Hi,

Just bought a Stainless Steel, 3 burner gas BBQ, with hood, from Tesco, half
price £87. Would have been nice if a little more of it was made out of
stainless, however...!

Seems very good, so, in my new re-kindled enthusiasm, thought I would have
another look into the "technique" of barbecuing.

I recall someone on one of these sites some time ago said that a traditional
BBQ was in fact a "hole in the ground, with smouldering wood, where food
would be cooked for hours", so the "modern" idea of a BBQ is more of a
grill, I can go with that. Now this seemed to be born out when I looked at,
what could be argued as the "King" of BBQ's, Weber.

Weber suggest that "direct" cooking is only used for thiner cuts of meat,
poultry etc. All other cuts, chicken thighs on the bone, spatch cock chicken
etc., are "indirectly" cooked.

So, decided to try a spatch cock chicken on my new BBQ. However, unlike the
Weber BBQ's, 2 burners, with V shaped metal plates are under a grill rack,
the other burner is directly under a solid cast iron plate.

I pre-heated the bbq and then turned off the burner under the solid plate
and left the other 2 on medium. Placed the chicken on the solid plate and
cooked for 1 hour 15 minutes, during which time I cooked some sausages to
perfection over the grill rack.

The chicken was cooked through to perfection, however, not really crisped up
on the skin, 'suppose I could have put it over the grill side.

Anyhow, has anyone any recommendations or advice as to the best way to use
this set up, i.e. two burners under an open grill and one burner under a
solid plate. Oh, and before anyone suggest's it I can't get a spare open
grill to replace the solid one, seems like the child slaves in China that
assemble the BBQ only put together complete BBQ's for Tesco (joke).

Regards,


Charles

On Jun 3, 2:53 pm, "Charles Turner" >
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Just bought a Stainless Steel, 3 burner gas BBQ, with hood, from Tesco, half
> price £87. Would have been nice if a little more of it was made out of
> stainless, however...!
>
> Seems very good, so, in my new re-kindled enthusiasm, thought I would have
> another look into the "technique" of barbecuing.
>
> I recall someone on one of these sites some time ago said that a traditional
> BBQ was in fact a "hole in the ground, with smouldering wood, where food
> would be cooked for hours", so the "modern" idea of a BBQ is more of a
> grill, I can go with that. Now this seemed to be born out when I looked at,
> what could be argued as the "King" of BBQ's, Weber.
>
> Weber suggest that "direct" cooking is only used for thiner cuts of meat,
> poultry etc. All other cuts, chicken thighs on the bone, spatch cock chicken
> etc., are "indirectly" cooked.
>
> So, decided to try a spatch cock chicken on my new BBQ. However, unlike the
> Weber BBQ's, 2 burners, with V shaped metal plates are under a grill rack,
> the other burner is directly under a solid cast iron plate.
>
> I pre-heated the bbq and then turned off the burner under the solid plate
> and left the other 2 on medium. Placed the chicken on the solid plate and
> cooked for 1 hour 15 minutes, during which time I cooked some sausages to
> perfection over the grill rack.
>
> The chicken was cooked through to perfection, however, not really crisped up
> on the skin, 'suppose I could have put it over the grill side.
>
> Anyhow, has anyone any recommendations or advice as to the best way to use
> this set up, i.e. two burners under an open grill and one burner under a
> solid plate. Oh, and before anyone suggest's it I can't get a spare open
> grill to replace the solid one, seems like the child slaves in China that
> assemble the BBQ only put together complete BBQ's for Tesco (joke).
>
> Regards,
>
> Charles

China has no child slaves you ignoramus. Crean up your own back yard.

Perhaps so, but a ****ing shite human rights record, so sod off you ****.

Cross-posting deleted

Charles Turner wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Just bought a Stainless Steel, 3 burner gas BBQ

Actually, you purchased a grill. BBQ is food, not equipment.

snip....

> Seems very good, so, in my new re-kindled enthusiasm, thought I would have
> another look into the "technique" of barbecuing.

OK. Try here for a great resource:
http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/faq2/toc.html

> I recall someone on one of these sites some time ago said that a
> traditional BBQ was in fact a "hole in the ground,

The "hole" is called a pit. A pit can either be below ground or above
ground. A pit is what is used to cook bbq.

> with smouldering wood,

HELL no. Wood is essential, and smoke from lump charcoal or wood is a
by-product that helps flavor the bbq that's cooking, like a spice.
Smoldering wood produces a by-product called creosote that coats the bbq
with a nasty, bitter flavor. One of the big jobs of the pit-tender is to
regulate the amount and kind of smoke that the meat (bbq) is exposed to.

