Is gas or charcoal best, all considered? I'm neither Heston Blumenthal at grilling, nor Paris Hilton at partying. Just family functional. And are there any recommendations for a particular unit? My electric George Foreman has done what George himself did in round 8 in Zaire. Fallen over, battered and broken, legs had it, can't get up. It wasn't a proper barbie anyway. ta
Having had both, I'd go for charcoal, gas ones are expensive and a bugger to clean plus they rust away in the shed or garage. I'd buy a cheap charcoal one if I were you.
Charcoal - but proper bbq’ers go for wood. And even if you’re not Heston, have a look at tips for how to arrange your fire so you can control your cooking (20 years of bbqs before I learned this) and don’t cook sausage and burgers or drumsticks. Everyone starts with these and they’re the worst thing to cook on a barbie.
Go for charcoal. I've just had a BBQ on my gas burner and the gas ran out leaving a very droopy set of sausages . Schoolboy error I know but it's not the same under the oven grill.
Spatchcock a chicken, make kebabs, all much nicer than sausages. You can do a half decent burger, but they’re full of fat which drips onto the fire and creates flames. Oily flames just blacken meat and make it taste charred, what you want is food that takes on the gentle smoke over a longer period. Apologies for getting a bit nerdy.
I have a wood pizza oven but also like the taste of chargrilled (charcoal) stuff from time to time. Buy a cheap kettle BBQ (domed lid) - no need to buy an expensive one I got one years ago from Lidl or Aldi (can't remember which for way less than £30 which is still going strong and which enables direct and indirect cooking. Direct is where you put the food directy over burning charcoal (remember only start cooking once the flames have died down and the charcoal is covered witha grey ash). As someone has already said, high fat content foods like sausages, lamb chops, etc tend to flare up causing flames whcih blacken and burn the exterior of the meat even if the insides stay raw (obviously a health hazard when using chicken or pork). However, there are two ways to deal with this...one is, if the fires flares,place the lid on the BBQ which will starve the fire of oxygen and the flames go out whist still trapping heat in the BBQ. DON'T use a water spray if yopu want to keep your hair, eyebrows etc as fire, fat and water causes an almight flare up. Another option is 'indirect cooking' This is done by making sure the charcoal only covers half the BBQ area. You place the meat on the griddle that is NOT directly oiver the burning charcoal whilst keeping the lid on but ensuring the air vents on the lid and underneath the charcoal are open or partly open. This is my preferred option as the trapped smoke enhances the charcola flavour , particularly for chicken and lamb ( my two favourite meats for BBQs) I prefer steak in the front of the pizza wood oven. A Round kettle BBQ is great as you can use tongs to rotate the griddle the meat is on to vary between direct and indirect. The lid method, vent control and rotating the griddle give you all the control you should need without fancy BBQs feature like multilevel racks etc. Have fun and don't forget to have marinades on hand to brush on your meat/chicken as it cooks. Also if you like your burgers fairly rare like we do and dont trust the ready done packaged mince, do what we do and choose your steak, get the butcher to mince it for you add salt and some black pepper (all you need) and shape them into patties with wet hands. Enjoy!! EDIT P.S: Do NOT get briquettes and only buy hardwood charcoal. The stuff used to hold teh stuff together in the former is apparently bad for you abut also taints the food IMHO
Quite a bit to get my teeth into there, Heston old boy! Gas not any good then? Funnily enough while just browsing I see that Heston himself puts his name to some gas type thingies. Bit pricey though. Think I'll have another quaff or two first.....
Charcoal is brilliant BUT we went to gas a couple of years ago and use it far far more. All the time in fact. So much quicker so after work is easily done. 10 minutes and you're cooking temp, no used charcoal to dispose of, gas bottles last forever. We bought a cheap one last time and it was OK bit pretty uneven heat across the grill which meant lots of rotating. Just bought a Weber which is expensive but meant to be the benchmark unless you're going to go in to the mega expensive category. You can also use it for charcoal with a convertor. Took about an hour to assemble. Haven't cooked on it yet mind. Just to add there's a real shortage out there at the moment...
To clean a gas bbq leave all the debris on at the end of cooking. When you next want to use it, put it on full gas for 10 minutes or until all the fat has burned off and the debris is charred, switch off, use a brush to scrub off all the debris and a wet Jay cloth to clean it then reignite. I have a Weber gas bbq and was given these instructions by the South African guy in the shop. Still going strong.
Had both, prefer gas, like others said easy to use, in terms of cleanliness, we bought some mats off Amazon that sit on the grill, when cooking, stops the grill getting dirty, when cooled down put them into dishwasher. Like Donny red said, kebabs are awesome on a BBQ.
Charcoal every time, and a Weber bbq. There not cheap but bomb proof. I’ve had mine 6 years and it’s kept outside under its cover all year round. Works fine every time.
I'd say charcoal, and one that has a lid where you can put the coals at one side and cook at the other - everything cooks nice and slow and takes in the smoky flavour. Best thing I ever cooked on the bbq was steaks marinated in this stuff: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/143809/best-steak-marinade-in-existence/
