Adam’s Family Meats, of New Lambton, has plenty of options to celebrate. Owner Adam Grogan talked Food & Wine through his top cuts and top tips for cooking a cracker of a barbecue spread at home.

With more than 25 years in the butchery business, Adam is more than qualified to give his two cents worth on what’s best for the barbecue. 

What’s No.1 on Adam’s list for Australia Day?

‘‘Scotch fillet, without a doubt,’’ Adam told Food & Wine. 

‘‘You can have it as a thick steak but you can also have it nice and thin and turn it into steak sandwiches with onions. It seems to have a bit more marbling through it so it has a bit more fat and a bit more flavour, it’s always nice and tender.’’

His top tips for cooking scotch fillet on the barbecue?

‘‘Everyone’s barbecue is different, but how I cook it for a medium-rare steak is to get the plate nice and hot, sear the steak for two minutes on each side, then four to five minutes each side on a hot grill. Then I let it rest for about five minutes.’’

For thinly sliced scotch fillet, Adam recommends searing on a hot plate for, at most, two to three minutes each side.

Adam also tips sausages as a good Aussie Day feed, with one of his  sausages even featuring quintessentially Australian ingredients – bush tomato and mountain pepper leaf.

Or if you’re after more Asian-influenced flavours, Adam recommends the Thai beef coconut curry sausages, lamb tandoori kebabs or honey soy chicken breast kebab.

Tips for cooking sausages on the barbecue? 

‘‘A lot of people cook the you-know-what out of them,’’ Adam says. 

‘‘Don’t have the barbecue too hot because the skin goes all crispy and burnt.’’

To pierce or not to pierce the snag before it it goes on the grill or in the fry pan? That’s a resounding ‘‘no’’ from Adam who says an exploding sausage is a sign of a high fat content.

‘‘If it’s a good butcher’s sausage, you shouldn’t have to pierce it. Our sausages are quite lean, there’s not much fat in them, we do about 85 per cent meat and 10 per cent fat.’’

Adam’s Family Meats also has sausage rolls, perfect for a piping hot treat fresh from the oven after just 30 minutes. Dig into one on your own if you’re a big eater, or cut into three or more for a perfect snack. Adam also identifies classic Aussie rissoles as a key part of any barbie.

 ‘‘They’re great on a bun as a hamburger,’’ he says.

Drop past Adam’s Family Meats and choose your own assortment of barbecue-friendly cuts or choose the Australia Day Meat Pack, which includes 10-minute steaks (perfect for steak sandwiches), 10 thin sausages, 10 sausage patties and 10 honey soy pork spare ribs for $40. Just add some salads, sauces and nibbles and you’ll be set to feed a crowd, at a price which won’t break the bank: ‘‘$4 a person for 10 people, you can’t beat that,’’ Adam says.

Adam’s own house-made cabanossi and bacon are also tipped to be a hot item for Australia Day celebrations. Choose from chilli cheese (‘‘It goes so well with beer’’) or plain. It’s made in-house at their New Lambton butchery from trimmed pork belly made into a sausage, which is then smoked for close to an hour before being cooked for another two to three hours. 

Adam’s own salad is the perfect vessel for his cabanossi: take baby spinach leaves, fried haloumi, chilli cheese cabanossi and cherry tomatoes, make it all into a salad and top with caramelised balsamic vinegar. 

His house-made, award-winning double-smoked bacon is also a great option if you’re cooking breakfast on the barbecue. The beechwood-smoked bacon won Adam’s Family Meats the NSW title in the 2014 Australian Pork Mark Bacon Awards.

Pop in to Adam’s Family Meats at 73 Regent Street, New Lambton, (phone 49521622) or check out the range online and order at adamsfamilymeats.com.au.