Winter 2021

Welcome to the Winter issue

To paraphrase Shakespeare, now is the winter of our content and there is plenty in this issue to keep you warm, with lots of comfort food recipes to enjoy around the fire.

We have a special feature on bread and butter, usually dismissed as the foot soldiers, the bag-carriers, the concierge holding the door open for the hero of the barbecue – the meat.

Many people are guilty of paying homage to the heroes of the feast and then wrapping them in very ordinary bread and butter to make a bun, roll or sandwich.

Well, we have gone baking and churning with the finest in their mills and dairies and also interview chef James Martin, who has written an entire book about butter, packed with recipes and highlighting its importance as both ingredient and seasoning.

With this magazine’s very own BBQ beer, a Rye IPA, being very well-received and consumed, we decided to experiment with a BBQ beer crusted pizza and the results were delicious. Dough a beer indeed.

We smoke out the best smokers on the market and prepare your al fresco Christmas lunch for you.

Go behind the scenes as BBQ, in partnership with Hungry Gap Productions, shoots live-fire food and drink films, which will be released shortly as a series of videos and tips on how to barbecue, what to cook and what to drink.

We head to Cheshire to see how a family has transformed their garden into their dream outdoor space and to Kent to cook up a barbecue feast at a brand-new home.

There is a report on the launch of Team GB for the 2022 World Butchers’ Challenge, with BBQ magazine the team’s media partner, and Stella Gurney talks fishing, cooking and the outdoor life with Claire Zambuni.

If you want a break from the home fires and have someone else cook for you, head to our restaurant review pages, where we travel from London to Croatia.

Meanwhile Rupert Bates heads to Bristol to ask if this city is our capital of live-fire cooking. It certainly loves its food. And we go even further – all the way to Australia – to look at the BBQ culture down under as they enter their summer.

It is our winter, but I urge you to carry on cooking no matter the weather, for the colder months add a whole new dimension to the barbecue, more layers of mystery and magic. I love it.

Yours in live-fire cooking

Team BBQ Magazine