Flamers firelighters
Light My Fire…
Lighting your BBQ charcoal or wood fired stove isn’t sometimes as straightforward as you might think, many people opt for the lighter fluid approach, [Read more…]
Flamers Firelighters
Flip’N’Grate
Flip’N’Grate
Flip’N’Grate Review
I was very fortunate to have been sent a Flip’N’Grate to put through it’s paces over the summer. It’s a useful bit of kit, easily height adjustable, and easy to flip over with one hand. [Read more…]
Hot Smoked Wood Chunks
Cherry chunk
Smoking Woods
What wood you use for your smoking matters…there’s some great woods out there, if you’re planning on smoking for a while for a cut like brisket or pork shoulder, you want a steady trickle of smoke from a wood chunk [Read more…]
ProQ Pizza Stone
ProQ Pizza Stone
ProQ Pizza Stone Review
Cooking Pizza on a bullet smoker isn’t something usually done, these smokers, such as the ProQ Frontier are designed to put out a relatively constant 110 deg C /225 deg F for Low’N’Slow Barbecue, so I was intrigued to see how the searing temperatures required for good Pizza could be achieved 300+ deg C. [Read more…]
Bear Paws for pulled pork
Bear Paws Review
I’ve been using the Bear Paws regularly for a couple of years now, I find them pretty indispensable when working through large shoulders of pulled pork, and really useful for lifting and moving large hot joints of meat around the BBQ, and off once cooked. [Read more…]
Grill Grates Review
Grillgrates
GrillGrates Review
I’m very fortunate to get sent BBQ equipment to test and review, and there’s lots of stuff that I grow to love, and use regularly, other accessories tend to get less use, and I’ve found GrillGrates fall firmly in that category. The idea is that you place them on top of your charcoal or gas BBQ grill and then place the food on the ribs on top. [Read more…]
Digital BBQ Thermometer review
iGrill Mini
Digital BBQ Thermometer review
Ok, so you’ve treated yourself to a nice shiny new BBQ, or your looking at trying Low’N’Slow style Barbecue, the first bit of kit, that I really see as vital is a digital thermometer. Very often the dial style BBQ lid thermometer that come on BBQs and smokers are wildly inaccurate, and we hear of many new to BBQ struggling with their smoker temperatures, and find out this is due to the inaccuracy of the thermometers, so get yourself a digital thermometer, so you can properly monitor your cook.
So here’s my selection of the best digital thermometers available in the UK. [Read more…]
Weber BBQ Chimney Starter
BBQ Chimney Starter
Lit BBQ in 10 minutes
The majority of regular BBQers who use charcoal for their BBQ prefer not to use chemicals near their food, such as lighter fluid and lighter blocks, so a good alternative that many of us use is a BBQ Chimney Starter, I have used various makes, but have found the slightly more expensive Weber model to be the best, and last the longest, the cheaper models, around £15 generally only last a BBQ season before rusting away. I’ve been using the above pictured chimney starter for a couple of years, and it’s just showing a little discolouration.
How to use
Simply fill the upper part of the chimney starter with your charcoal, and then place a screwed up ball of newspaper, a couple of sheets usually does the trick in the compartment under the charcoal, and set fire to the newspaper, the flames and heat are drawn up through the charcoal, usually you get a chimney full of blazing coals in around 10 minutes, which you can then tip into your BBQ. A tip from a member of the CountryWoodSmoke Facebook Group is to use a pirece of kitchen towel soaked in vegetable oil instead of the newspaper to get it started.
I find they get quite smoky until they are fully up and running, and that they are extremely hot to hold and tip, so use some thick welding gloves to protect your hands from sparks. Also ensure they are stood on something heatproof, I use a concrete slab.
Weber Chimney Starter available here
for around £35 plus postage. (N.B. they are sometimes on offer and a lot cheaper at garden centres that stock Weber).
Afterburner
Once up and running, the effect is like the afterburner on a jet engine, and great to cook on, simply place a grill grate over the top of the chimney, and yu can cook in some serious heat, ideal for skewers and thin steaks.
Here’s a few Afterburner Recipes to get you started.
Afterburner skewers
XXL 20″ Steak Tongs
BBQ Tongs
Long Reach Tongs
Often when cooking BBQ and Grilling, especially with the Dirty Steak method of cooking directly on the coals, you need a BBQ Tong with a long reach and sturdy, so you can reach into the coals of a deep BBQ such as a ceramic Kamado. Then you need a set of extra long tongs. I’ve relied on these Steak Tongs for the last couple of years, I was put onto them by legend of the smoke Dr Sweetsmoke.
They are around 20″ long, the grips on the end are flat one side, with a toothed grip on the other, so you can slide under the food with the flat side and then grip with the teeth.
There’s a retainer that stops them opening up too wide, this can be a hinderance for a really large piece of meat, but it opens out to a wide 4-5″. It will also easily pick up a large steak. Built of stainless steel, they are pretty bombproof, and comfortable to wield for long grilling sessions.
Price: £13 + £2.99 shipping
ETI Thermapen Review
ETI Thermapen Review
Instant Read Thermometer
The Thermapen by ETI is a BBQ must have, but it has so many uses, I’ve been relying on them the last few years, not only for BBQ cooking, but pretty much any time I cook a piece of meat where I want to ensure that the meat hits a specific temperature, ie for a steak I want to know that it’s hit 50 deg C for Medium Rare. You just poke the needle like probe into the centre of the meat, and within 3 secs you have your temperature, this is a lot quicker than similar bits of kit from other manufacturers.
The probe folds away into the body of the unit, and this turns the unit off. I pretty much rely on mine, and find they are always accurate and bomb proof, the only downside is that I keep misplacing them when I’ve had a beer or two. Maybe they should come with a tracking device built in.
Also useful for quick checks of the smoker temperature, and cooking sweets, checking the sugar temperature and food temperature in the fridge.
Available for around £45 new and £36 Refurbished on EBay.
Eti Thermapen Review