When the promise of a tasty barbecue goes up in smoke

If someone invites you to their house for a bite to eat it's a bit rude to complain about the cooking. And being welcomed for a barbecue means sunshine, drinks and food prepared in the open air, so what's to moan about?

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The problem lies with the definition of what constitutes a barbecue.

For a long time - maybe since cavemen took up cooking - a barbecue was meat cooked over hot coals and nothing more complicated than that.

But in recent years someone decided barbecues could be food cooked outside over gas flames without a lump of charcoal in sight.

Which bears no real difference to cooking inside under a kitchen grill and certainly doesn't offer the taste sensations afforded by smoking coals.