*Charcoal* BBQ/Grilling

higster

higster wrote: »

Carb wrote: »

I've procrastinated for 12 months at this stage and finally about to pull the trigger on one of these:
https://www.weber.com/IE/en/barbecues/charcoal-barbecues/performer-series/15501004.html?cgid=219#start=1

Anyone have this model or any views on whether it's a worthwhile purchase. It's clearly expensive versus their other kettles but I like the side table and gas ignition.

I had an older version. Only difference I see is the table top (mine was not metal). Yeah I would recommend, lasted a good 10years with very little looking after and the table I miss BIG time on my new one (Weber summit). Probably already thought of it but get the chimney.

Speaking of which, anyone have recommendations of a table that works outside beside bbq? Know I could build one but honestly not my kind of thing.

bamayang

squonk wrote: »

What did you put on the outside? Salt, pepper etc?

I think it was salt pepper paprika oil and lemon. Nothing too major.

bamayang

The chan chan man wrote: »

Top marks... well.. minus 1 for even having budweiser in the house..

I know, I’d normally never drink it but I needed to get a can of something when in the shop and it looked the safest bet.

I don’t know was it the satisfaction of the bbq’ing or the weather, but the half the can that I drank was actually lovely!!

Carb

higster wrote: »

Carb wrote: »

I've procrastinated for 12 months at this stage and finally about to pull the trigger on one of these:
https://www.weber.com/IE/en/barbecues/charcoal-barbecues/performer-series/15501004.html?cgid=219#start=1

Anyone have this model or any views on whether it's a worthwhile purchase. It's clearly expensive versus their other kettles but I like the side table and gas ignition.

I had an older version. Only difference I see is the table top (mine was not metal). Yeah I would recommend, lasted a good 10years with very little looking after and the table I miss BIG time on my new one (Weber summit). Probably already thought of it but get the chimney.

Thank you. Have a chimney as I have had previous barbeques, usually cheap and what ever is available in the local hardware store when you realise on a Friday that we are in for nice weekend.

How do you find the summit. I was looking at it, but figured I'm far enough down the slippery slope at this point.

The chan chan man

bamayang wrote: »

I know, I’d normally never drink it but I needed to get a can of something when in the shop and it looked the safest bet.

I don’t know was it the satisfaction of the bbq’ing or the weather, but the half the can that I drank was actually lovely!!

Its been about 20 years.. so maybe i’m due to try it again!

Chicken looks the business though!

beertons

Some of us don't need another site to be looking at, but have you seen www.fireboks.ie
It could be expensive looking at that link!

mossym

beertons wrote: »

Some of us don't need another site to be looking at, but have you seen www.fireboks.ie
It could be expensive looking at that link!

think CJ Stander is involved there,saw something about it a few months back. galway based i think

higster

Carb wrote: »

higster wrote: »

Thank you. Have a chimney as I have had previous barbeques, usually cheap and what ever is available in the local hardware store when you realise on a Friday that we are in for nice weekend.

How do you find the summit. I was looking at it, but figured I'm far enough down the slippery slope at this point.

So far so good. Damn expensive but the smoking/slow cook capability is damn good...saying that am under using it.

witnessmenow

I've tried out the surefire Blue bag charcoal a couple of times now and have struggled a little bit with them. Some of the chunks are absolutely huge, like struggle to fit in the chimney starter big (at certain angles). What do people do with these? I'm happy that it wasn't a big pile of dust but some of the bigger chunks (even not the huge ones) just take up so much space that a full chimney isn't that many chunks of charcoal. How do people deal with this? Hand pick and place pieces into the chimney to maximise space? Any recommended ways of reducing the size pieces? I'm 52cm weber usually with a direct and indirect heat setup (coal on the the majority of one half)

On a completely different topic, Aldi have recently started doing chicken thigh fillets and they are great for the BBQ. The best thing about them is they are relatively uniform thickness so cook pretty evenly, also brown meat is more forgiving to being over cooked. Had burgers made with them this evening and they were really good. We used this rub(modified slightly, used onion salt instead of powder, didn't add any salt and added a tablespoon of paprika) that we put on them in the morning and they turned out great.

squonk

witnessmenow wrote: »

I've tried out the surefire Blue bag charcoal a couple of times now and have struggled a little bit with them. Some of the chunks are absolutely huge, like struggle to fit in the chimney starter big (at certain angles). What do people do with these? I'm happy that it wasn't a big pile of dust but some of the bigger chunks (even not the huge ones) just take up so much space that a full chimney isn't that many chunks of charcoal. How do people deal with this? Hand pick and place pieces into the chimney to maximise space? Any recommended ways of reducing the size pieces? I'm 52cm weber usually with a direct and indirect heat setup (coal on the the majority of one half)

Would using a small axe to break them down a bit work? Haven’t opened my bag yet. How do you find the burn time on them?

witnessmenow

squonk wrote: »

Would using a small axe to break them down a bit work? Haven’t opened my bag yet. How do you find the burn time on them?