> where food would be cooked for hours",

MEAT only. Not every cut of meat is good for bbq. The purpose of barbecuing
(using low, indirect heat) meats is to make a tough cut of meat, which is
full of collagen, into something so tender and succulent and moist that you
don't even need a knife to eat it. Tender cuts of meat will toughen up and
dry out if you attempt to barbecue them. They do better being grilled (high,
direct heat)

> so the "modern" idea of a BBQ is more of a grill

No. A grill is a grill. Barbecue is barbecue. A grill is a piece of
equipment; to grill is to cook over high, direct heat. Barbecuing and
grilling are different forms of cooking. Barbecuing and grilling can be done
as part of a cookout.

> I can go with that.

Only if you want to be incorrect.

> Now this seemed to be born out when I looked at, what could be argued as
> the "King" of BBQ's, Weber.

Weber makes grills, many of which can be configured to both grill meat or
barbecue meat. Weber may be considered the "king" of grills.

> Weber suggest that "direct" cooking

Which is also known as grilling.

> is only used for thiner cuts of
> meat, poultry etc.

No. Thinner cuts are not the only cut and type of meat to be grilled. ANY
tender meat falls into that category.

> All other cuts, chicken thighs on the bone, spatch cock chicken etc., are
> "indirectly" cooked.

Sort of. Indirect cooking can be HIGH heat -- as in roasting. Which is what
you do with thin meats AND chicken. That's the same process for which an
oven is usually employed. On the outdoor grill, like a Weber, you can add
dry wood chunks to the flame and do smoke-roasting. Indirect cooking is can
also be done with low heat -- which is part of what you need when cooking
barbecue. One may even do indirect ultra-low, cold smoked cooking which is
used for preservation, like jerky and some sausage.

> So, decided to try a spatch cock chicken on my new BBQ [grill]. However,
> unlike the Weber BBQ's [grills], 2 burners, with V shaped metal plates are
> under a grill rack, the other burner is directly under a solid cast
> iron plate.
> I pre-heated the bbq [grill] and then turned off the burner under the
> solid
> plate and left the other 2 on medium. Placed the chicken on the solid
> plate and cooked for 1 hour 15 minutes, during which time I cooked
> some sausages to perfection over the grill rack.
>
> The chicken was cooked through to perfection, however, not really
> crisped up on the skin, 'suppose I could have put it over the grill
> side.
> Anyhow, has anyone any recommendations or advice as to the best way
> to use this set up, i.e. two burners under an open grill and one
> burner under a solid plate. Oh, and before anyone suggest's it I
> can't get a spare open grill to replace the solid one, seems like the
> child slaves in China that assemble the BBQ [grill] only put together
> complete BBQ's [grills] for Tesco (joke).

Charles, I corrected your terms in situ as necessary. For crisp skin, you
need to place the chicken, skin-side down, on the open grates for the period
of time it takes to crisp. Probably 10-15 minutes. Make sure that the flame
is at a low setting.
--
Dave www.davebbq.com

What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before
you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." -- Conan

Thanks, Dave, that was informative.

Charles Turner wrote:
> Thanks, Dave, that was informative.

You're welcome, Charles. Worldwide definitions for various cooking methods
can be very different from country to country. Be sure to look at the FAQ,
which will give you a lot of information, recipes and cooking technique for
bbq.

--
Dave www.davebbq.com

What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before
you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." -- Conan

And I forgot to add: Welcome to the AFB, Charles. I hope you hang around.
--
Dave www.davebbq.com

What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before
you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." -- Conan

Dave,

Sure you realise I'm in the UK, but the weather's definitely getting better
this week, so I'll be looking through the links you've sent and doing a bit
of BBQ experimenting, hopefully in the sun!!

Regards,


Charles


"Dave Bugg" > wrote in message
news:Joi1k.2354$Kw3.1606@trndny01...
> And I forgot to add: Welcome to the AFB, Charles. I hope you hang around.
> --
> Dave www.davebbq.com
>
> What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before
> you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." -- Conan
>

On Jun 3, 2:06*pm, "Dave Bugg" > wrote:
> Charles Turner wrote:
> > Thanks, Dave, that was informative.
>
> You're welcome, Charles. Worldwide definitions for various cooking methods
> can be very different from country to country. Be sure to look at the FAQ,
> which will give you a lot of information, recipes and cooking technique for
> bbq.
>
> --
> Dave *www.davebbq.com
>
> What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before
> you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." -- Conan

Congratulations Charles, you are the first person I can remember to
not react poorly to Dave's educational post.

Dave was spot on on all points.

Welcome to the neighborhood and enjoy the FAQ, it was a revelation to
me when I first read it, it's really a great document and a good read.

