Be Excellent To Each Other

Ok, so if (big if) I considered buying a permanent barbecue so that that likes of @Cras didn’t scoff at my disposable one, and Mr Zoidberg wasn’t too scared to visit in case I poisoned him, what would I be looking for.

For starters, what is the difference between the £80 and the £64 offerings here? What’s the sort of bucket contraption under the first one?

George Foreman GFKTBBQ Portable Round Kettle Charcoal BBQ, Adjustable Vent, Integrated Thermometer, 2 Wheels & Chrome Grill https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D76T6R ... 8264?psc=1

We have this as Cras said "Buy this one" and the lad wasn't wrong.

https://www.bbqworld.co.uk/m/weber-barb ... al-bbq.asp

*nod*

I did see that brand keep popping up as recommended, but unfortunately that’s out of my budget for the moment.

The one you've linked up top will likely be just fine. The cheaper one has a tray at the bottom that spent ash will drop onto. The more expensive one has more of a bucket so it'll collect more of the ash and just be a bit tidier. I'm not convinced that's worth an additional £15

Super. That’s good to know. I wasn’t sure what that underneath but was and couldn’t find any information about it anywhere. Cheers, sir.

I’ll keep looking around as I’m not decided on whether to get one yet, but a lot I was looking at seemed to be one of those two styles and I couldn’t work out the difference (I wondered if maybe it was for extra coals or something )

Frankly disappointing

I wouldn’t trust it not to bubble up and go black

I did see a yellow one that folds up into a handbag

It fascinates me how different the ways we 'spell out sounds' can be.

Never would have occurred to me to use 'Ziiiiiiiii' as the barbecue sizzle sound

How would you have spelled it? I think I’d go with something like zzzhhhhhhsssss

Would love it but still can’t afford that one even if all the Yes Chefs say it’s the best (Cras did a few posts up)

Buy a cheap version of the same thing to see if you enjoy it, with the knowledge that in a year or two you'll need to buy another one. At that point you'll know if it's worth the investment.

I was hoping someone would ask

I'd go with TTTTTTTSSSSSSSSHHHHHH probably.

Gotta have a hot grill to get that TTTTTSS at the beginning

Aldi have on the past had some decent-isj barbecues. Good warranty / returns policy too

Go to one of the Yes Chef's houses and steal theirs. They probably want an excuse to buy a new one anyway.

Excellent plan. I think Grim… built a whole outdoor kitchen, so I could probably pick up a sink and a workbench, too.

Steal their expensive one, sell it on ebay, buy a cheap one.

TBH I suspect just turning up at their house and asking to have some BBQ food would probably work most of the time.

There's actually one at my house (albeit an older model) that's been covered and unused for about four years.

It belongs to Craster

I'm sure he won't mind

Excellent plan

I’ll have a look around (online, not in Grim…’s garden) to see if I can find something that looks durable and of that same style, but less spendy. I know it won’t last as long, but those nice ones are just a bit much when we have so much to fix in the house (like the dining room ceiling). It won’t ‘live’ outside, and will go into the garage between uses, so hopefully that will extend its life a little.

Replace the bulb in the dining room with a searingly bright led then no one will be able to see whatever is wrong with the ceiling. Much more cost effective and easier to boot!

(Part of my drive to replace all the incandescent bulbs in the house with LEDs is to avoid dealing with the electrics that cause them all to dim/brighten even without high power things like fridges cycling on)

Ahhh! Ahh haaaaa! But your plan falls down because for some reason there IS NO CENTRE ROOM LIGHT.

Do your barbecuing in the dining room, and no one will look at the ceiling because they'll be so fixated by the barbecuing.

That’d certainly hide the ceiling.

Finally bought a barbecue (today, over a year later).

Chose this one, so I hope it’s ok.

https://amzn.eu/d/39aoRkN

It should arrive in a few days. The meantime, what else do I need to buy to have a barbecue? Apart from food. I worked that out. But what kind of charcoal do I need, how do I light it… what barbecue tools might I need (if any), and how is best to clean it.

Many thanks for any advice.

Morrisons usually has Big K charcoal at ok-ish prices over summer - it's gone up a lot generally, everywhere over the last couple of years though.

Natural firelighters, never fluid(-soaked lighters).

Gloves, tongs and a spatula are the main tools.

A wire brush for scrubbing the rack while it's hot isn't necessary but saves scrubbing mould off before each use.

Ooh, a Weber. It'll be great

There are specific attachments for doing offset cooking/smoking and so on, for later, but again not necessary.

For grilling I still use the 57cm, £18 kettle I got from Morrisons 7 years ago as a "temporary this first year" one, though I really shouldn't as it's got so flimsy - I'd buy a Weber kettle myself if I wasn't still convinced I'll be constructing a giant custom one this summer definitely this time!

The ones I looked at that were the same style (I googled “barbecue kettle”) after reading your post before realising that what I had bought , were apparently quite flimsy, so I chose this one as it looked like it might be a bit more robust.

We’re probably going to just be doing some veggie sausages and burgers, corn cobs and the like for the most part, rather than anything fancy

Shall pop along to Morrisons for all the required bits as my parents might be visiting to help fit the pond on Sunday so might see if I can actually cook something.

One of these is a must, it takes a lot of the hassle out of getting the barbecue lit -- and the set I've linked to there contains a bag of charcoal and some lighter cubes too, so that really is everything you need for your first cook

I e read the description on that page and even watched the video, and though I now have a fairly comprehensive idea of what it looks like from every angle I haven’t the faintest idea what it actually is.

Am I to understand that if we simply put the coals into the bottom of the kettle and lit them then they would take ages to get going or just not light, and this chimney solves that problem?

This is a purely academic question now by the way, I have bought the set you linked to, GazChap.

More or less, yeah. Light the chimney and after 20 minutes or so (when the topmost coals are turning white or you can see flames coming out the top) you can tip them into the BBQ, put the grates on top, and start cooking.

Everything will be super hot at this point of course, so wear heat-resistant gloves when picking up the hot chimney, tipping the coals in, and putting the grates on (and then any time you go back to the bbq)

Also a good idea not to wear open-toed shoes when doing this either, especially if you’re not used to doing it. Last thing you want to do is accidentally tip a super-hot lump of charcoal on to your exposed foot!