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BBQ what fuel do you use???

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  • 03-05-2017 5:44pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,164 ✭✭✭


    Charcoal, Gas, Timber, Twigs and greens etc

    What do you use???


«1

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,888 ✭✭✭Atoms for Peace


    Dried cow poop 💩.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,387 ✭✭✭D0NNELLY


    Gas grill just outside the back door. Gets used 4 or 5 times a week.. flame grilled. Yum


  • Registered Users Posts: 29,294 ✭✭✭✭Mint Sauce


    Petrol.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,834 ✭✭✭✭Realt Dearg Sec


    Charcoal. Gas, you might as well be cooking inside. Soak some small pieces of timber in water and clear the charcoal to one side (after it's gotten hot) and put them into the cleared space, and cover the grill, it allows you to really get a smokey taste from any meat.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,495 ✭✭✭Will I Am Not


    Gas BBQ's are not real BBQ's.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,888 ✭✭✭Atoms for Peace


    Gas BBQ's are not real BBQ's.

    Those fecking skeikh's trying to keep us hooked on oil.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,789 ✭✭✭Alf Stewart.


    It's always charcoal for my shrimps.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    A BBQ, for me, has to be charcoal with some oak or maple shavings. I don't know how flame grilling on gas can be called barbecuing at all.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,117 ✭✭✭✭Junkyard Tom


    All of the above depending on the situation.


  • Registered Users Posts: 17,740 ✭✭✭✭VinLieger


    Charcoal, add some timber if im really feeling fancy.

    Cooking with gas is not barbecuing


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,164 ✭✭✭DANNY2014


    Has anyone ever tried Freshly cut timber off cuts with the bark still on from the saw mills???


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,495 ✭✭✭Will I Am Not


    Those fecking skeikh's trying to keep us hooked on oil.

    I'm not a Sheikh. Clue is in the name.
    I'm a phoney, just like gas BBQ's.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    DANNY2014 wrote: »
    Has anyone ever tried Freshly cut timber off cuts with the bark still on from the saw mills???

    Absolutely not. It needs to be dried and seasoned. All that would do is give off smoke with no heat.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Where I come from we cook our dinner on a range


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Where I come from we cook our dinner on a range

    Turf fuelled for flavour of course.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,834 ✭✭✭✭Realt Dearg Sec


    DANNY2014 wrote: »
    Has anyone ever tried Freshly cut timber off cuts with the bark still on from the saw mills???

    Absolutely not. It needs to be dried and seasoned. All that would do is give off smoke with no heat.
    The smoke is the point of using the shavings. You get the heat from your charcoal.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,136 ✭✭✭T-Maxx


    Old tractor tyres


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    The smoke is the point of using the shavings. You get the heat from your charcoal.

    But not fresh cuts straight, without charcoal, or any old type either.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,744 ✭✭✭diomed


    A few pallets.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,262 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    Beech wood is what I use, here to beat in terms of flavour


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,259 ✭✭✭él statutorio


    A BBQ, for me, has to be charcoal with some oak or maple shavings. I don't know how flame grilling on gas can be called barbecuing at all.

    It's not, it's grilling.

    Typically what Irish people term BBQ is actually grilling. Regardless of charcoal or gas. I got schooled on that when i moved to the US.
    BBQ is cooking slabs of meat at a low temperature for hours.
    Grilling is throwing a steak or burgers over hot coals or gas and cooking quickly.

    On topic, I like to use apple or peach wood when BBQing.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,852 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    The world-record time for barbecue ignition is three seconds flat, and Purdue University Professor George Goble won the 1996 Ig Nobel in Chemistry for setting it. His trick was to use liquid oxygen, a fuel typically utilized by NASA to propel rockets into orbit. Goble piled 60 pounds of charcoal onto a grill and doused it with three gallons of liquid oxygen. Forty pounds of charcoal burned within three seconds, and, Goble says, the hamburgers were slightly overdone.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,805 ✭✭✭Calibos


    Recipe for a perfect BBQ Burger.

    BBQ that has a lid.

    Clean the grille and rub some cooking oil on it with some kitchen paper. The heat of the Charcoal will turn this into a non stick coating on the bars ensuring your burgers won't stick to the bars and risk disintegrating if you flip them too early. Before I started to do this bit of prep I'd have to time the flipping just right when the burger had cooked enough to unstick from the grille bars but before it had started to overcook/burn on that side. If I got the timing wrong the burger would break up when I tried to flip it if it was still stuck to the bars or that side would end up overdone.

