BBQs

[duncs500]

Had the Spirit 2 for a month now and it's been used every weekend sometimes 3 times a day. Mainly for grilling sausages, burgers and chicken, it's clearly convenient as we've been using it more than once a day although I'm slightly disappointed my son reckons there's no taste difference between gas and charcoal!

Gas is bloody handy. If it's not raining I use it for sausage and bacon* sandwiches for breakfast eg if we've had friends staying over, it's much less messy than doing it indoors (and with the wife being vegan I try not to cook much meat in the house). I need an awning so I can use it year round.

* - I'm not usually a streaky bacon guy, but it goes much better on it.

I did pulled pork on the smoker last week. Put it on before bed the night before and it was timed perfectly for lunch after an hour of resting. Came out rather excellently... and I've got plenty left in the freezer.

[McSwede]

Had the Spirit 2 for a month now and it's been used every weekend sometimes 3 times a day. Mainly for grilling sausages, burgers and chicken, it's clearly convenient as we've been using it more than once a day although I'm slightly disappointed my son reckons there's no taste difference between gas and charcoal!

Gas is bloody handy. If it's not raining I use it for sausage and bacon* sandwiches for breakfast eg if we've had friends staying over, it's much less messy than doing it indoors (and with the wife being vegan I try not to cook much meat in the house). I need an awning so I can use it year round.

* - I'm not usually a streaky bacon guy, but it goes much better on it.

I did pulled pork on the smoker last week. Put it on before bed the night before and it was timed perfectly for lunch after an hour of resting. Came out rather excellently... and I've got plenty left in the freezer.

Get a Traeger Quick to get going and adds awesome flavour.

I did some ribs on mine today. Got everything ready set it off at 225deg and loaded a couple of racks. I nipped up to my parents for 90mins and when I came back I could smell the ribs starting to burn. It suddenly dawned on me that I'd left the smoker set to celcuis when I'd intended to cook in Fahrenheit

What a wally!!

[duncs500]

Get a Traeger Quick to get going and adds awesome flavour.

They do look good, what are they like for higher heats for normal bbq? Can they replace both my smoker and gas?

I'm invested in my set up now, so I’ll have to wait, but I will think hard about getting one next time I want to upgrade.

[Simon]

Fired up the BBQ yesterday for the first time since Sienna was born. Just threw some Lidl Ribeye on it, and..... not good.

TBH, of all the non-butcher meat we've tried, regular Tesco Ribeye is the best we've come across.

[dinny_g]

Agreed in general about non butcher meat but M&S Thick Cut Sirloins and Rib Eyes stand up well to BBQ'ing and taste pretty good

[Jobbo]

Fired up the BBQ yesterday for the first time since Sienna was born. Just threw some Lidl Ribeye on it, and..... not good.

TBH, of all the non-butcher meat we've tried, regular Tesco Ribeye is the best we've come across.

Asda's 'Extra Special' ones - 30 day dry-aged - are usually OK. I tend to get a rib-eye for me and a fillet for my wife, and to be honest the fillets are usually better of the two. They do some which are thicker cut in the same range which is useful.

[unzippy]

Get a Traeger Quick to get going and adds awesome flavour.

They do look good, what are they like for higher heats for normal bbq? Can they replace both my smoker and gas?

I'm invested in my set up now, so I’ll have to wait, but I will think hard about getting one next time I want to upgrade.

I've never got bark that's as good as an offset, with a pellet pooper. I think there's something about the velocity of the heat/smoke passing over the meat that you just can't get with a pellet grill.

[duncs500]

I've never used an offset, bark comes out pretty good on the WSM though.

[Simon]

Thanks for the tips Dinny and Simon - I'll check them out.

[mik]

A Solostove Campfire.

They make heater/campfires and stoves that supposedly can be used on areas you wouldn't normally have a open fire.

Surprising amount of heat for a little thing

Mrs mik bought a Solo Stove firepit in 2022. One of the larger ones. We used it a few times, but whilst it definitely met the claim of almost zero-smoke (clever duel-wall & vent system that )I wasn't very impressed - the fire seemed to be fully contained within the stove leaving practically zero heat to be shared with surrounding humans. Nice to look at, but 2/10 for functionality.

However.