There was a recent post (within the last month or so) by Mr. Cramer
asking for good grilling and BBQ related links, you might want to go
to Google groups and look that up. Our cuts of meat are different,
expect some challenges from that.

Denny Wheeler wrote:
> On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 14:17:48 -0700 (PDT), Tutall >
> wrote:
>
>> Congratulations Charles, you are the first person I can remember to
>> not react poorly to Dave's educational post.
>
> I also congratulate Dave--that's the least ruffled his feathers have
> been when doing one of the educational ("that's a grill not a bbq!")
> posts. THIS one should be required reading for all newbies. Too bad
> that on Usenet we can't do "sticky" posts as can be done on
> web-forums.
>
>> Dave was spot on on all points.
>
> Indeed he was. As usual.
>

Yup, excellent post. But I wouldn't expect less. It's nice to see
someone new here heed the advice of longtime "experts" here and not get
their knickers all in a wad.

Welcome Charles and good luck. I will throw on caution out though for
your consideration should you decide to use bbq cooking methods on your
grill: pay attention to grease build up on the bottom of the unit. If
you don't you could potentially end up with a roaring fire in the bottom
one day. (don't ask how I know that. ;-) )

--
Steve

On Jun 3, 9:40 pm, Denny Wheeler >
wrote:
> ? What was THAT about, Charles?

You probably missed the post by "Johnny Chan" who took offense to the
comment about slaves in China.

--Jeff

In article >,
Steve Calvin > wrote:

>Welcome Charles and good luck. I will throw on caution out though for
>your consideration should you decide to use bbq cooking methods on your
>grill: pay attention to grease build up on the bottom of the unit. If
>you don't you could potentially end up with a roaring fire in the bottom
>one day. (don't ask how I know that. ;-) )

Steve's right. I've had this happen to me once. Never want to go back to
that again! Now I've got a GOSM as my smoker, I don't think I'll have to
worry about a roaring fire in my grill. BUT I probably SHOULD pressurewash
the bottom out. Any recommendations? Spray "Simple Green" in and then
blast away? Or is there another method I need to follow?

--
Karl

On Jun 4, 8:44 am, (Karl Kingston) wrote:
> In article >,
> Steve Calvin > wrote:
>
> >Welcome Charles and good luck. I will throw on caution out though for
> >your consideration should you decide to use bbq cooking methods on your
> >grill: pay attention to grease build up on the bottom of the unit. If
> >you don't you could potentially end up with a roaring fire in the bottom
> >one day. (don't ask how I know that. ;-) )
>
> Steve's right. I've had this happen to me once. Never want to go back to
> that again! Now I've got a GOSM as my smoker, I don't think I'll have to
> worry about a roaring fire in my grill. BUT I probably SHOULD pressurewash
> the bottom out. Any recommendations? Spray "Simple Green" in and then
> blast away? Or is there another method I need to follow?
>
> --
> Karl

Gas? You must have been in the Burmese war and some Ghurka cut out
your taste buds.

Denny Wheeler wrote:
> On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:25:33 -0400, Steve Calvin
> > wrote:
>
>> pay attention to grease build up on the bottom of the unit. If
>> you don't you could potentially end up with a roaring fire in the bottom
>> one day. (don't ask how I know that. ;-) )
>
> Uhhhh....Steve? Just HOW do you know that??
>

Your Mother musta just loved you as a kid.... ;-)

I'll "assume" that was done "tongue in cheek"...

--
Steve

Denny Wheeler wrote:
> On Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:30:55 -0400, Steve Calvin
<snip>
>>>
>>>> pay attention to grease build up on the bottom of the unit. If
>>>> you don't you could potentially end up with a roaring fire in the bottom
>>>> one day. (don't ask how I know that. ;-) )
>>> Uhhhh....Steve? Just HOW do you know that??
>>>
>> Your Mother musta just loved you as a kid.... ;-)
>>
>> I'll "assume" that was done "tongue in cheek"...
>
> Hey, I thought the story might be amusing. Presumably it's long
> enough ago that you can laugh at yourself about it now.
>

Oh sure. I have to admit when I do something stupid. There are usually
witnesses! ;-)

Nothing real special. I had (still do) the Weber Silver B and decided I
could do ribs on it. Well, you certainly can, and I did. Did quite a few
of 'em one summer over the back burner with the front burner on so that
the grate temp was about 250d. Ribs came out pretty good all summer
actually but I never thought about cleaning out the bottom and had one
hell of a fire.

Very shortly after that I bought the WSM to set beside the Silver B....

No fires and the ribs/que is actually better.

So... there ya go. Just one of my stories of bein' slightly dumb. ;-)

--
Steve