    Lumpwood Charcoal for Flavour, more intense heat and flaming. Only downside to Lumpwood is it doesn't stay lit as long as the briquette charcoal. Downside of Briquettes is harder to light, lack of flavour, less intense heat and much less flaming but a fcuktonne more ash to clean up. I only add some briquettes if I need the BBQ to stay lit a bit longer if I'm cooking burgers for guests aswell as family. Otherwise 100% Lumpwood.

    I've tried all the different recommend cuts of meat and fat percentages and mincing grate sizes from the butchers. I've tried all the different additives and seasonings. Our nicest BBQ burgers have been made with regular Tesco Mince with 18-20% Fat. You need the fat for flavour and to create the flame and smoke on the BBQ. You also don't need any binding agent of any kind. The fat keeps the burger together. I buy 2x 1kg Tesco 20% Fat mince for 8 half pounders. Break it up in a mixing bowl. No kneeding or over handling of the mince. The last thing you want is to end up with a mince paste which will turn into a hockey puck when BBQ'd. You are literally just breaking up the strands of mince with you fingers like you were playing the piano. I lightly push down the mince to flatten the surface of the bowl of mince and then cut the mince into 8 'Pie slices'. I pull out the 'Pies' of mince and make a rough ball without squeezing or compressing to much. Down onto some cling film on the counter and flatten with the palm of my hand into a 5 inch diametre burger. I pinch around the rim of the burger to ensure no 'cracks' in the burger spread to the rim when cooking making the burger fall apart when flipping. Generously Season one side with Sea Salt and the other with cracked black peppercorns. Put on tray, cover with cling film and put in fridge till ready to cook.

    Leave a section of the grille without charcoal so you can move the burgers off direct heat if need be. 4 small pieces of firelighter. Spread some lumpwood charcoal around them. Light them and than pile more charcoal on top. As long as the charcoal is on a grate and air can circulate underneath, that thing is not going out. I despair every year when I hear of horrific burns from people squirting lighter fluid on a BBQ. I've never ever had to use lighter fluid (and even if I did, I wouldn't be stupid enough to squirt it on a lit BBQ. Darwin award candidates)

    When charcoal is nearly all white its time to spread out the charcoal pile a bit and put on the burgers. The 20% fat will start dripping and flame. Once intense flaming has started I let the burgers flame grille for 30 seconds or so. Then I close the lid. This will dampen down the flame and prevent a black burnt burger and will create massive amounts of smoke all trapped inside the lid around the burgers. After 2 or 3 minutes I'll lift the lid and flip the burgers. I'll wait till the flaming starts again on that side of the burger, let flame grille for 30 seconds or so and then close the lid again. After another 2 or 3 minutes I'll lift lid again and flip again. If either side needs a little more char I'll do it, if not I move those burgers off to the uncharcoaled side of the BBQ to slow cook the rest of the way while I throw on the next batch of burgers. The burgers are done when the juice oozing out is clear.


    What I end up with are 5 inch patties that have grown a bit thicker but shrunk to 3.5-4 inches in diametre that now fit my big white baps. They are still flat and have not turned into rugby ball shaped disks and I haven't had to do any of that depression in the centre of the patty with your thumb malarkey that never seemed to work anyway. They are tender, juicy and the mince inside is moist but crumbly. Not chewy or hockey puck tough. They also have a lovely charcoal grilled flavour. Could barely taste an BBQ flavour till I went to 20% fat and closed lid method. Was incredibly disappointed with burgers from several specialist BBQ stalls at outdoor food fairs. Salivating smelling the charcoal firepits from afar yet when I bought one they were Hockey pucks with zero BBQ flavour. My BBQ burgers simply homemade with minimum effort and fuss from bog standard Tesco 20% fat mince are the nicest BBQ burgers I have tasted anywhere.

