Fire away: Tips on the best way to prepare for barbecue season

Cleaning the grill properly

A clean grill is key to a successful cookout. Therefore, you should thoroughly clean your grill after each use. This will help you avoid major cleaning operations and let you relax and focus purely on your guests before your next barbecue party.

es Grills solltest du darauf achten, dass du alle Bauteile des Grills, wie Roste, Brenner (bei Gasgrill) und Gehäuse, gründlich von Fett und Essensresten befreist.
Es gibt verschiedene Methoden, den Grill zu säubern. Bei einigen brauchst du nicht einmal spezielle Grillreiniger:

• One of the most effective methods is pyrolysis. Or rather, a kind of pyrolysis. This process involves using high temperatures to burn food remnants more or less to ashes. Burning out works best with barbecue briquettes, because these smoulder longer than conventional charcoal. To do this, pick up a piece of the still glowing briquette with your barbecue tongs and rub it over the individual wires of the cooking grate. Then let everything cool down and remove anything that's left with a damp cloth.
• When the remaining coals or briquettes have cooled down, you can easily vacuum up their ashes with the Einhell TE-AV 18/15 Li C cordless ash vaccum. Its pleated filter system removes fine dust and ash. When the 15-litre tank is full, you can simply empty the ashes into the residual waste. Please make sure that you do not dispose of hot ashes or embers in the plastic bin. They may come in contact with inflammable materials and cause a fire. Other grime and tough residues in the grill housing are best cleaned with a suitable grill cleaner and a brush. With these, it should be possible to remove even the most stubborn of dirt.

The barbecue party

Men probably only need two things at a barbecue party: Fire and meat. Oh, yeah...and beer! Some women prefer a little more sophistication and need a few more things to throw the perfect barbecue party. The right preparation is key to ensuring that all guests feel at ease.

The right way to light the grill

It's time to get serious: The decorations are in place, the food is prepared, and the guests are starting to arrive. Now it's a matter of lighting the barbecue as quickly and professionally as possible like a true barbecue master.

With a gas grill, lighting the flame takes no time at all: Gas from the bottle is lit according to the type of igniter used. Then you just have to wait a little while for the gas grill to heat up ready to throw on the meat.

With a charcoal grill, however, you have several options. Beforehand, you should decide how long you want to be cooking. Briquettes are made from compressed charcoal dust. This makes them particularly suitable if you're barbecuing for a large group or for a longer period of time. Their high density means briquettes stay hotter for much longer than traditional charcoal. However, it also takes a little longer for them to fully heat up. Charcoal is great when you don't have too much meat to grill. It doesn't burn or glow as long as briquettes do, but it does light faster.

You can use the same techniques to get your barbecue charcoal or briquettes glowing. Two popular methods have both proven succesful. Before you start, you need to remove the grill grate from your barbecue so that you can easily reach the charcoal grate:

• The charcoal pyramid: with the stacking method, you build your charcoal or briquettes into a pile or pyramid, scattering a few solid barbecue lighters in between. Then you set fire to the lighters and wait until the charcoal is glowing evenly. You can speed up this process with the Einhell cordless blower GE-UB 18/250 Li E. Use the short precision nozzle, which is included in the kit. The coal is ready for grilling once you can see a fine layer of white ash.

• The charcoal chimney starter: The charcoal chimeny starter is especially handy for briquettes. With its suction effect ensures that your barbecue briquettes heat up evenly and are ready for use within 15 to 30 minutes. All you have to do is fill the fireplace to the brim with briquettes (or charcoal) and place it on the charcoal grate. Again, you can use solid BBQ lighters, which you put under the coals and light. Now close the lid of your grill and open the vents. When the briquettes are ready, you can pour them out of the chimney onto the charcoal grate. Be sure to wear barbecue gloves, as the chimney gets very hot!

So, the grill is hot, the beer is cold, and you can finally start cooking the steaks. If you want to find out how to build the perfect barbecue area, we've covered that in another post. You'd rather have a BBQ smoker grill? It's easy to build one yourself. Find out complete DIY guide here.