*****Official BBQ Thread - Suns out, Buns out!*****

Food looks lovely and I'm not wishing to come across as critical but I would suggest more practice to learn how to control the temps. Seeing you mention you were up at 5.30am and got the meat on by 6.00am, made me wince, that's not really enough time to get the bbq temp up, making sure the vents are correct to maintain the temp and ensure the temperature is stable. Personally I'd be taking at least the best part of an hour to get it to temp, and make sure that it's holding nicely. Having the temp dip after only 3 - 3 1/2 hours and having to add more charcoal and wood to get the temperature back up says to me it wasn't stable to begin with.

Also, the water bowl isn't really there to control the temperatures it's more of a buffer to smooth out any spikes that might come about in the fire pit as the coals burn and ignite, it also works to diffuse the heat so it's less direct heat cooking . A lot of people don't use water, instead replacing it with sand or even just big metal disks which have the same effect but don't require topping up.

I used to attend a big BBQ smoking weekend each year and have seen multiple Pro Q smokers hold temperature with little to no intervention needed over the course of 12 hours or so, and also a mix of low & slow and hot & fast with water pan/sand/metal in place and the temp control has just been down to the amount of lit coal and vents.

I personally use a cheap and cheerful Callow smoker, with sand and again control the temp with just the vents. If I'm shooting for higher temps I need more coals lit at the start, and for low and slow I light fewer coals to start with.
 
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Well considering that's the first long cook with this new bbq.. I was expecting to learn a lot.

I also forgot to clear the ash out from the previous BBQ. All learning experience.

lit coal and vents is precisely how it should be controlled. In practice, for a first time - it needs time to learn.
 
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I start all my long cooks on cold now and I don't care if the smoke is a bit dirty at the start. It seems to give a better flavour.

The meat doesn't spend long enough in the danger zone to be of concern.
 
FerretBoy said:
I start all my long cooks on cold now and I don't care if the smoke is a bit dirty at the start. It seems to give a better flavour.

The meat doesn't spend long enough in the danger zone to be of concern.
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Yeah I'm starting to lean this way too. I'm not really sure the meat cares whether it spends 30-60 minutes sitting at 150F before getting to 250F when it's gonna sit there 6-14 hours after that!
 
Went round a mates for a bbq and he used petrol to get it going. Don't think i've ever known someone to do that, it's not normal right? The food tasted fine but it felt a bit wrong tbh.
 
Bassmansam said:
Went round a mates for a bbq and he used petrol to get it going. Don't think i've ever known someone to do that, it's not normal right? The food tasted fine but it felt a bit wrong tbh.
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Our neighbour is South Africa used to do that, will lots of petrol. Loud whoomph at braai time. He also used to make chips on braai using skottle (wok) - best chips I ever had.
 
Pack of pork shoulder steaks going now, my favourite as I'm too lazy to do a butt or similar size. But of paprika on them and I'll give them a mop of Carolina style mustard in a bit. They usually don't take too long, about 2 1/2 - 3 hours.
 
Did my first pulled pork shoulder yesterday - followed the technique from meatchurch.com homepage but with different rubs to theirs and it came out really really good. Took around 7 hours@150 degrees and rached an internal temp of just under 100 plus resting time
 
jonneymendoza said:
Pics?
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Too hot to get up and walk down stairs!

Perhaps when the water bottle runs out.

Ok interest peaked..

9Kgc18X.jpeg
 
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Plan this evening is for teriaki rubbed chicken breast (angus and oink rub, its quite spicy!) some burgers and a new one for me - fresh pineapple coated in demerara sugar and cinnamon, need to get some caramelisation on this so will likely cook the meats first then remove a deflector plate in the kamado and finish off with the pineapple

(in between the rainshowers! - no heatwave here)
 
So it's Prime Day sales, and it looks like we have a hot weekend coming up, I need a recommendation for a wireless meat thermometer!

So far these look good:
  • Meater Plus: £55 - seems to be the most "well known" brand (although I realise that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best), app only, and at that price it's from Costco, so might not actually be here by the weekend.
  • "BFOUR Wireless Meat Thermometer": £33 - temp display on base station so don't need to be constantly checking my phone. Internal temperature only, no ambient, looks like potentially a cheap Chinese brand
  • "INKBIRD Wireless Meat Thermometer": £33 - similar to the "BFOUR" one above, but slightly different design
  • "ThermoPro TempSpike": £37 - app only, has ambient sensor
  • Chef iQ Sense: £50 - seems to be another well known brand, app only, 3 internal sensors plus ambient, ambient has a higher limit than the others (400c vs 300c)

Other than those, there are a whole host of other generic Chinese ones, plus some more expensive options, such as Ninja, CharMeter, ThermoMaven, MeatStick, is it worth spending the extra? I'm open to other options around the same budget as well :)

Edging towards the Chef iQ at the moment, seems to have the best features for the price, and I'm seeing generally more favourable feedback than the Meater

Edit: thinking about it, doesn't necessarily need to be fully wireless, but how well do the ones with wired probes work when the oven/BBQ lid is closed? Do the wires not get in the way a bit? I can imagine it being a pain having to work around the wires when rearranging stuff in the oven while doing a roast for example?
 
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I've been using inkbird wired probes for years and always found them to be accurate and reliable. I've used them in both smokers and the oven and it's not great issue having wires running out of the oven. You might need a little bit of care as you say when moving stuff about in the oven but really it's a non issue.
 
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