Barbecue expert Helen Graves shares the expert cooking skills that will transform your next coal-fuelled menu

Be patient!

‘It’s a golden rule of barbecuing – wait for the flames to die down so that what you’re cooking over is hot embers, rather than a raging fire. You’re just going to burn everything if you cook over flames.’

Go for two-zone cooking

‘This means you’ll have a cooler side and a hotter side of the grill. To create two zones, place all your coals to one side of the barbecue, which means you’ve got somewhere to cook over direct heat but also somewhere that’s “offset”. That whole cliché about burnt bangers that are raw in the middle is because they’ve been cooked on too high a heat. If you cook sausages slowly on the cooler side, they’ll be cooked all the way through. Need more colour? Pop back on the other side for a couple of minutes.’

Close the lid

‘Close the lid when cooking whole vegetables and pieces of meat. If you cook food offset with the lid closed it’s basically like using an oven, as the heat’s just circulating inside.’

Control the heat

‘There are two things you need to think about, heat-wise. Firstly, fuel: if you put a few coals in it obviously won’t make as much heat as a load of coals. But the other thing is airflow. If you have the vents open at the bottom and the top of the barbecue, the fire will be a lot hotter. And don’t forget that you can always just close the lid and the vents and put the barbecue out if you ever do feel out of control.’

Give veg a boost

‘Always flavour vegetables. I like to marinate things like carrots in spices, a bit of oil, a bit of vinegar and lots of salt, so that they really pick up as much flavour as possible, and then I also dress them afterwards.’

Try new meats

‘Lamb is perfect for the barbecue because it’s fatty, and it really picks up that smoke. One of my favourite things to do is little lamb chops – they cook really quickly and you can get loads of char on them – but I also do larger pieces, like a leg of lamb, and cook it offset from the hottest coals.’

Oil your grill

‘Prevent sticking by oiling up the barbecue – get a piece of kitchen towel with a little bit of oil on it and use your tongs to rub it on the grill. It’s also important not to try and move stuff too soon – things like fish and burgers will naturally form a crispy crust after a while and then will flip quite easily.’

Roast fruit

‘Use up the last heat of the barbecue by chucking a load of stone fruits in a roasting tray, with a splash of white wine, maybe a bit of vanilla, some spices and sugar. Leave that on the barbecue while you’re eating, and when everyone’s finished you have these jammy fruits to eat with ice cream.’