Yesterday was lovely, and we opted to sit out last night for a few beers around the solostove. Long story short - we had a tree come down last year in high winds so I chainsawed/chopped a load of it up to season, and gift to a mate with a log burner. Despite us telling them they could take it however - they didn't come. So I now have wads of wood. Hence last night I piled it significantly higher than I had previously and kept it well stocked - revelation. Absolutely roasting - still almost zero smoke, and when the flames died down the embers were like molten lava for ages. Heat radiating from this thing was unreal, and it burned every last bit of every last log.

So I'd just been loading it too meanly before. Like an idiot.

TL;DR. SoloStoves are shit. No hang on, I was very wrong.

[16vCento]

I've just bought a cheap 4 burner with a side burner from Sainsbury's, said missing 2 wheels on the box and bolts and was 120 quid down from 200.

Thought I'll just pinch them off the old bbq.

Opened it when I got home, the wheels and the bolts were in a black box inside the grill which was still sellotaped closed

Well this has died, not arguing after all this time though!

I want a similar size Gas one for summer but I don't want to spend a load as well don't use it that much, anyone found any bargains recently?

Wondered about a charcoal one but this is mainly used for Spuds and Veg when we use the pizza oven so I'm not sure it's worth the mess.

[duncs500]

I've just bought a cheap 4 burner with a side burner from Sainsbury's, said missing 2 wheels on the box and bolts and was 120 quid down from 200.

Thought I'll just pinch them off the old bbq.

Opened it when I got home, the wheels and the bolts were in a black box inside the grill which was still sellotaped closed

Well this has died, not arguing after all this time though!

I want a similar size Gas one for summer but I don't want to spend a load as well don't use it that much, anyone found any bargains recently?

The other way of looking at it is that it was a year and a half newer than my Weber which is basically still as good as new and gets used heavily. I wonder how much you'll have to spend on replacement cheap ones before mine dies. Just sayin'.

[dinny_g]

I’m in the market for a decent quality Charcoal BBQ but the choices are really limited.

There are the ceramic types, well north of a grand and you’ve got your Webber’s (but I already have one of those)

An absolute must have feature is a coal rack or a cooking rack that’s height adjustable but as I said, limited choice.

At the moment, I’m thinking about one of these:

https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/10 ... r-barbecue

But I’ve had Landmans before so I know the coal tray will need strengthening as they warp.

Any other brands that could meet my requirements??

Budget is £500 to £600

Edit - this is the ultimate but I don’t have £1500 at the moment.

https://www.bbqworld.co.uk/m/napoleon/n ... al-bbq.asp

[IanF]

I’m in the market for a decent quality Charcoal BBQ but the choices are really limited.

There are the ceramic types, well north of a grand and you’ve got your Webber’s (but I already have one of those)

An absolute must have feature is a coal rack or a cooking rack that’s height adjustable but as I said, limited choice.

At the moment, I’m thinking about one of these:

https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/10 ... r-barbecue

But I’ve had Landmans before so I know the coal tray will need strengthening as they warp.

Any other brands that could meet my requirements??

Budget is £500 to £600

Edit - this is the ultimate but I don’t have £1500 at the moment.

https://www.bbqworld.co.uk/m/napoleon/n ... al-bbq.asp

Have you looked at Kamodo? Like an Egg but cheaper

[dinny_g]

Yeah but to be honest, every review I’ve read about benefits, pros and cons etc just talks in very general terms.

And the few people I know who have them rave about this and that feature, claim the you don’t miss the things you can’t do etc.

Makes me think they’re justifying the expense to themselves

[Carlos]

Dancook do a load of variable height grills. I've had one and it lasted 10 years outside with no cover and my mate has had a couple forever for kebabs/tepenyaki .

They are great but pretty specific in what they can do though.

[16vCento]

https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/mg ... --barbecue

I've never had a pellet BBQ before but this seems to get good reviews, looks like a Traeger and seems to have some good features, I'd imagine it will work the same, but last three instead of ten years perhaps?

[dinny_g]

I fancied a burger last night at short notice so fired up a chimney of coals and got a packet of Co-Op Rib and Brisket burgers.

For store bought packet burgers, they were bloody lovely.

I did have to flatten them a bit though as, like ALL packet burgers, they were too thick

[V8Granite]

Fired up the BBQ yesterday for the first time since Sienna was born. Just threw some Lidl Ribeye on it, and..... not good.

TBH, of all the non-butcher meat we've tried, regular Tesco Ribeye is the best we've come across.

100% this.

LIDL meat is junk, Morrisons near us is really poor.

The only place with better meat than our butchers is the dry aged beef section of Waitrose and it’s quite pricey compared to the butchers.

Dave!

[JonMad]

Costco is good imo