TECHNICIANS INSIGHT
LIFE OUTSIDE b a L e Th MY LOVE OF A BBQ! By Ashley Byrne
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o I have 5 BBQ’s and I have my heart set on a monster smoker which would take the total to 6 - which could be considered madness but there is method to this. At work I have a gas BBQ and whilst I am a charcoal crazy BBQ’er, sometimes gas just suits the situation. At work I need the BBQ quick, it needs to cater for nearly 40 people, and I need to do this in my lunch hour. So for this purpose gas works, but it’s not real BBQ in my eyes.
For those that don’t know, I’m a dead keen BBQ fan. In fact, it’s a bit of an obsession, to the point that I will BBQ a minimum of 5 times a week and that’s in sun, rain, snow and hail. I was asked to write an article about something personal so I thought an article on the art of BBQ could be a popular one.
Charcoal or wood BBQ is real BBQ and no gas and lava rocks will flavour a brisket with the same woody smokey flavour you get over charcoal. My charcoal BBQ’s at home range in size and shape, and I use them for many different ways to BBQ, however my go to is the Kamado type and in my case, it’s a Kamado Joe. I also have a BBQ for kebabs, one for camping and one diddy one for on the table street food but 95% of the time it’s the Kamado Joe.
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A Kamado BBQ has a ceramic base and lid and weighs a tonne - which is key to it holding its heat. It has an adjustable vent at the top and bottom allowing you to control the air flow. It can run at 450ºC for mind blowing seared steaks, but also down to 100ºC for an incredible 18 hour slow smoked brisket on just one batch of charcoal. The higher the air flow, the hotter the temperature and the faster you burn your charcoal. When it comes to charcoal, never ever ever ever buy cheap charcoal or even worse, briquettes. It’s full of chemicals and will taint your food to give it that firefighter taste. Do not use lighter fluid! You want sustainable good quality lump wood charcoal and get yourself some eco lighters, which are cheap and work vastly better. Good charcoal is super easy to light. My go to is Big K restaurant grade and if I’m feeling very fancy, companies like Whittle and Flame make world class charcoal using niche types of wood which will change the flavours of what you cook. Oak is epic for steaks but I prefer apple wood for pulled pork.
Boards make a great presentation for a BBQ
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A good quality Kamado Joe will set you back £1,500 and that’s without the accessories but we’ll come to that later. Many will think that is eye watering for a BBQ but it is vastly more than your normal BBQ - you need to think of this as an outdoor oven, BBQ, smoker, grill and much more. If you get the pizza insert, it’s a proper pizza oven; the rotisserie will make the greatest chicken you’ve ever eaten; and although I’m not a dessert person, finishing with a rotisserie rum soaked roasted pineapple is out of this world (trust me).
www.dentaltechnician.org.uk 04/08/2021 12:56
