Why Is BBQ So Expensive? Grill Tips!

  • By: Peter Allen
  • Date: 06/29/2021
  • Time to read: 9 min.

Every time you enter a restaurant, do you find yourself ordering for BBQ? Maybe yes, if you are fun of eating the tasty roasted meat called BBQ, definitely once you enter a restaurant you will feel like ordering it. Or if you never tasted BBQ, you will admire it once you come across it. Its taste is spicy, tangy and with a sweet flavor added up by a bit of salt.

If you land over the BBQ deports or roasting point by chance, I assure you you will jump out of the car to breathe in its smell in the air. It smells like pecan wood on the fire that substitutes an unpleasant odor with a sublime concoction of a nostalgic campfire. It’s good if you try to reach a BBQ grilling point, to get the wafts to smell with the savory sizzling of burned lipids and proteins.

Barbecues are full of an amalgam taste of spices and aromatic herbs that create an aroma serene in your mouth. Even its cooking or preparation has a unique procedure to add up the flavor, no wonder why it is so expensive. Of course, BBQ is costly not just because of its savory taste, but most people love it. Just keep reading as this article will provide what you need to know about BBQs besides why it is so expensive in terms of charges.

Reasons Why BBQ is so Expensive

Don’t complain too much about the charges you are imposed while buying BBQs; their cost for sure is worth it. Just get a moment to think about what makes it so sweet, not even its serene smell that can make you hang around the roasting point to breathe in the scent. Let’s now see what makes it so expensive for you not to keep wondering why a restaurant can charge more than $20 for two slices of meat.

The Grill Chef Expenses

BBQ needs expert smokers or grill chefs who know how to prepare it. Like any other food is prepared by individuals who know how to cook, BBQs need chef expertise to grill it. If you can make visits to different restaurants that prepare their barbecues, you may realize that the costs differ as well their test. The test or quality varies according to those who smoked it. As well, the testier and high-quality BBQ will have a higher cost.

You may think it is simple to make a BBQ but not as such; these kinds of meals are surrounded by health hazards if prepared poorly. So don’t just take the challenge to prepare yours if you don’t know the procedure, maybe if you are running away from BBQ expenses. You may even prepare a BBQ that can’t stay fresh for some hours, but the surprise is, the grill chef can prepare a barbecue that can last while fresh for up to 3 days when on the refrigerator.

Their salaries averagely range from $26,147 and above across the United States to get a qualified BBQ smoker. This means as their salaries go up, the cost of the BBQ also goes up.

The BBQ Smoker or Grill is expensive.

Barbecues are not just prepared anyhow; they need a special cooking tool to take up the right condition. The BBQ smokers are designed with high technology to operate under two basic conditions, low heating and slow cooking. These two conditions work out in tendering and falling meat apart to tantalize the smoky flavor.

The technology used in the making of BBQ grill makes it expensive. This is a factor that transfers the cost to short up for each BBQ. If you are buying a barbecue, you have to pay the smoker that grilled it. The BBQ has to be sold at a higher price to cater to the services and repair of the cook, or it needs to return the money it cost during the purchase.

So, what is the cost of a BBQ smoker?

The cost of a BBQ smoker is not just that cheap but is expensive. For example, it can cost up to $1,500, considering the minimum grill cost of around $8. This cost depends on the material used to make the smoker, its size, and the quality. For example, Weber 7541 Gas Grill Smoker is designed with stainless steel grates and featured in a porcelain enameled box. The cost of this grill ranges from $90 to $100. The Camerons Large Stovetop Smoker costs $39.88, which is a small BBQ smoker.

Just to compare with a higher costly BBQ cooker, an Indian pizza oven is more costly. It has both a smoker and grill. Its dimensions are 12″ wide and 30″ long and operate on the wheeled 3-legged cart. The cost of this oven is around $1,500; therefore, this means the service they give should also account for its cost.

Fueling for the Preparation of the BBQ

The real taste for the barbecue is based on the good and special source of fuel to light on the BBQ cooker. What should burn this kind of meal to taste real is using natural fuel resources such as lump charcoal. These charcoal heat the BBQs well if combined with hardwoods. These sources of fuel necessary to prepare barbecues are expensive. For example, a 20lb bag of natural lump charcoal costs around $15 or more.

Sometimes, hardwood may not be available, and oak can supplement the BBQ cooking task. The cost of the oak minimum can cost around $1.5 per 1lb. Maple pork, pecan chunks, and wood chips can also be used, but the cost is high. This means if you buy a BBQ, the cost of fuel will be counted if you compare the costs of fuel used to prepare the barbecue, definitely no doubt why it is so expensive.

The meat used can be costly

Of course, the meat used to prepare the barbecue is not free. Wherever it was obtained from, there must be costs incurred. Even not any nature of meat can be used here to prepare the BBQ, but the quality meat or beef and the cost of 1kg of meat across different regions costs up to $5 or more. Therefore, when you are buying the bbq, you have to cater the cost for the meat.

