BBQ Cooks

Smoke/wood flavour being required when barbecuing is a common misconception – when direct grilling (as opposed to indirect heat, ie slow cooking via smoking) there is no wood flavour or smoke in the taste of barbecue. The distinct flavour comes from the combustion of dripping fat in the flames or on the coals. Charcoal tends to taste better because it burns hotter and this the flavour compounds created through the combustion of fat are different but that isn’t cut and dried.

I tried watching that chefs table episode to learn about cooking with fire……… I have to be honest it just came across as pretentious twaddle! High point was the scenery which was spectacular!

I have a charcoal BBQ and happily crack on with whatever charcoal B&Q have in stock! I would have gone for a gas BBQ but they were too pricey!

It’s the quality of the meat and cooking that imparts the biggest influence. If I’d had charcoal BBQ I wouldn’t have had time to have 40 BBQs this year.

This.

Saying my BBQ is better than yours because I use charcoal from some artisan single coppice supplier is very similar to teenage boys comparing wang size.

….actually, this is STW isn’t it. I suspect wang comparisons is what’s actually happening here.

if I’d had charcoal BBQ I wouldn’t have had time to have 40 BBQs this year.

You count the number of barbecues you’ve had? It’s almost as if you have something to prove 🙂

I presume you use wood on your gas grill to get the smokey flavour?

Nope, I use many other varied herbs, spices and ingredients to get the flavour I want. If I wanted to smoke stuff I’d use a smoker, big difference.

Better tell these guys then, seeing as you’ve just undermined their entire business. I’m sure they would be highly entertained by a snobbish pom telling them they don’t know what they’re doing

https://www.barbequesgalore.com.au/

Seeing as they can’t spell barbecue, I’d be happy telling them they don’t know what they’re doing 😉

It takes all sorts I guess.

I’ve never owned a gas bbq – just don’t seem right. Friends and relatives have them and the efficiency does seem useful. I also appreciate there are whole communities overseas that cook outside on one 7 days a week in the summer and the convenience makes them ideal for that. I don’t bbq that often (maybe two or three times a week at this time of year, but also partial to an occasional winter bbq too) but if it was my primary cooking method I’d maybe change my thinking.

As above, I am biased, but I wonder if the seeming non-benefit of charcoal over gas for many is because their charcoal experience is primarily with chemical infused cheap briquettes. Quality lumpwood makes it worth it for me from a gastronomic perspective.

Whichever way you do it, the eating, cooking and socialising outside bit is brilliant. Even if it’s just my wife and I, we seem to find time to take stock and talk more when eating like that, even on a mid week work night. And that has to be a good thing.

Returning to the OP – it’s kind of weird how in even the most misogynistic households where the man barely enters the kitchen; it is still the man who does the bbqing. It’s no wonder they are shit at it. I have to say I do the BBQing in convert towers but then again I do all the indoor cooking too. I love camping but one of my least favourite parts of going to an actual campsite it the smell of cheap meat being incinerated on a chemically infused instant BBQ.

I would never believe about choosing right charcoal but I did notice performance of my BBQ. Petrol station cheap charcoals took almost an hour to start, Big K were acceptable to cook for 2hours, and Webber quick to start but burned out really quick. I bought waitrose firestarter very similar to Webber and think maybe I need something bigger than that as I guess my Kamado needs more charcoals for longer cooking?

So what is a good source of charcoal fuel? Product/brand/item, with a good balance of price to quality (I know that’s subjective)

My BBQ bottom shelf is an open grill, I use briquettes as the lumpwood falls through, but I’m thinking of just putting down a metal tray so I can use lumpwood, I used to prefer lumpwood

I don’t mean lumpwood by Big K or similar, I mean the proper stuff.

I use this stuff made by Dan

https://hotsmoked.co.uk/charcoals/nettelfields-artisan-charcoal.html?SID=loj5g6im6rfg51pcq3d92cppi0

This is artisan charcoal

What you linked to is overpriced, if the charcoal costs more per kg than your sausages you’re either paying too much, or going to a artisan butcher too.

The cheaper/supermarket lumpwood stuff is often quite small and a bit dusty and might fall through. The better stuff is often quite a bit big lumps so maybe not a problem. I’ve had Big K stuff which I got online before which I thought was quite good. Recently been using some local stuff (Hampshire) but mainly because I know the guy through work. Probably a bit better but even at a bit of a mates rate it works out a bit more but buying his stuff has work related relationship benefits! He does not use the word artisan though, and if he did I might have second thoughts! Artisan used to be a nice work, but now comes with connotations.

What you linked to is overpriced, if the charcoal costs more per kg than your sausages you’re either paying too much, or going to a artisan butcher too.

Whilst I get your point, if you are eating sausages that cost less than £2.66 per kg, the quality of the heat source is immaterial!

I suspect as Mr Nutt is commercial he is buying in bulk and is not paying consumer ‘artisan’ prices.

Nope, I use many other varied herbs, spices and ingredients to get the flavour I want. If I wanted to smoke stuff I’d use a smoker, big difference.

Ah so it’s what you add to the meat that gives the flavour then. So what’s the point in cooking on an outdoor gas hob?

MrNutt – Member
anyone who is considering cooking with fire should really watch Episode 3 (series 1) of Chefs Table on Netflix, let Francis Mallmann be your guide.

