King of the Grill

T3’s editor Rob Carney tackles the very latest in BBQ and kitchen tech to bring the magazine team a plethora of meat-based delights. Fire it up!

- Rob Carney

I like to think of myself as a good cook; a budding Keith Floyd, if you like. And there’s no place I enjoy cooking more than in front of the BBQ, beer in hand. But this challenge is bigger than that. My mission? To use the latest and best in grill and culinary tech to make the perfect selection of barbecue food and drink, from scratch, to cater for seven T3-ers in one lunch hour. No pressure, then...

Man versus Meat

Now, I’m not doing things by halves here. My burgers will be made from ground prime steak and seasoned to perfection; my sausages from minced pork, enhanced by a variety of spices. I’ll blend a sweet, sticky barbecue sauce from scratch, and even make a selection of brioche buns. Oh, and I’ll be whizzing up cocktails and a fruity, frozen dessert to round it all off.

But this is T3, not Jamie magazine – we’re not just about the food, we’re about the tech too. So I’ve armed myself with a bunch of grills, a mixer, a blender and an icecream maker to help me nail this challenge.

First up, I need to create my burgers and bangers. Starting with some diced rump steak, I feed it into a Multi-Food Grinder attachment fixed to the Smeg Stand Mixer, a versatile, 1950s-style machine. With the steaks transformed into ground beef, I alter the blade to the fine 3mm disc and grind the diced pork shoulder. When that’s done, I add a sausage-stuffer accessory (it comes with the Multi-Food Grinder) to the Stand Mixer and, after ten minutes of somewhat homoerotic activity, I have 15 large, plump sausages. Meat accomplished.