Widnes calling

[ollie]

Hi, just joined the forum. From Widnes, Cheshire.
So tell me, should I buy a ProQ Excel3 from ebay for £100?
I have been grilling for 25 years but its now time to smoke. Is this smoker about the best around?

Ollie

[Steve]

Hi Ollie,

Welcome to the forum.

Honest answer is that any £100 smoker is not going to be the best around, smokers can easily cost upwards of £5k if you want serious kit!!!

However for a home user, and for that money, the Excel is a good buy. I own 2 Excels and a Frontier, my team mate also owns an Excel. They're pretty easy to use, they hold temps well if you keep them out of strong winds and you'll be able to cook more good Q on one than you'll ever be able to eat

I'd recommend the Excel as a good smoker to own, especially for such a bargain price. You're not going to find anything without spending at least 3x as much (WSM) or building your own. I paid £300 for my first Excel over a year ago and I honestly think it's the best £300 I've ever spent as it got me into Low 'n' Slow BBQ which I really love.

Good luck with the Ecel (if you buy it) if you have any questions just post them here and someone will be along to give you an answer.

Cheers

[ollie]

Proud owner of a proq excel smoker.

So what do I need now? rubs, wood, charcoal, starter chimney
Where from and which types?
Ollie

[Steve]

Charcoal
Buy good quality lumpwood or briquettes, my favorite is restaurant grade lumpwood which is available from Makro, Booker or directly from the manufacturer in Burnley which is not too far from you. It's cheap if you get it direct too.

If going with briquettes then use a good brand like Big K, Heat Beads or Supagrill Cocoshell. Avoid the Weber stuff, it produces loads of horrible yellow ash.

Wood
You've got two choices here, chips or chunks. I use chunks but I have a wood supplier near by so it's easy. Check out http://www.smokingwoodsupplies.co.uk/ if you want chunks, I think Paul will be able to arrange shipping.

The easier soultion is using chips, which you can buy from garden centres and even supermarkets in the Summer. If you use chips, don't soak them, make a foil pouch for your chips and pierce it several times with a skewer. Lay this on your hot coals and the chips will burn nice and slowly. Chunks are better IMHO but chiops are convenient when you're starting out.

Oak is good for general smoking, apple and cherry give a fruity smoke, alder and beech are mild and good on fish. The whiskey barrel chips you can buy are quite nice.

Whatever you use, start out with a little wood and work up to a flavour you like, it's easy to oversmoke food (but difficult to make it inedible).

Chimney Starter
This is the best way to start your charcoal. The Weber one is the best I've used, costs £15 and is available from most Garden Centres that sell Weber stuff.

Rubs
In the first instance it's probably easier to make your own. Google "Basic BBQ rubs" and you'll get some good ones. If you want to buy rubs, check out http://www.socal.co.uk as a starting point, I think Stubbs is a half decent generic rub, but it really is a doddle to make some nice all purpose rubs.

Other Things
Remember to calibrate your lid thermometer on your Excel when you get it. Do this by removing the thermometer and placing the stem in boiling water, adjust the nut on the back until the thermometer reads 100C.

A food probe thermometer is also highly recommended, this way you can ensure you get your food to the right internal temperature. If you are happy to spend a little cash on this, I'd recommend the Maverick ET-73 A lot of us use these, they're great pieces of kit. They're only available in the US but there's a few EBay sellers who will ship them over here.

You'll need some heat resistant gloves for opening doors and things. Don't buy expensive BBQ gloves, just buy some cheap welding gloves from EBay at £3 per pair.

Good luck with the smoking, please post pics of your exploits and never hesitate to ask questions.

HTH

Steve

[British BBQ Society]

Hi Ollie,

Welcome to the forum, sorry for the late reply been busy making sure all of the BBQ's were shipped today, 100% success! As you have already seen from Steve we have some keen Q'ers on here and we endeavour to answer all questions quickly.

Steve, can i suggest you post your response here under the BBQ help section its a cracking summary.

Thanks
Toby

[ollie]

Thanks for the welcome.
I'll start shopping around for wood etc...

[ollie]

Ok, I have ordered a weber starter and the Maverick ET-73. I'm waiting for DHL to bring my smoker today.

So far so good

Ollie

[Steve]

A man who is investing wisely!!!!!!

So have you decided what you're going to do for your first cook yet?

[ollie]

Ribs I think. I have had some amazing ribs over the years in the States. My wife and I go to Orlando every October to Walt Disney World (16 times and counting) and I have promised myself I can do as good as some of the rib chains. I guess its down to the meat, the rub, the marinade/sauce and lots of time.

Any tips would be handy.
I have a great butcher in Widnes who will source pretty much any meat. My mate has started shooting again and has promised me unlimited wild pigeon anyone ever smoked a pigeon?

Ian

[Steve]

Ribs are a good call, everyone like ribs

Depending on whether you get spares or baby backs will change the cooking times. The well known technique for ribs is the 3-2-1 method. This means smoke for three hours, foil them and cook for 2 hours then take them out of the foil and cook for a further 1 hour. During the last hour you can start to glaze them. If you're running your smoker closer to the 225F mark this works pretty well for spares, closer to the 250F mark and you'll find it's more like 2-2-1.

The thing to remember with ribs is you don't want the meat falling off the bone but you want it to pull nice and easily from the bone when you bite into them.

A nice sweet rub and a good sauce is what you need. I've had a lot of joy blending a run of the mill BBQ Sauce like HP with Nando's Piri Piri BBQ Sauce recently. A 50/50 mix with a dash of honey is delicious.

I do prefer my own homemade sauces but I'm practising with store bought blends for competition this year (it's a safer bet for competition) and for you as it's the first time out it's probably easier to buy one as you'll have enough to think about.