sotv

I used a Smartfire last year on my ProQ and it was very good on temps, found the wifi a little iffy at times, but that may have been my connection. It was a little bit of a learning curve to get used to it, but once I got the hang of it found it to be a good device if a little expensive for what it was. But definitely made temp control and monitoring easier on my ProQ

I know a few of us on here have cast iron cookware we use, was wondering if you have a go to piece of cast iron that use more than any other. For me I originally though it would be a dutch oven (pretty redundant now) that I would use more than anything, when starting out. But have found the Combo Cooker set I bought is my go to for cooking on the grill and indoors, for its versatility. Although this could be called a Dutch oven it is a much more manageable and practical size for my needs that the 5L+ Quart sized one I have also The bottom skillet is great for one pot dishes, frying and baking as it has a good bit of depth to it the and the top one works great as a lid or a shallow skillet for frying also. Always looking for cast iron ideas to buy in the future, so hoping to see a few other recommendations to consider in the future.

I find the crab meat that is pasteurised a little to slimy for my tastes, prefer fresh dressed UK crab meat, which is what I got in my order (hen crab). Got my eye on some Snow or King Crab Claws to grill in the future, but always sold out at the online stores i use. I mainly use the Green Lipped Mussels for cooked dishes, rice and paella dishes etc as they work better for my tastes and the shells just look better on the plate. Prefer British mussels when cooked in a pot with a sauce.

You doing the dry rub Shawarma or the yoghurt type ones?

Funnily enough had a delivery of some frozen shellfish (couple of packs of clams, greenshell mussels and king prawns) this morning along with a fresh dressed crab, sent out yesterday evening and delivered to my door at 0830 this morning, still all frozen solid and the crab is still unfrozen but well chilled.. Always comes in a well insulated box with a foil blanket and 6 solidly frozen blocks of what I assume is some sort of chemical frozen ice as doesn't dissolve into liquid water when thawed and they literally take days to thaw out. Get my fresh fish from my local Morrisons and they have a pretty good selection and the freshness is pretty good, especially if you buy it on arrival date at the supermarket. I live in the landlocked Midlands so limited to this sort of method, but when ever I visit family down in Devon, try to get to Brixham down the road, where the Fishmonger on the Quayside, literally sells it fresh off the boat and his flatfish and crab are just amazing and such good quality.

Normally used to doing a Tri-Tip on my Bullet Smoker at 225F and searing it off as best as possible at the end. Found life a lot easier on the Pellet Grill as a first go. Did a t 170F for 30 mins and 225F for a further 30 minutes till the internal reached 115F rested for 10 minutes whilst reset the grill to 600F and seared it in a cross pattern that totalled 2 minutes each side (4 times in total) whilst coating it in melted butter. Turned out well but would probably do it closer to 90 seconds next time, as it was closer to medium than medium/rare that I prefer and must learn to cut against the grain. Got it wrong again 😠 I did Garlic Butter Green Beans for 15 minutes @ 350F whilst the Tri-tip rested and the Gnocchi warmed through on the grill for a couple of mins after boiling in a saucepan on the hob. The Chimichurri was made from scratch and very flavoursome, although I need to invest in a food blender as my Ninja Smoothie maker, blends the ingredients into a smoothie consistency 😀

I used Hickory Pellets, but realise they have a different profile to chunks, but it worked well for me. Would also imagine Apple or Cherry chunks would go with it as well.

Hoping this would be a sympathy thread, should have known better 😀

I have a proper phobia and dislike of Banana's and they decide to put this up on my timeline, as they obviously think I would like it, the dirty Bastards. 😞🤮🤮 Smoked Banana Trifle

I am reluctant to fix something that isn't broken in my case at the moment. But if going forward I experience more regular problems with the Augur, will look into doing something about it.

