Be Excellent To Each Other

I was a bit to be honest, but I’ll get over it. I feel more confident after the replies so will try again.

Also spotted a perfectly round ring of dead lawn where Ma set the lid down so she could barbecue the Amazon boxes, just as a handy reminder

The lid has a hook in it so you can hang it off the side of the drum. It's on the back of the handle, if you see what I mean.

Genius

This reminds me very much of the Wikipedia high 5 pictures

I knew the hook was there, but, y’know… It was a battle I was not going to win on the day.

And here is the battleground:

That's where you stake down the "people who fuck with my barbecue" voodoo doll.

The ring of shame.

I’ve bought the things I need to try again. Well, apart from actual food. I’ll see how this week goes and what the weather is promising us for the weekend.

Giving the barbecue another go either today or tomorrow. Probably today.

Did a barbecue and cooked the food and it went really well*. These veggie burgers are not burned, they’d just me been marinading all day. We also had sausages, potatoes with rosemary, and corn on the cob, also the pickles that I made earlier today.

I was still unsure about putting the lid on and so cooked it mostly with the lid off, because I did feel like I it was getting cold with the lid on, but that’s likely a confidence thing after last time, plus I have a feeling that we didn’t use enough coals.

I would very much appreciate any tips for cooking potatoes in a barbecue. I boiled them and put them in foil with butter and rosemary, but I’d like to get a bit of colour on them.

*apart from the bit where I managed to fall and slam my entire body and head into a concrete floor and knock myself unconscious, which was scary and hurts a lot.

Helen says par-boil the potatoes till they are nearly done, then marinade in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic salt and sprinkled in mixed herbs, then wrap in foil to cook with the lid on, turning occasionally.

They turn out superbly, and have a lovely crisp to them

That’s sort of what I did, just with Rosemary instead of lemon (it was yours and Helen’s potatoes that made me want potatoes) but they didn’t crisp up at all. Do you seal the foil over them?

Happy to hear the cooking went better!

I cook potatoes and corn by foil wrapping and putting around the edges of the coal bed, turning occasionally. It's a pain in the arse lifting the cooking rack off and on loaded with food but works.

Also smoking/offsetting potatoes "naked" works, but you're not doing offset cooking yet so don't worry about it.

Dont worry about either, really!

I hope you've not hurt yourself badly. Get to hospital if you have a headache, sleepy, etc!

Yep. Come back and have more and you can see the process

Would love to! And you’ll have to come over to ours in return (and if I haven’t cracked the barbecue thing by then I’ll make something more traditional).

Do you mean you put them *under* the cooking rack? Interesting. Will try, thank you!

I’m feeling ok today. Head is completely fine, no lasting effects apart from a bit of a lump, but man alive did I smash my knees badly. They seized up last night but some of the swelling is down today so at least I can walk again. Very bruised and feeling very silly, but I am very lucky and glad I didn’t break anything.

Yep, plonk them right against the outside coals. Direct contact to cook the sugar but not as hot as overhead.

But it is a faff, so tonight as I'm doing wings offset the corn is on the cooking rack, left and right. Onions in the rear foil bag. Peppers charring for a few minutes before moving either side the onions.

Sausages waiting to go on shortly, burgers to cook hot right at the end (in an hour or so).

I normally have coals to the left, offset to the right, but coals-offset-exhaust (the top vent is back-middle) should be a more even flow. It just feels right on the kettle grill for the coals to be on the left. Learning and accepting change!

Foil tray under the offset section to catch the drippings. Keeps the kettle cleaner, adds flavour if you're lazy and only replace it when there's significant mould growth (there almost never is, it's basically pure boiled fat with salt)

Thankfully 500g packs of wings were cheaper per kg than 1kg, they really eat up the space but I can't argue with value!

That's too much coal, I can't break the "starting the smoker" habit of fully loading the chimney. Couldn't fit the corn down there if I wanted to.

I started the last 12kg bag of the last pallet load! Down to the last two 15kg bags from before they rebranded (ie caught on and reduced the bag size while raising the price)

A coal rake like the Weber one is a super useful tool - something to poke/shift coals through the rack anyway; for years I used a fork where the fork end had rusted off, really useful metal-stick-wooden-handle.

The Weber one also doubles as a really effective lever/handle for getting the cooking rack off, with a bit of practice.

https://www.weber.com/GB/en/accessories ... /7649.html

It's almost 3 hours since I lit the coals. This still feels like "a quick grill" to me; an hour is for the wings though.

Corn hadn't cooked so moved to the coals, which I'm getting ripping hot to sear the burgers. Everything else moved far away.

