Skagg2000

Welcome Taff,

Plenty of great information on this forum from the contributors. Looking forwards to hearing how you get on!

Cheers n Gone Nick

Not sure on the size of your probes, but i can fit a couple of Tappecue probes through the silicone hole on my ProQ & these are quite big around 4/5mm diameter

So i'd suggest most below this diameter should fit.

Cheers n Gone Nick

This was the basis I made my purchase 

What makes these probes better than the others?
Solid PTFE jacketed wire is easier to wipe down and clean compared to the woven steel wire
SLE Wire is TWICE as accurate as regular wire (+/- 0.50°C for SLE vs. +/- 1.0°C for standard)
Internal sensor is completely sealed with waterproof epoxy for long lasting outdoor use
Sensing Tube has a small thermal footprint - heats up and responds to changes faster!
Low cost - high quality - custom made in the USA!

More detail HERE

Yet to see how they perform, but seem decent.

I'm not connected in any way to this business, just sharing information

Cheers n Gone Nick

On 9/3/2020 at 6:35 PM, AdamG said:

have you tried them in boiling water to see if they are accurate?

Can you see any red plastic like substance seeping out of the wires? (need to look really closely at them, especially in the area were the cable passes over the 'rising heat' areas)

One of my probes was reading about 50C above the correct temp...I later realised I had fried the food probe cable on the previous cook (which spiked to around 250C). Luckily the pit probe somehow survived the spike😲

Since then I have not had any problems with my other probes👍

No need to boil in water they are all over the place. They are stable at low temps but once the temp rises go to pot. 

Somehow I've cooked them as the internal core has melted through the braiding. Not sure how I managed this as the area the probes were in was no where near 500degF 

Anyway these custom probes arrived today from the states they seem well built and use good materials to a good specification 

On 9/4/2020 at 11:26 AM, pittmab said:

I just picked up a Thermoworks Signals with Billows attachment, has bluetooth and wifi and fitting it to my Char Broil Kamander was a doddle. There's definitely a learning curve involved but no more than learning to control with the vents in the first place.

The billows & signals kit from thermapen/ETI is next on my list if I'm unable to sort the bbq guru

Cheers n Gone Nick 

I'm going yo try some bespoke probes from the US and see if they are any better. It looks as though I somehow managed to cook the originals

Cheers Gone Nick

Came up in my search today.

Might be of interest to someone if you are in the East Devon area

https://www.gumtree.com/p/barbeques/bbq-smoker.-pro-q-frontier/1383031489

I'm in no way connected with the seller. Just posting to share information that may be found useful to someone

Cheers n Gone Nick

On 8/23/2020 at 8:13 AM, sotv said:

Link

Looks a decent Gas Plancha for a bit of grilling and frying down from £187-£56 if your B&Q has any stock left

From website

The adjustable temperature makes the plancha easy to cook with

Compatible with the Rockwell trolley, you can move the plancha around your garden

The oil collector allows you to reuse the oil to sear your food

 

 

Saw this over the weekend and was sorley tempted

Cheers n Gone Nick

I have a 10" cast iron plancha I'm fond of as it's great for fry up also starting to like my waffle iron now the iron is seasoned better

Cheers n Gone Nick 

Just about had enough of my BBQ Guru DX2 today, Yes it was winding but the temperature for both the food & pit were jumping wildly, 40/50 degF differences in seconds The food probe reading was miles off giving 178deg F when the Thermapen said 118degF. both my probes are new & those that have one know these probes are not cheap due to a restricted supply chain.

What else is on the market that will control the temperature in my ProQ / Fornetto & give pit / food readings ideally the device needs to be wifi connected so i can check on progress  when i'm at the supermarket etc

Cheers n Gone Nick

On 8/20/2020 at 10:20 AM, Icefever said:

I did think it was going to be ok Dirge, but I always play safe when giving an answer on something as this and defer to @Wade I run your weights through the calculator and it's easy to see where it went wrong....you'll never buy supermarket bacon again mate...best of luck with the brisket. 👍

 

Ice.

