*****Official BBQ Thread - Suns out, Buns out!*****

Caporegime
Joined
17 Jul 2010
Posts
25,657
Wish my Dad did something a bit more adventurous than burgers, chicken pieces and sausages. :(

I keep making some suggestions but usually fall on deaf ears. I think he wants to keep it simple. He got some Asda BBQ last year, if it's a year old by now it can't be by much, the lid is corroding already, the top thermometer has so much marking inside the glass (if it even is glass!) that you can't even see what temp it's reading and I'm sure the accuracy isn't great. I think they have a worry or not cooking the food enough, especially for larger cuts of meat. Any suggestions? The charcoal area isn't massive either which makes indirect cooking difficult.

This any good? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inkbird-Bluetooth-Thermometer-Temperature-bluetooth/dp/B06WGMDSBL
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
25 Feb 2004
Posts
18,138
Location
Hampshire
For that sort of stuff a Thermopen is great, along with some education about the temperature required for meat to be cooked. Unfortunately unless you're in charge I find a lot of these people won't change. It's why I usually take command of my own meat at a BBQ :D
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Jun 2007
Posts
9,045
Location
extremes.spacious.indelible
Wish my Dad did something a bit more adventurous than burgers, chicken pieces and sausages. :(

I keep making some suggestions but usually fall on deaf ears. I think he wants to keep it simple. He got some Asda BBQ last year, if it's a year old by now it can't be by much, the lid is corroding already, the top thermometer has so much marking inside the glass (if it even is glass!) that you can't even see what temp it's reading and I'm sure the accuracy isn't great. I think they have a worry or not cooking the food enough, especially for larger cuts of meat. Any suggestions? The charcoal area isn't massive either which makes indirect cooking difficult.

This any good? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inkbird-Bluetooth-Thermometer-Temperature-bluetooth/dp/B06WGMDSBL

I bought the 4 probe version of this not long ago and while not having all the bells and whistles that the big name brands have it does the job perfectly!

As @SoliD said, unless your'e going to force a change some people are unable to change their ways! :(
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2008
Posts
2,530
Location
Birmingham
Hi All,

I got round to doing a Pulled Pork in the smoker at the weekend - a relatively small 2kg joint. I salted it for 15 minutes or so before adding the Memphis Dust Rub (which in the end sat on it for another 30-45 minutes before cooking - see below).

I had some big issues lighting using my chimney starter on Saturday due to the wind (seems to wrap around my garden a lot). This meant I ended up putting it in a little later then expected at around 5pm. I had to deploy some new methods :)

uc

So the real fun part, due to the issues, I put this on later then expected and it did take some time to get to the right temp. At about 10:30 I had it at 65c and it had been smoking for at least 4 hours. At this point, the BBQ was getting a little low on fuel (the wind playing its part), however given the time I didn't want to put more coal in.

I took the decision to switch to the oven @ 125c, double wrapped it in foil and added some apple juice for moisture. Once in the oven, it took quite a while to start to creep up, I imagine I hit the well known pork shoulder stall. By 1am my eyes were pretty heavy and it had only reached 70c.

Refusing to be beaten, I headed to bed and set some alarms throughout the night. After a few trips down to check and baste, it eventually reached 94c at 5am. I grabbed it out of the oven, left it to rest and headed back to bed. By the time I got up at 930am it had already been pulled (thanks to my wife) - so I don't have a completed cooked photo. However, I can say before the wrapping the bark looked great. Of course, I did take a quick piece and it tasted excellent!

When it came to re-heating for some family coming round, I quickly chucked some in a pan, more apple juice and water this time and gently reheat it. Again it tasted great, not dry at all - probably the best pulled pork I've ever had, the smokey flavour was great. Pleased to say I was very well complemented by the family :)

So TLDR, here is the pre-smoker and post pulled photos :) If you look at the last photo, you can see the smoke ring and some bark. Genuinely really happy, would happily do some more this week! :)

uc



uc
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2010
Posts
4,071
Location
Worcestershire
Interesting write up! I'm amazed a 2kg shoulder took that long while double wrapped in the oven! Actually what temp was the oven at?

Impressed with your perseverance, many a pitmaster would have caved to the demands of family members to be fed with disregard to the internal temps!
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2008
Posts
2,530
Location
Birmingham
Interesting write up! I'm amazed a 2kg shoulder took that long while double wrapped in the oven! Actually what temp was the oven at?

Impressed with your perseverance, many a pitmaster would have caved to the demands of family members to be fed with disregard to the internal temps!

In fairness, it was always for the next day, so need to worry about the guests :) The weather just happened to be better on Saturday, so I didn't want to risk it (turns out it was the correct decision)

I expected it to be a fairly long cook 6 hours. However, given the wind, WSM not holding a steady 110 the entire time and a little more research (some say 1 1/2 to 2 hours per pound) - I'm not surprised it took longer.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2008
Posts
2,530
Location
Birmingham
Hi All,

Just a heads up, Lidl have Big K 5kg Charcoal Briquettes for £2.99 at the moment. It seems to be a slightly older / different package to the stuff I have been getting at The Range. However, I can't imagine there is any difference between it all :)
 
Permabanned
Joined
7 Aug 2017
Posts
2,141
Location
by the tower the one up north ..
Hi All,

Just a heads up, Lidl have Big K 5kg Charcoal Briquettes for £2.99 at the moment. It seems to be a slightly older / different package to the stuff I have been getting at The Range. However, I can't imagine there is any difference between it all :)
just be careful theres been some fake big k stuff going round .. slight orange tinge to bags ..
 
Permabanned
Joined
25 Jan 2013
Posts
4,277
Can anyone recommend me a relatively cheap thermometer I can use to monitor bbq temp? I know for a fact the one that came with mine reads low by about 20c.

Hi All,

Just a heads up, Lidl have Big K 5kg Charcoal Briquettes for £2.99 at the moment. It seems to be a slightly older / different package to the stuff I have been getting at The Range. However, I can't imagine there is any difference between it all :)

Picked a few bags up last month from there. Shockingly decent for the price!
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jan 2005
Posts
8,543
Location
Liverpool
Can anyone recommend me a relatively cheap thermometer I can use to monitor bbq temp? I know for a fact the one that came with mine reads low by about 20c.

The Inkbird and Thermopro are decently priced on Amazon at the moment and seem to get good reviews. :)

I've just seen that they've released a new version of the Fireboard as well. I'm glad I held off buying the first version now!
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2008
Posts
2,530
Location
Birmingham
Picked a few bags up last month from there. Shockingly decent for the price!

Good to know - thanks :)

Can anyone recommend me a relatively cheap thermometer I can use to monitor bbq temp? I know for a fact the one that came with mine reads low by about 20c.

I have a bluetooth Weber iGrill mini thermometer (a gift). However, if I was to buy my own, I'd go for something less fancy.

As mentioned above, something which isn't bluetooth (not useful as it un-syncs when I'm in the lounge - maybe there is some with better range?), has an alarm, shows the temperature, ability to show 2 readings (one for BBQ and 1 for meat) being the key parts.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Sep 2003
Posts
4,942
Location
Midlands
Can anyone recommend me a relatively cheap thermometer I can use to monitor bbq temp? I know for a fact the one that came with mine reads low by about 20c.

Got the InkBird last week, it's really great and the range is excellent too for the bluetooth. It's my first BBQ thermometer and it's a complete game changer so far :) Just chuck the food on and forget about it. Cooks quicker too because the lid is opened less often.
 
Back
Top Bottom