*Charcoal* BBQ/Grilling

Shred

I did some sticky baby back ribs on my WSM yesterday and I was really happy with them, they were absolutely delicious. Notable mention to Higgins Butchers in Sutton for the meat; they cut them there and then for me (approx. 3kg in total @ €8.99 per kg) and they were seriously top notch stuff.

fourmations

Hi, can I use kindling as a hardwood in an offset smoker? I was in Mr price the other day and they had bags of kindling with "Ideal for bbq" I've only ever used charcoal with chips or chunks of flavor woods, any advice welcome, thanks

OldBean

Does it say what wood it is? I wouldn't unless you were sure.

fourmations

thanks oldbean

i dont think it said, i will have a better look next time
or ill get the name of the supplier and ask them direct
could be interesting

cheers

fourmations

Hi all

im going to do an Ugly drum smoker build after toying with the idea
for years, anyone done one?, i have lots of questions!
I know there is infinite info out there but it is all american based
Im looking for a bit of "local" input,

off the top of my head..........
1: the drum, i can get a plain unlined drum for €43 or a lined one free
i'm really font of the burnout process and cleaning/sanding, it will be messy
noisy, smokey and time consuming, im sure my neighbours wont dig it!
i was going to get my free drum sandblasted but thats as dear buying the plain one, if i buy a plain drum i assume the paint will fall off so maybe id be as well to get it sandblasted inside and out, at least I will have a clean surface to paint with high temp paint, rather than having the stock paint burn off

2: themometers...id love some fancy remote probes that come up on my smartphone or a seperate reciever, anyone bought any, id be thinking cheapo ebay ones, this is a cheer and cheerful project!

3: stainless steel bolts, screws etc....is this over the top, it seems they are a bit hard to get, i have any amount of standard galvanized ones in work but our US cousins all use s/s

mille100piedi

Has anybody bought the small berghoff kamado?I have a small terrace in my apartment and I can't store items too heavy, the berghoff seems half of the weight of the other kamado. I wonder if is still a good kamado?

Ned01

Does anyone have any recommendations for charcoal briquettes in Dublin? I've been using the weber long lasting ones for my Weber kettle but am thinking of getting a smokey mountain. The weber ones are quite expensive.

OldBean

I contacted Fowl Play in Square Ball recently, and it looks like they've plans to sell Oxford briquettes. Otherwise, A Room Outside or whatever it's called in Glasthule, who'll also deliver.

Avoid the briquettes in Woodies, they're pretty ****e.

martinr5232

Ned01 wrote:

Does anyone have any recommendations for charcoal briquettes in Dublin? I've been using the weber long lasting ones for my Weber kettle but am thinking of getting a smokey mountain. The weber ones are quite expensive.

I get mine from woodfuel.ie its namchar i find it great and a good service from woodfuel.

fourmations

hi

kinda interested in this too
i bought 12kg bags of lumpwood from woodfuel last week, seems like good stuff, they were out on Namchar lump, i know you prefer briquettes, maybe the better brand briquettes are comparable)

anyway, im doing a UDS (drum smoker, very WSM-esque)
our US cousins seem to be able to do overnight cooks handy enough
but id have reservations on a fire lasting that long with the fuel ive used in the past, anyone any comment on this, have you done overnighters and held the heat? perhaps my better lump will help, i currently use that aldi smoker and an hour and a half is as much as ill get without tending the fire

cheers

Ned01

martinr5232 wrote: »

I get mine from woodfuel.ie its namchar i find it great and a good service from woodfuel.

I used them before to get oak for my pizza oven but they don't do briquettes just charcoal.

Has anyone has good results using charcoal in a wsm?

