the grill and extend out about an inch past your food.

Mound them all in the center of your grill and light with a long match if they are self-lighting.

If they are not self lighting, sprinkle with some lighter fluid. Use no more than one or two squirts from the can. Let them sit for about a minute before lighting.

Let the briquettes remain in the mound until they are light gray in color. Once they are all uniform in color spread over the bottom of the grill.

You can test the coals with your hands. Hold your hand over the coals, approximately where the food will be placed. Count out the seconds using the thousand method, (one thousand one) If you are unable to keep your hand over the coals for the following times, here are the approximate temperatures:

2 seconds - Hot
3 seconds - Medium Hot
4 seconds - Medium

BBQ Magic

When you are making your barbecue, you pull out the trusty bottle of barbecue sauce to pour over.

This time, surprise your family by mixing a bottle of the sauce with 1/2 cup of apricot preserves or honey.

They will thank you for the sweet surprise.

Fat Up or Fat Down

You are getting ready to cook a nice brisket and you are trying to remember if you were supposed to cook it with the fat side up or the fat side down.

When grilling or baking a cut of meat for a long amount of time you will get more tender meat if you do cook it with the fat side up.

The fat does not actually permeate the meat, but it does flow over the meat and when it is heated it will act as a barrier preventing moisture from escaping from the surface of the meat.

Barbeque for Groups

When having a barbeque for a large grouping of people something that is easier to make than hot dogs and hamburgers is shish kabobs.

Presoak as many bamboo skewers as you think you will need for at least 1 hour before cooking time.

Arrange dishes of cut up meat, vegetables, and fruit on a table near your grill.

As your guests arrive, they can assemble their shish kabob to their liking and place it on the grill.

Make up a batch of hot rice and garlic bread to serve with the shish kabobs once they have finished cooking.

Easy Basting

When you are having a barbeque with lots of friends/family over you can get really tired of basting the meat with a brush.

If your basting sauce is thin enough you can put it into a spray bottle and spray it on your meat.

If you have a thicker basting sauce you can put it into a squeeze bottle and squeeze it onto your meat. Then you just use your brush to spread it evenly over your meat.

Grill Magic

When grilling meat, sometimes it sticks to the grill even though you cleaned the grill thoroughly and oiled it well.

When grilling items that do not have any external spices or marinades, try spraying the meat with non-stick cooking spray before you place on the grill.

It will not only help keep it from sticking, but it will also help keep the meat from drying out.

When you go to turn it, if it still appears to be sticking, let it cook for a few more minutes until you can lift it with out any resistance.

Slippery Skewers

When grilling on skewers it can be frustrating some times because the food keeps sliding off.

To prevent this from happening, place all your items on the skewer as normal.

At the end, place a peeled clove of garlic.

Now your ingredient will stay put and as it cooks it will add great flavor to your meat or veggies.

Self Serve BBQ

When having a barbeque for a large grouping of people something that is easier to make than hot dogs and hamburgers is shish kabobs.

Presoak as many bamboo skewers as you think you will need for at least 1 hour before cooking time.

Arrange dishes of cut up meat, vegetables, and fruit on a table near your grill.

As your guests arrive, they can assemble their shish kabob to their liking and place it on the grill.

Make up a batch of hot rice and garlic bread to serve with the shish kabobs once they have finished cooking.

BBQ Basting

When you are having a barbeque with lots of friends/family over you can get really tired of basting the meat with a brush.

If your basting sauce is thin enough you can put it into a spray bottle and spray it on your meat.

If you have a thicker basting sauce you can put it into a squeeze bottle and squeeze it onto your meat. Then you just use your brush to spread it evenly over your meat.