With the outdoor cooking season upon us, the survey by Good Food magazine of 2,496 BBC Magazines readers reveals that 73 per cent of us admit to being unadventurous when it comes to barbecue cooking.
Key findings were:
• 62% of us prefer to keep our BBQ entertaining simple, so we don't try anything new or challenging;
• 26% of us say we don’t have any adventurous barbecue recipes to turn to;
• 23% of us stick to familiar favourites because we're nervous about food safety and the possibility of food poisoning;
• It’s official! The BBQ really does bring out the hunter in men, with males taking charge of the coals in 60 per cent of households compared to 12% of females. (Almost exactly the reverse of the norm, as women do 61% of day-to-day cooking compared to 15% of males);
• 61% of us use a traditional charcoal barbecue: 29% cook with gas. Just one in ten 10% use disposable barbecues.
Not just burgers and burnt sausages...
Interestingly, more than one in ten (12%) of us have cooked a whole chicken on the barbeque. Adventurous meats readers had tried include venison (11%), ostrich (5%) and wild boar (4%). For anyone who wants to extend their barbecue repertoire, Good Food’s August’s issue has a selection of outdoor recipes and bbcgoodfood.com has a series of deliciously different and easy barbecue recipes including summer lamb with carrot and fennel salad, chicken masala skewers, griddled glazed vegetable kebabs and halloumi and mushroom skewers.
Gillian Carter, editor of Good Food magazine says: "We all love the idea of a barbecue, but many of us play it safe with burgers and sausages because we want simple food that appeals to all ages. It might have something to do with the fact that men seem to love cooking meat over a flame. But if you want to do something different, ban the burger, say no to the sausage – and get the girls cooking. Try chicken wings, chops and gorgeously griddled veg on your barbecue instead this year. Good Food's cookery team have triple-tested dozens of recipes, all designed to make your BBQ party sizzle."
August's Good Food magazine is on sale, priced at £3.40.
