British BBQ Society Forums

Webers for long cooks like ribs, pulled pork, lasting for over 2 hours. Why? They keep a good, steady temperature for a long time.

Heat beads for medium-length cooks of 1-2 hours. Why? They don't last as long as the Webers, and the heat drops more quickly. But they're good enough for medium-length cooks, and they go very hot (a little hotter than the Webers), so you can get away with not using quite so many.

Supermarket jobs (usually Sainsbury's or Morrison's) for fast cooks like burgers, steaks, kebabs, jerk chicken, of 5 minutes to 1 hour. Why? Completely unreliable, so no good for longer cooks. But if you need hotter than a chimney full for your steaks and burgers I'm not cobvinced you're cooking them the right way! I can get these to go as hot as my cast iron griddle pan after 20 minutes over my wok burner on my indoor hob. And whilst they'll drop in temperature if I'm doing a quarter of a chicken for an hour or so, they won't drop enough to ruin everything. And they're cheap.

Steve W

I know this asks for your favourite, but I've only used my BBQ once and being new I thought I would tell what I would do to find my favourite.

To my way of thinking, if I want 'Only the best' then I would find out what the competition guy's use when they compete, I would have thought that they would have spent a good while researching the subject.

If I wanted 'only the best that I could afford' then I would - 1. ask what they use when there at home for cooking, and make a list of brands and then try them. 2. Read as many posts as possible to gather opinions.

Then I would got to Sainsbury's and get the briquettes that are £1.00 per kg.

Toby has provided HeatBeads for this years competition so that's what most people have used for IBQN although a few stick to their blue bags and other lumpwood. As to HB not burning for a long time, all I'll say is Harry Soo on his course filled his WSM well before midnight and it was still going when we left after 3pm having kept a steady temperature allbeit with forced air and yes I took his word for it
Gary I presume the last line was a wry comment I have had no luck with cheap supermarket coal for long smoking. I still have a couple of bags from my early forays into smoking but use them for quick grilling on my mini SoH Clone. I have migrated to using good quality even when grilling on the Weber as they are reliable and produce a uniform heat which aids my meagre cooking ability.
Don't forget if you close your Q down properly there will still be some coals left which can be reused. I will usually use these as the bottom layer of a chimney starter as they seem to light easier, no proof just observation.

Keith yes, apologies, proof reading is worth the effort. A poor attempt at humour on my part.

Gary

No I got the humour Are you going to be at Toby's for the August bash? that would be a good place for a "spot the bag" competition then follow up with Q&As (just not after 1130 on Sunday when they are getting boxes ready).

keith157 wrote:Don't forget if you close your Q down properly there will still be some coals left which can be reused. I will usually use these as the bottom layer of a chimney starter as they seem to light easier, no proof just observation.

I do exactly the same

keith157 wrote:No I got the humour Are you going to be at Toby's for the August bash? that would be a good place for a "spot the bag" competition then follow up with Q&As (just not after 1130 on Sunday when they are getting boxes ready).

A smaller, leaner version of my team is going to be there

Have you got the hand in times?

Gary Morris wrote:Then I would got to Sainsbury's and get the briquettes that are £1.00 per kg.

I've tried a few so called cheaper briquettes this summer and it has always been a false economy. I can get 10kg of webers for £11.69 at most and if I watch for offers I can get them in the £10 region. I then purchase enough to qualify for free postage. I tried some of the Lidl king of the grill stuff a month ago when it was something like £3 for 5kg. Burned hot but really not for very long, so I mix these in with either webers or heat beads. The Sainsbury stuff for a £1 a kilo again burned hot but for not very long and given that I'm not paying much more than a £1 a kilo for the webers I don't see the point in revisting them.

NomNomBBQ wrote:Have you got the hand in times?

Turn in times at Toby's are a bit different to Grillstock with all the hand in's being crammed into an hour and a half to mirror what happens if you ever compete in the States.

The turn in times are as follows:

12.00 Chicken
12.30 Ribs
13.00 Pork
13.30 Brisket

Swindon_Ed wrote:
Turn in times at Toby's are a bit different to Grillstock with all the hand in's being crammed into an hour and a half to mirror what happens if you ever compete in the States.

The turn in times are as follows:

12.00 Chicken
12.30 Ribs
13.00 Pork
13.30 Brisket

Thanks. Wow, thats gonna be a busy 1.5hrs. So thats on the sunday? What happens on the saturday?