Tendering services for the meat

The barbecue to land on your table passes over countless hours while preparing it. The grill chef has not just to take meat and put it on the smoker and wait to serve. It is a day-alert activity to prepare something that you can swallow. The tendering of the meat is a bit tedious job as you have to tender the meat over the over inside the smoker. If, for example, when using a small bbq smoker, fuel cost you have to tend the meat twice or thrice within an hour, suppose now the commercial bbq smoker?

The meat should be basted more than two times in an hour until it gets ready. Once it is ready, the grill chef has to confirm whether the meat pieces can be swallowed. This means the chef has to spend much time concentrating on making something tasty. Other flavors such as sauce need to be added carefully, and these services you have to pay for if you are going to a barbecue.

How Can You Get a Cheap BBQ?

Can I get a cheap BBQ? Of course, yes, you can get a cheap BBQ that is friendly to your budget. However, you don’t need to get disappointments due to the high cost when you need it. Here are the best ways that can crown you with the cheapest way to have a BBQ.

Don’t bother buying salmon or steak or all proteins.

Instead of spending much on fancy meat, just have the choice to have a hot dog or hamburger at the BBQ. Choosing a single source of protein would save much than you can spend on the restaurant BBQ. Still, no need to get suicides of much costs when buying condiments or buns; just take kabobs.

Opt for cheap sides and veggies

You don’t need to spend much on munching your meal with dips or chips or other snacks but turning your expenditure on well-grilled veggies would be a great deal to have cheap meal supplements.

Use homemade sides

One of the reasons your BBQ could sound expensive is the use of additional sides, but do you know you can cut such expenses? The best way you can deal with this is by making your sides at home. Of course, you can make potato salad, bean dip, or salsa yourself at home and avoid buying the expensively from shops.

Use membership cards to shop BBQ spices from stores.

Some BBQ supplements are expensive if you are using direct cash. This can be overwhelming, especially where you are preparing BBQ for a group. If you have a membership, opt to buy bulk supplements from shopping stores where you are a member.

Consider using ordinary utensils.

Having no plastic and paper plates as BBQ utensils won’t mean you will not enjoy your meal; just use normal plates and cups to avoid many expenses.

Supplement condiments with other Alternatives

Not a must you have to keep buying condiments on BBQs expensively if there are other options. Mustard and ketchup packets are available in most restaurants, and you can opt to buy them than all the considering condiments.

Just take cheap drinks during a BBQ meal.

Why should you go for expensive drinks of wine while there are cheap wines? If it’s wine, consider the cheap one, and it will serve the right purpose the larger could serve. If it’s alcohol, the cheap one can as well surprisingly hit the right sport as the expensive one.

Use homemade sauces and seasoning.

You have to be creative and learn how to make your seasonings and sauces in a cheap condition. Just gather all requirements or species for making such supplements and for sure, you will enjoy it and avoid spending much to get them from stores or shops.

Consider buying discounted BBQs.

Before you get up for a grocery store to make a BBQ purchase, you can have a prior outreach through grocery apps. Here you will be able to figure out which BBQs are on sale with discounts. This will prevent you from spending a lot to buy BBQ at a high cost.

Conclusion

Preparation, grilling, and all that is required to make BBQ is what makes it expensive. For example, the smoker equipment is expensive, fueling, products or spices, time commitments, and hiring grill chefs to add up the cost of BBQs. As that is not enough, there are other factors behind the cost of shooting the barbecue, such as the stand permit costs and other miner costs.

But first of all, let’s neglect the cost of services for smokers. Just to take a simple calculation as an example of preparing a BBQ using a smoke worth $4,000 which can hold pork meat weighing up to 200lbs, then let it be operated by one grill chef getting $10 per hour. The cost of 1lb of pork meat is around $89, and you are going to prepare 200 pounds of BBQ which costs around $178 a day. You have to understand some losses, such as bone dripping and meat trimming, which account for a percentage loss of about 30%.

Therefore, the amount of meat will have to decrease by around 140lbs, of which the original cost of the pork meat was $178. Estimating the amount of natural lump charcoal, let two bags get used to preparing the BBQs, which has a cost of $40. Remember you are spending a day preparing the barbecues or, say, 12 hours under one grill chef on duty; this accounts for $120 as his salary. The natural lump charcoal goes together with oak or hardwood, where now 10 pounds cost $10. So far, the total cost has reached $348.

Now at this point, take your products out for marketing, and of course, you can’t sell at a loss. If you decide to sell barbecues at $8.40 per 1lb, you will realize a profit of more than $5.50 per 1lb. Roughly, let’s say the cost of other necessities such sauces, salt, and sugar add up the total cost to $393. This is just an example of how and why the BBQ can be so expensive, although we have not added other factors such as stand permits, transportation costs, and whatever. If these factors were added, they would push up to more than $20 per barbeque.