BBQ Charcoal

anything I don't mind · 29 Apr 2010 at 13:29

Don't buy those cheap ones or every south african will laugh at you with your tinfoil box and those quick charcoal ones are terrible. Also you can't use indoor charcoal. It has be the the proper outdoor charcoal lumpwood. Buy yourself some fire lighters as well, those white blocks. use a few sticks of that and put it in with the charcoal let it burn all the way through until you can hold your hand over the grill for 5 secs. First put chicken on and keep turning...

oh and it is called a braai not a barbeque

monkeyspank · 29 Apr 2010 at 13:37

firelighters are horrible, so is that gel stuff.
Liquid stuff is the best. Used liberally on a pyramid of coals, let it soak in and light in 3 or for places at the edge. No worries

anything I don't mind · 29 Apr 2010 at 13:42

Fight lighters horrible ? why ?

Everyone uses them in SA, you just need one to three little blocks and that is it.

The best way to braai though is with wood, but not the type of wood that they sell here. Proper braai wood like, hard wood, there is a few kinds.

Guest2 · 29 Apr 2010 at 13:48

Robbie G said:
Another for briquettes here. Never fails. Lumpwood gives a nice flavour but you have to use half a ton to cook a decent BBQ, and forget doing a joint.

Why, because you would lose track of time and all the lumpwood would have burned out? (much like what I do with pizza in the oven)

PermaChanged · 29 Apr 2010 at 14:06

valve90210 said:
I've always found briquettes are more of a pain to get lit to begin with.

We use on of these before pouring them into the bottom of the BBQ, they do take a while to be fully ready.

Skidder · 29 Apr 2010 at 14:10

monkeyspank said:
firelighters are horrible, so is that gel stuff.
Liquid stuff is the best. Used liberally on a pyramid of coals, let it soak in and light in 3 or for places at the edge. No worries

firelighters are good, the slick ones rather than crumbly seem better to me

Participant · 29 Apr 2010 at 14:12

Guest2 said:
Why, because you would lose track of time and all the lumpwood would have burned out? (much like what I do with pizza in the oven)

The latter, i.e. there's just not enough cooking time from one batch of charcoal.

Rusty_Noob said:
We use on of these before pouring them into the bottom of the BBQ, they do take a while to be fully ready.

We use one of those chimney things, think it's great. They don't take a while to be fully ready, they speed things up so that the coals are ready for cooking faster than if you just arrange them in a pile.

Amp34 · 29 Apr 2010 at 14:16

Freefaller said:
I'm going to go against the grain and be probably the only here that doesn't like to use briquettes!

I agree, they are nasty. The closest we get to using them is mixing them with charcoal so you get some longer burn and nice flavour and easy light. Best of both worlds.

At the moment though we use a gas BBQ most of the time, it's just not the same as charcoal.

Guest2 · 29 Apr 2010 at 14:32

Robbie G said:
The latter, i.e. there's just not enough cooking time from one batch of charcoal.

swoooosh! (I was referring to you 'doing a joint' at the same time as lighting up a bbq)

A[L]C · 29 Apr 2010 at 14:37

I get around said:
Why not, whats wrong with that?.

Just never heard of it. By the time the stuff we had finished cooking our stuff was just ash!

Participant · 29 Apr 2010 at 14:40

Guest2 said:
swoooosh! (I was referring to you 'doing a joint' at the same time as lighting up a bbq)

Lol, you won't believe me, but the possibility that you meant that did cross my mind. I just thought 'nah surely not, the joke is too poor'

.

lee32uk · 29 Apr 2010 at 14:40

We use briquettes and firelighters on our bbq.

theNude · 29 Apr 2010 at 14:43

I dislike briquettes, seem harder to start, arent natural! and dont add as nice a flavour as good lump wood and always use paper/wood to start the barbie non of this meths flavoured food for me.

when i worked for a coal importers we used to sell 'south african blue' or somthing like that it was about 20GBP for a few KG but all the restaurants bought it for their Tandor ovens and it sold like hot cakes.

a1ex2001 · 29 Apr 2010 at 15:04

Freefaller said:
I'm going to go against the grain and be probably the only here that doesn't like to use briquettes!

Nope I agree entirely and have this debate with my misses every time we go too buy fuel for the bbq.

Psypher5 · 29 Apr 2010 at 15:07

the lightable bag things work well, we have some and its quick and easy, cooks the food, left to burn.

Guest2 · 29 Apr 2010 at 15:12

Robbie G said:
Lol, you won't believe me, but the possibility that you meant that did cross my mind. I just thought 'nah surely not, the joke is too poor' .

I also knew you were going to say something like that - either because reflecting on it, it was so poor, or the fact that it just went over your head!

edit - OP should buy some instant light bbqs for £1 each and spend the saved money on a crate of beers. Sausages will be crispy black on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside. After 10 cans you will think they taste like heaven though! Smartprice/homebrand burgers and sausages work the best because they drip about a pint of fat, turn the burgers coin sized and get the flames extra hot so it cooks (burns) your food in about 30 seconds!