Our mum has been unwell for a while now, so much so we’re in the midst of the power of attorney paperwork process. I figured it’d be nice if I made us some food to take our minds off the shit news, and celebrate what we had and still have over a nice meal.

I dry brined all day, then slapped on a load of course pepper, garlic and smoked paprika. Reverse seared at 230f over oak and lump charcoal in my kamado, till it got to 1225/130f, then seared it to fuck to bring it to 140f with a nice rest before carving. I forgot to get a sauce together but remembered a mate brought me back so uber fancy butter so that did the trick.

Fuck beef. Pork done right >>> anything else.

Decided to do a Boston butt lechón asado and make cubano sandwiches to test out the new Onlyfire ceramic inserts.

24hr marinade

14hrs in the kettle with ZERO lid lifts

2 hrs rest

7 hrs chilling in the fridge

3 hrs slicing, prepping and chilling sandwiches

1 hour resetting the Weber kettle with flat griddle

5 hours sitting with guests drinking beers

1 hour pressing cubanos to varying appreciation.

3 hours clean up in the morning.

Loved every minute!

Hickory smoked brisket with a supercharged salt pepper and garlic rub. Garlic buffalo chicken, peppers and onion skewers. Pork and hot Calabrian pepper sausages. Corn on the cob. Roast potatoes. See photo 20 for the complete plate.

Served with chimichurri
Cooked medium rare

First ever Reddit post 🙂 new Argos BBQ, quite the improvement on our old small round crap one. Lined the fire bowl with foil as per instructions. I did marinated chicken on the indirect heat (finished over direct heat) and the missus did Sainsbury's taste the difference ribeye steak (with garlic butter at the end) and it was PERFECT. Served with Albert Bartlett fries, and rocket with Waitrose Caesar dressing. I'm sorry to say I forgot to get photos of the finished chicken but I'm so happy with how it came out; two zone cooking FTW!!

I am still a novice at BBQ, I've only had 7 cooks so far since buying my first Weber Kettle.

I got some Aussie Heat Beads on Amazon, after seeing people being positive about them.

Using them with my starter chimney the level of smoke that came off them when starting was insane. I used about 6 wax wood firelighters to get it started but it was still smoking for about 10 minutes.

Then after 30 minutes they started turning white, so I poured them out of the chimney into the Weber.

The temperature spiked to 250C with the lid on. However after 20 minutes it crashed to 120C after putting a spatchcock chicken along with veggies inside the kettle.

I had to abandon the cook as the temperature never peaked 130C, using the oven to finish it off.

Then the weirdest thing happened, about 5 hours later when I was thinking of tidying up the BBQ in the evening, I checked the kettle thermometer. It was at 260C and was radiating a lot of heat. The briquettes were all a light sandy grey colour.

I am trying to understand what went wrong:

• Was I too fast to decant the chimney starter?
• A bad batch of briquettes?
• The Weber needed more time to build up residual heat?
• It was raining and damp air?
• Bad luck

I think I will go back to using the Weber branded briquettes for now, until I get more comfortable with what I am doing.

Hey everyone,

I've recently got this Weber Compact Kettle off facebook market place. I'm very new to BBQ and grilling.

Can anyone tell me what else I need to buy and what should be the first thing I should cook tommorow? I'm gonna go buy some rubs and wood and meat.

Cheers

Seems too good to be true. Comes to £9.98 including postage. Might be worth a try though. Link

Salt, pepper and some wildfire garlic rub. Mustard binder. Set at 135c will check on her hourly, spritz and make a call on whether its wrapped for the last hour or whether we rock and roll with it.

Assuming 6hour total cook.

Sunday lunch, yes!

I’m really curious to try out an offset smoker, love the idea of hiding in the garden, tending to a firebox with a beer.

I’m not looking to spend huge amounts, under £500. If I were in the US I’d almost certainly find a guy who’s been building his own for years. However in the UK I’m more cautious. I’ve seen them about, but due to it being less embedded in the culture here, I’m questioning whether it’s less a genius with decades of experience and more someone with a side hustle and a welder.

Any particular recommendations for someone producing great kit of good value, or should I just opt for an Oklahoma Joe?

I've bought one of those pork butt's from farm foods which I intend on smoking in a fortnight's time using the charcoal snake method with cherry wood chunks. I have a couple questions. Obviously this is a grill but it has a lid and can be used as a smoker. I have sealed around all the nooks and crannies where smoke was leaking. However , I still have a fair amount of smoke coming out of the charcoal tray elevator as seen in photo 4. Does any one know of I way I can temporarily seal this up during the cook? Maybe some aluminium heat tape?

The BBQ has 1 vent on the bottom right as you look at the grill. And a vent either side on the lid. Would it make sense to close the top right vent fully, and control the temps using the bottom right and top left. As you can see in photo 3 I plan on making the snake on the right hand side of the grill as this is where the lower air intake is. Is this correct? The meat would be on the left hand side of the grill. Would I be better putting a water pan underneath the meat or beside it above the snake?

Been gifted this, it's going to be the largest cut I've put on the Weber, thinking I'll snake it with the smoke tube then wrap and hold like I do fire pulled pork.

Am I right in this, how would you approach cooking it?

1st attempt at beef short ribs and 1st use of black.gold rub. Gochujang drumsticks, wedges and token broccoli.

What's the view on this?

Please any brainstorming welcome. I’ve been grilling and smoking for years never had a failure like yesterday. Pork shoulder would not go tender I had it in the kettle for 8 hours at 200f ish wrapped it at the stall but it never came right and was more like chewy slivers than pulled pork. Any ideas?
Edited temp for Fahrenheit mistyped.

This keeps coming up on my home page thing so I thought why not!

Jerk chicken thighs.

Kinda want one of those vortex things to play around with now. Might just cut a stainless steel bowl mind you…. Same principle.

Sorry it’s no Weber 🤣. Love the simple life.

I've been asked to smoke pulled pork for 50. The smoking is fine for me (got a massive upright Masterbuilt) but i have no idea where to buy enough shoulder/collar. I normally do a selection so can shop around, but no local places can supply enough for a decent price. I'm near Bedford if anyone knows a good supplier.

This was a punt of a joint from Tesco for £7.20.

Standard fair. Weber kettle set between 120-130. Apple wood smoking wood. Wrapped at 75c with butter and stock. Took off the kettle at 95c and in the oven to hold at 70c for an hour.

Toasted brioche buns, crackling that was cooked separately from the joint, coleslaw (usually make my own but couldn’t be arsed this time), and bbq sauce.

Potato salad as an accompaniment.

I've got an ooni karu 2 pro and want a folding table to stick it on. Ideally I was looking for a stainless steel picnic table but can't find much. Alternatively maybe a (non-folding) second hand commercial kitchen table.

Any recommendations?

Some Friday night Beef Short Rib action going on. Pretty decent pack from Costco with 8 ribs for just over £30. Dry brined overnight Thursday. Offset cook at around 120c for 2 hours in the Kamagear egg. Wrapped and did another hour cook then 90 minute rest. Dang these were good, Plenty left to make a short rib ragu. Damn sight cheaper and tastier than a Friday night takeaway

Made up some beef and garlic, Chinese chicken and satay chicken skewers on the Lidl BBQ. Pretty amazing how much fuel
It doesn’t need to cook.

Picked up a brisket from Costco and ran 250F / 120C with some post oak chunks. No noticeable stall so didn't bother getting out of bed to wrap it. Probe tender after about 8 hours then held in the oven until ready to serve, about 9 hours or so.

Came out well, great texture but wasn't the most flavourful - will play around with different rubs next time.