With the arrive of summer the desire for a barbecue in the garden returns, preferably with friends. Let's see some tips to make a good one, starting with the position of the barbecue.

Portable ones must be stable and placed in an area protected from the wind to avoid heat loss. The embers must be lit well in advance, at least 45 minutes before starting to grill.

For those who love wood-burning barbecues, the advice is to avoid pine or larch wood, but to prefer the strong one, such as olive, ash and oak. To make the embers aromatic, you can put a few sprigs of rosemary or bay leaves to burn.

There are also aromatic sticks on the market that are right for us.

Did you know that the cooking heat must be inversely proportional to the size of the food to be grilled?

The large ones must be cooked slowly and with low heat, while the small ones must be cooked quickly and with strong heat.

Better to have two heights for the barbecue grills, one at a temperature of 220° and the other at about 180°.

You can therefore buy a kitchen thermometer to better manage cooking. There must never be any flames in the barbecue, whether you are using charcoal or wood. Meat or fish are cooked with the heat of the embers and not with the fire. The meat should be placed on the grill at room temperature.

It is therefore important to take it out of the fridge at least an hour before starting to cook. If you marinate the meat before cooking, dry it carefully before placing it on the grill.

Fish is also excellent when cooked on the grill. The cooking temperatures must be lower than those of the meat.

The cooking depends on the type of fish: for the steaks, it is better to choose tuna, salmon and swordfish that do not fall apart while on the grill. For sea bass, sea bream and mackerel, it is best to cook them with the skin on, to prevent them from breaking during cooking. Better to cook the fish with the skin resting on the grill and the fleshy part facing up.

Let’s move on to grilled vegetables. Before being placed on the grid, they must be cut evenly, into slices of the same height. The cooking temperature must be moderate. If you want to do this first, it is best to steam them first and then finish cooking on the grill.