Ned01

fourmations wrote: »

hi

kinda interested in this too
i bought 12kg bags of lumpwood from woodfuel last week, seems like good stuff, they were out on Namchar lump, i know you prefer briquettes, maybe the better brand briquettes are comparable)

anyway, im doing a UDS (drum smoker, very WSM-esque)
our US cousins seem to be able to do overnight cooks handy enough
but id have reservations on a fire lasting that long with the fuel ive used in the past, anyone any comment on this, have you done overnighters and held the heat? perhaps my better lump will help, i currently use that aldi smoker and an hour and a half is as much as ill get without tending the fire

cheers

I find with charcoal I can get an hour of great heat but for low and slow, briquettes give me a lot longer consistent heat.

MaceFace

fourmations wrote: »

hi

kinda interested in this too
i bought 12kg bags of lumpwood from woodfuel last week, seems like good stuff, they were out on Namchar lump, i know you prefer briquettes, maybe the better brand briquettes are comparable)

anyway, im doing a UDS (drum smoker, very WSM-esque)
our US cousins seem to be able to do overnight cooks handy enough
but id have reservations on a fire lasting that long with the fuel ive used in the past, anyone any comment on this, have you done overnighters and held the heat? perhaps my better lump will help, i currently use that aldi smoker and an hour and a half is as much as ill get without tending the fire

cheers

When you say "tend the fire", I assume you mean add more fuel...
Was the coal you used pretty large chunks of small pieces?
Also, how much (kg) fuel does your smoker hold for the 90 min cook?
What temp does it be at for the 90 mins?

I have no experience with your smoker so can't talk to that, but when setting up for a low and slow, I fill with coal as much as it can take and then light only the center of the coal and get that area going. Restricting the airflow and keeping the temp low (225F), the fire should very gradually spread to the rest of the coals over the course of the cook.

If your smoker radiates a lot of heat, then you are always going to struggle as you'll obviously need to burn more coal to retain the internal temperature required. I'd guess an Aldi drum smoker was pretty cheap compared to the leading smokers on the market, and as such it is highly unlikely you would get the same performance out of them.
You could invest in a wind break or look for thermal jackets but if you are only getting 90 mins before you need to add more fuel and you are keeping the temp low (~225F), then I would suggest that no matter what you do, you are unlikely to be able to do an overnight with this smoker without having to add more fuel every few hours.

Brian?

I've been through all the brands, yes all of them, for my Weber smokey mountain. I only use Weber long life charcoal briquettes now. They're worth the money.

I use Namchar on my kettle.

fourmations

thanks for the feedback all, appreciated!

Ned - Woodfuel do Namchar briquettes also

brian - thanks for that, do you actually get an overnight out of the weber ones? my drum smoker is very much a poor mans WSM, very similar in design so im curious how you get on, have you tried the namchar briquettes?

maceface - yeah, the aldi smoker is what it is, cheap! i was just curious
as ive never used an offset smoker, the firebox area is way too small, fullstop, i went around it with silicone to seal better but its thin metal as you expect, still it was well worth 80e IMO, ive done full shoulders on it, 14hrs

my vertical drum smoker will be much more efficient as the heat will rise
rather than have to go sideways, so im hoping for the best
i will follow the usual plans i reckon, they use a large fire basket which varies a bit but will be way way bigger than whats in my aldi offset,
16" diameter by 8" high seems a happy medium

thanks again

MaceFace

fourmations wrote: »

thanks for the feedback all, appreciated!

maceface - yeah, the aldi smoker is what it is, cheap! i was just curious
as ive never used an offset smoker, the firebox area is way too small, fullstop, i went around it with silicone to seal better but its thin metal as you expect, still it was well worth 80e IMO, ive done full shoulders on it, 14hrs

Out of curiosity - how much fuel did you use for a 14 hour cook on the offset?
Did you have to add more fuel every 90 mins?

For me, the cost of burning through 20kg of coal for a shoulder would be tough to justify, but it wouldn't bother me having to tend every couple of hours (assuming it was a day cook :-))

unklerosco

I've done overnight cooks using lumpwood.. I lucked out last year and got 4 bags of lumpwood for the price of one in woodies. Or 16 bags for the price of 4 as it ended up. I've a WSM. Only problem I have with it is getting it up to temp, once it's there it'll stay there.

fourmations

MaceFace wrote: »

Out of curiosity - how much fuel did you use for a 14 hour cook on the offset?
Did you have to add more fuel every 90 mins?

