BBQ EQPT - Advice and what have you got

[tuffer]

Suggestion from Lord Grover that a thread would be good for suggesting advice regarding equiptment etc, so here we are. What do you have and what would you advise?

[ATG]

A weber with a lid and some water soaked hickory wood chips.

[hornetrider]

A chimney.

Good fish slice for flipping burgers/steak.

Tongs for the rest or a two-pronged skewer thing.

A hard wire brush for cleaning the grate.

[tuffer]

Do people have much of an issue with Weber's leaking heat and smoke and requiring lots of topping up of fuel? How many times do you have to add more coals for an 8 hour smoke?

[HarryFlatters]

Lumpwood charcoal for screaming hot direct grilling, briquettes for low, long indirect cooking. Some kind of wood to give smoke, but not pine unless you want your pork butt to taste like a magic tree

And as above, a chimney starter and a BBQ with a lid. I'm not too precious about which kind, mines is a no name drum type grill that was cheap from Makro. Also, a decent flipper (built in bottle opener is a bonus), a pair of tongs, a big fork, an instant read digital thermometer and a case of beer.

Edit: - what I have found to be extremely useful is a good filleting knife. I tend to buy bone in pork belly, and trying to separate the ribs from the belly without a good knife is extremely difficult.

Oh, and learn to remove the sinew from the back of the ribs because the butcher never does it properly.

Edited by HarryFlatters on Tuesday 23 June 11:11

[calibrax]

tuffer said:

Do people have much of an issue with Weber's leaking heat and smoke and requiring lots of topping up of fuel? How many times do you have to add more coals for an 8 hour smoke?

Look up the "Minion Method".

[PGM]

Essentials for me:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maverick-Range-Digital-Wir...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ThermoPop%C2%AE-Thermomete...

[madcowman]

[quote]A hard wire brush for cleaning the grate.
[/quote]

Be careful with this .... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/grill-barbecue-metal-b...

what you can use is a ball of kitchen foil works just as well and is safer.

[Scantily]

I have a weber 57cm one touch premium and a 47cm weber smokey mountain.

The essentials -
Chimney starter.
Maverick et732/733.
Thermapen.
Good sized wood chunks, not chips.
Patience.

[fttm]

Weber , wire brush , tongs , stone , beer can chicken holders , JD wood chips and lots of sunshine .

[tomsugden]

Two Big Green Eggs here. As others have said a decent dual probe thermometer makes life easier, particularly for cooking low and slow. I also use a BBQ Dragon for getting it very hot in a short time. Ideal for cooking pizzas:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BBQ-Dragon-Supercharger-Gr...

[F-Stop Junkie]

Bear Paws. Bought for me as a bit of a joke gift, but used regularly both on and off the BBQ.

[opieoilman]

I have a Barbecook Optima http://www.amazon.co.uk/barbecook%C2%AE-223-4305-0...

With the table http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAEY-HOME-GARDEN-N-V-223-3...

The Barbecook bbqs have built in starters (like a chimney starter), brilliant for lumpwood charcoal, rubbish for briquettes.

My tools are from a posh 'lifestyle' shop my brother did some work for, very good stainless steel rather than the normal style over substance stuff from that kind of shop. I got a wire brush from Tesco, seems to do the job and doesn't leave bristles behind.

When I get the chance, I'm going to build a canopy to cover the bbq for all year round use and probably getting the Barbecook Dome lid to use the bbq for pizzas

[ATG]

Not exactly essential, but I saw a jolly good hexagonal shed thing at the garden centre. Looked like something out of The Hobbit. Seating all round the inner walls facing a central table with the BBQ at the centre of that. Smoke hood over the BBQ running up to a chimney in the middle of the roof. Plus some reindeer skins to sit on.

No doubt in reality the CO build up inside would knock you out, then 10 minutes later the pine structure and tar roof would go Chernobyl . But at least the drumsticks wouldn't be raw in the middle.

[Shaolin]

Golfing umbrella attached to a bit of angle iron or scaffold pole and an arrangement to prop it over the BBQ to allow 365 functionality. Rain or snow on the cover cools it down really quickly even in the summer, protection from precipitation is vital.

[fredt]

GOOD tongs are essential.

I like these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OXO-Good-Grips-Locking-Ton...


Another thing I find very useful is a 100mm filling knife, I use it to clean the grates and also to carefully lift food stuck to the grate.

Edited by fredt on Wednesday 24th June 14:40

[LordGrover]

I'm a BBQ virgin and just ordered a Weber Compact 47cm to get me started. Bought the Weber chimney starter too.
Should be here tomorrow so will be giving it a test run at the weekend.

[Zoon]

LordGrover said:

I'm a BBQ virgin and just ordered a Weber Compact 47cm to get me started. Bought the Weber chimney starter too.
Should be here tomorrow so will be giving it a test run at the weekend.

You can't go far wrong with that.
Near enough the same as I have.

[Schmy]

F-Stop Junkie said:

Bear Paws. Bought for me as a bit of a joke gift, but used regularly both on and off the BBQ.

Happy hour in Yates' can be a scary experience, huh?

Weber OT 57
Chimney starter
Reversable rib rack (upside down it holds a bird)
Digital meat thermometer
Various flipping/turning/cleaning tools

Charcoal wise I tried Big-K from Waitrose this weekend after hearing about them on here. Very disappointing in terms of temperature and time (both low). They're not cheap but Weber 240min briquettes really are the bomb.

[SVX]

Weber standard 57 Braai here.

Essential tools - long tongs and Nomex gauntlet.

I save toilet/kitchen roll tubes to use as firelighters - instead of chemical lighter fluid/blocks.