GARDEN BARBECUES

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31563, 28 December 1967, Page 2

GARDEN BARBECUES

(By

STELLA BRUCE)

LONDON. Steaks grilled over glowing embers and flavoured with wood smoke have a taste that can never be achieved by cooking them in the kitchen. This is one reason why barbecue parties have become popular. However erratic the climate there are always enough summer evenings to have an outdoor party and you do not need a film star’s patio to make them successful. Any sheltered spot with a stone or concrete floor will

do, if It is a safe distance from wooden fences and the house. But you do need the right basic equipment. It can be rigged up at home, but it is easier and more efficient to buy it

There have been successful barbecues for which the fire has been built in a biscuit tin and the food suspended on iron rods supported by bricks. But the chance that the whole lot will fall into the fire a few seconds before it should be served is too great a risk to take.

A portable barbecue grill, which folds up and can be packed away with a picnic hamper is a good buy for

those who enjoy outdoor living.

The Japanese have taken up the barbecue craze and have mass-produced a saucershaped metal model which is filled with charcoal. This is supposed to be portable too, but how you take a shovel of glowing charcoal to a picnic is a secret the Japanese keep to themselves.

A more permanent barbecue is one with an iron base and two spits—preferably rotating. Whatever type of barbecue cooker you use, may the New Year bring you many happy summer evenings eating juicy steaks in the twilight.