Intro

After the overwhelming success of Gijs Great Garden Makeover ^© and Gijs Great Garage Makeover ^©, Gijs takes you on a culinary adventure. In Gijs Great Meat Makeover ^©, host Gijs van der Meijde shows you how to get the most out of your barbecue.

After building the famous garden from Gijs Great Garden Makeover ^©, it did not take long before Gijs bought a proper barbecue. Since then, he has been having all kinds of culinary adventures. Looking for barbecue inspiration? Look no further. Here you will find recipes you can make yourself.

A good barbecue is nice to have, but not everyone wants to spend 600 to 1200 euros on one, and honestly, you do not have to. Sure, an expensive barbecue can make things easier, so if you grill a lot and have the budget, Gijs definitely recommends it. But in Gijs Great Meat Makeover, Gijs wants to show that you can also make amazing dishes on a simple barbecue. The most important thing is that your barbecue has a lid.

Inspired by mouth-watering videos from well-known barbecue stars like Noskos, Pitmaster X, and Ralph de Kok, Gijs started experimenting with the festival classic: pulled pork. Pulled pork needs a good number of hours (7 to 8) on the barbecue, and keeping a stable temperature is important, so with most barbecues it is smart to stay nearby. That is why Gijs invited a few friends over for a relaxed afternoon around the barbecue with a beer in hand.

The biggest downside of making pulled pork is that you often end up with leftovers. The recipe above, for example, makes 2.5 to 3 kilos of pulled pork. Luckily, pulled pork freezes well, but there are other great options too. In this recipe, we turn leftover pulled pork into bitterballen.

Everyone knows spareribs. At restaurants, you order all-you-can-eat ribs; at home, you order them delivered. Spareribs are the perfect excuse to eat with your hands and end up with marinade all over your fingers. Literally finger-licking good. Gijs will show you how to make amazing spareribs yourself, which is way more fun.

A particularly fresh twist on spare ribs is Lemon Ribs: ribs seasoned with a dry rub made from smoked lemon. Unlike the Asian-style spare ribs, these ribs are not marinated and glazed for a sticky bark, but dry-smoked instead. That definitely does not mean the ribs are dry. The lemon rub gives a unique flavor experience, absolutely worth trying.

While browsing online, Gijs came across a MOINK balls recipe and decided to give it a try. MOINK balls are a true party snack: Italian-style meatballs wrapped in bacon. Even King Willem-Alexander has tried them. Because the cooking temperature does not need to be extremely precise, they are ideal as a snack during long barbecue sessions with, for example, spareribs or pulled pork.

A great variation on MOINK balls is the MOINK sausage roll: a MOINK ball wrapped in puff pastry. During one of his many internet deep dives, Gijs came across this idea, so of course he had to try it. The biggest advantage over regular MOINK balls is that your fingers stay reasonably clean while eating them.

Who doesn’t know them: frikandellen, the number one snack in the Netherlands. When Gijs throws a party, snacks are non-negotiable. But sometimes he also wants to serve something a little special. You already saw that MOINK balls are a fantastic option. To expand his snack arsenal, Gijs went looking for new inspiration and came across Frikandel Burnt Ends. A great barbecue twist on a real classic.

After the Pulled Pork recipe, Gijs was often asked whether he also made the buns on the barbecue. Because in one of the photos the buns are on the barbecue, he understands where that question comes from, but he actually baked those buns in the oven. They were only on the barbecue briefly to stay warm. That did give Gijs an idea: would it be possible to bake bread on the barbecue? After a quick search, it turned out this is very possible, so Gijs decided to give it a shot.

When barbecuing and smoking meat, choosing the right smoking wood, and using it correctly, is essential. That said, everyone has their own opinion on this, which makes sense because taste is personal. Gijs usually bases his wood choice on the original recipes and a well-known BBQ Heroes blog. He is happy to answer a few frequently asked questions about smoking wood.