    Honestly. Never buy a premade burger again even a butchers counter one. With a 20% fat mince its a piece of piss to quickly make a perfect burger. You don't need to be scared of all that "buy this type of mince made from that part of the cow from your local artisan butcher sh!te and add a sprinkle of this, a yoke of an egg, a dash of worchestershire, chopped parsley" or any of that crap that makes one go "Fcuk that, it sounds like too much hassle and work, just pick up a packet or two of Big Als luv". You don't need to do any of that. Takes me about 10 minutes to make 8 half pounders. In the 20 minutes it takes the charcoal to turn white, I've made the burgers and the salad toppings for the burgers and toasted the Baps. 10-15 minutes after placing the first burger on the grille we're sitting down to eat.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,262 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    ^^ kettle grill is the name of this grill

    Use a chimney to get the things lit, takes 10-15 mins. Once everything in the chimney is lit, put it in the grill, put on the grate and close the lid. Open the vents and wait for the temp to get to at least 260. Then cleaning the grate will be a piece of cake. A wire brush will remove all residue at that temp.

    Use the vents to control the temp, close them slightly to reduce temp. Regarding burgers, you should try making your own. Get some good cuts from the butcher and mince them yourself. You will get a much nicer burger in the end as you control everything and can mix cuts. I've an attachment for my kitchen-aid that minces for me. Also have one for making sausages. Well worth the time and effort during the summer weekends :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    Just use a gas blow torch, it's portable.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,805 ✭✭✭Calibos


    jester77 wrote: »
    ^^ kettle grill is the name of this grill

    Use a chimney to get the things lit, takes 10-15 mins. Once everything in the chimney is lit, put it in the grill, put on the grate and close the lid. Open the vents and wait for the temp to get to at least 260. Then cleaning the grate will be a piece of cake. A wire brush will remove all residue at that temp.

    Use the vents to control the temp, close them slightly to reduce temp. Regarding burgers, you should try making your own. Get some good cuts from the butcher and mince them yourself. You will get a much nicer burger in the end as you control everything and can mix cuts. I've an attachment for my kitchen-aid that minces for me. Also have one for making sausages. Well worth the time and effort during the summer weekends :)

    Mines a Barrel shape.

    Don't need those Chimney Lighter things for lumpwood charcoal though they are handy for Briquette charcoal alright.

    While I never bought my own mincer, I did go try all the recommended cuts of beef from my local butcher. 50% Chuck and 50% Rib steak with 25% fat please through the 1/4" grate one time only please etc etc. I tried multiple combo's multiple times. The flavour was never great and despite using fresh steak and going through the largest grate once, the mince was always a paste just from its own weight in the bag before I ever laid a hand on it. This meant Hockey puck burgers.

    All the recommendations of seasonings just served to require over working of the mince simply to mix them into the mince and again the over worked mince made for a hockey puck burger. When one hits on the methods that infuse a decent amount of Charcoal flavour one doesn't need any fancy seasonings anyway.

    So after a year or two's constant experimenting with Mince types even from my Local Artisan Butcher™ and with mixers and seasonings, I ended up finding that my most tasty, juicy, charcoaly, crumbly burgers were made with bog standard Tesco 20% Fat mince, just salt and pepper to season and with the minimum of working the meat and effort such that I could make 8 half pounders in less than 10 minutes. ie. My tastiest burgers were the cheapest and quickest with the least effort to make.

    I don't care what bits of the cow are in Tesco 20% mince. I don't care what additives or colouring are mixed into it. IDGAF frankly. It makes damn fine tasty burgers and thats all I care about :D


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Gas, I wouldn't even consider buying a charcoal BBQ. You might find the time and muster up the effort to use it once a summer. Whereas with gas it's a year round if you wish (especially if you set it up under some cover) and can easily be done multiple times a week in good weather and on a whim with basically no effort.

    The food also tastes delicious and no comparison to grilling in a oven like a few charcoal snobs are trying to claim.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,495 ✭✭✭Will I Am Not


    Gas BBQ's are created from the devil's farts.


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,571 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    None. Don't have a barbeque or outside grill.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,774 ✭✭✭RobbieTheRobber


    It's not, it's grilling.

    Typically what Irish people term BBQ is actually grilling. Regardless of charcoal or gas. I got schooled on that when i moved to the US.
    BBQ is cooking slabs of meat at a low temperature for hours.
    Grilling is throwing a steak or burgers over hot coals or gas and cooking quickly.

    On topic, I like to use apple or peach wood when BBQing.

    I take my definitions from dictionaries not from americans.


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