Remember it doesn’t have to be sunny and warm to BBQ. I’ve cooked in the rain many times and taken the food inside to eat. So buy one you can use all year around

Decide what you are going to use it for. No point in spending hundreds of pounds on a BBQ which is only used to cook burgers and sausages.

The brick built BBQs create a feature in your garden but are very limited when it comes to the food you can cook on them.In the early days a friend of mine and I tried to build a brick BBQ. There weren’t any kits then so we had to be inventive. We had the bricks and mortar and some paving slabs. We bought a heavy duty piece of steel mesh for the grill and thought the charcoal could sit on a paving stone. Luckily we tried it before the mortar had set! It cooked just fine but the heat from the charcoal cracked the paving stone and the fixed grill was impossible to clean. We also realised that, being made of mild steel, it was going to rust and would need replacing. Back to the drawing board! We eventually came up with something like the kits that you can buy today. That BBQ will still be there today unless the new owners of the house knocked it down.

Should you buy gas or charcoal?

For sheer convenience gas cannot be beaten but it’s horses for courses. There is something about burning charcoal that appeals to our primeval instincts. Also charcoal BBQs can be bought a lot cheaper than gas ones. Once it is bought though a gas BBQ is cheaper to run.

I prefer my charcoal Weber for joints, chickens and turkeys because I can put a large drip pan in the bottom to catch the juices. Then again my gas Weber heats up much quicker and I only burn as much fuel as is needed to cook the food. On a windy day the charcoal BBQ will burn quickly and will be a lot hotter than it is on a calm day. On the other hand my gas BBQ burns cooler when there is a wind blowing. So I have the gas Weber by the kitchen door and the charcoal Weber on the roof terrace.

Lid down or up?

If you have a BBQ with a lid the best advice is cook lid down. That way you prevent flare ups and the food cooks throughout. It cooks more like an oven/grill which is great for vegatables and large joints. If you do get a flare up replacing the lid on either style of BBQ should stop it. Never spray water on your gas BBQ to try and stop flare ups.

Is the heat even over the whole cooking surface?

No but you will soon find which are the hot areas on your BBQ. Move the food around to prevent burning.

What size should you buy?

Small BBQs limit what you can cook. On the other hand too large a BBQ will just waste fuel. Both my BBQs provide me with enough space for a meal for six i.e. meat/fish and vegetables.