Cooking on the Barbie Down Under

[ludja]

I was reminded of this question after seeing this recent thread re: finding traditional American BBQ in Australia: click.

A good friend visited Australia and stayed with some local hosts in Melbourne. They cooked on the 'barbie' several times, but my friend was surprised to that what they called a barbie consisted of a flat metal sheet for the cook surface (not a grate) fueled by gas. It was similar to cooking on the type of cooking surface you would see at a breakfast restaurant in the US. The food thus was not really "grilled" in the way I'm used to in a backyard situation (ie. over coals or over a gas grill with grates).

Is this a typical barbie?

(And do Australians call it a barbie?...)

What are the classic traditions, recipes and types of grills?

Is it traditional to grill out for Christmas or New Years?

Are there traditional dishes called bbq in Australia, and if so, what are they like?

Are the traditions similar in New Zealand?

[anzu]

None of my family and friends in Australia would call that a 'barbie'. Seeing as Australia is a nation of immigrants, I should qualify here. My family is of UK/ German background, but four generations back.

In the 60s and 70s, when I was growing up, a 'barbie' referred to a round grate and food was cooked over coals. Usually sausages and steak would get turned to charcoal on the outside, while the sausages at least remained raw inside.

Some time in the 80s, around the same time that other food in Australia was also really taking off, the Weber barbecue kettle started making huge inroads. I think every person I know in Australia owns one. Well, every family, at least. This includes my Chinese and Vietnamese friends.

I can only say what my relatives and friends cook: pork roasts, lamb roasts, beef roasts, 'gourmet sausages' (i.e. likely to be flavoured with porcini, basil, pine nuts, merguez spices, etc. etc.), whole fish, pumpkin cut into large wedges, red bell peppers.

Roasts are almost guaranteed to be studded with garlic, rubbed with salt and olive oil, and may well have bits of rosemary thrust into them as well. Fish seasonings will either be Lebanese inspired, Greek inspired, or Italian inspired (all three are major ethnic groups where I come from).

My Chinese and Vietnamese friends cook mainly pork roasts, and fish on the Weber. Sometimes chicken.

It didn't use to be a tradition to barbecue at Christmas. Instead, people I knew (my family included) would laboriously make traditional English Christmas fare - heating up the house by roasting chicken in the oven when the surrounding temperature was already sometimes over 40 Celsius , boiling Christmas pudding, etc. No-one ever had much of an appetite for the food because it was just too heavy and filling for the weather you were eating it in.

I'm sure there are still people who do all that, but no-one I actually know. Instead, people I know will cook the type of things I just described, eat outside in the shade of some trees, sit around and chat, drink plenty of Australian wine .

Not having Christmas in summertime is one of the worst things about no longer living in Australia!

No one I know barbecues anything for New Year (though other people may well do so, I just don't know them). It will usually be done for most large parties though - and quite a lot of smaller ones as well.

[helenjp]

Yes, well...my family tradition has always been to cook over a fire at the beach. I checked the local fire regulations, and set up a small driftwood fire.

We only had a small number of guests, with several children, so we all stuck to a tried-and-true winter menu: sausages on sticks stuck into a bank of sand around the fire, split rolls with mustard and a nice tamarillo ketchup found at the supermarket, hot-marinaded coleslaw, Samoan chop-suey (made with cellophane noodles, pork, and bok choy), apples and hot banana splits roasted in foil in the ashes. Home made lemonade to drink.

Some passerby called up the fire service rather than trouble themselves to ask us if we knew what we were doing, so we had a visit from two firemen in full regalia. They OK'd everything and wished us a pleasant afternoon - which was big of them, considering they'd parked their fire engine on the cliff and toiled along the beach to where we were.

[PCL]

it's a barbie if you cook outside, on a grill/hotplate/broiler/whatever that's sitting over an open flame, gas or otherwise.

aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi

kiwi kiwi kiwi...(what sound does a kiwi make?)

dunno about uk/german people here, but most aussies i know, and after looking in the mirror, would call what ludja described as a barbie.

and i have been known to barbie over new year's. why the hell not?