It might work alright! Will give it a go (hopefully we have some nice weather to try it out.)

I haven't gotten a real proper light with them yet. We've had 3 BBQs with them (all just basically to grill burgers/sausages, nothing long) and all of them have been a struggle to keep the temps up. With a properly lit lump I would have to do some vent work to limit the temps a bit.

Try 1: Lots of bigger pieces. Took a few rounds of kitchen paper and oil to properly light the charcoal. Had to leave in the chimney starter ages, I even took it off a little earlier than it probably needed but It was getting past bed time so I needed to start cooking!

Try 2: Was more careful with what pieces I put in this time, but I also added a couple of pieces of kindling to the bottom of the chimney as I was in the middle of finishing a job and I didnt want to have to come back and light it again. The job took too long (as all jobs do) and I ended up burning through a good chunk of what was in the chimney. So despite having a full chimney to begin with, I didnt transfer anywhere near a full chimney to the weber. I would say this would have been fine if I was paying attention

Try 3: My wife lit it and used a mix match of bigger chunks of this stuff and diall stuff from B&Q. That particular bag of Diall stuff was very bitty so it wasn't really a good match, as that stuff was red hot before the bigger chunks had taken off. I also ended up leaving a massive one in the chimney as it didn't seem lit at all and was going to be right up to the grate.

Cork Boy

I'm after getting my mits on a 57cm Weber Kettle.

I want to smoke a shoulder and/or ribs using the snake method but I think I'll have plenty of place left on the grill for other stuff.

Can I add in smaller things like chicken thighs, wings, etc at the start or will they dry out?

Or does anyone else have any ideas on how to maximise their grill use?

Quin_Dub

Cork Boy wrote: »

I'm after getting my mits on a 57cm Weber Kettle.

I want to smoke a shoulder and/or ribs using the snake method but I think I'll have plenty of place left on the grill for other stuff.

Can I add in smaller things like chicken thighs, wings, etc at the start or will they dry out?

Or does anyone else have any ideas on how to maximise their grill use?

To be honest , if you are doing a big piece of meat you'll want to let it rest for a decent length of time after you take it off - Probably 45 minutes at least.

Whack open all the vents and get the temp up in the kettle and you should have plenty of time to cook up a smaller items like cuts of chicken etc. while the main piece of meat rests.

You might need to move the remaining coals into one spot to give you a hot area , but other than that you should be ok..

Cork Boy

Quin_Dub wrote: »

To be honest , if you are doing a big piece of meat you'll want to let it rest for a decent length of time after you take it off - Probably 45 minutes at least.

Whack open all the vents and get the temp up in the kettle and you should have plenty of time to cook up a smaller items like cuts of chicken etc. while the main piece of meat rests.

You might need to move the remaining coals into one spot to give you a hot area , but other than that you should be ok..

Thanks. But I was hoping more to smoke as much meat as possible. I suppose I could just do more shoulder and freeze it

The Nal

Cork Boy wrote: »

I'm after getting my mits on a 57cm Weber Kettle.

I want to smoke a shoulder and/or ribs using the snake method but I think I'll have plenty of place left on the grill for other stuff.

Can I add in smaller things like chicken thighs, wings, etc at the start or will they dry out?

Or does anyone else have any ideas on how to maximise their grill use?

If you put a shoulder on youll have room for snaking ribs and some chicken too. Maybe just some wings or a couple of thighs but use the space yeah.

Quin_Dub

Cork Boy wrote: »

Thanks. But I was hoping more to smoke as much meat as possible. I suppose I could just do more shoulder and freeze it

Oh I get you now.

Then yes you could add the other stuff , but it would come off much earlier than the big piece of meat.

willabur

The Nal wrote: »

If you put a shoulder on youll have room for snaking ribs and some chicken too. Maybe just some wings or a couple of thighs but use the space yeah.

I had a 10 hour cook of pork shoulder saturday on same kettle. Used the snake method, 1/4 bag of charcoal did the job with the smoking function on the weber

I threw in a few italian sausages about half way through for 2 hours so we had something for lunch. They were unreal. Due to casing they kept in all the juice. Made for an amazing choripan with some home made chimmichuri

Cork Boy

I think I might start out with something easier like 3-2-1 ribs and some sausages (thanks willabur!) and chicken thighs. I think the thighs and sausages can go on during phase 2 which is ideal as I'm not sure I want them to be too smokey. I'll be using apple wood chips so they should be mild enough.

The Nal

willabur wrote: »

I had a 10 hour cook of pork shoulder saturday on same kettle. Used the snake method, 1/4 bag of charcoal did the job with the smoking function on the weber

I threw in a few italian sausages about half way through for 2 hours so we had something for lunch. They were unreal. Due to casing they kept in all the juice. Made for an amazing choripan with some home made chimmichuri

Ooh nice. So the casings didnt split at all?

chases0102

My Weber Master touch arrived yesterday - looking forward to getting it going, great tips here.

