*Charcoal* BBQ/Grilling

Boardnashea

cargen wrote: »

What type of charcoal and where do you buy it?

Any recommendation in Dublin area?

Thanks

+1 Where is good for lump wood charcoal at the moment? I would usually call into B&Q for a few bags at this time of year.
Anything locally produced?

I have brought home locally made french charcoal before when on holidays!

MaceFace

Boardnashea wrote: »

+1 Where is good for lump wood charcoal at the moment? I would usually call into B&Q for a few bags at this time of year.
Anything locally produced?

I have brought home locally made french charcoal before when on holidays!

I bought a few bags of the B&Q a long time ago and still have it. I find it only good for quick and hot fires as it is mostly dust.

Personally, I buy the Restaurant Grade from A Room Outside (delivered) while next time I will follow what other people here do and try woodfuel.ie

noby

Must say, I was half tempted by the Aldi offers. I got a kettle bbq in Aldi last summer (twice the price of this week's one; are they the same?), and while I have no experience with a good (weber etc.) model, I did get great use out of it, and pretty good results. I'm tempted to go down the smoker route, but will probably either save up or go DIY.

Toots

OldBean wrote: »

If you want to see if you're into BBQ the Lidl/Aldi/Cheapo ones are an option, but ultimately it's not well made, it won't hold heat as well as a better build and you'll have difficulty managing airflow leading to either too much heat or too little. I've seen people modify them - buy some heat proof duct tape to seal the joins, and add a longer chimney to get better air flow but by the time you've gotten that right, you'd have a Weber working just fine. And you won't have half the frustrations.

It's not a great time of year to be buying, sales-wise, but some of the better smokers (Weber Smokey Mountain for example) seem to hold their value second hand, as they're not widely available. I've seen a WSM go for 100 less than I paid for mine.

See the thing is we actually already have a good BBQ (but it's not suitable to use as a smoker) which cost a few hundred when bought a couple of years ago, so I don't want to fork out a whole pile of money until I know if smoking is a success with the family Particularly considering it'd be solely used for smoking. If it's something that we do find we're doing more regularly, I'd be happy to save up and spend on a pricier one then.

I suppose what was tempting me more towards the kettle one I linked is that in a pinch we could use it as a second BBQ if we were having a lot of people over whereas from what I'm reading, the Aldi one wouldn't really work for that. Also I'm not nuts on the idea of having to hold the lid of the coal box down with bungee cords or similar.

beertons

Finito

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByyOoivR-g9oRXhxLU5CNm9GYTg/view?usp=drivesdk

8 hours at 250, dry rub was a mix of pepper, salt and sugar. It didn't need it, after tasting it. So juicy.

oleras

beertons wrote: »

Finito

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByyOoivR-g9oRXhxLU5CNm9GYTg/view?usp=drivesdk

8 hours at 250, dry rub was a mix of pepper, salt and sugar. It didn't need it, after tasting it. So juicy.

Mighty fine looking, what was the starting weight ? Never cooked a brisket, asked the butcher about it once and he was explaining how they would never get to the size they have in the U.S due to the slaughter age here.

beertons

3kg cost me 20 quid.

dub_skav

dub_skav wrote: »

Cooked it around 225 (up to 250, down to 220, but mostly at the 225 mark).
159 was the stall, dropped to 157 actually. Started going up again at 8 hour mark, but I had to take it off early to eat :pac:
Not sure how long it would have taken to go all the way.

Was very tasty anyway, but not "pullable".
Finishing the rest in the oven today, tightly wrapped in foil at 110C, not sure how it will end up.

4 hours in the oven wrapped in foil, brought it up to 196.
Took it out and it was really tender and pullable.

Might have converted me to a 2 part cook if time is an issue on the day of serving, i.e. smoke the day before for 8 or so hours and finish in the oven to serve exactly when you want, rather than cooking overnight and sweating over it being ready on time

twerg_85

Anyone know what the prices on woodfuel.ie are for NamChar ?
Website shows 4kg for €38, 5kg for €8 and no price on the 12kg or 3kg .....

cargen

twerg_85 wrote: »

Anyone know what the prices on woodfuel.ie are for NamChar ?
Website shows 4kg for €38, 5kg for €8 and no price on the 12kg or 3kg .....

I think 38 euro is for 5 bags of 4kg each.
Not sure about 12kg and 3kg

twerg_85

5 x 5kg bags of namchar lumpwood charcoal is €40 delivered

5 x 4kg bags of namchar briquettes is €38 delivered



We also supply 12kg bags restaurant grade charcoal which are €15 each plus delivery extra.

MaceFace

Can you offer any opinions on the charcoal vs briquette debate?

Gloomtastic!

FYI there's a thread over in Bargains Alerts about Gas BBQs that people here may be interested in......

