JUST GRILL IT | June 30th 2008

meepooh/flickr

Andy Annat, butcher and British barbecue champion, on choosing equipment for alfresco cooking ...

What you really want is a barbecue with a lid. Not to keep the rain off, but for what we call "off-set" or "indirect" cooking, where you push the charcoal over to one side, put the food above the charcoal-free area, and then close the lid, making a kind of oven. This way you're not just restricted to sausages: in a lidded, 57cm-diameter kettle-type barbecue you can cook anything from the Sunday roast to pizza or bread-and-butter pudding.

Should you use gas or charcoal? It's your choice, really. Charcoal is arguably more macho: it's "real", it burns hotter, and it gives that distinctive smoky flavour. But it's slow to start, you'll get flare-ups-when dripping fat catches fire on the coals below, singeing the food--and there'll be ashes to dispose of. A separate ash pan helps, plus it'll stop ash choking the charcoal as it burns.

Gas barbecues are more expensive, but do give rapid, consistent, controllable heat--and as long as they have more than two burners, will do off-set cooking. To stop flare-ups, the burners will be covered with either lava rocks, ceramic briquettes or V-shaped metal "flavouriser" bars--the latter tend to be the most effective, though cast-iron or stainless-steel ones last longer than the ceramic-coated type.

Choose a model that is stable, a comfortable height, and the right size for your catering ambitions--too big a cooking space and you'll waste fuel. Enamel-coated steel lasts years longer than painted steel, which will soon peel and rust; but whatever it's made of, it must have a good, sturdy grate of heavy-gauge metal to hold the heat and sear the meat.

Don't get too distracted by accessories. A warming tray in the lid and a decent manufacturer's warranty are probably the only extras you'll need. The one accessory you must never, ever use is a fork--it'll pierce the meat and let all the lovely juices drain away.

WHERE TO BUY:

Barbecue World
Cambridge St, Godmanchester, Cambs;
Tel: +44 (0)1480 417624

Giardino
Schlosserstrasse 33, Lindlar, Germany;
Tel: +49 (0)2266 4735 830

Hayes Garden World
Lake Rd, Ambleside, Cumbria;
Tel: +44 (0)1539 433434

Mode France
Mail-order only; 
Tel: +33 (0)5 63 95 36 33

~INTERVIEW BY JANE YETTRAM

(See previous "Insider Trading" stories about training shoes, Persian carpets and wild mushrooms. Photo courtesy of Voxphoto/flickr)