Extremely new to BBQ'ing

[clairbare]

Brilliant, no you are not teaching me things I already know because to be honest I know nothing! but I am here and keen to learn and every little certainly helps.

I defo wanna give the beer can chicken a go soon, hope this rain goes away - so hate wet autumns and winters - the cold never stops us bbq'ing though so here's to a dry winter

[Swindon_Ed]

The beer can chicken was good, and i'd really recomend it to anyone, just make sure the chicken you get isn't to big as i stuggeled to get the lid on my Weber

But the taste of the chicken has got me excited about Christmas already, as i'm going to smoke the turkey on the BBQ this year and can't wait

[Swindon_Ed]

All this thinking about beer can chicken has made me hungry.

i think i'm gonna have to put the bbq on

[Steve]

Ed, be careful with your vent control if you're using the exhaust as a method of limiting flow, this is how you get build up of nasty stuff in the cooker.

If you slow down the escape of smoke, it allows all the particulate matter that's in there to accumulate and potentially settle on the food. When you remove the lid and put it back on, you've fed the fire with oxygen so it burns more intensely but the smoke potentially can't escape as quickly as it needs to.

[Chris__M]

As someone who has been cooking on a Weber kettle for a while, I second the chimney starter, as it allows you to get another lot of coals hot for cooking before you disturb the BBQ.

Another useful purchase might be a grate with a hinged sections - which allows you to add coals without disturbing the meat - but this is only useful if your BBQ is a compatable size/shape. Alternatively, you can do what a friend did with his cheap BBQ - cut a small hole in one side of the grate, then cover the hole with a small grate from a cheap mini-BBQ. This gave him easy access to his coals by removing the small grate, without having to disturb everything.

[Chris__M]

The beer can chicken was good, and i'd really recomend it to anyone, just make sure the chicken you get isn't to big as i stuggeled to get the lid on my Weber

I had exactly the same problem, the first time I tried it. My chicken was on the big side, and either my (cider) can was taller than most people use, or the chicken didn't have the room inside. Either way, I found myself with a dome balanced on the chicken.

However, I decided to take a chance - I removed the cooking grill, and stood the can-chicken on a foil tray on the charcoal grate, between my two charcoal baskets. It cooked great, and had a wonderfully crispy (but not burnt!) skin.

Since then, that's how I've cooked beer-can chicken.

[Swindon_Ed]

Ed, be careful with your vent control if you're using the exhaust as a method of limiting flow, this is how you get build up of nasty stuff in the cooker.

If you slow down the escape of smoke, it allows all the particulate matter that's in there to accumulate and potentially settle on the food. When you remove the lid and put it back on, you've fed the fire with oxygen so it burns more intensely but the smoke potentially can't escape as quickly as it needs to.

It's interesting what you say with using the upper vent and it's makes sense, so should i be using the lower vents for better control and also to avoid this build up?

[clairbare]

OK next question, and please bear with me with all of these posts xx

Tesco are selling a 3 ring gas bbq for £57

is it worth buying and smoking on that or is charcoal better than gas

I have my views on it but purely from a non professional basis and that is, if you wanna cook with gas, stay inside, however this may be a little naive of me as i am so new to this so all comments welcome

I know that you would have better temperature control but that to me seems the only plus - other than the price

[All Weather Griller]

I would spend a bit extra if your outlaying and go for a weber kettle http://www.bbqworld.co.uk/bbqworld/prod ... me=1341004

[Swindon_Ed]

Or for an extra £50 i see that Toby has got some of his ProQ excel's for sale on ebay which is a bit of a bargin!!!

here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ProQ-Excel-3-1-Fo ... _846wt_930