paul6057

I like the look of them because they're cubes, and looks nice and easy to arrange and stack, however I did just order some more Aussie Heat Beats yesterday, so that will do me for a little while. I tried different coconut shell briquettes before and they seemed good, and I agree on the ash point. In all cases, I find briquettes WAY preferable to lumpwood for consistent temperature, although maybe I should try lumpwood if I want to get temperatures up quicker. I tried a cook on my new ProQ Ranger at the weekend, and it really struggled up to 225F, and when I opened it up to put in the food, it dropped down a lot and took another age to get up to heat again.

Good discount here...

https://proqsmokers.co.uk/products/proq-coconut-shell-briquettes Anyone used these before?

Has anyone ever used one of these? https://proqsmokers.co.uk/products/proq-bbq-rotisserie-kit I really want a rotisserie but looking at this one, it's clear that you can't put the lid on, which seems like a design flaw to me. Should I just stick with the plan of getting a Weber Kettle and getting their rotisserie ring?

Oh right, so is that saying use water in the pan and cover that pan with foil? Is the idea that the water heats up quicker, but the foil prevents the evaporation? I'm considering firing up my smoker over the next few weeks, so might give some different techniques a try. I'm looking forward to some nice ribs as my first cook.

Thanks, I'm looking at the 200 as I want something smaller than my 57cm WSM. Ideally I was looking at the smaller Pro Q or the 37 WSM, but I don't understand how the 37cm WSM is £360, whereas the 42cm Napoleon or Pro Q are around £299. Seems like a coin toss between the Pro Q and the Napoleon, especially as the smaller Pro Q isn't available at the moment.

The first time I used my WSM with sand in it, it took over an hour to get up to temperature. It was the first week of January (2020) and a 57cm WSM, so a big beast, but I was surprised. I guess that sand has to get up to temperature too and the more you put in, the more energy that takes. And leaving stuff in the shed, unless it's sealed air tight, it's going to get some moisture from the air I'd expect. I read in another thread about someone talking about "foiled water pan" rather than water or sand. I don't know what this means, but if the water pan in there to just stop hot spots, why does it need anything it at all, doesn't the empty pan itself act to dissipate heat and stop hot spots?

Trying to buy a smoker at this time of year in the current circumstances seems impossible, nowhere really has stock. How would you rate the Napoleon compared to the Pro Q? They look the same, the only main difference I can tell is that some websites have the Napoleon in stock now, whereas I can't seem to find a Pro Q Ranger or 37cm WSM in stock anywhere.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pro-Q-Eco-Smoker/184674610130?hash=item2aff76ebd2:g:Ym4AAOSwaRFgMn26 An eco smoker...? This is just a cardboard box. What am I missing? Is this a hilarious joke?

What pellet grill did you go for? I am intrigued by them and good to know they're versatile for grilling and low and slow.

Small as in the 37cm version? The smallest version that they do? I don't have a smartfire or anything similar, but I do like the idea of something to automatically adjust temperatures. Part of me thinks, why not then just buy a pellet grill, but I guess that's mega-bucks in comparison. Did you get that in the UK? The Smartfire website seems to be US, Canada, and ANZ only.

Hi folks - I'm looking for some advice on what my next barbecue should be. I moved house at the end of last year, and as a consequence, I thinned my barbecue collection down to a large Smokey Mountain, and a Weber Go Anywhere. I'm trying to decide what to get next. I really fancy the idea of something with a rotisserie option, but I'm also going to need something that can do more direct grilling that just the little portable. I was initially thinking about a Weber kettle, but that's largely because that's all I see in the shops. Any other thoughts or recommendations would be welcomed. Budget-wise, I'm not looking at spending several thousand pounds on a Komado Joe or Big Green Egg sort of thing.

Looks really good. I think I need to invest in a smaller bullet smoker. I've got a 57cm Weber Smokey Mountain, and the thing is fantastic, but it's a monster. What size is your cooker there?

Hello Again! Not new to the forum, but had a bit of a hiatus last year on the barbecuing front, after a strong start to the year. It just didn't seem quite the same to barbecue 15lbs of meat when there's only my wife and two kids that will eat it... 😄 At Christmas, I did however move from SW London to Mid Sussex. If anyone has any tips or recommendations for good barbecue stores, suppliers and/or places to eat, that would be great. 2021, I have grand designs to landscape a part of my garden to build a barbecue terrace, and have a small shed dedicated to barbecues and barbecue stuff. Cheers, Paul

I've done something similar to this before. Just slice the skin down the middle, add chocolate and mini marshmallows, and leave in the closed barbecue for a few minutes to warm and melt, and it was delicious. That was a barbecue that I'd been using for direct grilling before, rather than in the smoker. Not sure that the smoke flavour would add to the chocolate and marshmallows...

I've never mixed them, as I've never had anything else to mix them with. Saying that though, I have recently used lump wood in the chimney to get the minion started. What do you mix them with Ice?

I suspect using lumpwood in a UDS, you'd struggle to maintain a controlled and low temperature unless your unit is really sealed air tight. I, like many, use briquettes in my WSM, and have been using Aussie Heat Beads, which you'll see mentioned a lot around here.

It's also very good for trimming up things like brisket and pork shoulder to get off some of the excess fat and especially the silver skin. Many different things can be filleted, not just fish.

I don't have a collection. I did buy my first proper knife last year, which was a Robert Welch flexible fillet knife. I have nothing to compare it against, but it's got a very comfortable handle, a nice sharp, bendy blade, and a decent balance to it.

(posting this in the right place now) Has anyone ever ordered anything from Pro Smoke? https://prosmokebbq.co.uk/ I've been looking at various things on this page, and a lot of them strike me as being really great things that I would love to have, but then I look at the price and I'm somewhat shocked by how expensive things are. Are they really expensive, or are my expectations just off the mark?

One thing that I was reading today was about whether you should remove bark from wood before using it for smoking. I was thinking about this because this wood comes with the bark on. I was reading this blog: https://www.smokinlicious.com/blog/to-bark-or-not/ I've always removed the bark where I can, but never really had a good reason for doing that, other than I thought that it could create a bit more acrid smoke. The interesting piece in this blog (I haven't validated with other sources so who knows how correct this is, but it sounds legit), suggests that the bark absorbs and stores pollutants, and so if you smoke with the bark on, as the wood burns, it could potentially taint your food. Anyone else had any thoughts on this one way or another?

My recent experience with Weber lumpwood charcoal has been less than impressive. It's done a job for grilling up a few burgers and sausages, but it just seems to burn so hot and so fast. I've only ever used Heat Beads in my WSM, and have tended towards briquettes in the past as they're reliable in terms of shape and burning times. Does the barbecue have a significant impact on how successful the lumpwood is? I've seen videos of people using lumpwood in a Big Green Egg, but never really seen anyone using it in a WSM. As I say, I've used it recently for burgers because it gets hot fast and it's a tad cheaper than Heat Beads.

I bought a bag of the Weber lumpwood the other week and I've used it a few times. I'm not a fan though, I must say. The pros are that it lights up pretty fast, but the major down side is that it seems to burn so hot and so fast. Briquettes are much better for control, but maybe for just doing a few burgers or sausages, the lump wood is good enough.

Awesome, thanks. I'll shoot for a higher temp next time and give it a few more hours. I guess it just means I'll have to cook more pork... Shame!

I spritzed mine, and I wrapped it after about 5 hours when the colour had got quite dark on the outside. Clearly I just didn't cook it long enough to get it to fall apart, 16 hours is a long ol' cook.