olive Podcast brilliant BBQing

Genevieve Taylor shares the secret to better cooking over coals

Buying good fuel

I’m passionate about using sustainable British charcoal. Making charcoal is very positive for the environment if it’s done in a good way and it’s really good at increasing the biodiversity of woodlands because they do need managing. Also, it’s a myth the charcoal has to be white and ashy before you can cook on it – it doesn’t apply if you’re using really good, pure charcoal. I would actively encourage you not to because you’re wasting the heat energy. Good charcoal will be ready to cook on much quicker. There’s a lot of brilliant, small-scale charcoal makers up and down the country. My personal favourite is Whittle and Flame (whittleandflame.co.uk). Also look out for the Grown in Britain label (growninbritain.org) on charcoal bags, which is a certification that means the wood has been grown sustainably and legally here.

Direct and indirect heat

Never fill the whole base of your barbecue with charcoal, because then all you’ve got is a single source of very high heat. The best set up is charcoal on one half and nothing on the other half. The food you put directly above the lit charcoal is cooking directly and the food that you put to the side of the fire is cooking indirectly. Most of the time you’re better cooking indirectly for more gentle heat, as the charcoal can reach as high as 500C. Steak is the only exception to this rule as it’s best when cooked over a high heat – keep flipping until the crust builds up. Keeping coals to one side gives you the option of using different heat sources. And if you close the lid you have got that all round heat there, too.

Dry brining

For brining, the rule of thumb is a tablespoon of salt per kilo. Sprinkle sea salt flakes all over your meat, then pop it on a rack over a tray and slide into the fridge uncovered. Ideally leave it 24 hours but 12 hours is fine. The salt draws out a little bit of liquid from the meat and creates a very strong brine, and then, over time, the brine works its way back into the meat fibres by a process called diffusion. I like to envisage it as a bundle of spaghetti and each piece of spaghetti is a meat fibre, bound very tightly together with chemical bonds. The salt breaks the bonds between the fibres (or the spaghetti). So what was a very tightly bound bundle becomes a loose, floppy bundle. When that meat hits the grill, the meat fibres can’t contract and squeeze out the liquid, so more of the liquid stays in the meat and it stays juicy.

Genevieve’s top 3 cooking hacks

COOK FROM CHILLED I always cook my steak from fridge cold because then you give yourself the benefit of time to build up that beautiful brown crust without overcooking the centre. If your steak is already at room temperature you haven’t got as much leeway.

GO BONELESS Bones in steaks look good but that bone is getting in the way of the meat having direct contact with the grill bars. And there’s not a chance that that bone is going to be imparting any sort of flavour into your steak during the short cooking time (though different if braising in a liquid for hours and hours). It is something of style over substance, I think.

USE THE LID If you’ve got a lid on your barbecue, shut it as much as you can because you’re trapping in the hot air currents and you’re making the whole cooking process much more efficient. You wouldn’t dream of trying to cook something in your oven while leaving the door open.