Hi From Birmingham

[Iclickhappy]

As per many new members I have been lurking for a while and have now got myself a grill. Thanks all for supporting this fountain of BBQ knowledge which has been a great read, guided my grill selection and I'm sure will help me along my way to grilling nirvana.

I think it must have been a combination of watching too much Man v Food combined with the feeling that there must be more to BBQ food when eating the charred remains of burgers and sausages at friends houses that brought me here.

I have just ordered a Weber Mastertouch, I appreciate this is little different to the OTP (except a bit more expensive) but my wife liked the colour (Crimson) which helped the descision. I have ordered a chimney starter, cover and some charcoal rails too.

I now need some charcoal, wood chips/chunks and some tools. Any tool recommendations would be gratefully received.

Can't wait until it arrives, I think I'll be grilling in the rain this weekend


Thanks,
Tom

[JamsCowbell]

Hi and welcome.

I'm a fan of the Big K restaurant grade charcoal, but I've tried heat beads and they're also very good in a kettle.

If you're wanting smoke in a kettle you'd probably want wood chips and maybe a box to put them in rather than the bigger chunks that I put in smokers (although I do occasionally throw a big chunk on the kettle as well).

When I started out I sourced my wood chips and chunks from Weber through wowbbq.com and then I progressed onto getting boxes of wood delivered from Paul Goulden through this forum.

Tools are tools I suppose, although when I started out I got a set of the weber ones and they are very good. I'm occasionally tempted by one of those grillslinger things but I don't really need one

[JEC]

Charcoal from BigK. Wood from local sources, gardeners, tree surgeons. I bought a cheap set of weber tools about 8 years ago and still going strong, in my opinion you only need a pair of tongs and a fish slice and that's it, don't get a meat fork they should be banned!!

[Iclickhappy]

Thanks guys, I'm in the middle of my first low and slow (ish).

I bought a couple of sets of tongs from the local catering supplies and will use the fish slice from the kitchen for the minute.

I tried to start a thread in the "New to BBQ" area but it hasn't worked. Really struggling with temperature stability, currently after 4 hours cooking the temperature is down to about 100C, think i need to add more coals again.

[Nodding scooby]

hi, had similair issues today doing first low smoke. All good fun and a definate learning curve, where abouts in brum?

[Iclickhappy]

Hi Scooby,

Harborne, are you local?

Just finished eating the ribs, very tasty and the meat came cleanly off the bone although they were a little dry.

[Nodding scooby]

nuneaton so not far, did pulled pork. didnt quite get to pulled pork stage due to heat issues but still cooked and good.

[Iclickhappy]

My thread has been approved and is now live over on the "New to BBQ" section

http://bbbqs.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=5141