[infernooo]

A good friend visited Australia and stayed with some local hosts in Melbourne.  They cooked on the 'barbie' several times, but my friend was surprised to that what they called a barbie consisted of a flat metal sheet for the cook surface (not a grate) fueled by gas.  It was similar to cooking on the type of cooking surface you would see at a breakfast restaurant in the US.  The food thus was not really "grilled" in the way I'm used to in a backyard situation (ie. over coals or over a gas grill with grates).

Is this a typical barbie?

(And do Australians call it a barbie?...)

Hi there!

Being an aussie, I can tell you that this is exactly what a "barbie" is when someone asks you over for a barbie. The thing about barbies is that there is nothing special about the food, its all about the social activity (its a chance to get your friends over for food + drinks). It's usually overcooked supermarket sausages and mediocre cuts of steak charred to within an inch of their lives and onions that have been cooked until brown (this is probably the only bit that is usually done quite well. However, this charring of steaks & sausages is not always the case, it depends on who's hosting the barbie and if they have any experience... a lot of people are actually quite good at cooking steaks and sausages on the grill plate whereas others are horrendous).

What are the classic traditions, recipes and types of grills?

While barbies range from whole rumps of lamb cooked in webers over coals to lamb chops & cutlets, t-bone steaks, sausages (and perhaps kebabs with chunks of meat, onion, red + green capsicum) cooked on the hot plate, there is no real recipe, it is mostly just plain meat cooked, then people use plain white sliced bread, slap on a steak/sausage, top with some of the bbq'd onions and top with tomato sauce.

Is it traditional to grill out for Christmas or New Years?

As most australians tend to follow the british influence, christmas for most people is bought cooked prawns (perhaps with seafood sauce), roast beef with hollandaise sauce, and most importantly, a leg of ham and some roast turkey. Also lots of small side dishes are included like creamy potato salad, store bought cranberry sauce for the turkey, seeded & english mustards for the beef and ham, and all of this is usually followed by a steamed fruit pudding with custard & ice cream.

Are there traditional dishes called bbq in Australia, and if so, what are they like?

In australia, basically bbq, barbecue/barbeque, barbies are all the same thing, we call the actual device as well as the social event itself a barbecue/bbq/barbeque/barbie, most aussies have no idea of how different what we consider bbq is to what americans call barbecue. From this, you can see that there is no real dish called bbq, its just what we called the social event or cooking of meats on a (usually) flat gas powered cast iron grill that sits out the back of their house.

Are the traditions similar in New Zealand?

←

Can't help you there sorry, never been to NZ!

Hope that helps.

Edited September 28, 2005 by infernooo (log)

[Syrah]

BBQ's are very popular at Christmastime. You may have prawn skewers, or some other kind of seafood. In my family, my mother was a staunch traditionalist when it came to Christmas. It was always a hot english style roast dinner except for the ill fated year when she cooked whole fish. Anyway, she used the weber quite extensively for the roasted meats (usually pork and turkey), it was a good way to get the men outside AND the heat out of the kitchen.

Accompianments to the barbie usually include a green salad, a potato salad, and rolls. There are other variants, including my childhood favourite of barbecued banana.

[Adam Balic]

People I know definately say "Barbie", either naturally or in a kind of ironic salute to the Paul Hogan Ads which were made for the American market. I think that others have covered types of cooker quite well, I have never seen and American type barbecue, but when I move back I may introduce one to Melbourne.

During the summer, if we want meat (most days) we often BBQ it as it obviously doesn't heat up the house. In our house meats were mostly: Steak, lamb or lamb chops and sausages, but we also made kebabs of marinated meats (Middle-Eastern, Greek, SE-Asian etc) or just marinated chunks of meat.

Amoungst our friends, "Fish Barbies" were common, this involve a lot of fish grilled, plus squid/cuttlefish, prawns and crayfish.