Expected to need a fish basket/holder thing, but they released themselves from the grill pretty easily. Bought some Cedar Planks for fillets salmon/white fish to try in the future as well

Seems ok my end now 👍

Yeah I am finding it works well for those quick less than an hour cooks as well, wings, pizza, seafood, steaks and cast iron cooked one pot meals or slightly longer upright Mexican/Greek kebab style dishes and startup and shutdown and the now stable temps with a good range of temps makes it so easy I enjoy the slabs of meat done lo&slo but just experimenting with something different for tea most days is just as much fun and satisfying. I have an outside electrical point, so find short showers it is fine, with no cover needed, more persistent rain is ok as well with the large patio parasol over it. Some of these tropical thunderstorms this past week I don't want to risk 😀 Can't convince my wife to risk the family Xmas turkey dinner on it yet, though this year.😞

Looks good, using mine 4 or 5 times a week at the moment and not just for the usual lo&slo meats and feeling confident enough to use it in most weather conditions this summer so far, except those tropical type downpours, hope it works well in cold temps over the winter as well.

Hi and welcome, look forward to seeing some of your cooks on your Kamado

This is what I am seeing today? Colours changed along with layout and the logo seems all squashed up and half missing?

Had this happen once to me, in my own mind I felt the Augur had got too jammed up with dust and broken pellets over time and decided to dump them in the firepot in one go I could see the temp dropping 5-10F every 30 seconds during the cook so could see something was up, before the smoke started billowing out. I shutdown once the message came up from your photo and could see the fire pot full of pellets once it had shutdown. I restarted it, but what I did was leave the middle grill and flavouriser bar out along with the firepit cover , to allow me access to the augur on startup and a lot of crushed pellets started coming out and then a larger quantity of good pellets. So what I did was dropped a few good pellets into the firepot by hand to let it catch and put a cup under the pellets coming out to catch them till proper whole ones started coming out at the normal rate and let it carry on doing its thing after that. As I felt at the time a blockage in the Augur needed to clear itself, or all the dust from all the pellet bags put in the hopper over time? Just my experience, but it hasn't happened again and I would imagine that dust or compressed pellets must just jam up the augur on very odd occasions overtime, will keep an eye on it, but has been all good since that one instance . Another thing I prefer in my routine now is to start the temp at 200F and let it reach that, before putting Smokeboost on, it drops pretty quickly to around Smokeboost temp after that. Then after finishing with the Smokeboost increase it manually to the cooking temp I want.

Depends how greedy your guests are and how generous you are with the fillings 😀. I got 8 well filled pittas from the Shawarma and 10 tacos for the AL Pastor

It's a simple but effective piece of kit for using on your BBQ/Smoker/Grill, it isn't going to produce results like a dedicated vertical rotisserie, but for £14 it's 👍 Taco Al Pastor works well on it as well, the flavours are amazing, overdid the pineapple on the top for my first go, but would put it on after 30-45 minutes into the cook next time, all part of the learning process.

Look forward to seeing your pics in the future 👍

Got mine from here off Ebay. Spike and base come apart for storing and cleans up in the dishwasher, good piece of kit for the grill. Could leave it as it is, for the cook, but finding it better to turn 90 degrees every 30 minutes or so, to even out the cooking on each side. Done Taco Al Pastor and this on it and both have cooked all the way through and way better than trying to balance bamboo skewers on an onion that I have used previously.. If using a grill best to put on a baking tray or something similar as the marinade does run off the base and I know it would play havoc with it drying up on my Flavorizer bars. I have emailed him to see if he can make a triple spiked one on a base for me, as I have a fabulous looking 3 different meats at once, recipe, I would love to do.

Shawarma/Gyro recipe

Did this for the first time today very tasty. Ingredients Marinated for 8 hours (not pretty) 😀 Meat on the skewer before going on the pellet grill @ 410F A little over 2 hours and IT of 175F and grilled Pita bread off Cooked through and sliced great Made enough for 8 in total (Tzatziki made from scratch)

Ordered this morning and had a dispatch note for delivery Monday. Pretty good for free delivery. It is but at £1.25 kg no more expensive for fuel than good quality Restaurant Lump or Briquettes. Done 5 short cooks between 350-600F (60 mins to 3 hours) so far out of my last bag of pellets this week and got another short cook left. Charcoal represents better value for lo&slo long cooks, but firing up a chimney full of charcoal every time for 5 short cooks, pretty sure I would use close to a full bag of charcoal for that amount of cooks overall?

Blackboxbbq selling the 10kg bags of Alfresco Cherry for £12.50 (£55 free delivery) ordered 5 bags. Used 7 bags of different Alfresco pellets now and had no problems with my my Pellet Grill running them and the Walnut, Oak and Chestnut have all added a decent smoke flavour to the meat I have used with them.