British BBQ Society Forums

I think that's your best way forward, bad fuel is the only thing I can think of from the onformation provided.

If you can take pictures of each step and post them if you have the same problems next week. Also show us pictures of the inside of your Excel, that may help if it is somehting other than the fuel.

Best of luck

Steve

Important update.....

So at the weekend I purchased some new charcoal from Makro's "Restaurant Grade" this cost around £12 for a 12Kg bag. I also purchased a massive slab of pork belly for £10 at the same time (if you leave near a Makros try and get a card as they are ideal for BBQ enthusiasts).

So I filled the grate in the ProQ up with charcoal and got my chimney going, after 20 mins the charcoal in the chimney was glowing hot, totally different from the Big K charcoal I used before!!!

I cut the pork belly into two pcs and washed half in water then poured 2 kettles of boiling water over the skin (fat), once dried I then scored the surface with a sharp knife then rubbed a dry rub into the pork belly and left in the fridge over night, before cooking I took this out of the fridge for 2 hours to bring this up to room temperature:

Rub Mixture: Coarse Sea Salt / Garlic Salt / Dried Sage / Dried Oregano / Onion Powder (1 tbls of each)

I got the temp of the smoker up to 220 then left this to cook for 4.5 hours. I never let the temp of the smoker go above 240. Once the internal temp of the meat reached 160 I removed the pork belly and wrapped this in tin foil and then wrapped this again in 5 teatowels and let this rest for a further 2 hours.

Wow what can I say... the meat was wonderful, really juicy and not too smoky, I can only think my previous issues where caused by the Big K charcoal as the whole process this time was so smooth. Thank you all for your help and advice

The only thing I can say about the Pork Belly was that the fat on the top didn't turn into crackling as the temp wasn't high enough... Next time I am going to increase the temp to 270 for the last 1.5 hours of cooking.

NOW... I have some advice.

I few weeks ago I purchased a "ET-73 Maverick WIRELESS Dual/2 Probe Smoker Thermometer" I purchased this from ebay (see supplier details below) and this cost around £38 (inc p&p) the item said that shipping could take anywhere from 5 days to 5 weeks to arrive from the USA using UPS mail; however mine only took 7 days to turn up.

After getting this out of the box and reading the instructions I couldn't wait to use this on the pork belly.

So...what does this item do? Well it gives you an accurate reading of both the internal smoker chamber temperature and the internal temperature to the meat via two probes. These probes are linked via steel covered wires to a water resistant transmitter which sits outside your smoker. This transmitter then sends live reading direct to a receiver which you can carry around the house whilst your food is cooking giving you the freedom to get on with other things. That's not the best bit though! Before you start your cooking you set a low and high temperature that you want the smoker to sit at. Then a food temperature. Once the smoker reaches the low temperature you have set the receiver is then activated to alarm you if the smoker falls beneath this temperature or if it rises above the high setting. Also once your food has reached the desired setting you will be notified by the alarm.

There are also some regular timer alarms on the receiver as well.

I used this on the Pork Belly I smoked and I cant believe how easy this was to use and how much freedom this gives you. Some of you may think wow that's a lot of money to spend however just think about the amount of money is costs to buy the meat you are cooking, you don't want this to be ruined and this device gives you the assurance that everything is set correctly.

Some of you seasoned smokers may not need this however as a newbe to smoking I have found this to be really helpful.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ET-73-Maverick-WI ... 439ae71417

I think you should become a sales rep for Maverick

You're preaching to the converted with me, I already own 2 Mavericks, the next step for me is a stoker. Check these out - http://www.rocksbarbque.com/ Means I can set the UDS burning, go to work and control the temps from my iPhone

However there's a couple of guys I know who want one so I'm thinking of making my own on an ARM Cortex dev board, that way I can add a few more network related features.

Glad you got your cook sorted, sounds like you had a bad batch of Big K

The restaurant grade lump from Makro is pretty good stuff, just be careful at the end of summer because you get bags that have been kicked around a bit and you get a lot of slag in them.