It is very common (in Victoria at least) to have public BBQs. These are maintained by the local council and are basically are large electric hotplates. You put 20c in the slot and it turns on, in Melbourne they were mostly free. I always like this, I wonder how long it will last.

We are increasingly having BBQ for Christmas meals, New Years Eve and Australia Day. The last time I was there we had porcetta and Vietnamese marinated prawns in the Weber for Australia Day.

[misgabi]

Others have covered the term "barbie etc" so probably don't need to go over that again. At home we have a webber (that uses coals) and a gas BBQ that has both grill and a flat plate (husbands pride and joy and quite huge has 6 or 8 burners I think). We cook on that all summer as it makes hubbie participate in the cooking and keeps the heat out of my kitchen and outside.

I use both the BBQ and the Webber at Christmas cooking the turkeys in the webber and doing pork and beef on the rottiserie of the BBQ - again all heat outside where it belongs and makes the boys help between dips in the spa on the deck.

We also BBQ in the depths of winter as the deck is covered and hey, It's not me out there!! but hubby says the steak is not the same cooked inside and if he is willing to cook outside who am I to argue!!

Have done whole fish, seafood, pretty much anything on the BBQ and not a single charcoal outside raw inside sausage in site. It also comes in handy when lots of people over for brunch for cooking up the bacon etc and I do the garlic mushrooms in the wok burner on the side!!

[Genevieve M.]

Most BBQ's here have a grill and a hot plate as well. I have just bought a gas BBQ but my parents still use a charcoal brick BBQ my dad built years ago. All the meat is marinated and cooked on a grill on top of rosemary. If you can keep away the flames nothing burns and the flavour is outstanding.

Glass of wine anyone?

[ludja]

Thanks all, for the great responses, which are a casebook example of one of the aspects that make egullet so informative. The answer to the question is not a straightforward one, in the sense that people's experiences are so different across the country and in different families, but in reading people’s responses one starts to get a picture.

"Flat or grill plate" or "griddle" was probably the word I was searching for in the first post!

There was some mention of it, but I would have thought there would be quite a bit of Asian and/or Asian fusion cookery on the grill…

Wistful sidenote (and at the risk of going off topic):: I wish there were

more Aussies and New Zealanders on the forum. Language is no barrier, and the contrast and comparison between the U.S. and Australia is fascinating to compare in the context of food especially in view of both the similarities and differences in our national histories regarding indigenous cultures, early settlers and 20th century immigration from all over the world. Is there a competing primarily Australian forum or has the word on Egullet just not gotten out yet?

Edited October 4, 2005 by ludja (log)

[jamiemaw]

Cooking on the Barbie Down Under. Quite possibly the best topic title ever. Cooking on the Griddle Up Here just doesn't have the same ring to it.

[ludja]

Cooking on the Barbie Down Under. Quite possibly the best topic title ever. Cooking on the Griddle Up Here just doesn't have the same ring to it.

←

Ay up, that is pretty funny...thanks for the nomination

(I could say it was intentional in order to lure more visitors to the thread rather than admit I was clueless when I posted it... )

[Taubear]

Thanks all, for the great responses, which are a casebook example of one of the aspects that make egullet so informative.  The answer to the question is not a straightforward one, in the sense that people's experiences are so different across the country and in different families, but in reading people’s responses one starts to get a picture.

"Flat or grill plate" or "griddle" was probably the word I was searching for in the first post!

There was some mention of it, but I would have thought there would be quite a bit of Asian and/or Asian fusion cookery on the grill… 

Wistful sidenote (and at the risk of going off topic):: I wish there were

more Aussies and New Zealanders on the forum.  Language is no barrier, and the contrast and comparison between the U.S. and Australia is fascinating to compare in the context of food especially in view of both the similarities and differences in our national histories regarding indigenous cultures, early settlers and 20th century immigration from all over the world.  Is there a competing primarily Australian forum or has the word on Egullet just not gotten out yet?

