Barbecue inspiration

[hamster]

I've got some friends visiting in a few weeks and I'm hoping the weather might be nice enough to have a barbecue (hah!). I'm sure I remember seeing on Jamie Oliver or River Cottage or something, someone barbecuing a larger joint of meat, such as a shoulder of lamb or something, but now I can't remember where I saw it or find the recipe, and the RC Meat Book seems to think it wouldn't work that well (or that I should just bodge together a spit roaster and use that ). I thought it would be more economic than buying loads of sausages and chicken legs etc (this is the trial run for a much bigger birthday party later on in the summer as well), and a bit different, but I don't want to do it if it's going to be horrible. Has anybody ever tried anything similar?

[possum]

to do a larger piece of meat the bbq will definitely have to have a hood to retain the heat. This can be improvised with a large and deep oven tray (obviously depending on the size of the joint). wrapping it in foil would also be good to retain the heat and keep the moisture in.

[Annpan]

Can't help you out hamster... sorry.
I was looking for some general barbecue cooking tips - I did potatoes on the bonfire for the first time at the weekend - yum!

I was looking for other things I can cook that way. I tried an onion which was good but I over did my chocolate stuffed banana

Any other barbecue / bonfire tips?

[possum]

Any other barbecue / bonfire tips?

I have a great book of bbq recipes/outdoor entertaining

my own tip would be, have a bonfire before the heap for burning is 3 metres tall, especially when you realise after having burnt it that most of last years "gentle" prunings are still in the field and it is likely to take another week of constant dragging and burning to get rid of the lot (where are friends when you need them?)

[Annpan]

Any other barbecue / bonfire tips?

I have a great book of bbq recipes/outdoor entertaining

my own tip would be, have a bonfire before the heap for burning is 3 metres tall, especially when you realise after having burnt it that most of last years "gentle" prunings are still in the field and it is likely to take another week of constant dragging and burning to get rid of the lot (where are friends when you need them?)

lol....too late for that one here we have had 4 bonfires in the last week - we have brought an old beer keg out of use as a water butt and it makes a very good small incinerator... Being small it is easy to light and put out (or safe to leave while it is cooling) Unfortunately, to keep it going you need to feed it quite a lot and it can be time consuming.

Only about 20 more bonfires to go (hence why I want to at least get the fun of cooking on it too )

[possum]

well cooking on a bonfire is similar to a bbq
for sophisticated stuff you will need a grill of some sort, probably propped up by bricks or stones, keep the fire hot and low.
Also cut a few sticks and put sausages on the end and cook them over the fire.
Also a dutch oven is good, chuck in a casserole and put it at the edge where the heat is not too great
and the obvious baked potatoes in foil and sweetcorn in foil (safer than using the leaves as a wrapper on a bonfire)

[MKG]

Large isn't as important as thickness. What you need to do with a larger joint is bone it and butterfly it - judicious cuts so that you can spread the meat out to a consistent thickness (about, maybe, a couple of inches).

Barbecue heat is pretty fierce - if the meat's too thick then by the time the inside is cooked, the outside is incinerated (with something like a hog-roast, the cooked outer meat is served to expose the inner meat which then begins to cook). If you really want to use a whole joint (a whole leg of lamb, say) then start it off in the oven and finish it on the barbecue.