First BBQ

[ricjd]

Hi

I'm new here and found this place while trying to decide what to do with my garden. So I finally have my own garden and want to get a BBQ. I don't have much money so want to get something which I can do the most with. These are the kind of things I'm looking to do:

• Cook something after work, I get home about 6-7pm and would love to be able to chuck some chicken on there to do something like piri-piri or buffalo wings.

• Cooking for friends, at a weekend having a few people around and cooking the usual burgers and stuff

• Smoking, this is quite important to me. I've recnetly been slow cooking ribs with liquid smoke and it's my favorite meal. I want to recreate this on the BBQ with real smoke.

So I'm torn. I would like to start out on gas, mainly because I don't have loads of money and would like to use it in the week. But if I can't smoke using it then this would be a real set back for me. Would I be able to smoke on a gas BBQ? And if so how would be best to go about it? Would I be able to create the red smoke ring I've experienced so many times in US?

After a year or so I should have the spare cash to get a kettle or such for those long smoke-a-thons at the weekend.

Any advise would be greatly received!

Thanks

Rick

[Toby]

HI Rick, welcome to the forum.

You can smoke on gas by wrapping some wood chips in foil, piercing it and placing it on the grill. But, you will never achieve a smoke ring similar to that you have seen in the states. That requires a slow cook with chunks of wood. There are so many gas models out there at the moment, it would be interesting to hear what type of budget you have then i am sure a few suggestions will be made.

Cheers

Toby

[Steve]

Hey Rick,

Welcome aboard.

I think for your midweek cooking a gas grill is the way to go. As Toby has already mentioned, you'll likely to struggle to get a deep smoke ring with one though. You'll be able to get smoke in the flavour as Toby said and you could look at gas options with multiple burners to allow indirect cooking. If speed and convenience is the priority then gas is probably the way to go.

I'm a big fan of the Weber Q series gassers, worth a look if your budget will stretch to one.

Additionally if you have garden space you might consider a UDS as a smoker to go with your gasser. They can be made for under £50 if you're thrifty

[keith157]

A gas grill is the way to go mid-week, unless you have someone who could light a charcoal grill for you. You may be able to get a good bargain this time of year from some of the big barns (B&Q, Homebase Etc) especially if new models are on the way. If you decide to use this just for "British BBQ" i.e. NOT low n slow then you don't need to spend a fortune initially. I worked my way up over the years to an (for my pocket at least) expensive gas grill. I then got a Weber charcoal and so on.
I've seen a few posts here with established Q-ers thinking of upgrading so you may be lucky.

[Chris__M]

I know very little about gas grills, but something just occurred to me. If someone went for a gas grill initially for price and convenience, but then wanted more smoke, would it be possible to later fit it with an external smoke generator, like a smoke daddy or similar?

[ricjd]

Hey guys.

Thanks for the welcome!

I think a gas BBQ is the way for me to go at this moment in time. I would like to do this as cheaply as possible at the moment. Especially if I end up with a Kettle or such and this becomes my mid-week BBQ. I think I could spend up to £200, but that is my limit. Although I have lots of questions now!!

Toby, you mention that I'll need big chunks of wood for the smoke ring, do you know of any gas BBQs which I can use big chunks of wood on? Or is this wholly inadvisable? If I can't get the smoke ring, the smoke taste would be fine to start with! Any advise on gas BBQs in my price range would be welcome.

Steve, the UDS sounds like a good thing. I don't know what one is, so will have a look about for info on them. If you've got any good links that would be cool!

I'll have a look on the forums to see if anyone has a gas BBQ to sell. I think that mybe a good place to start!! Can't wait!!!

Rick

[JEC]

If gas is the way you want to go then you would be best off using chips or pellets in a box like this



It will work but isn't normally as effective as using a charcoal fired bbq as a lot of the smoke escapes out of the necessary ventilation holes that are a must on a gas bbq, if you want to pick up some chips and the box required then check out the below link, there are also a selection of gassers on the site

http://www.planetbarbecue.co.uk/shopwoodchips.html

[Steve]

There's a thread on here about them and there's a huge thread on the BBQ brethren site. The good thing is you can spend next to nothing or spend a fortune. If you decided you wanted to build one, I'd be happy to help with ideas for doing it as cheap as possible

[keith157]

The smoke boxes work very well on most gas BBQs, just be sure you can access the burner to place the box directly on to it nearby is not hot enough.

[Steve]

The box JEC shows above is a good idea for gas as its more robust than foil, less risk of burning through. However you can make a smoke box yourself dead easy.

Take a tin of beans (unopened), remove the label and put a hacksaw through it in the middle. Now you have top and bottom, clean it out and cut the top half down to 1/2" then pierce or drill holes in it. With the bottom half, use pliers to pinch a bit of the top edge so the top will slide over, file the sharp edges of both pieces and robert's your father's brother.