BBQ Ideas?

Cardiffdaffs

Well-known member
Nice weather and thoughts have turned to garden. Am looking for a garden barbecue. Space saving ideally that stays outdoors.

Obviously not a charcoal one but gas fired. Any recommendations? Cooking just for 2 max 4.
 
Bbq is a broad church, is there a reason why it's obviously not a charcoal one?

Charcoal is a lot more flexible in what you can do - for example doing low and slow cooking a lot harder on gas than it is on charcoal, and charcoal is fairly consistently available whereas gas for the last 2 years has had peak time shortages and obviously prices are going up. Everywhere sells charcoal and it's fairly cheap. Gas can be easier to manage though, and quick to get going obviously but you sacrifice flavour for the convenience.

A lot of what people in the UK call bbq is just outdoor grilling as it's done with the lid open and direct heat from underneath, which can be from any fuel. The bbq part comes from closing the lid and a slightly lower temp circulates long with the smoke to provide the heat and flavour.

Another option is wood pellet which gives you a lot of control but it's probably fairly niche.

If you're set in gas it will come down to budget - are you just after something that is cheap and will do the job? In which case most supermarkets will have them on offer atm, or you can look online at things like outback - they're not premium but will do a job

Stuff like Weber is a step up but not built like they used to be

Or traeger if you want to look at wood pellets

For charcoal aldi do a big green egg style kamado bbq for about £399 which gets excellent reviews for the price




Cheap and cheerful gas 2 burner job. Add to that the cost of a gas canister though, and if you don't already have a gas canister there is a scam where you put a hefty "deposit" down which you'll likely not see back ever again 😂

charcoal ones fairly cheap.

I'd check reviews for how hard to put together, how they hold up etc and factor in cost of a good quality cover else it will rust away in a years time and cheap covers will be 5 streets away when the wind picks up
 
Sounds like your needs are the same as mine. I've got

Napoleon TravelQ PRO 285 Portable Gas BBQ​


Get's put back in garage when finished with, easy to clean, easy to set up. It comes with grills and I've bought the plates - perfect for steaks and my speciality signature Gains burgers (actually just copied off Sam the Cooking Guy on youtube).
 
I thought with gas bbq's you used the gas flame to heat charcoal, then turned the gas off. Am I wrong?
 
I thought with gas bbq's you used the gas flame to heat charcoal, then turned the gas off. Am I wrong?
Yes, gas bbqs usually don't use charcoal although you can get dual fuel ones. They sometimes have lava rocks in them which are heated up but it's not really the same as coal. Like I said earlier though the difference may be limited between gas and charcoal if all you do is cook stuff with the lid open - it'll taste largely the same as things cook in 10-15 mins so not enough time for infusion of flavour or smoke rings to develop, but it's good to have the flexibility if you do want to try other things
 
I got a Weber grill last year and it’s outstanding, I use it 3-4 times a week during summer, would highly recommend. Only negative is it’s genuinely too easy to use, it’s nigh on impossible to burn anything! Campingaz do some nice gas barbecues as well if you don’t want to spend a fortune on a Weber.
 
Can you get different types/flavours of charcoal ?
Most charcoals are the same but you can get better/worse ones in terms of burn quality etc, but when it comes to wood or wood pellets you can get different types of wood which taste different. I'm looking at a Traeget pellet burner atm.
 
I have a 'smoker box' - you fill it with dampened wood flakes and put it on the grill when before lighting it and it smokes as you cook - the actual flavouring is a bit hit and miss and depends on the strength of flavour in the wood flakes.

 
Thanks for all the replies and some great suggestions.

I don’t want charcoal for environmental reasons (it is viewed as a pollutant and also huge demand for charcoal is causing deforestation). Appreciate the flavour arguments but pallete is not that discerning
 
I’ve got a Traeger, they’re absolutely brilliant albeit expensive. They do last though, I’ve had mine about 6 or 7 years now.

Have a look on YouTube for a guy called Marcus Bawdon, Country Woodsmoke. As well as cooking he reviews endless BBQs.
He’s a really nice guy, if you message him in twitter he’ll almost certainly reply with some advice.
 
Thanks for all the replies and some great suggestions.

I don’t want charcoal for environmental reasons (it is viewed as a pollutant and also huge demand for charcoal is causing deforestation). Appreciate the flavour arguments but pallete is not that discerning
That's all fair enough, in which case it comes down to budget then for gas grills, so go with whatever hurt you want for your wallet 😂

Have you got gas supplies already? I've got a gas man who is about on par with Calor for 13kg bottles but none of the nonsense deposits.
 
I’ve got a Traeger, they’re absolutely brilliant albeit expensive. They do last though, I’ve had mine about 6 or 7 years now.

Have a look on YouTube for a guy called Marcus Bawdon, Country Woodsmoke. As well as cooking he reviews endless BBQs.
He’s a really nice guy, if you message him in twitter he’ll almost certainly reply with some advice.
Am looking forward to making a purchase of a 575, it seems to offer the quality of charcoal food but without the faff for temp control
 
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