12 Quick And Easy Tips For The Tastiest Tailgate

Tailgating season is upon us, and we're so excited to spend game day eating extravagant quantities of hot dogs, chili, and chicken wings. If you're anything like us, this football-focused time of year is less about the sport and more about the pre-game food and drink: You will not be able to persuade us to stop eating Buffalo chicken for even one weekend in the next few weeks. Though we all know what food and drink we really want to eat and cook at a tailgate, the logistics of hosting this party can be difficult. So, to help you out, we've collected our most used, most reliable, and most important tips and tricks to make your tailgate even tastier, easier, and more fun than any previous years gone by.

Serving your dips and soups in bowls made of a loaf of bread not only looks great, but it can actually be really practical, too. These edible serving dishes can be eaten and used for serving, so you can pack fewer things and will have fewer dirty dishes to deal with afterward.

Rather than simply filling your cooler with frozen water bottles, ice cubes, and cool packs, chill the actual cooler too before you fill it with food and drinks. By getting the temperature of the cooler down to as a low as possible, it will stay colder for so much longer.

Before you head out for your tailgate, make sure you've cleaned the grill you're going to use. This will mean nobody gets sick from you cooking on a dirty grill, and will make for a tastier tailgate, as a clean grill cooks so much better than a dirty one.

Slice and prepare all the toppings for burgers and hot dogs the day before your tailgate, and then simply set them all out on a table for your friends to help themselves to. They can then create their own meal, and you don't have to spend your day building custom orders for all your hungry fellow tailgaters.

Make your water supplies double up as ice block. Simply freeze all your plastic bottles filled with water before you leave for your tailgate, and then use them as ice blocks to keep your food cold. When you get thirsty, you can simply start using one as a drink, and the ice will slowly melt once it's out the cooler, transforming it back into a refreshing bottle of water.

Grilling anything more than the essentials may seem like a huge hassle on game day, but we promise that throwing your buns on the grill for just a couple of minutes will really transform the final tailgating treat. It's not just the meat that deserves this special treatment.

Marinade your kebabs and other cuts of meat you plan on cooking the day before the tailgate so they have plenty of time to absorb all those wonderful flavors before being thrown on the grill.

Make sure you have lots of ready-to-eat snacks at your pre-game party that require you to do absolutely nothing to. By putting out bowls full of finger food, everybody will be happily snacking and drinking without stressing you out by demanding you hurry up with your grilling.

Tailgating requires a lot of condiments, which tend to be difficult to transport easily and neatly. Solve this issue by using an empty cardboard six-pack carrier and filling each section with a different, snugly fitting condiment bottle.

You don't want to be messing around preparing fiddly food when you're at your tailgate. Make sure you skewer all your meat and vegetables on to the metal or bamboo sticks ahead of time, so you don't have to try and do this without a kitchen counter, knife, or chopping board.

We all know that hot food tastes better when it's still warm rather than when it's been left out and has gone cold. Thankfully, there's a fairly easy way to make this possible at a tailgate, which doesn't involve you spending the whole day hovering over the grill: You just need to transform your cooler into a warmer. To do this, wrap a few garden bricks in aluminum foil, and place them in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees F. Line the bottom and lower sides of your cooler with damp tea towels. Remove the bricks from the oven, and place them on the tea towels. They'll stay warm in a sealed cooler for at least 6 hours.

Swap the store-bought burger patties for homemade ones, which are super easy to make and can be easily transported if you put them in a tray and use wax paper wrapped around each one to separate them and stop them sticking to one another.