Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff
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@nzzp said in Covid-19 and keeping fit:
Tough day on the rower today. Really suffered, probably a reaction to having to do some work. Quick haul up the hill with the family shortly, and then into some nice hazy IPA for the evening.
Dinner is a learning experience for my boys; how to light a charcoal bbq and then cook steak. Important life skill.
Any tips? My hit rate for successfully lighting one is around 30%, if that.
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@MajorRage said in Covid-19 and keeping fit:
@nzzp said in Covid-19 and keeping fit:
Tough day on the rower today. Really suffered, probably a reaction to having to do some work. Quick haul up the hill with the family shortly, and then into some nice hazy IPA for the evening.
Dinner is a learning experience for my boys; how to light a charcoal bbq and then cook steak. Important life skill.
Any tips? My hit rate for successfully lighting one is around 30%, if that.
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@antipodean fuck yeah!! Ha ha bags not lighting it!!
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@antipodean Haha .. funnily enough I've tried all sorts of lighting fluid soaked into the coals ... and the bastards still go out!
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@MajorRage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@antipodean Haha .. funnily enough I've tried all sorts of lighting fluid soaked into the coals ... and the bastards still go out!
What kind of charcoal bbq? You need to up skill fella!
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@canefan said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@MajorRage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@antipodean Haha .. funnily enough I've tried all sorts of lighting fluid soaked into the coals ... and the bastards still go out!
What kind of charcoal bbq? You need to up skill fella!
Generic stuff you get in the supermarkets over here. All sustainably sourced apparently, which is not something I thought possible for charcoal.
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@MajorRage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@MajorRage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@antipodean Haha .. funnily enough I've tried all sorts of lighting fluid soaked into the coals ... and the bastards still go out!
What kind of charcoal bbq? You need to up skill fella!
Generic stuff you get in the supermarkets over here. All sustainably sourced apparently, which is not something I thought possible for charcoal.
I mean what kind of bbq device? Generally in my experience u need to allow plenty of air through and under the coal to make it go. For example I sometimes build a tower of kindling and pile the coal on top. Goes up like a bomb
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@canefan Oh. Something I paid 19.95 GBP for from ASDA.
The coal does sit on a grate though so air can get underneath.
Look, it's a piece of shit - you know it, I know it. But surely I should still be able to light the bastard...
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@Bones said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@MajorRage see, this is what scares me off this thread. Hiding behind a "piece of shit" when I can clearly see it says "expert".
The inverse of the Fern.
The comments are full of pieces of shit where the author thinks they are an expert.
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@MajorRage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan Oh. Something I paid 19.95 GBP for from ASDA.
The coal does sit on a grate though so air can get underneath.
Look, it's a piece of shit - you know it, I know it. But surely I should still be able to light the bastard...
You could try one of these. Piece of cake then.
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@MajorRage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan Oh. Something I paid 19.95 GBP for from ASDA.
The coal does sit on a grate though so air can get underneath.
Look, it's a piece of shit - you know it, I know it. But surely I should still be able to light the bastard...
Lots of kindling underneath, fire lighters because they burn longer than fluid, coal then fluid on top. Lots of fanning if it looks like it's fading. Can't go wrong
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@canefan said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@MajorRage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@canefan Oh. Something I paid 19.95 GBP for from ASDA.
The coal does sit on a grate though so air can get underneath.
Look, it's a piece of shit - you know it, I know it. But surely I should still be able to light the bastard...
Lots of kindling underneath, fire lighters because they burn longer than fluid, coal then fluid on top. Lots of fanning if it looks like it's fading. Can't go wrong
Chuck a lot of everything and fan the shit out of it ... ?
It seems the secret to it is not something that could be described as surprising.
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@Catogrande what the fanny adams is that?
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@MajorRage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@Catogrande what the fanny adams is that?
A chimney starter. They work very well
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@MajorRage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@nzzp said in Covid-19 and keeping fit:
Tough day on the rower today. Really suffered, probably a reaction to having to do some work. Quick haul up the hill with the family shortly, and then into some nice hazy IPA for the evening.
Dinner is a learning experience for my boys; how to light a charcoal bbq and then cook steak. Important life skill.
Any tips? My hit rate for successfully lighting one is around 30%, if that.
Probably the wrong thread, but hey.
I use paper towels with oil, and then light it. The thing I've foudn is to make sure the charcoal has plenty of air space around it. They burn for a few minutes, and if you don't touch anything else, they should have lit enough charcoal to let the fire propagate. Then basically don't rush it - leave the charcoal with the lid open to keep burning.
I allow about 30-45 min to get a fire going if I'm not in a hurry. Then cook directly on that with sear. The fire in the photo below was small - only enough to cook a bit of steak for 4 people.
If you want guaranteed hot charcoal quickly, use a starter. Simple, and gets a whole lotta good coals to cook on in about 10 minutes. I did this, until my bloody gas weber did a 'good enough' job to stop me doing charcoal during the week.
above all, have fun
Edit: the nice thing about paper towel and oil is there is no residue at all - provides a really clean reliable burn to start the fires
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@MajorRage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
@Catogrande what the fanny adams is that?
As @canefan said. basically you fill the thing with your charcoal and set a firefighter underneath it. When the coals have caught and they WILL catch, you empty it on to your BBQ and add coals as needed. If you have a decent sized BBQ you might want two or more to get things going at a suitable level.
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@Catogrande yep nothing beats a chimney starter. Idiot proof.
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@nzzp said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:
I allow about 30-45 min to get a fire going if I'm not in a hurry. Then cook directly on that with sear. The fire in the photo below was small - only enough to cook a bit of steak for 4 people.
Always nice to get an evening to yourself eh?