I've been hearing thunder for 2 hours. The sky has just gone stupid grey in less than a minute and the wind is kicking up again. This might be cutting it close!

But I didn't get to cook yesterday dammit.

Edit: I'm watching the clouds behave like waves crashing against the shore! @nervousPete this one's for you

That's the other side of the valley, the front less than a quarter of a mile away, clouds roiling in super quick! Moving due north which is super weird, which explains all the power cuts in yesterday's storm.

Only slightly piss wet through, seconds to spare

Wow. That all sounds like quite a science!

I notice that the second time I tried the barbecue all of the coals turned to ash, rather than stay as little blocks, presumably because they actually burned properly.

How did you beat the coals up further to seat your burgers.

And what do you mean by mould? Actual mould?

It's what works for me, having the entire meal ready at once rather then piecemeal.

Being an unstructured thinker who struggles without structure I've had to develop a system. It takes longer than it could but it delivers quite well cooked meals and a reasonably unstressed cook

I don't claim it's best for everyone or every circumstance, but if any of it is useful to someone else, bonus.

I’m a very structured thinker, but I use similar systems and tricks in things I’m familiar with to avoid chaos (like cooking… I’d opt to make you an entire cooked breakfast only using the oven, because it is neat and orderly, and contained).

It looks tasty but hold up Bik, did you say the wings took an hour to cook?

They were on the whole time, offset all the way. Crispy skin, juicy meat, fall apart joints.

They only ever take an hour, hour and a half on the smoker itself, I've just not got used to doing it this way yet. And when I've got the luxury of time, why not use it?

That sounds tasty, indeed, and I imagine the smell of it cooking would be smashing too.

I don't really have the luxury of time at all, everything's such a rush these days for me

Did a simple barbecue this evening, with the lid on the whole time. Worked fine. Just took a while to get my confidence.

Not only did we survive, the food was plentiful and tasty.

Thanks again Mimi and Russ

It’s only been 24hrs. I’d give it another few to be on the safe side

Still didn’t quite know what I was doing, but it seemed to all come out ok.

50 days of rain coming during this "Summer" so there's not going to be much BBQ action happening.

But, anyway, last year I traded in my man card for one of those Ninja Woodfire electric barbecues. I'd been looking to get into barbecuing but it seemed like such a faff. I read up about charcoal vs gas and all that and it just all felt a bit unsurmountable for me. So I got the Ninja thing and it's just SO EASY.

Thing is, the food was great. I did burgers and the combination of well-seasoned, decently fatty mince with nice brioche buns and a good portion of fried onions was perfect. As good a BBQ as I've had. Sausages came out great too.

Ten mins to set up, ten mins to preheat, ten mins until you're pretty much ready to eat. Great! I just hope I get another chance to use it this year!

WHO AWAKENS ME FROM MY SLUMBER

(Not because of the Ninja, I bet it's fucking great (if a little small)).

The secret to BBQ in the rain is: you get wet.

Er... Pretend the Banhammer said that

Not small for us, although there is an XL model apparently. We've not got kids (LIFE HACK).

I say this from a position of having a lot of undercover space in the garden and only having a gas bbq (so it's not smoky), but, what about making/finding/building a specific undercover area for shelter and barbecuing?

I have a little covered area in my garden, it's really handy.

My brothers have taken to doing a barbecue for Christmas dinner at my mother’s house for the ‘core’ family these past few years. She enjoys it as it means she doesn’t have to cook, but it does mean that they have to barbecue whatever the December 25th weather is, and I think it can take a few hours as they can have 18+ people there and tend to barbecue throughout the day.

The food always looks good and they all seem to enjoy it.

They don’t even have a national bus hub shelter in their back garden like your Grim… here does (which is seriously impressive).

I see it’s all ready and waiting for next week!

I think that picture is actually from late 2020

Christmas just gone was the first in a decade I didn't smoke the meats because of a particularly catastrophic hangover. It came out of the oven ok but wasn't as good.

How do you know? It was the last time we saw some sun?

Filename, innit

Correct! When the lockdown rules changed to "you can meet people outside" I stepped up.

Does it fuck look like that

First BBQ of the year just had. Made chicken/peppers/onions skewers and some sausages in brioche buns with lots of fried onions and some cheapy cheese slices. I'm a basic Bluce, but it was all great. Feels good to get an early BBQ in after last summer being monsoon season.

Someone was firing up the barbecue in a neighbouring garden last night. I think last year we only managed one barbecue (if any) so it would be good to have a few more this year.