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Spitfire BBQ Bristol Review

January 18, 2015 by admin · Leave a Comment

Spitfire BBQ ribs

Ain’t no skinny ribs here

My first visit to Spitfire BBQ on the Harbourside as a Birthday treat with my family, I had high hopes, it is next to the hallowed ground of the Grillstock Bristol event, a relatively newcomer to the BBQ scene, the website gave me high hopes. I was especially impressed to see that they like cooking steaks dirty style straight on the coals.

Welcoming warm Smokehouse

Spitfire BBQ

The building is set apart, and has a lovely rustic feel without feeling cheap. I especially loved the light bulbs, very cool. The staff were very welcoming and helped the kids get settled in, it was great to see so many families getting stuck into their food. You always know it’s going to be good when you get a real smokehouse hit as you walk in….real smoke and good BBQ meat smells, I could see people outside being drawn in just by the smell. The bowl of jerky we were given on sitting down was a nice touch.

Real Smoke, Real BBQ

Spitfire Ribs

So…onto the food, I went for a St. Louis Ribs Big with fries for £14.95 the sound of the huge frightened even me, my wife went for the wings, and the kids had BBQ chicken and fries. I also had a lovely New Zealand Pale ale. The ribs when they came out were seriously huge, I was surprised to see they were essentially a slab of bone in belly, which is just the way I like ribs, but some may be surprised by this, ‘Bristol cut’ but I loved it, they were well cooked, just the right balance of gnarly bark, with tender juicy belly meat, most of the fat had rendered out, leaving just enough to keep things moist. Really impressed, they were huge, and I was stuffed, the fried were great, thick cut and crisp, with a nice bowl of red cabbage slaw on the side.

I tried the wings, which were great and as I cooked them, would like to have tried the psycho wings, and will one day. The kids loved their BBQ chicken and fries, once again huge portions, nobody here will leave hungry.

For those who like the technical details, the smoking is with Hickory and apple on Fast Eddy Cookshack FEC 120 and then finished on twin Big Joe Kamados, for a great double hit of flavour.

Defintiely worth a visit, and I look forward to sitting outside in the lovely outside dining area during the summer.

spitfire wings

Racks of Ruin Original BBQ Sauce

January 14, 2015 by admin · 2 Comments

Racks Of Ruin Original BBQ Sauce

New British BBQ

The Racks Of Ruin Original BBQ Sauce is the end result of the passion for BBQ from the Racks of Ruin BBQ Team.

There’s a move away from many of the US style BBQ sauces and rubs, which to many of our tastes here in the UK we often find too sweet or salty, we also like to pep things up with more herbs and spice.

Finding a balance of flavours is a real art, and this was achieved perfectly in this sauce, enough to win it a Great Taste Award, well deserved for the master behind the sauce Phil Newton.

I love this sauce, it works so well with ribs, chicken, and can hold itself up against stronger tasting beef ribs and brisket. Well balanced, just the right amount of sweetness, a lingering heat and a real porky hit. If this is the new wave of British BBQ Sauce, then we are onto a good thing.

Brush on or dip, the choice is yours.

Charcoal Vs Gas BBQ

January 14, 2015 by admin · Leave a Comment

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…..

ProQ Cold Smoke Generator Review

January 13, 2015 by admin · Leave a Comment

ProQ Cold Smoke Generator

Game Changer

Cold Smoking has always been seen as a bit tricky, you need smoke, but no heat, usually cold smoking setups involved a small fire and a long pipe to cool the smoke down, but no longer, the ProQ cold smoke generator makes cold smoking such an easy task. It gives off no heat, is easy to light, using either a tealight or a chefs flame torch to get it going, the wood dust burns evenly for around 10 hours, giving a gentle constant smoke for your food.

If you team one of these up with a cardboard box with a hole in the top, you can smoke some wonderful food for around £35.

I’ve been using mine the last few years and it’s reliable, keep it clean with an old toothbrush to remove any bits of charcoal left, and it will reward you well, cold smoked salmon and trout, butters, cheeses all can be smoked.

A must have if you want to learn the art of cold smoking.

ProQ cold smoke generator available here

ETI Thermapen Review

January 13, 2015 by admin · Leave a Comment

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.

Thermapen available here

Available for around £45 new and £36 Refurbished on EBay.

Eti Thermapen Review

Looftlighter Review

January 11, 2015 by admin · Leave a Comment

Looftlighter

Super Quick BBQ lighting

The Looftlighter BBQ and fire lighter looks like something that belongs in the hands of a Jedi Warrior, but is destined to make lighting a BBQ a matter of minutes. For many of us who BBQ year round, this is a real bonus, the standard for most of us cooking with charcoal is to use a chimney starter which takes 10-15 minutes to get going, but the Looftlighter changes things.

First off, the obvious requirement is for electricity, but once plugged in, you have a serious weapon in your hands. It takes literally just over a minute to get the coals going, as you can see in the video below.