Total newbie - advice please!

[Flowerpot]

Hi all,

I wonder if I can get your advice please? My husband is a bit of a foodie and a real carnivore and has expressed an interest in BBQing/smoking food. I'd like to surprise him with a piece of kit but don't want to get something that's too tricky it'll put him off. He will be a complete beginner.

After looking about, I have seen good things about a Weber Smoky Mountain 47. Would that be a suitable model for a beginner? I'd like one that is easy to use so we can just BBQ on it but, as he becomes more confident, he can experiment with smoking. Does this sound like the one?

Also, are there any cooking bibles you can get that you can work through or is it a case of trawling the net?

Thank you so much in advance for your help. Apologies if the questions sound rather stupid!

[BraaiMeesterWannabe]

Hi there
Some good questions there and there will be numerous different opinions on it.
Regarding BBQ bible I would go for Meathead - The Science of Great Barbeque and Grilling by Meathead Goldwyn. Available on Amazon.

Ref first BBQ that is a little more debatable and would also depend very much on budget. I have a WSM 47 for smoking and love it. However, I wouldn't want to use it for grilling as it would be a real faff and the grill would be small and low to the ground.
I also have a couple of Weber Grills. The latest version is the 57cm master touch. These are great bits of kit for grilling and perfect for a beginner. Your hubby would be able to start smoking low and slow on one of these too. His options for smoking may be a little limited using this but he would be able to do enough on it to be able to tell whether he wanted to do more. At that stage you could look at a separate WSM smoker.
Finally, if money is no object and you really do want 1 piece of kit to do low and slow and hot and fast, then look at a Kamado style BBQ. Something like a large Big Green Egg. This will set you back over £1k however once you're all set up with it
One final bit of advice - if he's going to be doing low and slow cooking invest in a remote digital thermometer and probe. The analogue thermometers that are built into the lids of these BBQ's are so inaccurate as to be useless, and If you're wanting to keep the BBQ temp between 225 & 250f for 4 to 18 hours (depending on what you're cooking) you need peace of mind that the BBQ temp is stable. I have a Maverick ET 772 which is very popular. I think this has been replaced by the 773 now.
Good luck

[Flowerpot]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. Your advice has been really helpful and I realise now that a Weber grill is the way to go! Thank you so much.

[BraaiMeesterWannabe]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. Your advice has been really helpful and I realise now that a Weber grill is the way to go! Thank you so much.

No probs, glad to have been of help

[Chris__M]

I've gone through many different grills over the years, but I would agree that a Weber kettle is a great bit of kit to start with. It is versatile and will allow you to learn about both grilling and smoking.

For many people, it is all that they ever need. For others, they will want to move on to more sophisticated tech after a couple of years. But it is a brilliant place to start.