Nearing 40. Having my mid-life crisis with a BBQ.

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McLovin
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:37 am
Location: Hunter Valley

Nearing 40. Having my mid-life crisis with a BBQ.

Post by McLovin »

Hello all,

Like most adult males I enjoy playing with fire and getting my carnivore on. As I approach my senior years (I turn 40 in 2016) I am finding that I am spending more time on my BBQ to get precious time away from the bride and offspring.

Like many others, I enjoy watching Man v Food and I feel it is my life calling to learn how to BBQ to my full potential.

I recently purchased this four burner. I am under to illusion of grandeur however I want to make this baby sing. My first goal is to start experimenting with smoking in it as best as possible.

Looking forward to being part of the community.

McLovin

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Ferrari 312T
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2012 1:31 pm

Nearing 40. Having my mid-life crisis with a BBQ.

Post by Ferrari 312T »

No response yet so I will try. I have a gasser like this along with a weber, kamado and kontosouvli. From my understanding to smoke you need something with minimal airflow so this may be an issue. I would try a smoker box and give it a go


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Davo
Forum Administrator
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Joined: Sun Jun 15, 2008 2:44 am
Location: Albury NSW on the mighty Murray River

Re: Nearing 40. Having my mid-life crisis with a BBQ.

Post by Davo »

Hi Mclovin,

Whilst it's possible to get some smoke happening in the gas BBQ, you really need to have something that you can have a live fire in, something as simple as a Weber kettle for example. By live fire, I'm talking about coals or wood.
To properly use live fire, you need to vent it so you have full control of how the fire behaves and unfortunately Gas BBQs are only vented to allow for Gas use and not for live fire use.
T learn how to use live fire, we here mostly recommend that they try and find a used Weber kettle bbq on ebay or just go out and buy a new one for about $300 coz at least with a new one you'll get the hard cover book that comes with it......that book is a brilliant source of learning.
Don't buy the compact version of the Kettle though, you need to buy the 57CM version and not the 47CM.

With the Kettle, you can learn how to smoke,roast and low and slow with some slightly advanced techniques such as the snake but you need to get it right for it to work. Venting in another area which is required learning, you need to know how to dampen a live fire so that you can keep it going for hours and hours with the correct air getting to the fire.

You can use smoking chips in your gas bbq to get a nice smoke but for true low n slow cooking, gas bbqs can't get that low in temp without going out and that's dangerous. they need a certain amount of preesure for them to work.

Anyway, welcome to the forum, have a good look around at all the categories ....theres lots of learning that's been built up here for over 7 years.

Cheers

Davo
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ozwaz
Posts: 165
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2013 12:35 am
Location: Perth, WA

Re: Nearing 40. Having my mid-life crisis with a BBQ.

Post by ozwaz »

My old 4 burner wasn't too bad for low and slowish, wood chips at one end and meat down the other. Smoke would get to the meat but it used to sit around 115-120.

I can do 107 low and slow in my family q and I ignite the pellets out of my treager in an inverted kitchen strainer, often cook beef ribs this way.

I previously hot smoke trout in my old 4 burner too. Give it a go Mclovin, it can be done. While it will be a different result from a pellet or stick burner for example, it's still definitely worth learning how.
Traeger Pellet Grill - Weber Family Q - Ziggy Twin Burner
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