It’s a cold day in March, yet in a courtyard in Rabat there is a lovely waft of summer: the unmistakable smell of a smoky barbecue.
At Palazzo Xara, a group of eight barbecue enthusiasts who set up the Malta Barbecue and Grilling Association, are happily discussing the subculture, codes and cult of a serious barbecue.
“You don’t have to wait till it’s melting hot to fire up the barbecue – it’s always a good time to do it,” Andres Toompere said.
He is from Estonia, so knows a thing or two about barbecuing. Nothing stops an Estonian on cold March days, when the temperature drops to -18˚C, from going out on the terrace, sweep ing snow a metre high and grilling some meat.
“In Estonia, the barbecue and the grilling culture is very big: we even have championships for the best grilled apple,” Mr Toompere said.
He has been in Malta for the past 18 months and in the process met a few kindred spirits – fans of grilled food.
Their passion for food and fire gave birth to the association.
They meet regularly and talk about “barbecue topics”, the likes of which can stir up some interesting discussions.
Here’s one: what’s the best charcoal to use? Answer: forget the self-starter, it’s full of chemicals, which can seep into the food, so it is always best to go for natural charcoal made out of lumps of wood placed in a huge oven.
Or, what’s the quickest way to light up a barbie? Use a chimney starter, put some paper inside it, add a few drops of cooking oil, and voilà, the charcoal will light up in no time.
What food should you cook on the barbecue? This is a point of much debate.
“It should not be about readymade hamburgers and cheap, bright pink sausages,” he said.
I was told in great detail that the real thing has almost nothing in common with the shameful things we do to sausages in five minutes flat every weekend by the beach (legally or illegally).
“Barbecue is not about fire. It is about indirect heat. It is about smoke.
“It is about spice rubs and sauces made from secret recipes, applied and applied again.
It should not be about readymade hamburgers and cheap, bright pink sausages
“Most of all it is about slow cooking where time is measured in hours and sometimes in days, which results in flavour burrowing deep into tender flesh,” association president James Muscat said.
Barbecues are all about being creative, they say as they point to a chicken, stuffed with a can of Cisk beer. It had been barbecuing for about three hours: the beer vapours keep it moist, giving it a delicious, faint, lager taste.
There is also a difference between grilling and barbecuing. Grilling is all about direct high heat and fast cooking.
Barbecuing is the exact opposite: slow cooking on low temperatures, for a longer time.
“We say, socially, let’s go for a barbecue, but most of the time we’re grilling our food because it’s not closed,” Mr Toompere said.
The association members all hail from different walks of life: from the restaurant business to the IT sector, but they have one thing in common – they all love their food.
“I once got up at 6am to barbecue a pork shoulder for 13 hours,” Aaron Calafato said.
Dinner was served at 8pm.
“It was the real thing,” he said.
Jonathan Cassar is a smoked food connoisseur.
In a couple of hours, and by means of a little contraption that fires up wood dust, he smokes mature cheddar and the most mouth-watering butter.
“All you need to do is warm up the wood dust to 20˚C in a closed container – you can even use your filing cabinet,” he said.
The aim of association – which will be officially launched on Thursday at Palazzo Xara in Rabat – is to raise awareness about barbecuing and grilling as healthy, social activities and to organise training courses to teach these as a form of culinary art and recreation. In May, they will be bringing over barbecue guru and European grilling champion Enn Tobreluts for a seminar and a barbecue show.
Most importantly the association plans to set up a national barbecue team for international events. Move over, Eurovision.
For more information contact Andres Toompere andres.toompere@mbga.org.