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Helpful hints for the Weber
Big Family Q
™
Always cook with the lid closed
No matter whether you are cooking a roast, a
barbecue or breakfast on a plate, always cook
with the lid closed. Why? Firstly, cooking with
the lid closed creates natural convection of
the air inside the barbecue. This results in
more even cooking with more natural juices
retained.
Secondly, you will achieve outstanding barbe-
cue flavour that you can’t get by cooking with
the lid open. This is produced when flavour-
giving barbecue smoke is convected all around
the meat.
Thirdly, cooking times are greatly reduced
(about half of what you might expect on an
open barbecue), which means you can barbe-
cue the same amount of food in half the time.
Lastly, it’s far more convenient and economi-
cal. Because less gas is required to cook foods,
you don’t need to fill the gas bottle anywhere
near as often (a 9kg gas bottle will last for over
20 hours of cooking).
Use ‘natural convection’ to get the best results.
Remember, these barbecues rely on natural
convection to cook food perfectly. To assist
convection, try not to cover more than two
thirds of the cooking grill at one time. Whilst
they will cook with the whole cooking surface
covered, the results are far better if you bar-
becue in two or three batches when feeding a
crowd.
When roasting, make sure the height of your
food fits inside with the lid closed. To allow
the air to convect properly you should use an
accessory roasting trivet and make sure you
have at least a 25mm clearance between your
food and the lid. As a guide, a number 16 or 17
chicken, a leg of lamb or a good sized fillet of
beef are all okay.
How often should you turn the meat?
Your Weber Big Family Q™ will produce the
most impressive food when you let the ‘con-
vection process’ do its work with minimum
interruption. For this reason, resist the temp-
tation to continually turn the food. Each time
you turn the food you have to raise the lid,
allowing the hot air to escape. When barbecu-
ing meat, outstanding results are achieved if
you use tongs to turn the meat (once only)
half-way through the cooking time. Roasts, on
the other hand, should never need turning.
Using sauces and glazes
Only apply sauces or glazes that have a high
sugar content during the last 10–15 minutes of
cooking. If applied too early they will spoil the
food, because the sugar in the glaze will
caramelise and turn black.
Troubleshooting
Problem. Meat tastes stewed and lacks
expected barbecue flavour.
Solution. Temperature is not hot enough. Make
sure that you pre-heat your barbecue as directed
under ‘barbecuing’ on page 1. Always cook all
food with the lid closed.
Problem. Food does not cook in the estimated
cooking time.
Solution. Temperature is not hot enough. Make
sure that you pre-heat your barbecue as directed
under ‘barbecuing’ on page 1. Always cook all
food with the lid closed.
Problem. Strong wind blows gas out.
Solution. Turn off gas and allow 5 minutes
before relighting. If possible move your barbe-
cue to a position that is protected from the
wind. If this is not possible, face the front of
your barbecue into the wind, so that the wind
cannot blow into the barbecue through the air-
vents on either side.
Problem. The gas will not relight after you’ve
been cooking.