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…]
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
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…]
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…]
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.
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.
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…]
In the video above, I run through a selection of kit available to make lighting your BBQ a bit easier, hopefully there is something here that will be right for you, whether you are home or away. [Read more…]
I’ve been going through a bit of a different phase in the charcoal I use to BBQ with this year, In previous years I’d always used Booker Restaurant Grade lumpwood, but have really struggled using it earlier in the year, finding bits of rubber and other rubbish in the bags, and finding the charcoal itself has an off smoke, and spits a lot. So I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting, and am certainly now in love with the different woods of Oxford Charcoal, and the clean burning, steady temperature of ProQ cocoa briquettes. I was contacted by the Green Olive Firewood Co. earlier in the year, to see if I’d like to try some of their products. [Read more…]