Did you take any pics of the belly, we'd love to see them on here. BTW 270F is probably not going to get you the crispy skin you want, with belly I'd be more inclined to finish it direct to caramelise the fat and then glaze it for the last five minutes. Have to admit when I do belly, which is not that often, I marinade it in teryaki sauce with garlic and sesame seeds, then I cook it hot and fast. I've got a nice slab of belly in the freezer though so I might give low 'n' slow a whirl with it.

Cheers

Steve

OMG... Can you tell what I do for a job from that post!!! yes I head up Business development for a software company lol...


I want one of thoses uniots, my best friend is a programer and can write software for this dont think the wife will be too happy with the cost though

I made a wicked BBQ sauce at the weekend and I will update the list of what you need tomorrow. Im going to use it on Rib Of Beef this weekend. I promise to upload pic's / video

The stoker is a great unit.

The dev board I'm looking at to build my own is quite cost effective, only about £100. Which means if I pop it into a weather proof box I can have my own stoker copy for under £200 including fans, probes etc.

TBH I probably wouldn't bother but I have another BBQ/software project underway and I'm designing it in such a way that many of the software components will be reusable for this controller. My team mate Neil and I both work in embedded software for TETRA public safety radios, I'm more of an apps and software design specialist where as Neil has control systems experience so between us I'm sure we can rattle something good up.

It will be good to see some pics of your rib, I love rib roasts. As for your sauce, feel free to put it in the recipe section as it's looking a bit empty still. I've got loads of recipes to stick in there I just never seem to get around to it

Sorry for the delay in getting this up onto the site however a few business trips have stopped me updating you all

As promised here is how I got on with my Rib Of Beef...

I purchased a really nice rib of beef from my butcher who ensured I got a really think piece of meat for smoking (2"), he vacuum packs all meat to ensure freshness.


Firstly I brought this up to room temperature by leaving this out in the kitchen for 3 hours, once I thought the temp was good I drained all blood off the meat and pat-dry with kitchen paper.

I recently purchased a good marinade syringe which allowed me to inject my home made BBQ sauce into the meat, I watered this sauce down to 2 parts sauce / 1 part water to ensure this flowed through the syringe. In total I injected the meat with around 100mil of sauce.

Then I covered each side of the meet with dark brown sugar and left this to marinade for 30 mins on each side, this doesn't really add much to the flavour however ensures a nice sweet taste and helps the BBQ sauce to become even more sticky

Once the sugar had become sticky I transferred this over to the smoker, I let this cook between 220 and 250 and turned the meat every hour and based the meat with my BBQ sauce which I kept warm to ensure the cooking temp never dropped to much. After 4 hours the temp reached 165 and I removed the meat and allowed this to rest for 1 hour at room temp.

After 1 hour a carved the meat into 3/4" cubes and then placed these in an oven proof container with enough BBQ sauce to cover them for a further 24 hours.

To finish off I reheated the meat at 150 for 1 hour and served with potato wedges and onion rings... I have to say that it tasted wonderful and was well worth the effort, next time I will cook on a lower heat 165 - 180 for a longer time.

Now for my sauce... really easy to make and it lasted for around 2 months in my fridge in air tight jars

Ingredients:

12 Tbs Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 cup of cider vinegar
1/2 cup black treacle
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup Worcester sauce
2 Tbs dark rum
2 Tbs yellow mustard powder
2 Tsp liquid smoke
2 Tbs chili powder
4 Tsp Fresh ground black pepper
4 Tsp garlic powder
2 Tsp ground mixed spice
2 Large squeeze bottles of ASDA's tomato sauce
2 Tsp Coarse sea salt

Mix everything together in a pan except the tomato sauce and let this combine over a medium heat for 5 min's or until everything has been combind together. Add the tomato sauce and bring to a low simmer for 30 / 45 mins... Done

I'm on a train to Edinburgh at the moment so I cant upload the images so I will do this ASAP.

So Steve did you ever finish your stoker project?

Did you get a handle on the unwanted flavor profile?

Lump wood charcoal imparts flavor on it's own at a much higher rate than charcoal briquets
Your cook temp would seem a bit low for Chicken at 220
We usually do chicken at 275 to 300
So coupling the fuel used and the needed long cook time you ended up with a over smoked product