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Weber Summit Charcoal – Grill Center

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Weber Summit Charcoal - Grill Center

Weber Summit Charcoal

I was very fortunate to have been sent a Weber Summit Charcoal Grilling Center by the kind folks at Weber and Riverside Garden Centre to review and get to grips with. It’s a beast of a kettle BBQ but with the insulation of a ceramic kamado style, sitting beautifully between the two. Still relatively lightweight that it can be moved around on the cart with ease, and yet sturdy enough to make you realise this is definitely a premium grill.

Weber Summit Charcoal - Grill Center

Cooking direct and Indirect (using the substantial baffle) and swapping between the two is very easy, lighting made simple with the gas starter canister under the coals, you really feel like there is nothing that you can’t cook with ease on this grill. The best thing of all is the level of control that can be achieved by using the air inlet, because it doesn’t have the thermal mass of a ceramic grill, it’s quick and responsive to ramp the heat up or cut it back.

I’ve really been able to achieve some great results with this grill. Here’s a video of my first impressions of the weber summit charcoal.

 

Quinta Kamado Classic

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Quinta Kamado

Quinta Kamado Classic

I’ve been using this classic sized Quinta over the summer and have been really impressed with it, it’s an absolute bargain price wise for someone looking to buy a Kamado, but not quite being able to afford the more expensive brands. For value for money terms the Quinta gives a lot of bang for it’s buck. Which is what I found with the Quinta Small that I had tested previously. [Read more…]

Grillstream Gourmet Grill

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Grillstream BBQ

Grillstream Gourmet Grill

I was very fortunate to spend a day at Grillstream HQ in Hertfordshire, and was able to cook on the Grillstream Gourmet Grill, I’ve cooked on a fair few gas grills with variable results, and the biggest issue I usually have with them, especially the cheaper models is the heat is uneven and the fats often flare up when they hit the hot surfaces same as the spreader bars above the burners. [Read more…]

Big Green Egg Mini Maxi Review

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Big Green Egg Mini Maxi

Big Green Egg Mini Maxi

I’m grateful to Neil Clifton of Pit Smoked BBQ for sharing his thoughts on the Big Green Egg Mini Maxi.

A few have asked for feedback so based on 1 cook – these are my thoughts.
For reference, at home I cook on a Primo Oval XL so I have a couple of years experience of cooking on ceramic bbq’s.

Delivery from Alfresco Concepts was 4 days including a weekend.

Assembly – 25 minutes.

Build Quality – superb finish on the metal brackets. Good solid gauge material and nice finish with the wooden handle on The Egg itself.

Big Green Egg Mini Maxi

Big Green Egg Mini Maxi

Lighting – my preferred method is chimney starter so no influence from The Egg, however, I did start by lighting some restaurant grade charcoal in the The Egg and ironically it was the largest chunks of the last 12 months so did take a little to get going in a smaller firebox.

Big Green Egg Mini Maxi

Big Green Egg Mini Maxi

Temperature stability – Just as easy as the Primo to hold at a specific temperature and really easy to ramp up the temp if required.

Portability – It is fairly heavy which is what you would expect from ceramic BBQ but not so much that it would prevent it being mobile. While it would be too heavy to take to the beach – it certainly shouldn’t deter you if you plan to use it when caravanning (several have suggested their purchase may be for this reason)

Re-action from non-bbqers (you are on this forum because you love BBQ but, unbelievably there are some people whose world doesn’t revolve around it! – my business partner, who, by his own admission isn’t a cook loved the idea of the minimax – he felt the size would be ideal for a family get together but may put off by the price for an occasion ‘que.

In conclusion, the look is better than the Primo, the build quality is just as good. For midweek BBQing I will be using The Egg – less fuel needed and gets to temp quicker. Otherwise it has all the other benefits of a ceramic BBQ.

Price : £550 RRP

Thanks Neil, looks a great bit of kit, feel free to visit Pit Smoked BBQ Facebook Page

 

Charcoal Vs Gas BBQ

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Hibachi Grill

Hibachi Grill

One of the many questions that gets asked in the CountryWoodSmoke Facebook Group by people new to BBQ and smoking is should I get a gas BBQ or a charcoal BBQ, and many people in the UK use both.

For a great majority of people looking to cook up the traditional BBQ food here in the UK of sausages, burgers and chicken, then either will work ok, there are ways you can achieve a smokiness to your food, see this article on turning your gas BBQ into a smoker. Many people find the ease of lighting a gas BBQ attractive, and this is a choice.

But to achieve the best results, I believe there is only one real choice for most of us, cooking with charcoal, the dry heat you get with charcoal, crisps meat, fish and veg beautifully, you can smoke and get results that have a magic gas just can’t reproduce. And these days there are plenty of quick lighting options such as chimney starters and blower starters such as the looftlighter that can have your charcoal BBQ up and running in a few minutes.

At the end of the day, the choice is yours, but once you try a few smoky recipes, you’ll want to get cooking on charcoal and produce BBQ with real magic…..

BBQ Reviews

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There’s many different types of BBQ and Grill available Charcoal, Gas, Electric.

Here you will find advice and reviews on some of the equipment available here in the U.K.

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