For me, the cost of burning through 20kg of coal for a shoulder would be tough to justify, but it wouldn't bother me having to tend every couple of hours (assuming it was a day cook :-))

hi mace

i only used about 7kg and yes i had to add fuel every 90mins or so
the firebox in the aldi yoke is small and the setup is poor
the grate for the coals are really close to the base of the firebox
so it was choking in its own ash, i bought a basket that you'd use
in the corner of your shower and that did the job, allowed me to built up coals and allowed much better airflow around the coals

cheers

Brian?

I've used Namchar briquettes, they're not as long lasting as the Weber ones. At the end of the day, you're looking for a low slow burn. I have no problem getting 12 hours out of a bag of Weber briquettes.

fourmations

hi all

i was going to request a subforum for bbq
this thread is 68 pages long
i think its worth a forum where we can post specific threads
rather than searching this huge thread

is there a more active proper bbq forum in ireland?

cheers

Gloomtastic!

fourmations wrote: »

hi all

i was going to request a subforum for bbq
this thread is 68 pages long
i think its worth a forum where we can post specific threads
rather than searching this huge thread

is there a more active proper bbq forum in ireland?

cheers

I'll mention it in The Food Mod canteen but as they've just consolidated most sub forums into one, I don't think it will happen.

If you have.specific question relating to BBQ, just post a new thread and put BBQ in the title.

Ned01

Brian? wrote: »

I've used Namchar briquettes, they're not as long lasting as the Weber ones. At the end of the day, you're looking for a low slow burn. I have no problem getting 12 hours out of a bag of Weber briquettes.

Thanks Brian, I'll stick with the Weber ones then. They are not much more than the Namchar ones anyway.

Do you have the 57cm or 47cm WSM? How much charcoal would it use for an 8 hour cook?

Brian?

Ned01 wrote: »

Brian? wrote: »

I've used Namchar briquettes, they're not as long lasting as the Weber ones. At the end of the day, you're looking for a low slow burn. I have no problem getting 12 hours out of a bag of Weber briquettes.

Thanks Brian, I'll stick with the Weber ones then. They are not much more than the Namchar ones anyway.

Do you have the 57cm or 47cm WSM? How much charcoal would it use for an 8 hour cook?

I have the 57cm. I'd use about 6kg I reckon. I buy the 8kg bags but use roughly 3/4 of a bag each time.

Last time I did a pork shoulder, I did a low and slow cook with no crutch. Took 9.5 hours and there was still plenty of heat left in the end.

Ned01

I was thinking of getting the 47cm one as I think it should be big enough. It will use less charcoal presumably.

cargen

Any suggestion on where to buy a good charcoal BBQ like the Weber for a good price (Dublin area)

Brian?

Ned01 wrote: »

I was thinking of getting the 47cm one as I think it should be big enough. It will use less charcoal presumably.

The 57 isn't really necessary, but is occasionally handy. I put a brick in the centr of my fire basket to reduce the charcoal I use. I had a lend of a 47cm one before I got my own, I don't think I'm using much more charcoal.

MaceFace

cargen wrote: »

Any suggestion on where to buy a good charcoal BBQ like the Weber for a good price (Dublin area)

What's your budget?

cargen

MaceFace wrote: »

What's your budget?

200/250

I was hoping to get a master touch on offer.

FCB1899

Interesting blog post on charcoal and briquettes

http://www.richardholdenbbq.co.uk/bbq-charcoal-briquettes-what-really-is-the-difference/?utm_content=buffer01e8e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

cargen

cargen wrote: »

200/250

I was hoping to get a master touch on offer.

I will answer my question.
It is sold for 270 euro at the moment to the orchard