10 Game-Changing Barbecue Hacks You Need In Your Life This Summer
You can do it. You can!
1. Stick An Ice Cube In Your Burger Patty — Yup
Why would anyone stick an ice cube inside a raw hunk of meat, you ask? Because you don’t want over-done, disgusting burgers … duh! This trick comes to you from Graham Elliot: “Make your patties, then put your little ice cube in there and then when you grill it, it keeps it moist and keeps it from getting dried out.
2. Clean Your Grill With A Raw Onion
… It’s a natural disinfectant! Stick a fork in a half of one and run it back and forth over your hot grill. If you’re working with a wood-fired barbecue, throw it in there when you’re done for some bonus smoky, yummy, onion-y flavor all up in whatever you’re grilling.
3. Slice A Watermelon Without Making A Whole Thing Of It
Wait, it turns out it’s, like, really not a big deal to cut a watermelon into nice, same-sized pieces? You just cut it … and then you cut it again … and then you cut it a third time?? Look!!!
4. Make A Cute Watermelon Centerpiece While You’re At It
Again, t’s not nearly as difficult as you’d think. As The Sweetest Occasion demonstrates, it’s just a matter of slicing, scooping, and placing some delightful flowers. Another plus: you have a pile of watermelon shards to enjoy post-meat fest.
6. Save a Trip, Use A Muffin Tin
Not only will this save you the hassle of having to lug out a zillion bottles, but it’ll also ensure your BBQ is ‘grammable as hell. Come on, is that not the cutest BBQ-adjacent thing you’ve ever seen!?
7. Swap Wooden Skewers For Rosemary Twigs
Not only is the substitution gorgeous, but the rosemary adds an herbaceous flavor to your meats, veggies, fruits, whatever. Another BBQ hack is to just skewer everything in sight and throw it on the grill.
8. Lay Down Some Lemons
Sure, grilled fish is a godsend, but did you know that if you put citrus in between any seafood and that sweet, sweet fire, something magical happens? Seriously — any citrus and any seafood. It’s wonderful.
9. Who Needs Matches When You Have Doritos?
There has been rumors of Doritos being flammable floating around the web for years, but they weren’t worth paying attention to until you found yourself working a barbecue and all out of matches. It works.
10. Keep Your Grill At Two Different Temps
We’ve established you’re not trying to over-cook everything. Keep one side of the grill super hot for finishing what needs to be finished and cool one down for the purpose of just keeping what’s done warm.
11. Swap Tongs For Chopsticks
Tongs broken? Too lazy to clean? No matter! If you have a spare pair of chopsticks laying around, you can just use those to flip whatever you’re working with on the barbecue. Throw them out when you’re done.
Go forth and grill.
