I like my cooks to have a 1...2 punch with the main (meat) courses. My favorite combo is ribs and steak.
Basically, I get people to come right as the ribs are coming off for final saucing. People love to help on the grill, so this goes over pretty well. Then I cut the ribs and they start eating and totally forget about me....
...and that's when I'm doing steaks, which doesn't take too long....
I bring out a steak for each person (all medium to medium well to play safe) and come in and casually ask "what temp do you want?" Folks are dumfounded (and pretty full), but they dive into their steaks. Sometimes couples share one.
The main thing I like about this approach is that you can put people in food comas pretty early so you don't have to "entertain" too much as the cookout goes on. People drink afterwords, but not too much to get hammered because they're so full.
Final benefit: I get to tell people when to leave without offending. I do mid day cooks, so it's easy (and true) to say "I got up at 4am to start these ribs."
Comment