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What BBQ would you buy in the UK?


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Any suggestions you have a greatly appreciated, as we would like to buy one for friends' new home, and we have never bought one here...

They have a baby that has just started to walk, so I think gas might be better, unless you know otherwise...

Thanks!

www.nutropical.com

~Borojo~

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gas bbqs are awful, you may as well cook inside on your regular cooker, and i'm really not sure why one might be better in a home with a baby around??

i've just built a charcoal bbq from an old wheel barrow, as all you need is something to hold the coals, and rest a grill tray on, it really doesnt need to be anything fancy. you can get adequate charcoal bbqs from b&q etc, but you're paying for something that anyone could make in half an hour

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think you have to answer the following how questions

how many people will attend the bbq?

how often they bbq?

and how much do you like them? :wink:

ie: how much you wanna spend?

personally i like the look of this one

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/store...roductId=128233

I haven't used it before so can't really give it a validation

but its big, cheap at £29 and has some nice design features to it.

or if you really like your friends you can go for a weber bbq

now those i have used and they are really good

and pretty easy to clean for a bbq :laugh:

check them out on ebay

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

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origamicrane, we have had several Webers in the past, as a matter of fact, the one we brought over form USA is now residing in the vicinity of Crouch End, at another friends's garden, as we have nowhere to use it... but frankly, I hate to pay UK prices for them... but ebay.... will take a look there

fisherman, I thought gas so that the child can't pick up hot coals, I know adults that have picked them up from the chimney as they are heating up... stupid? yes, but it has happened...

and as far as a wheelbarrow with coals, while I'm sure it works a treat, this one is a housewarming present, so I though we go a bit more upscale! :wink:

thanks guys!

www.nutropical.com

~Borojo~

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what are you saying about my wheelbarrow? nothing that hasn't already been said by my girlfriend already actually! if you have a charcoal bbq, the coals will be covered by the grill while they're heating up right? and after you've done, douse them with water. the benefits of charcoal over gas are immense, so i think it's worth the perceived risk

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personally i like the look of this one

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/store...roductId=128233

I haven't used it before so can't really give it a validation

but its big, cheap at £29 and has some nice design features to it.

what a coincidence :laugh:

went to a bbq at a friends yesterday and they got this bbq

its pretty good

its very large so if you got a lot of hungy mouths to feed i think this is the cookie

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?"

"tastes so good makes you want to slap your mamma!!"

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That is a nice one Origamicrane...

The Friends have requested gas, after all, for ease and speed - I know, I know...

Thank you both for all the feedback...!

www.nutropical.com

~Borojo~

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"The Longbridge Rover works are reportedly being converted to a new barbeque factory," according to Brussels-based Missing Parts magazine. In an apparent attempt "to stave off worker-led insurrections", parent-company BMW spokeperson Henrich Manoeuvre said today that "We are now doubly-determined to make the West Midlands into the barbecue capital--the Arkansas--of Europe."

According to Manoeuvre, who was speaking to an EU forum hastily arranged in Stürm-Württemberg, "Range Rover bonnets are ideally suited for entertainment-sized sizzling, especially when turned turtle."

He also said that "Dry rubs and limey bastes might just make Longbridge the new Soho," an apparent reference to other labour insurrections in that popular precinct of the Capital.

Edited by jamiemaw (log)

from the thinly veneered desk of:

Jamie Maw

Food Editor

Vancouver magazine

www.vancouvermagazine.com

Foodblog: In the Belly of the Feast - Eating BC

"Profumo profondo della mia carne"

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  • 1 year later...

As the weather warms up I thought this a timely revival of this thread.

I'm going for a charcoal grill and contemplating

Weber One-Touch Gold

Weber One-Touch Platinum

Bar-B-Chef Texas Charcoal Barbeque on cart (however can't seem to find where to buy this in the UK!)

Anyone else buying a charcoal grill this spring?

Cheers!

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After much research online and off I bought one of these...

p005862hz07.jpg

from www.cabelas.com in the US.

I got the chrome version which was $219 plus around $80 shipping. With the dollar the way it is at the moment, that's still less than anything decent you can buy here.

Mine has survived a winter outside unscathed, smokes whole chunks of pork beautifully and grills a treat on the rare occasions I deign to wreck good food by 'barbecuing' it (see here).

It's a stunning piece of kit that can even - God help us - boil crabs and fry turkeys. It's built the way only Americans can do it - thoroughly overspecced and dripping with chrome - and I sincerely intend to hand it on to my daughter when I've died of congestive heart failure brought on by eating smoked pork butt.

Tim Hayward

"Anyone who wants to write about food would do well to stay away from

similes and metaphors, because if you're not careful, expressions like

'light as a feather' make their way into your sentences and then where are you?"

Nora Ephron

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We have a Traeger wood pellet smoker bbq which is just amazing. We put a rib of beef in it on Easter sunday and went out for five hours to come back to a perfectly cooked, deliciously tender joint. The pellets can be varied - ie cherry wood for duck etc but we tend to use Alder or Hickory most of the time. If you use the smoke facility the pellets last for ages. You can also cook fast like a normall bbq - steaks and fish etc. The good thing is that the flames never get near to the food due to the unique design so you can't burn the food and it doesn't have the carcinogenic concerns that burnt food (we is what is normally served at British bbqs) is associated with

There is one company which supplies them in the UK - the machines aren't cheap but they are so good it is worth it. You won't see them in the shops but the people from this company do some country shows and demonstrate the food which is how we got hooked

http://www.americanbbq.co.uk/

They supply the pellets too, anywhere in the UK. The food is really tender and it is so easy to use. We've had two gas bbqs which both rusted like mad - even if we paid £2-300 for them (the Traeger is ceramic coated so can spend the whole winter outside (ours did).

I also have a tiny Weber camping bbq which I have had for some 25 years and it still looks like new (except the legs have rusted a bit)

I would really recommend the Traeger - if you go onto their US site there is a film you can watch

http://www.traegerindustries.com/

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Can you also please add recommendations for good BBQ cookbooks?

I have a book by Steve Raichlen... not sure the title, but I believe he has 2 definitive BBQ books, one of which is called the BBQ Bible (or thereabouts) and the other is the one i have. He tells you everything you'd ever need to know about BBQ and sets out exactly what temps u need for smoking various meats, etc. Plus, the guy is a bit inventive, and includes BBQed veg, and lots of random but delicious recipes.

I have a few other BBQ books (I come from Canada and have a smoker at home there.... hence the collection) but none really come close to Raichlen, esp. for an occasional BBQ chef..!

Regards.

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Weber One touch (one touch is supposed to mean easy clean, but that's wishful thinking)

The boss of Bodean's recommended me to a Weber and he was right, only small drawback is you must use briquettes as wood bits will fall through the grill

Have roasted a many a chicken in mine. Often when its below freezing outside.

Pay about £99 in homebase - the lookalikes arent worth the money saved, they are not armour plated like the weber and will rust

BTW gas/charcoal, does not affect the flavours, its what you put on the coals

S

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When we lived in the U.K. we had a Weber gas bbq hooked up to the gas mains in our flat. Worked fine but not the same as a smoker for flavour.

Stephen

"who needs a wine list when you can get pissed on dessert" Gordon Ramsey Kitchen Nightmares 2005

MY BLOG

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Can you also please add recommendations for good BBQ cookbooks?

Ainsley Harriot - I know he mugs for the cameras, but he's not as stupid as he likes to make out he is. He just knows every TV chef needs an 'angle'

S

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