paul6057

Hi all -

I recently set up a Weber kettle which I plan to use, in large part, for rotisserie cooking. Having built it, it because apparently that the barbecue I had been gifted does not have a temperature gauge in the lid. This is a pretty useful thing for rotisserie cooking, so I'm thinking of adding one, so have a couple of questions:

1) How easy is this to do?

2) Do I need a special kind of drill to not chip or crack the coating?

3) Any recommendations for a reliable thermometer to install?

Thanks,

Paul

I eventually managed to get myself a small Pro Q Ranger a couple of months back, and I've done a few cooks on it now. It's pretty perfect for a midweek barbecue for the family as it's nice and small, and doesn't require a massive amount of coals to cook for 6 or so hours. I've learnt that it doesn't hold enough coals to cook for much longer than 6 hours and keep a consistent temperature.

Having done a couple of chickens and some ribs previously, I fancied doing something a bit different, and so I picked up some beef cheeks from the butchers at the weekend. It was a pretty simple cook I did in the end. Seasoned with a new beef rub I got from Angus and Oink, smoked at around 250F for 2 1/2 hours, then put them in a foil tray with a liquid that I'd made by warming some Dr Pepper, with a bit of additional rub, some apple cider vinegar, and a dash of barbecue sauce, covered with foil, and cooked for another 3 hours. I reduced the sauce down and used that as the gravy. It was fantastic.

I think next time, I might smoke the beef cheeks for about 3 hours, to build a nice bark, and then wrap tight with foil to cook for a few more hours, and then chunk them, coat in barbecue sauce, and see how they do as a burnt end substitute. The flavour was incredible, but they were probably a tad fattier than point end brisket.

With the sun starting to shine a bit more, I've been dreaming about all the different barbecues that I want to buy. Two of which have really caught my eye, one a more realistic purchase than the other, are the Kamado Joe Kettle Joe and the Pellet Joe.

I don't own a kettle, and have been eyeing up the Weber Master Touch series. I might still go that way because I want a rotisserie, but I do love anything Kamado. At £550 it also seems like a lot of money for a kettle, but just wondered if anyone had any thoughts or experience with kettles and this beauty.

Similarly, the Pellet Joe just looks awesome, and I really really want a pellet grill, but I don't think I'm going to be dropping £2,300 on a barbecue any time soon, so that's more of a pie-in-the-sky idea.

I haven't done it that much but I did do ribs and a chicken on my WSM. Yes the ribs dripped a bit onto the chicken, but I figure that's just like a natural basting with extra delicious flavour, so not something that I was going to worry about.

I guess if that's a concern, then you'd have to avoid having one piece of meat over the top of another one. That sounds like as good a reason as any to buy more barbecues...

I cook at around 225F all the time on my bullet smokers, because that's smoking temperature. I don't own a kettle, but I guess if you're just trying to cook a chicken at "roasting" temperatures, then 325 - 350 is probably about roasting temperature.

I did a spatchcock chicken in the week in my ProQ smoker, and it was fabulous, but it did take 3 1/2 hours, and got a nice smokey flavour. I used a rub called Feather Duster that I bought from Angus and Oink and it was incredible, had some really nice sweetness and spice in it. Definite winner for the future.

On 4/6/2021 at 4:24 PM, Grandadfatboy said:

Sorry for the newbie question, but I've read that using butchers "pink" paper is better for wrapping than foil. Is this the case, and should I buy some "pink" paper?

I've also just watched this video which is good. I like this guy and watch a lot of his videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxMUiA5UCQM

Stupid question perhaps, but what do you use something like this for? What it their niche?

And second question, are these in-store only?

Brown sugar, honey and agave sweetener topped off with peach mango juice! Is he making candied ribs? He also seems to be cooking ribs in the oven, so that immediately invalidates everything he might say 😄

I've always put the wood on the top, mainly because I don't put it on right away. I figure if it's going to take my smoker 30 - 45 minutes to get up to temperature before I put the food on, I'm not going to chuck the wood on and have it smoking way with no food in there.

https://www.bbqgourmet.co.uk/product/bbq-gourmet-peach-butchers-paper-750mm-x-50m/

This is a UK site. It's near enough the same length, but it's 750mm wide as opposed to 18" (450mm). And you can get a cool ass dispenser for it:

https://www.bbqgourmet.co.uk/product/bbq-gourmet-30-butchers-peach-paper-dispenser/

1 hour ago, U can do that again said:

Grandadfatboy, when visiting Ruxley , cruise into Sidcup & check out the BBQ barn, have demos in normal times.check the website for idea of what they stock.....

My parents live in Sidcup and I've driven past that place loads but never stopped to go in. Looks good though!

I've seen people wrap in foil, and I've seen people wrap in paper. Foil is obviously best if you're going to add some sort of liquid, and I've occasionally added apple juice to the packet when I'm doing ribs.

I don't have any butchers paper, so I've never used it, and you're not supposed to use waxed paper like baking parchment. I presume that has the benefit of being slightly porous, but I have no idea.

