Great Scottish BBQ

Appeals to stay at home mean 2020 could be the year of the barbeque! Our fun guide reveals everything you need for al fresco dining perfection

Break out the barbie and dine al fresco with this fun food guide

ALTHOUGH some restrictions have been eased, lockdown still dominates our lives and so many of us are rediscovering the beauty of the simple things. Case in point is the humble barbeque.

I’ve had a long-established obsession with the grill. Maybe it’s the firebug within, drawn to legitimised pyro. But, perhaps it’s just the diamond mine of al fresco fun and contentment to be found in a bag of charcoal.

I guarantee that after even the most difficult day, by the time the first sausage is sizzling on the flaming grill, any tension will have gone up in smoke. Making fire and cooking meat is a hard-wired instinct, but so too is the primal urge to step in and take over when you see someone else making a pig’s ear of it. So all you back seat grillers, calm those cave-dwelling instincts and adhere to the following decorum.

As long as the product is safe to eat, don’t interfere with the man or woman making fire. Remember, this is hallowed ground where peace is to be found. When visiting someone who’s going to this effort, take something to replenish their energy supplies. They may appreciate the natural energy drink called beer, suitably fortified with barley-borne carbohydrate.

Stoke up your appetite. Any barbeque chef worth their salt will cook much more than required. When dining domestically, a rib eye steak and few tatties cuts it. When attending a barbeque, however, it’s said rib eye, two burgers, a pork link, chicken kebab and a corn-on-the-cob on the side.

Turn the page for my top tips on how to make the most of a summer at home and eke out the very best of summer grillin’…