Whats your budget?

I have a Cobb which is fairly pricy at around £100. It is however, completely portable (you can carry it to a picnic bench with bare hands halfway through cooking) and the design means you can do a leg of lamb/whole chicken from raw plus veg cooked in the moat. Its a bit small if you want to do burgers etc as you run out of space, but…

They now do a bigger one! £200 gets you space for 2 – 3 whole chickens or a familys worth of normal bbq food!

Its all stainless etc and comes with a carry bag so is good for camping. Loads of (pricy) accessories, you can get a fry pan/roasting rack/wok etc etc.

http://www.cobb-bbq.co.uk/Products.aspx?class=sets

We got a non webber one from bnq. The model is called a Halleck.
Kettle
Ash catcher
Divider things for roasting with coals to the sides
Seems decently made
Big enough to conventional bbq for 10-20 on a leisurely afternoon of cooking
About £90

Fire food slightly too big bbq = happy man.

My webber copy I’ve just remembered is an Anthony Worrel-Thompson designed barbe. Just don’t leave any bottles of wine near it as they suddenly disappear!

A final tip for this type of barbe is to find/make a wire grill to sit your charcoal on. It raises the level slightly, makes it quicker to light and you don’t lose all the small embers to the ash collector.

It doesn’t have a thermometer on the lid which would be useful for the inexperienced cook, but does work well. (Robert Dyas)

Men Behaving Badly’ BBQ next to the fence

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkO269-Ru7k[/video]

A true classic 😆

how do you get the charcoal lit without some form of starter? I’ve got a lighting chimney but still need something to get it going. Advice welcome…

English charcoal lights very easily. Roll up a couple of pages from a newspaper, put them on the bottom of the coal grid, stack the charcoal on top, light the paper and the coal starts smoking, and that’s it.

Sorry to revive the thread but I thought I’d add a suggestion for a portable/compact option.

Having recently moved in with my girlfriend my big barbeque is currently in storage so I was after something we could shove in the car or use in the back yard and shove under the stairs between uses. I ended up getting this:
http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Move-It-BBQ/34-8804

It’s a great size, easy for one person to carry and it folds up with the lid secured so you could pack implements and charcoal inside for a trip to the beach. The cooking space is enough to do a 4 person rolled joint or a small-medium chicken, if you spatchcocked it you could do a bigger bird as the trickiest dimension is height.

I’ve shoved a drip tray in the middle and pack the ends with coals – it’s done me proud thus far. Temperature’s easy to control with four vents though it does ramp up much more quickly than with a bigger space so keep a careful eye on it. All in all a good travel barbe or ideal for those who are lacking in space.

I have a Weber like the 1 above, had it about 8 years, lived outside a lot of the time and not really looked after and still rust free

Bought a 67cm kettle version cheap in a sale and after 3 years had a bit of paint bubbling and slight rusting on lid around handle, few pics to weber via email and they sent me a new 1 and said keep the old one.

have heard nothing but good about weber, basically last for ages and if something goes wrong customer service 2nd to none

and yes cooking with the lid on has really improved our bbqing and led to cooking a wider range of things

beer butt chicken anyone?

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beer_can_chicken/

Weber and Australian heat beads for me

Most important thing is to remember………

BBQ RULES
It is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking
activity. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:
Routine…

1. The woman buys the food.

2. The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.

3. The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill – Beer in hand.

4. The woman remains outside the compulsory three metre exclusion zone where the exuberance of testosterone and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.
Here comes the important part:

5. THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL. More routine…

6. The woman goes inside to organise the plates and cutlery.

7. The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another Beer while he flips the meat.
Important again:

8. THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN. More routine…

9. The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table.

10. After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.
And most important of all:

11. Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.
The man asks the woman how she enjoyed “her night off.” And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there’s just no pleasing some women…

On the back of this thread I am seriously considering a 57 cm Weber. I have only ever owned a gas BBQ which recently broke so I had to convert it to charcoal and am enjoying cooking with fire that I have made. I started off with burnt food that tasted good and managed perfect burgers tonight.

I just can’t decide if gas or charcoal is better for me.

I_Ache – Member

I just can’t decide if gas or charcoal is better for me.

In direct cooking with a Weber is the way to go…. don’t forget to buy the chimney starter

Also make sure you get one with the Ash catcher

I do a mixture of direct and indirect. I am not adventurous to roast a whole leg or a chicken. I tend to just cook standard burgers, sausages, kebabs, steaks and corn on the cob.

I don’t believe in gas BBQ. To me this is just cooking outdoors. However, I’ve always been put off by a kettle BBQ. Surely they need a lot of charcoal? I’ve always used a pan type with a grill over the top (no lid).

Have I been missing a quite major point?

I wouldn’t go back to gas after my Outback burners rusted and I bought a Weber. I would buy a smaller Weber, however. With the ash catcher (it’s great). And the chimney always gets the coals started with no more than half a small lighter and some newspaper scrunched up.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq2SOmwzjUU[/video]

From the honest news

For £10 I will have one.

This one from ASDA.

TiRed – Member
I wouldn’t go back to gas after my Outback burners rusted

This is what happened to mine. Are gas BBQs prone to it?

This being STW i thought i’d show you my DIYish bodge of an ugly BBQ & stand

I got the barrel from a local mechanics garage, rebar to support the grill, reinforcing mesh & chicken mesh for the cooling area, it has a grate in the bottom from an old bbq set we had, we used an old steel ladder to lay across the top to raise the grill when nuclear hot and it all rests on an upturned workstand!

😀

(the little webber in the background was for the veggies & is the bbq we take camping, great as a firepit too)

Weber are all Aluminium, so I’d be surprised if you see any rust, except for maybe the rivets. They come with a 10 year guarantee as well.