The three spices you need for the best meat rub

The three spices you need to rub into your meat before it goes on the barbecue are paprika, sugar and cayenne pepper, says grill queen Melissa Cookston.

“I love using paprika. I found smoked paprika in Hungary. I get that imported in because I think it's a nice complement to any barbecue rub.

“I do use turbinado [cane sugar] or maple sugar just because it has a higher heat point so you can cook for longer periods of time and it doesn't burn. For a little heat, I do depend on cayenne. Cayenne is the flavour profile that I want to get that little bit of heat that you need and just use it very sparingly.”

Mississippi native Cookston has been crowned world barbecue champion seven times, and is the only woman inducted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame.

Despite her pedigree over the grill, she’s no purist she told Summer Weekends.

“I'm very open-minded. I've been very lucky to travel the world, and every culture has some history of cooking with fire. So, to me, barbecue is if you're cooking with fire. It doesn't matter if it's open fire, if you're cooking in a smoker or a grill, you know, or even if you're using gas, you're using a pilot light, which is fire. So, I'm very open-minded.”

Her world class barbecuing reputation rests on her famous whole hog, she says.

“We are judged on the ham, the shoulder, and the loin. But that succulent bacon that comes off a whole hog, if you think about like breakfast bacon, you know, it's mostly fat with a few pieces of lean in there. Well, this is all the lean that you just strip out of the hog.

‘And it is so moist and the texture, I'm a texture eater. The texture is so silky smooth that my mouth's watering just talking about it.”

No matter what you are cooking, hitting all facets of the palette is key, she says.

“You need a little salty, a little sweet, a little acidic, a little heat in the back and some umami.”

She has some some simple tips for avoiding the leathery, burnt steak.

"That little kettle grill where you have the charcoal beneath the food. You should always start that charcoal and let it turn white before you start cooking, or you'll get flare-ups.

“Now, if you're impatient and have to start cooking faster, then get your bottle of water and just make sure that the flames are not over-licking the food, because that's how you end up with too much char.”

Be patient, she says, and use a thermometer to get the right temperature for perfect tenderness.

“Watch and stay with the food. Don't walk away or you'll come out to some burned food.”