Helpful hints for the Weber

Big Family Q™

Always cook with the lid closed

No matter whether you are cooking a roast, a barbecue or breakfast on a plate, always cook with the lid closed. Why? Firstly, cooking with the lid closed creates natural convection of the air inside the barbecue. This results in more even cooking with more natural juices retained.

Secondly, you will achieve outstanding barbecue flavour that you can’t get by cooking with the lid open. This is produced when flavour- giving barbecue smoke is convected all around the meat.

Thirdly, cooking times are greatly reduced (about half of what you might expect on an open barbecue), which means you can barbecue the same amount of food in half the time. Lastly, it’s far more convenient and economi- cal. Because less gas is required to cook foods, you don’t need to fill the gas bottle anywhere near as often (a 9kg gas bottle will last for over 20 hours of cooking).

Use ‘natural convection’ to get the best results. Remember, these barbecues rely on natural convection to cook food perfectly. To assist convection, try not to cover more than two thirds of the cooking grill at one time. Whilst they will cook with the whole cooking surface covered, the results are far better if you barbecue in two or three batches when feeding a crowd.

When roasting, make sure the height of your food fits inside with the lid closed. To allow the air to convect properly you should use an accessory roasting trivet and make sure you have at least a 25mm clearance between your food and the lid. As a guide, a number 16 or 17 chicken, a leg of lamb or a good sized fillet of beef are all okay.

How often should you turn the meat?

Your Weber Big Family Q™ will produce the most impressive food when you let the ‘con- vection process’ do its work with minimum interruption. For this reason, resist the temptation to continually turn the food. Each time you turn the food you have to raise the lid, allowing the hot air to escape. When barbecuing meat, outstanding results are achieved if you use tongs to turn the meat (once only) half-way through the cooking time. Roasts, on the other hand, should never need turning.

Using sauces and glazes

Only apply sauces or glazes that have a high sugar content during the last 10–15 minutes of cooking. If applied too early they will spoil the food, because the sugar in the glaze will caramelise and turn black.

Troubleshooting

Problem. Meat tastes stewed and lacks expected barbecue flavour.

Solution. Temperature is not hot enough. Make sure that you pre-heat your barbecue as directed under ‘barbecuing’ on page 1. Always cook all food with the lid closed.

Problem. Food does not cook in the estimated cooking time.

Solution. Temperature is not hot enough. Make sure that you pre-heat your barbecue as directed under ‘barbecuing’ on page 1. Always cook all food with the lid closed.

Problem. Strong wind blows gas out. Solution. Turn off gas and allow 5 minutes before relighting. If possible move your barbecue to a position that is protected from the wind. If this is not possible, face the front of your barbecue into the wind, so that the wind cannot blow into the barbecue through the air- vents on either side.

Problem. The gas will not relight after you’ve been cooking.

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