Ooni 3 Hopper Extender
Sometimes a piece of kit comes along in the BBQ world and makes a huge amount of difference and makes your cooking a lot easier. [Read more…]
EcoFlares
Lighting BBQ’s and fires always used to be about pieces of scrunched up newspaper and lighter fluid or even those little white cubes you got from the petrol station. But, things have changed in recent years with new ways of getting the BBQ going including electric gadgets to fan hot air onto the coals. But just as all these things became popular people also started looking for cleaner and more eco friendly ways to light the fires.
So along comes Ecoflares. Essentially small strips of wood wool wound together into a sort of coil shape and then covered in wax to help with both ignition and to make them semi waterproof. Similar products have popped up in a few stores now under different brand names but with little detail on origin etc but, Ecoflares could be considered to be a kind of premium version. I’ve opened other brands bags before and found some coils that have unraveled and some that look like they have been put on a diet and are too small. And a lot that have completely fallen apart and sit in the bottom of the bag as unusable strips of wood.
With Ecoflares you get nice big fat bundles mostly of a similar size and you can see immediately that you are going to get a better burn time from them which is what it’s all about. The longer and bigger the initial flame the quicker the fuel around them will ignite and the fire will spread. I have used these for a number of cooks now and have been impressed with the way they burn and how long for. They even burnt for long enough to get some briquettes going in a chimney starter which I was really pleased with. Ecoflares are a UK based company and they use locally sourced FSC certified wood from renewable and sustainable sources and their product is 100% biodegradable.
The guys at Ecoflares have been very kind in offering a discount code for anyone who wants to give them a try and, at time of writing, there is already a reduction on the boxes of 200 on their site whilst they wait for stock of the small pack; but the code ECOFLARES110 will bag you an additional 10% off the already reduced price. Not bad. Head over to their website for more information and to take advantage of the discounts www.eco-flares.com
All codes live at time of writing. The Ecoflares product was supplied free of charge to be used and reviewed but I am free to voice my own and honest opinions on them.
Artust
Twitter : @ArtustBBQ
Instagram: @artustbbq
Meater + Bluetooth Thermometer Review
Meater + Bluetooth Thermometer
I’ve been trialling both the Meater and Meater + bluetooth thermometers over the last year, and have been very impressed on the whole. They are a wirefree probe type thermometer that you leave in the meat as you cook it. It then sends the temperature of both the meat and the BBQ/Cooker temperature. Giving an all in one solution to monitoring your BBQ temperatures. [Read more…]
BBQ Charcoal
Which is the best BBQ charcoal to use?
This is a question a lot of people are asking, what BBQ charcoal should they be using for smoking or grilling.
Too many people don’t fully think about charcoal, and just go for the cheapest and most available, [Read more…]
Electric Charcoal Starters
Electric Charcoal Starters
If you want to cook with charcoal on your BBQ but you want to get things going quickly, then you need an electric chimney starter.
The 3 here have a heat source and a fan to get the charcoal lit in super quick time.
Check out the video for my thoughts, all three of these charcoal starters will do a great job to get you going.
https://shop.americanbbq.co.uk/electric-charcoal-fire-starter-wand-210-p.asp
Direct Charcoal Restaurant Grade
Restaurant Grade and Premium Charcoal
If you prefer not to get your BBQ Charcoal from a garage there are plenty of great options out there, and hardcore BBQ’ers can get through an awful lot of charcoal even in the winter months when it becomes harder to pick up charcoal. So to get bags of charcoal delivered straight to your door is a definite bonus for a lot of people. There are some good quality charcoal available that can be delivered to your home. [Read more…]
Inkbird IBT-2X Bluetooth BBQ Thermometer
Inkbird Dual Probe Thermometer
I’ve tired out plenty of wireless thermometers, and often the build quality lets them down, for me the simpler the better with a bit of kit like this, and let the software on the device do the majority of stuff. The Inkbird IBT-2X is certainly a good price for a bluetooth thermometer, coming in at £23.95 including delivery, simple, easy to use, very easy to connect to your bluetooth enabled device. [Read more…]
Flame Boss 300 and Smokeware Kamado Joe Upgrades
Flame Boss 300 arrives in UK
I like to try to keep up with new bits of outdoor cooking and BBQ kit arriving in the UK, so when I was asked to review the Flame Boss 300 that has just come out, I jumped at the opportunity. It is a WiFi enabled pit controller, that monitors the smoker temperature and adjusts a fan accordingly, it has a smoker temperature probe, and a meat probe, but the great thing about the Flame Boss 300 is that an extra 2, so a total of 3 meat probes and a smoker probe can be used, by utilising the extra Y-splitters available.
I’m looking at tidying up my old and well used Kamado Joe, so was very happy to try out the Smokeware Chimney Cap, a matt 304 grade stainless replacement for the Kamado Joe daisywheel assembly, mine has seen better days. Also a nomex Kamado Joe gasket replacement, mine is well overdue to be replaced.
I will be adding to this review as I get this all set up, so make sure to check back….
All now available in the UK from BBQ and Smoke https://www.bbqandsmoke.co.uk
Ok so I’ve been using the upgrades now for a few smokes, and I’m loving them, they have given a tired old Kamado Joe a new lease of life, the new seals and cap make temperatures more stable and keep efficiency, and the Flame Boss 300 with it’s Wifi control and monitoring bring the KJ right up to date. Here’s the latest vid of my thoughts and experiences so far, look out for more updates to this review as I use it further.
Hellfire Pizza Cooker and Grill Set
Hellfire Pizza and Grill Set – Bringing the Outdoors In
As much as I am a huge outdoor cooking nut, I enjoy cozy evenings in front of the indoor BBQ – AKA the Lounge WoodStove, in the depths of winter, sometimes it’s just too tempting to snuggle down in front of the woodstove. I always look at the fire, and think, well if it’s going I may as well cook on it, usually something simple like some marshmallows or chestnuts with the kids, or a nice grown up steak in a cast iron skillet on the embers. But I recently heard about a bit of kit that may well just change how I do cook in the woodstove.
The wonderful indoor Hellfire Pizza and Grill Set from Natural Heating in Norfolk is an inspired idea, you have the fire going so why not cook on it… I love these people…
The set is a cast iron bridge with a grate on top, that comes with a cast iron plate, a pizza stone, a cute little peel and some welders gloves.
I placed the pizza stone on the bridge and placed in my raging hot wood stove. I allowed it to come up to temperature and raked some hot coals underneath which was easy to do.
The temperature of the stone easily reached 350 deg C which I checked with a laser thermometer, and the pizza stone was ready to cook on. I made up some pizza dough, and popped a little 7″ pizza onto the stone. It cooked very quickly in about 2 minutes and had a lovely crisp base. I was amazed how well it worked. The pizzas were lovely.
I’m looking forward to cooking plenty of other things such as steaks and seafood on this lovely bit of kit. There’s two sizes a 7″ at £43.99 and a 9″ for larger stoves at £63.99.
Visit the Natural Heating Website for more info.
Fireboard Extreme BBQ Edition
Review of Fireboard BBQ Thermometer
The Fireboard is a new BBQ thermometer with WiFi from Kansas City U.S. with Wifi and internal storage of temperatures so it keeps historical data and syncs with your device, it sounds pretty clever, at the moment it needs to be imported from the U.S. direct as there are no current U.K. distributors. [Read more…]