How-to BBQ: Homemade BBQ sauce recipe

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I hadn’t really made much tomato ketchup before. I have made countless BBQ sauces, but usually relying on shop bought ketchup for the base (for those BBQ sauces that rely on a tomato ketchup base, anyway). However, this summer has bought a bumper crop of tomatoes from my dad’s greenhouse so I found myself with a kilo of fresh tomatoes in the fridge and thought I’d give it a try. This recipe started out with the intentions of being a ketchup, you see. It ended up being closer to a tomato-BBQ sauce hybrid, but it still works well. Maybe it could still be considered a smokey-tomato ketchup, whatever you call it, it has certainly gone down very well as a condiment.

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How-to BBQ: BBQ chicken wings

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Who doesn’t love chicken wings? They are great sharing food or as part of a BBQ platter (or just as a meal with some veg and mash). I must admit I was late to getting to the wings party - growing up, going to KFC I’d go for the legs over the wings, and its only been the last few years that I have really got into wings. Not particularly healthy, but they most favourable fat/skin-to-meat ratio of any part of the chicken ensures its the tastiest part!

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The science of meat: The impact of muscle groups on BBQ and cooking

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This article is intended as an overview of the two main categories of cuts of meat (muscles) and the common properties these groups share. A lot of this may be boring science-nerd stuff (which I am all here for), but the reason I think it’s interesting is because these shared properties shape the way we cook them. For example, we would alter our cooking approach if we were cooking chicken breast vs chicken thighs, and likewise, there is no way you would want to cook a fillet steak the same way you cook a brisket. This is because they are in different categories and have different properties, likewise, meats in the same categories can be cooked in basically the same way. Cooked short rib before but never ox-cheek? Don’t worry, just think of them like different shaped short ribs and you’ll be fine.

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The science of hot-and-fast BBQ

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Previously we discussed the principles of cooking low and slow BBQ. Cooking for longer periods of time at a temperature ranging from roughly 110C/225F - 135C/275F. In that write up, we looked at the science of heat transfer and all the merits of cooking slowly to reduce the temperature gradient and get a more even cook throughout the meat, and you’d be forgiven for thinking by the end of that, “Why would you ever cook hot and fast?”

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How-to BBQ: Getting a bigger smoke ring

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The smoke ring. A much sought after, magical thing in BBQ. The visibly identifiable symbol of good BBQ - even though it doesn’t indicate the quality of the BBQ (you can have great BBQ with no smoke ring, as well as terrible BBQ with a smoke ring) - it is a status symbol. There is an undeniable satisfaction cutting into your smoked meat and seeing the pink band around the surface of the meat.

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