Everyone do this! It is awesome, the guy lives on an island in a lake in Patagonia 100 miles from civilisation. I’ve watched five minutes and I’ve stopped it to watch with the wife this evening. So much more than a bloke saying “your meat thermometer should read 70 degrees” which is what I was expecting.

On a wider tangential point I bloody love Netflix, they are making some excellent telly, watched the first three episodes of Stranger Things last night, it’s brill.

It’s not an outdoor gas hob. To cook on a hob you need a pan; a gas BBQ allows you to grill directly above the heat on a grill. The heat is supplied by using gas to heat in my case, and using Weber’s word for them, porcelain ‘flavouriser’ bars – other gas BBQ’s use lava rock, etc. – which sit above the burners. As mentioned above, the oils from the food drip onto these hot bars which creates the smoke.

If i want i can add smoke by adding wood chippings in a smoker box, or if you have lava rocks then directly to that bed.

The one thing even the most amateur charcoal griller should know is that if the charcoal is still producing smoke then it’s not ready to cook on yet. You need it to die down to white surfaced heat with no flames or smoke and then you start. When oils drip off the food onto the hot coals they then smoke in the same way as the oils dripping onto gas heated bars or lava rock.

The differences are there – on a charcoal grill, the heat source is also the hot surface; on a gas grill the gas heats a hot surface. And there are some who will argue that because coals can get hotter then you get a different release of flavours from the oil smoke. Maybe true, maybe not; I can get perfectly acceptable results from either.

But the one thing that a charcoal grill shouldn’t be adding to the flavour is the smell and taste of charcoal smoke, because that is foul acrid black stuff, and if you’re cooking while that’s coming off – you’ve failed.

Ah so it’s what you add to the meat that gives the flavour then. So what’s the point in cooking on an outdoor gas hob?

From the Pitt Cue book:

“The reason why the flavour of grilled meat is so unique and addictive is not only down to the complex Maillard reactions that occur when meat hits a hot grill – it is, in fact, the drippings from the cooking meat and not the charcoal itself that produce the flavour in grilled meat. When the fats, and the sugar and protein-rich juices from the meat, fall down on to the hot charcoal, they combust into smoke and flame and rise to coat the cooking meat in a multitude of unique and aromatic flavour compounds. So when you are weighing up whether to use a griddle pan or light the barbecue, know that only one will really satisfy your need for grilled meat.”

Whilst I get your point, if you are eating sausages that cost less than £2.66 per kg, the quality of the heat source is immaterial!

Indeed*, my criteria for a good BBQ probably runs something like:
1) Company
2) Probably drink, probably alcoholic, probably home brewed because everything tastes crap with Corona.
3) No food poisoning
4) Not burnt
5) Tasty food (seasoning, marinades, etc)
6) Length of hipster charcoal makers beard.

He probably also curates his woodland and has a stall on Borough Market**.

*Minimum acceptable sausages for under the price of artisan charcoal http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=261878876

** I have nothing against Borough Market, the idea of getting sozzled on Prosecco cocktails whilst doing the food shop in the sunshine is genius.

+1 for TINAS’s post.

Just bbqed the bacon for my lunch butty on my q2200.

Not sure id have been bothered if i had to wait on the charcoal doing its thing.

Still tastes better than griddled bacon.

I have a gas bbq or cooker if you prefer that, a Webber charcoal one AND an Esse wood oven. I use whatever I can be bothered using, the Esse is a journey into sacrificial burning at the moment but did a lamb shoulder in it which was amazing. I’ve bbq’d or gas cookerified our Xmas dinner the last 2 years !

I’ve had a think since my post this morning about why it has to be charcoal for me. I’ve concluded its got more to do the total experience than the food. Here it is; if I had my way every evening would be spent cooking over and then eating around a fire like this in a place like this:-

Sadly life gets in the way and that’s never going to happen. But the merest hint of it’s DNA is left in a charcoal BBQ – the getting it lite, the smell, a bit of smoke as it gets going, the heat and the embers. It’s clearly no substitute but a bastardised domesticated equivalent which stirs just enough to evoke unconscious memories. Gas BBQing is just one evolutionary step too far for me. It’s just cooking and eating outside which are lovely things, but there is no fire. I need fire.

I also appreciate there are whole communities overseas that cook outside on one 7 days a week in the summer and the convenience makes them ideal for that. I don’t bbq that often (maybe two or three times a week at this time of year, but also partial to an occasional winter bbq too) but if it was my primary cooking method I’d maybe change my thinking.

This.

When I lived in the UK and only had three nights a year suitable for the ceremony of “man make fire, man cook meat”, charcoal was great. The fact is I like cooking outside, do it regularly, often within 10 minutes of getting in from work. If I pratted around in some smug self-satisfied way about charcoal, I’d have not bothered, or ended up eating silly late.

So fine, have artisan, single-stem, local coppice charcoal that cost three times per kg as I pay for fillet if that pleases you. But I can guarantee you that competently cooked, you wouldn’t tell the difference between gas or charcoal.

You can bbq in the rain you dont have to live in Aus!! You just have to help the ignition along sometimes!

WD-40 flavoured food.

Yum yum.

That’d taste no worse than anything cooked on one of these….

You count the number of barbecues you’ve had? It’s almost as if you have something to prove

Actually there is a story to that. GF spent £700 on this weber job. So she’s maxing the usage to prove a point. Hence the count.

Jeez guys, just cook on whatever you want. Make nice food, enjoy it, have a beer and a joint. Whatever it takes. No need for an argument over fuel choice.

Wrecker +1