Planning a relaxed barbecue party

For a barbecue party you need two lists and a clock. What goes on the table, what you need for it, and when you do what.

Allow 300 to 350 grams of meat per adult if there are plenty of side dishes, and 400 to 450 grams if the meat is the star of the show. Light the grill at least an hour before eating, keep raw and cooked meat strictly separate, and make sure the drinks are cold before the first guest walks through the door. Here we turn that into a schedule you can follow step by step, complemented by the broader garden party checklist.

How much food should you allow per person?

Allow 300 to 350 grams of raw meat per adult if there are enough side dishes on the table. The barbecue magazine of the German site eat.de suggests 400 to 450 grams for an all-male group, 250 to 300 grams for an all-female group and an average of 350 grams for mixed groups. Spitzenfleisch.de arrives at the same figures. For children up to 12, 100 to 150 grams is enough; teenagers count as adults when it comes to barbecues.

Meat also loses water and fat on the grill, so less ends up on the plate than you buy raw. Is there fish or something vegetarian as well? Then feel free to take a little off. Better a bit too much than too little, but three days of bratwurst for breakfast isn't necessary either.

A quick worked example for 12 guests (8 adults, 4 children): 8 x 350 grams plus 4 x 150 grams comes to around 3.4 kilos of meat.

What your schedule looks like

A good schedule starts the day before, with the marinade and the fridge. The evening before, put the meat in the marinade and chill the drinks. The longer the marinade soaks in, the more flavour. The morning belongs to salads, sauces and setting up tables and chairs, because you want all that done by the time the first guests arrive.

Light the grill about 75 minutes before eating. With a chimney starter, according to the charcoal producer Holzkohlewerk Lüneburg, lumpwood charcoal is fully lit after 10 to 15 minutes and briquettes after 15 to 20 minutes. Lit directly in the grill, it takes longer: Ofen.de reckons on 20 to 30 minutes for charcoal and 45 to 60 minutes for briquettes. The 75 minutes give you leeway for the moment when the firelighters refuse to cooperate or the wind is blowing the wrong way, and that moment comes more often than you'd hope.

Half an hour before eating, take the first round of meat out of the fridge. The rest stays chilled until you need it. Then grill in rounds, so everyone eats it hot and you spend the evening at the grill in good company.

When it comes to fuel, duration is what counts: according to Holzkohlewerk Lüneburg, charcoal holds its embers for 1 to 2.5 hours, briquettes for 3 to 5 hours. If your evening runs longer, use briquettes or a mix. You'll find which type suits when under charcoal or briquettes.

Food hygiene: the BfR and BZfE rules

For everything that sits outside, the hygiene rules of Germany's Federal Centre for Nutrition (BZfE) and Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) are a reliable guide. The most important rule: food only comes out of the fridge or cool bag when it goes on the grill. Use separate plates and tongs for raw and fully cooked meat, and meat is considered safely cooked through when the core temperature has been at 72 degrees for at least two minutes. According to the BfR's recommendation, barbecue sauces, marinades and salad dressings stay well chilled and only go on the table shortly before eating.

On a warm day, germs multiply rapidly, and you can't tell by looking whether meat or salad is still good. So work in small portions: take one bowl of meat out of the fridge and only top up when it's almost empty. Mark the tongs so you can tell them apart in the rush. That may sound strict at first. But food poisoning is the quickest way to make sure your party is still talked about two weeks later.

Organising drinks and cooling

The easiest way to organise cold drinks is with an outdoor kitchen with a fridge and sink right where you grill. For this we fit a 70-litre fridge in our outdoor kitchens: big enough for a crate of beer plus the meat for eight people, at 0 to 10 degrees. That spares you trips to the kitchen indoors all evening.

For keeping drinks cool on warm evenings, a cool box with ice also works, as does a sink full of iced water or a bucket with ice, water and a generous handful of salt. Either way, chill more than you think you'll need, because on a warm evening people drink twice as much as planned.

Give yourself enough worktop space

Anyone who has ever juggled a plate, tongs and a bowl of marinade on 40 centimetres of worktop knows why worktop space makes all the difference. Our outdoor kitchens come in five widths from 109 to 301 centimetres. For a barbecue party with 8 to 12 guests, 157 centimetres is enough to chop, serve and set down bowls. Position the grill or kamado so you can see your guests while you grill and stay part of the conversation. That may sound like a detail at first. But you'll be standing there for half the evening.

Sort out the atmosphere beforehand

Sort out the music and lighting for the barbecue evening before the guests arrive, plus a spot where people can settle in. Put together a playlist that's longer than the evening, from Schlager to salsa, depending on what suits your crowd. Hang up festoon lights or have a fire bowl ready for the moment it gets dark. And plan your grilling rounds so that you get to sit at the table too. Guests rarely remember whether the flank steak was perfectly medium. They remember whether the host stayed relaxed all evening.

Frequently asked questions