There is no better way to celebrate a special occasion than having an open barbecue with close family and friends. As a matter of fact, over 51% of Americans believe that barbecues are ideal for celebrating birthdays, graduations, promotions, and various other major life events.

A barbecue is not just a social gathering of the people you cherish but is also an occasion to treat family and friends to a mouth-watering dining experience. This article offers you simple tips on achieving the perfect barbecue, including what to buy from your local bbq supply store.

Choosing Meat for your Barbecue

Your choice of meat for the barbecue should cater to a wide range of individual preferences and tastes. Fortunately, you do not have to call everyone invited to your barbecue to ask them what they prefer. Let that be the surprise when they arrive at the event.

The safest bet is to buy at least one type of white and red meat, with chicken breasts, pork chops, and beef steaks being viable purchases for most barbecue occasions. However, to truly impress your guests, you also need to know how to barbecue the meat to perfection. This next stage is where your local bbq supply store comes into the equation.

Barbecuing like a Pro

The number one consideration when barbecuing meat is cooking time, which is why the knowledge of fat and collagen content of meat is crucial. Your white or red meat should have a moderate amount of fat as it helps make the meat juicy.

You should also ensure a low collagen content as meat with a high amount of this animal protein makes it tough to chew.

Perfectly barbecuing pork chops and beef steaks on your bbq grill involve maintaining low heat to allow them to cook slowly. Doing this ensures that the fat within melts. It then infuses into the muscle tissue allowing the meat to cook from within and retain all its flavor.

Furthermore, a slow barbecue on your pellet grill, wood grill, or propane gas grill allows the complete breakdown of collagen, thereby tenderizing the final barbecued food product. The slow cooking time for red meat is why you need to ensure you purchase enough pellets and firewood supplies or get a propane refill at your local bbq supply store.

On the other hand, barbecuing chicken breast and other white meat requires higher temperatures and shorter cooking time. This is because white meat has significantly low collagen and fat. Consequently, you should start your barbecue with white meat first, when your bbq grill is hottest, before you wind up with slower-cooking red meat.

Adding Flavor to your Barbecue

You can obtain additional ingredients from a bbq supply store to increase the variety of food flavors at your barbecue. These ingredients consist of an array of finely-ground natural herbs and spices sold either individually or in powdered mixtures as bbq seasoning.

Using flavor-enhancing bbq seasonings typically involves marinating your meat for an hour before barbecuing or directly applying the seasoning as the meat cooks. Buying different bbq hot sauces from your local bbq store is yet another way to further expand the flavor offering at your barbecue event.