Any YouTube videos people can recommend (preferably non American!) that use the Master Touch for recipes, approaches etc.

Cork Boy

chases0102 wrote: »

My Weber Master touch arrived yesterday - looking forward to getting it going, great tips here.

Any YouTube videos people can recommend (preferably non American!) that use the Master Touch for recipes, approaches etc.

Just use the search term "weber kettle". The principles will be the same whether it's a master touch or not. Anyway, most videos tend to have the master touch but don't mention it in the title.

There's a dutch guy (speaks in English) called Pitmaster X, he's very good.

There's an american southparkesque guy whose channel is called HowToBBQRight, he's genuinely known as one of the best bbq-ers in the world.

On the offchance you speak German, there are excellend German speaking tutorials too!

squonk

chases0102 wrote: »

My Weber Master touch arrived yesterday - looking forward to getting it going, great tips here.

Any YouTube videos people can recommend (preferably non American!) that use the Master Touch for recipes, approaches etc.

https://youtube.com/c/Barbechoo

I found this guy from Northern Ireland the other day. His early how-to videos are fantastic. Just perfect for this part of the world. Looks like a good guy as well. I wish he stuck with the Weber kettle a bit more but as time goes on he got a kamodo joe and really fell for it so hus later stuff is on the kJ, but he’s well worth a watch. No bs, tells it like it is kind of guy. I like his channel.

Padraig Mor

Cork Boy wrote: »

Just use the search term "weber kettle". The principles will be the same whether it's a master touch or not. Anyway, most videos tend to have the master touch but don't mention it in the title.

There's a dutch guy (speaks in English) called Pitmaster X, he's very good.

There's an american southparkesque guy whose channel is called HowToBBQRight, he's genuinely known as one of the best bbq-ers in the world.

On the offchance you speak German, there are excellend German speaking tutorials too!

Malcolm Reed - he is indeed very good (and one look at him, you KNOW he takes his food seriously!). Much as I enjoy Barbeque Pit Boy videos, they don't always give all the info whereas Malcolm gives you all you need.

Brian?

Cork Boy wrote: »

Thanks. But I was hoping more to smoke as much meat as possible. I suppose I could just do more shoulder and freeze it

A chicken leg will take less than an hour to cook, ribs about 5 hours and a shoulder about 8. So having them all on at the same time isn't a great way to do it.

Brian?

Cork Boy wrote: »

Just use the search term "weber kettle". The principles will be the same whether it's a master touch or not. Anyway, most videos tend to have the master touch but don't mention it in the title.

There's a dutch guy (speaks in English) called Pitmaster X, he's very good.

There's an american southparkesque guy whose channel is called HowToBBQRight, he's genuinely known as one of the best bbq-ers in the world.

On the offchance you speak German, there are excellend German speaking tutorials too!

The howtobbqright fella is deadly. He's so happy eating at the end, love him.

Muahahaha

Just a heads up, Lidl have a weed burning gun for sale which can also be used for lighting charcoal, it has a nozzle specifically for it. It goes up to 650 degrees on the highest setting too so sounds like it could be a great device for cooking a black and blue steak

Its been on sale for 26 quid since last Thursday but I saw a few left in a store today, might not be there for much longer so be quick
https://www.lidl.ie/en/p/great-gardens/heat-gun-weed-burner/p10523

Cork Boy

Brian? wrote: »

A chicken leg will take less than an hour to cook, ribs about 5 hours and a shoulder about 8. So having them all on at the same time isn't a great way to do it.

Any reason I couldn't add the smaller things later on throughout the cook? The only thing I can think of is lifting the lid leaving out smoke and heat.

FixitFelix

Cork Boy wrote: »

Any reason I couldn't add the smaller things later on throughout the cook? The only thing I can think of is lifting the lid leaving out smoke and heat.

No reason why you can't do it, I've done it before, you'll obviously get a temp drop in the grill/smoker but just be as quick as you can.

willabur

The Nal wrote: »

Ooh nice. So the casings didnt split at all?

no split in the casing at all. It was one of those two pack sausages so well tied up on both ends.

Big burst of juice when I split them tho. Dog nearly collapsed at the sight of it

Brian?

Cork Boy wrote: »

Any reason I couldn't add the smaller things later on throughout the cook? The only thing I can think of is lifting the lid leaving out smoke and heat.

You’d have to add more smoking wood in, which will just build up smoke flavour on the bark. Could lead to over smoked food. The smoke only really penetrates for he first hour.

For chicken I’d cook it after I pulled off the shoulder. It will take as long as the shoulder should rest.

Edit: to be clear, you don’t need to smoke something for the entire cook. Most meats I only actually smoked for an hour or 2 and then cook low and slow for the rest