With the sun shining, households across Ireland will be dusting off the barbecues to cook up the perfect summer dinner.

But given the usual state of Irish weather, many at-home chefs might not have had the time to familiarise themselves with outdoor meal prep.

Ireland’s master of fire cooking and co-founder of Pitt Bros BBQ John Relihan told The Anton Savage Show that one the keys to success is good charcoal.

“You could buy charcoal from loads of different stores and they give off loads of different fumes,” he said.

“There's two really good companies out there, one is called Goodwood Fuel and Fugo, his name is Patrick.

“If you buy your charcoal from them, there's no weird chemicals in it, there's no loads of smoke.

“So, you know when you light a barbecue at home, you have all those fumes of smoke that just turns you off a barbecue - you get a good charcoal; you're not going to have that smoke.”

E6NN1W Burgers on a Smoking Barbecue Grill

Mr Relihan also said lump wood is the ideal type of charcoal for barbecues.

“It’s literally the wood that they take and they turn it into charcoal, so you can have different types,” he said.

“So, you can have different types of charcoal, my favourite would be like she-oak or a malibu, it’s a different type of wood; it’s a hard wood.

“You can buy that and it’s a clean heat.

According to Mr Relihan, buying the right meat and veg is also necessary for getting good results.

He recommended asking your local butcher for their advice and expertise.

Main image: A barbecue. Image via pixabay