The Great Australian BBQ (Barbeque)

“What’s a bloke gotta do to get a good snag around here? Cheryl, fire up the barby while I get the stubbies chilled down to a respectable temperature in my esky. Now, what have I done with that bloody bottle opener so I can crack the top of a coldie while I think about what to do next. A bloke can’t think straight without a stubbie in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other. Flamin’ heck Cheryl, I haven’t got all day, where is the flamin’ sausages!”

Sounds like the start to a good Australian barbeque? This was probably the Australian BBQ banter thirty odd years ago, well before Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) coined the phrase which sold Australia to the world “Throw another shrimp on the barby”. And to set the record straight, Australians don’t call them shrimp, we call them prawns.

The Australian barbeque scene has come a long way since the male of the family stands around barking orders while drinking beer and taking pride of his ‘cooking’. The Australian backyard barbeque scene has grown over the years; you could even say it has grown up. We no longer look at burnt steaks and oily sausages with longing eyes and drooling mouths. Our tastes and cooking abilities have matured. We perform culinary delights on our barbeque plates from roasting whole chickens to even making a stir fry. Dishes inspired by European influences are also cooked on Australian barbeques.

Most of our barbeques run off gas which heats a cast iron hot plate or grill. The hot plate retains flavor and gives our cooked meats an awesome taste. Other barbeques run of burnt wood or bought fire beads. Australians never squirt fire starter fluid into heat beads/coals then try to ignite them. Not the Aussies that I know anyway. I’ve only seen this on Hollywood movies, and it usually ends where the barbeque and person trying to light it get launched into the sky. Or barbeques have changed from being built in brick structures to timber framed portable barbeques to now full stainless steel cabinet barbeques with six burners and a wok burner on the side. Built in barbeques have come back into fashion for people who install the extra outdoor kitchens. Generally Australians like their barbeques on a portable cabinet with wheels so they can wheel it out of the way when they aren’t using them.

Australians are embracing a revolution in outdoor cooking equipment. We are slowly pushing our barbeques off to the side for the moment to try out Pizza Ovens! Don’t worry BBQ, mate, you can never be replaced. This Pizza Oven fad will pass and when we all want to sink our teeth into a juicy steak we will wheel you out from storage, scrub down your hotplate and fire up the gas burners!

Final word...

I won't rule out the scene in the opening paragraph still happening. It's amazing how many cremated steaks you can make from having one too many cold ones before cooking!