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057733645/1

twerg_85

MaceFace wrote: »

Can you offer any opinions on the charcoal vs briquette debate?

Generally, it seems that briquettes are more consistent, lump will get hot quicker and burn hotter.
I'm no expert, but from what I've read briquettes for longer low and slow bbq, lump for shorter grilling.

F.

fourmations

twerg_85 wrote: »

Generally, it seems that briquettes are more consistent, lump will get hot quicker and burn hotter.
I'm no expert, but from what I've read briquettes for longer low and slow bbq, lump for shorter grilling.

F.

all the above is true in my experience,

also worth noting is that briquettes gives off a lot more ash
and that can have a bearing on your cook if there is not a lot of space between your charcoal grate and the base where the ash settles it can cause airflow issues and choking of the fire
(mind you ive only tried the usual hardware/supermarket briquettes
perhaps the Namchar and Weber dont)

im sure the coals in the US are different but there are a lot of people over there who use lump for low and slow and a lot that dont so it may be a personal preference thing, ive done a drum smoker recently and been doing research, although the drum smoker has a big big firebasket that is made of mesh so the fire is very well ventilated

ive used both in my aldi smoker and the lump is far better because the firebox is too small and the briquettes hamper the airflow due to excessive ash, the hotter cleaner lump does better in that

i think it really depends on what grill/bbq you are using it on

cheers

dub_skav

Lumpwood is really lumps of wood, i.e. "proper" charcoal. Whereas briquettes are re-constituted dust.

So, technically briquettes could contain anything and lumpwood could be at any stage of carbonising (is that a word?)

Some purists insist on lumpwood, but briquette are generally more predictable.

Essentially though all you want is heat, so find a decent brand of either that you are happy with and stick with it if you want predictable results.
I've used both for both grilling and smoking and I have found as long as you buy a decent product, either works.

Edit: As usual YMMV

niallam

Few racks on the smoker.

twerg_85

Where am I most likely to get a slab of spare ribs (or st Louis cut) ?
I went to fxb deansgrange but got baby back. They had what looked like spare ribs cut up, no slab.

Threw them on the smoker anyway, first time in a while !

F.

beertons

niallam wrote: »

Few racks on the smoker.

What rub did you use on them?

niallam

beertons wrote: »

What rub did you use on them?

Use my own rubs and sauces

JohnnyB23

Lovely colour on those ribs, don't suppose you fancy sharing your rub & sauce recipe, Niallam??

oleras

niallam wrote: »

Few racks on the smoker.

Not sure if you mentioned before but what make if the offset ?

twerg_85

Turned out fine except I dry brined them and forgot to rinse the salt off before cooking !

meeeeh

twerg_85 wrote: »

Where am I most likely to get a slab of spare ribs (or st Louis cut)

OH got them in polish shop. Local butcher sent him there. They had them under pork belly but they were without skin and top fat layers.

niallam

oleras wrote: »

Not sure if you mentioned before but what make if the offset ?

Custom build job I did myself

niallam

JohnnyB23 wrote: »

Lovely colour on those ribs, don't suppose you fancy sharing your rub & sauce recipe, Niallam??

Colour is just from using dark brown sugar and treacle in the BBQ sauce, really give that dark shine

budgemook

First time using the Kamado Joe today. Pork belly and a small rack of ribs that was cut off it as a snack. Smoked the belly for 5 hours, cut it up and grilled the fatty side before finally glazing each piece with some honey mustard I made up. Got the recipe in Fire and Smoke by Chris Lilly.

Happy with how it turned out. At the end was hard to keep the heat up at 225 but probably because I opened the barbecue too many time to have a look :pac:

oleras

Speaking of belly, wouldent mind giving this a go, although, i have never seen belly as large, that America !

Pork belly burned ends.

fourmations

First overnighter on the UDS last night, didn't quite work out, fire was almost out this morning but fuel left over. Must tune up my airflow, did a full bone in shoulder and it looked great but was only 140f this morning after 9hrs, had to go out all day so I stoked the fire and it got another 8 hrs! Same again, fire died off ,160f, chucked out in the fan oven with a probe and it hit 200f within 45 mins! Interesting experiment though and the pork is perfect, also did a couple of racks, they went on this morning, cheers

lordstilton

fourmations wrote: »

First overnighter on the UDS last night, didn't quite work out, fire was almost out this morning but fuel left over. Must tune up my airflow, did a full bone in shoulder and it looked great but was only 140f this morning after 9hrs, had to go out all day so I stoked the fire and it got another 8 hrs! Same again, fire died off ,160f, chucked out in the fan oven with a probe and it hit 200f within 45 mins! Interesting experiment though and the pork is perfect, also did a couple of racks, they went on this morning, cheers

Are you using vents for airflow or valves?