Outdoor cooking - Barbecues, Barbecue, BBQs, BBQ, Smokers, Grills. And Ribs.

All the meat is amazing good work everyone, DJ seeing all that is a superb effort, tips hat :)
Slains amazing rib shak, a new calling in Oz????

We scored some leftovers (thanks DJ) and had them last night after a gig. Still bloody lovely!

I'd love to do something food related but you have to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops to do absolutely anything here... I'm thinking mobile pizza oven...

Giving meat away instead of wedding cake is the way forward.

rep

James is an artist. It was all amazing.

In the end I opted for a cheapo Argos gas BBQ. Yet to see how it fairs, but I'm (hopefully) picking up some gas tonight.

Does anyone have a recommendation for where to buy wood chips cheaply?

B&Q has "JD flavoured" ones for £6/kg. I'm sceptical about the whiskey flavouring but it seems like good price. And you've got to start somewhere.

Any other thoughts on economical sources?

Also I'm working on:
1l = 0.38kg / 1kg = 2.63l

Does that sound about right?

Oh and BBQing lamb; leg or shoulder?

Shoulder has more flavour but will take much longer.

Though sticking it in your oven indoors would do the same thing as your outdoor gas oven.

;-)

Not once it's wrapped in the thick heady aroma of burnt wood, aluminium foil, and whatever chemicals are all over the insides.

But good steer on the shoulder.

Wash down the grill and then do an initial burn off to clear out manufacturing residues

B&Q has "JD flavoured" ones for £6/kg. I'm sceptical about the whiskey flavouring but it seems like good price

We smoked an entire chicken using the JD flavoured chips a week or so ago. Youd be hard pressed to taste any whiskey but the flavour was very nice. For the price theyre worth experimenting with. We didnt need many chips going at once to get the smoking flavour

Thanks. TBH that's what I was hoping for.

Any thoughts on the GMG Davy Crockett? I'm not looking to cook for the masses and quite like the idea of portability. I suppose the big question is, does size matter? Does a bigger grill give a better more even cook?

Would I regret getting a small grill and end up buying a dozen big grills as well?

I already have a direct heat bbq as my chimnea has a swivel out cast iron grill.

What kind of cooking do you want to do more of? How much are you likely to cook on a regular basis? Family of 4? or a dozen of your friends?

I hear differing opinions about the GMG grilling capabilities, although as smokers they are well regarded. Size is more about quantity rather than quality for the most part.

Mainly only cooking for two but sometimes up to 6. We eat outside as much as possible and are highly carnivorous when it comes to meal choices. I currently slow cooker pork and lamb for pulling and use the bbq for lumps of meat or fish. I currently bbq at least once a fortnight from May through to mid October. Even if that is just searing up a couple of fish.

Afaik the smaller gmg is not quite so stable wrt temperature. Otherwise they are great.

I still use a Weber bbq for grilling as charcoal gives higher heat.

@ramsaye I've been looking at this model and it appears that there are no extras available, specifically you can't get thermal jacket for it, which I'm guessing partly accounts temp stability.
I wonder if a jacket from a larger model would fit or could be adapted.

So I had the same dilemma. I wanted to smoke and grill but did not want the faff of multiple devices. I ended up getting a Weber kettle and a slow n' sear modification. I discovered that they have a UK distro now so I ordered from them which saved me some money. The slow n' sear comes well reviewed and my brother in law rates them as well. He used to do competition BBQ using just a weber kettle so he has experience with two zone cooking.

Both have only just arrived and I have not had a chance to play with them yet. I need to do some dry runs to get a feel for the right quantities of charcoal/heat beads. I have ordered a few different varieties to try out.

All in about £250 for the Weber and the slow n' sear. Which is not bad in the grand scheme of things. You can spend way more. You can spend less.

I need to do some dry runs to get a feel for the right quantities of charcoal/heat beads.

It's the thought of temperature controlled, iPhone enabled smoking that attracts me away from the kettle and toward the GMG.

I need something to pull me back from my natural tendency to over fuel a fire. Plus I already have direct heat grilling.

I totally get that. I do see the appeal of the set it and forget it approach. It sounds like the GMG is the way you want to go.

It didn't quite appeal to me though as I did want to learn to dial it in just right. It's why I do most of my own mechanics - I like to tinker and learn. I reserve the right to change my mind though after faffing around with charcoal for the next year or so.

I use both gmg and wsm modded with wifi PID

Both are great but for ease the gmg wins

Mother of God

From Big Tex's link