Plus 1 for never buying supermarket Bacon again

Cheers n Gone Nick

Sorry Forgot to mention, i'm using the yogurt marinade recipe

Cheers n Gone NIck

Any suggest which smoking wood would go well with this? My lad is just marinading the meat ready to cook tomorrow

Cheers n Gone Nick

There are a few different suppliers mentioned on the forum if you have a search, but these are a few of the more popular ones

Wood Smoke Shack HERE

Grilling Wood on Amazon HERE

Treetops on Ebay HERE

I've bought from all these over time & found the product to be fine.

Cheers n Gone Nick 

Had another play with this excellent recipe today. Used Sussex six seed flour, added a generous spoonful of Marmite, some sun dried tomato & Grand Padano  cheese.

Smelt gorgeous whilst cooking, tasted sublime. even SWMBO tried it & said it was lovely (She's not a Marmite lover)

Probably didn't need the grated Padano on the top.

I encourage you to try it, just once!

Cheers n Gone Nick

I've found that i am using the Weber Kettle more & more like @Justin says it's just so versatile for quick cooks, or longer smokes. The cooking area on the 57cm lends itself to all sort.

For all my purchases of bullet smokers & Kamado's it's the 30 quid secondhand kettle that get the lions share of use!

Cheers n Gone Nick

Globaltic.ee

Nice mix of size, not particularly dense wood, therefore easy to light & burns hot, but i think you would get through a fair bit during long cooks. It states on the bag 5kg will do 7/8kg of meat for a 4 hour cook.

For lumpwood, If I can't get Big K BCH15, then EBC is next in line followed by Globaltic, then Green Olive.

For Briquettes, Weber, then Aussie Heatbeads. Everything else I tried seems to have something in there constitution that taints the meat.

Cheers n Gone Nick

On 6/29/2020 at 2:28 PM, Skagg2000 said:

Not tried that Ice. perhaps that's my issue. I keep it in the shed in a zip bag with the other smoking wood.

Daft question, how do you tell the moisture is coming out when you microwave it?

Cheers n Gone Nick

@Icefever Excellent tip. Tried it this weekend & managed to continuously produce cold smoke with a ProQ generator loaded with Apple dust for 12 hours

Cheers n Gone Nick

Thanks Wade, I'll bear this in mind when i try the slicer for the first time on the bacon next week

Cheers n Gone Nick

That looks good Ice. I wonder about adding some tatties too?

The diet will have to wait another month!

Cheers n Gone Nick

Hi fellow forumites,

I've got 10 kg of bacon that will be ready for slicing in the next 7 days or so. Hand cut ends up with rashers that are a little to generous. Can anyone recommend / have for sale a slicer to do the job cost effectively?

Cheers n Gone Nick 

Homebase have a clearance sale on at the moment with a fair amount of BBQ stuf in it. It's all subject to stock in local stores so your might be lucky if you see something your interested in.

BBQ Buddy 11" Carving knife with a granton edge. £5.50

https://www.homebase.co.uk/bbq-buddy-carving-knife_p547811

Fervor infra red steak grill £135 (I fancy this but not sure where to hide it when home so SWMBO doesn't find it!

Couple of Masterbuilt Charcoal BBQ's too

Cheers n Gone Nick

This is on my list to do next week. Off to the pig farm tomorrow to pick up 10kg of back /lion  not sure of the correct term. Some will be dry cure, some will be maple, some will be whiskey oak & some will be ths, black bacon. 

Swmbo say i have to make some more hogs pudding before I start anything else, apparently i have 100 yards on ox runner on the way! Jeez!

Cheers n Gone Nick

I picked this up off Gumtree the other day for a few quid.

It's ok, but i think it could be better. It's all very well placing the pizza on a stone in the oven but the pizza doesn't brown to well because the "upper" is steel & loses to much heat. My Bakerstone which is great, has ceramic stone on the roof to direct heat back down on the pizza. I'm wondering whats the best way to line the internal of the oven to ensure the heat is retained & direct on the pizza to heat some browning on the topping?

Any Ideas?

Cheers n Gone Nick 

My suggestion would be to use something like Oven Pride to clean the grills if they are that bad, usually a soak in fairy is enough to shift most build up. The steel heat deflector if it's about 4mm or greater would continue building up the oils to create a non stick seasoned surface to use as a Plancha.

Given the size of the mini Kamado i'd suggest the foil method is probably best with smoking chips , well that's what i find! Otherwise I put small chunks in with the coals.

Cheers n Gone Nick