Shashlik for New Year’s Eve: Winter BBQ Tips, Buffet Ideas and a Plan for the Night

Grilling on New Year’s Eve: what is different in winter?

Grilling in the cold works, but it takes more time and more charcoal. The times for 3 to 4 cm pieces stay your guide: pork 15 to 20 minutes, chicken breast 10 to 15, chicken thigh 15 to 20, lamb 12 to 18 and beef 12 to 15, towards the upper end in frost and wind. The step-by-step method is in our recipe shashlik from the grill. These winter BBQ tips make the difference:

• Light it earlier: in the cold, charcoal needs 30 to 40 minutes to reach white embers instead of 20 to 30. A chimney starter helps; never use spirits or petrol.
• More charcoal: about 1 kg of charcoal per kg of meat, plus a spare bag, which in winter is a must. Store it dry, as damp charcoal glows poorly.
• Sheltered, but outdoors: wind eats embers and cools the meat. Pick a spot where it doesn’t blow straight through, well away from walls, hedges and porch roofs.
• Use the lid: if your grill has one, close it between turns. On an open mangal, a slightly thicker bed of embers helps.
• Light and thermometer: it is dark by late afternoon. A head torch keeps your hands free, and a thermometer shows what torchlight hides: Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) recommends at least 70 °C in the centre for at least 2 minutes for pork and poultry.
• Store cold, serve warm: keep the meat in the fridge until just before grilling, not on the balcony, where the temperature swings. Cooked skewers go onto warm plates under lavash and straight inside.

New Year’s Eve buffet ideas: shashlik bites from the oven and pan

For a buffet, shashlik becomes finger food: bites on cocktail sticks, eaten standing up with a glass in the other hand. Cook the meat as loose pieces indoors and only put it on the sticks afterwards, because small wooden sticks would char in a hot oven.

In the oven, the pieces sit on the rack at 220 °C fan above a tray with a little water; in a pan, cook in batches so the pieces don’t touch. Times for each type of meat are in our guide to shashlik without a grill, and a version with sauce is in the recipe shashlik from the pan.

• Rest the cooked meat for 3 to 5 minutes, halve large pieces and thread them onto cocktail sticks with a ring of pickled onion, a slice of cucumber or a coriander leaf.
• Chicken thigh is ideal for a buffet: it stays juicy even when kept warm a little longer.
• Keep warm at 80 °C in the oven and top up small platters instead of leaving a large one out for hours.
• Two or three dips: tomato sauce, garlic sauce with soured cream and, for the brave, adjika. More ideas are in our guide to shashlik side dishes.
• Lavash rolls: roll meat, onions and herbs in lavash and cut into bite-sized pieces.

Shashlik instead of raclette or fondue?

In Germany, raclette and fondue are New Year’s Eve classics: the evening is long and everyone sits together. Shashlik can do that too, with the grill as the meeting point and food arriving in rounds. The difference lies in the preparation and where the cooking happens.

You don’t have to choose, though: raclette or fondue indoors, with a round of shashlik from the grill as a hot main course in between. Then 300 g per person is enough.

How much shashlik for a New Year’s Eve buffet?

For a buffet with lots of bites, salads and dips, plan 300 g of shashlik per person; as the main course of the evening, 400 g. Children up to about 12 eat 150 to 200 g. With sausages too, take off about 100 g per bratwurst.

From 20 guests, two grills or the oven as back-up pay off: a large charcoal grill or mangal handles about 2 to 3 kg per round. How to plan a party of that size is covered in shashlik for 20 people; for any other number, use the calculator.

A timetable for New Year’s Eve

An example evening with grill, buffet and fireworks. Shift the times to suit your guests; the gaps stay the same:

• The day before: move frozen portions to the fridge to thaw, clear fridge space, make sauces and salads.
• Afternoon: clear the snow, set out charcoal, a torch, a thermometer and a metal ash bucket, then thread the skewers and put them back in the fridge.
• 6 pm: light the charcoal; in winter it needs 30 to 40 minutes.
• 6.45 pm: first round, 2 to 3 kg, 15 to 20 minutes, longer in the cold. Only fetch the meat when there is room on the grill.
• 7.30 pm: second round, adding charcoal if needed.
• 9.30 pm: bites from the oven for the buffet, so nobody gets hungry before midnight.
• Around 11 pm: finish grilling and get leftovers into the fridge. On a kettle grill, close the lid and vents.
• Midnight: fireworks well away from the grill. The ash stays in the grill or the metal bucket until it is completely cold.

Safety on New Year’s Eve: grill, charcoal and fireworks

On this night, embers, charcoal, alcohol and fireworks all come together. These rules apply without exception:

• Charcoal grills only outdoors: never in a home, garage, tent, shed, conservatory or on a glazed balcony, not even to warm up and not even when the charcoal is only smouldering. Glowing charcoal produces carbon monoxide, which you can neither see nor smell and which is life-threatening in enclosed spaces.
• Fireworks at a distance: never light rockets or bangers at the grill or launch them towards it, and don’t store them near the grill or the charcoal bag. Move the open charcoal bag away before midnight.
• Ash stays hot for a long time: even when nothing glows, it can hide embers for many hours. Collect it in a metal bucket with a lid, never in a plastic bin or paper bag, and dispose of it only once completely cold.
• Never unattended: as long as there are embers in the grill, someone keeps an eye on it. Keep a bucket of sand or water to hand.
• A clear head at the grill: whoever is grilling saves the bubbly for midnight.
• Hygiene: separate tongs and plates for raw and cooked meat, even when it is dark and busy.

Ordering shashlik for New Year’s Eve: in good time, with a buffer

Lots of people order around the holidays, so order in good time and allow a few days’ buffer. The best-before date is on the pack; anything you won’t grill by then goes into the freezer right after unpacking, in flat, airtight portions.

To thaw, put the bags in a bowl in the fridge the evening before; flat portions thaw overnight. Never refreeze thawed raw meat. More in our guide to freezing shashlik.

The easiest option is to order for Christmas and New Year’s Eve together and freeze the New Year’s Eve part flat. How shashlik becomes a relaxed festive dinner is explained in shashlik for Christmas.