←

I thought I would add an Australian perspective to this great thread.

Neither! I had a mate that liked to impress overseas visitors by cooking breakfast on a spade and yes you heard right. He was a plumber during the week and used his spade to dig holes. On the weekend we would often have a Barbie and if we had any guests from overseas, Ross would get out his trusty spade and place the base of the spade over some coals from the open fire. He would take great joy in telling said guests that, that’s how we have a Barbie in Australia. He would then start telling stories about how kangaroos can surf using their long feet as surfboards and their tails as a guide.

Usually he would only put an egg and a rasher of bacon on the spade and it was never eaten but always amused the guests. Once the joke was realised out would come the cast iron skillet which would be used on the same bed of coals. It was always alot of fun having a Barbie with Ross

[helenjp]

has the word on Egullet just not gotten out yet

That is a distinct possibility, but the other problem in NZ is that broadband is still expensive, and providers charge you by how many bytes make their way in and out of your home ... so an image-heavy site like eGullet is a luxury taste!

I admit I'd like to see more people from Oz and Enz too, so that I could ask them recherche little questions of the kind that only occur to Kiwis and Aussies cooking "exotic" US recipes!

As for cooking on a spade, Japanese sukiyaki is derived from the word "suki", a kind of hoe.

[PCL]

All the meat is marinated and cooked on a grill on top of rosemary.

←

Details Please!

I use a lot of rosemary on the grill/barbie too, but mostly a big sprig/little branch soaked in EVOO to brush meat with.

Does your dad lay sprigs of rosemary on the grill prior to placing meat on top?

I personally prefer some flameage, especially when oil or some other fat is doused over the meat, or simply letting the fat and juices from the meat ignite and char the outside...

[fou de Bassan]

Oh man, I can't wait 'til the sea freight arrives. I would love to do a side by side cookoff. American barbecue to Aussie bbq! With summer coming I would love to see how you do things down here.

( For clarification, I should add that we've recently arrived in Mebourne from the U.S.)

[Jaymes]

As for cooking on a spade, Japanese sukiyaki is derived from the word "suki", a kind of hoe.

As are an old American favorite -- hoecakes.

[Shinboners]

Oh man, I can't wait 'til the sea freight arrives.  I would love to do a side by side cookoff.  American barbecue to Aussie bbq!  With summer coming I would love to see how you do things down here.

←

Judging from some of the Aussie BBQs I've been too, it consists of burning meat to a cinder, burning sausages (usually from Coles or Safeway and it's made up of food scraps not considered good enough for McDonalds) to a cinder, and pouring beer over it all as the secret marinade.

[piazzola]

You mean like this http://www.pasqualinonet.com.ar/sobre_asado.htm

I too come from BBQ country with a long tradition that sans for more than 400 of barbie

so I have created adapted few things here

Edited October 17, 2005 by piazzola (log)

[PCL]

Awesome site dude.

Are you Argentinian?

Need to talk man!

[piazzola]

Awesome site dude.

Are you Argentinian?

Need to talk man!

←

Thanks

yes mate I am

feel free to contac me anytime

PM me if you want

Edited October 18, 2005 by piazzola (log)

[Shinboners]

You mean like this http://www.pasqualinonet.com.ar/sobre_asado.htm

I too come from BBQ country with a long tradition that sans for more than 400 of barbie

so I have created adapted few things here

←

Excellent work.

I'll be giving a few of your recipes a try this summer.

[PCL]

Gave the smokey joe Weber a workout last night.

Cooked 3x bone-in dry aged rib-eyes, around 4-5 cm thick each, on direct heat from briquettes/charcoal/hardwood. Around 5-6 mins each side, then a further 2 mins each side, then rested uncovered for 10 minutes.

Meat was basted before and during cooking with a rosemary brush, soaked in EVOO. Meat was also seasoned after each flip.

Crusty.

Pink.

Red.

No blood.

SENSATIONAL.