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(Last Updated On: July 9, 2018)

You love barbecues. Eating outside in the sunshine, with a glass of your favourite drink, and tasting food perfectly cooked with that special barbecue taste. But what is even better? When your loved one is the person who likes to do the cooking.

So what can you do to make him or her say to you when you get home after a hard day’s work, “Hey, why don’t I barbecue for us tonight?” No wondering what to prepare for yet another night at home, your partner has got it covered. All you have to do is get into some casual clothes and relax. How can you make that happen? Buy some gifts that will encourage them!!

You may have already got your perfect barbecue, but if you are looking to upgrade or get something that isn’t on it’s last legs, check out our guide to the top 5 gas and top 5 charcoal barbecues.

What does a barbecue chef need to make their obsession with cooking even greater? There are all sorts of accessories that will help get their passion flowing. So let’s look at the barbecue process.

First of all you need to light the barbecue. Whilst buying someone you love some charcoal may not be your best move, these charcoal briquettes do come highly recommended. Instead of charcoal, why not buy the Weber Chimney Starter? This is the perfect way to get a barbecue started – place the chimney over your barbecue, fill with charcoal bricks and light some lighter cubes or scrunched up newspaper at the bottom.

You can get cheaper chimney starters, but this one is made from a better quality stainless steel, and as such is more sturdy. And when dealing with fire, that’s a good thing.

Your coals will be white hot and ready to cook on in about 20 minutes. But the best thing is that they will all be uniformly hot – and you don;t even need to sit their nursing it to life. (Personally I wouldn’t recommend going too far though).

 

Whilst the plastic handle stays cool, the rest of the chimney will be hot. As you may want to use two hands to handle safely, it would be wise to invest in a pair of barbecue gloves.

So now you have the barbecue alight, what is next? To keep the coals from going out, you may want to look at buying a grill fan or poker.

Is it time to start cooking? If you are buying for a man, he will love one of the following men’s aprons.

So what accessories will make the actual cooking easier and better? I have not seen these in use before personally, but you can get non-stick grilling mats, that help keep your barbecue grill cleaner. Food won’t fall between the grill or stuck to it, your food won’t get scorched by flames which come to life with fat dripping onto the coals, and they help keep juices inside for better flavour. Certainly one on my shopping list!

These top quality mats have a great following and even come with a free brush!

Talking of brushes, here’s a selection that you can use to brush on your marinades.

What you may also need is some foil trays, to place your food on whilst cooking. There have been some recent health risks linked to barbecuing with food wrapped in tin foil, however you may find that foil trays work better. I am no expert on this though, so if you are worried please do some research of your own.

One of the issues with cooking on a barbecue is turning your food over, so it cooks evenly. Tongs and what I call a fish slice are the usual tools in use, but there is always a danger of your food dropping or even getting stuck to the grill. You could however invest in a basket.

If you place your meat or fish in one of these you can cook safe in the knowledge that you will be able to turn your food easily, using the long handles. And no more dropping your sausages through onto the coals in error!

An alternative to one of these baskets would be to use some skewers. Often just used for creating your own kebabs, you could secure your food using 2 skewers, and use the handles to flip them over safely.

Handy Tip – if you are cooking fish and you don’t have one of these baskets, cut a lemon into slices, and place the fish on them. The fish will now not stick to the grill, and you will get an added lemon taste.

Other containers you can use for cooking on barbecues include this great looking pan which is perfect for cooking sliced and diced vegetables, and this vegetable basket.

I hope that some of these ideas inspire you. My final recommendation would be to buy a new barbecue book. Even in the winter months you can get your other half learning new recipes and ideas to make your life that much better.

 

 

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