I saw a video from Aaron Franklin where he did 3 briskets, one wrapped in paper, one wrapped in foil, and one unwrapped, and there were different results. This is the final part here, but I think it's a 3 part video on YouTube - 

The limitation of kettles seems to be that you can't raise the height of the coals if you want them closer to the cooking grate for some extra cooking. I do however have my eye on a Weber Master Touch because I want to get a rotisserie ring for it.

I used to have one of these Landmann offset smokers - https://landmann.com/uk/product/kentucky-smoker-charcoal-barbecue/

It did me good for a few years. Plenty of space for some direct and indirect cooking, you can adjust the height of the coals (although it was quite rudimentary), and you can use the offset smoker to add a bit of smoke flavour to things. I will say that, for smoking, my experience is that an offset smoker is harder to use than my bullet smokers, because of the temperature variable between the side close to the firebox, and the side by the chimney, however, if you're doing chicken or ribs, or even pork shoulder, and you're comfortable cooking them some other way, whether oven, indirect, or even sous vide, then it's great to be able to add some extra smoke flavour.

A friend of mine had something like this - https://direct.asda.com/george/outdoor-garden/charcoal-bbqs/uniflame-classic-82cm-american-charcoal-grill/050077748,default,pd.html?cgid=D33M03G01C01

I think if you're only going to be using it for direct only, then it probably doesn't make too much difference. The cheaper models will have thinner steel and poorer seals, so won't be good for holding temperature for long cooks. You can certainly improve some of that insulation around the lid with some tape, but if you're just grilling up some chicken and burgers, then I think you can pick pretty much anything you want.

I asked this same question in a different thread, and this was the answer I got there.

On 7/1/2020 at 4:05 PM, Wade said:

The bark will not usually cause a problem. The general rule of thumb is that if it pulls off easily then discard it - if not then leave it on.

7 hours ago, Icefever said:

Some idiot will buy it......🤣🤣🤣.

 

Ice.

There were 60 bids, so clearly more than one idiot.

Someone who thought this was a bit of joke must have got a sobering shock today.

Not sure what's going on with this one:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aldi-Kamado-Ceramic-Egg-BBQ-Grill-Smoker-Brand-New-with-warranty/114735360463?hash=item1ab6c2a9cf:g:gOUAAOSwyy9gVy9z

I looked this morning at about 7.15, and it wasn't on sale yet. I looked again at 7.45, and I was 11,000th in a queue, so funnily enough, they were all sold out. Of course, the vultures were swooping never missing an opportunity to gouge someone - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aldi-Kamado-Ceramic-Egg-BBQ-Grill-Smoker-Brand-New/184721875061?hash=item2b02482075:g:3cQAAOSwXGNgWDkd

Yeah, their website on sale date says today, but it's definitely not been on sale today. We'll see tomorrow. I don't need one and I don't really want one, but I really want one, if you can understand that.

10 minutes ago, Ripple said:

I built one from a washing machine drum, got a non working washing machine off Freecycle and pulled out the drum, hardest part was getting rid of the rest of the washing machine.  The picture was taken last night, perfect for sitting out with a beer in the evening.

I went a glamping place in Kent a few years back that had these for each of their tents. Worked great to toast some marshmallows on.

P.S. I figured I'd just post and ask the question rather than read through the 23 pages of this thread, apologies if this is a bit lazy.

On 5/2/2018 at 7:00 PM, Whatcouldpossiblygowrong said:

Few pics

grate is steel rather than cast as is vent. Grill grates 4mm steel Deflector looks to be more of a pizza Stone and could be a wider diameter. Cradle looks to be well made with good quality castors. However the grill diameter is “only” 16” so might be too small for some. However £350 yes it’ll do for me ???

How did this work out, I see that this is coming back in to stock at ALDI soon. Worth the £350?

6 hours ago, Chae said:

I normally use lumpwood to light it and then briquettes for the minion. Are you filling the water dish? I often find if I over-fill it that the temp takes ages to come up. Sometimes I just foil it and don't put any water in at all. And there's a few folk here that use sand instead of water (I've not tried this yet so can't say anything about it from experience). Did you have all your vents open?

First cook, so I'll give it another go. I think maybe I just need to light a greater amount of coals, and put less unlit coals in the smoker to start with. Maybe I'll get a bag of lumpwood to start up with, because like you say, it gets up to temp way faster.

For the firebowl, I filled it with sand, but maybe I should take out some of that sand, or just try it with an empty bowl next time.

On 3/22/2021 at 9:07 AM, Wade said:

My old stomping ground. I was brought up in Joydens Wood, Bexley and once had a girlfriend who lived in Foots Cray. All seems so long ago... Probably because it was !!

 I grew up in Blackfen where my folks still live, and I learnt to play golf at Ruxley Driving Range. Doesn't look like it's there now.

On 3/21/2021 at 3:15 PM, Simon said:

Hi everyone. I hope everyone is doing well. Was just wondering if anyone knows of any good firepits that aren’t too expensive to get?

I've been looking for a new chiminea since our previous clay one cracked and fell into many pieces when I tried to move it, and I've found it shockingly difficult to find things that are in stock, don't cost £700, and don't look nasty. Harder than I'd ever have expected.