At the risk of inciting some charcoal rage here, does anyone have a good recommendation for a small size gas barbeque (this is to supplement the Weber kettle) that can do indirect cooking fairly well?

Have been considering the Weber Q series but the small ones only have one burner so not too sure about temp control for cooking joints etc and being able to use a smoker with it.

Any advice would be gratefully received :ok:

Had you included all the self-insults and faggotry gags, you may have laid an easier path to a real answer and mitigated some of the possible incoming. But now you've done it! :E

I look forward to some creative posting, or are the burnt wood brigade out of ideas?

Eau de Boeing, at the risk of generating even more rage then your gas reference, if what you're looking for is a smoker I'd suggest an electric smoker. I got one for Christmas last year and I absolutely love it. The best true BBQ food I've ever done.
You plug it in, set the desired temperature (I usually go for 220F) and time, add the food and wood chips, and go do other stuff. Come back once an hour or so to add more wood chips. I usually set it up for ~4 hours.
Simply fantastic food comes out, and it's close to fool proof.


This is what I got:

If you have something like a Cabela's or Bass Pro Shop in your neck of the woods, they'll have a good selection of electric smokers.

I know winter is not high time for outdoor cooking, but I thought I'd post an update based on what I've done over the last month.
As noted in my previous post, I now have an automated, electric smoker - set the time and temperature you want, insert food and woodchips, and go do whatever you want for the next several hours until the food is done.
I've been curious about doing a turkey in the smoker - especially how it would do with "stuffing" (aka 'dressing'). A friend of the wife gave us a small (~4kg) turkey for Christmas (at least small by US standards - most turkeys I see in the store are between 5 and 10 kg, with 10+kg examples not uncommon). So I figured I'd give it a shot - I basically prepped it the same way I would if it had been going in the oven with as much stuffing as I could fit in both ends. I then put it in the smoker at 230 deg F and set the timer for five hours. The result was fantastic - absolutely fantastic.:ok: I really like the stuffing and it was great as well - the mild smoky flavor to the stuffing was a pleasant addition.
Today, I did a 'beer butt' chicken - using the 'sitting chicken'. Put most of a can of room temp cheap beer (Bud Light) in the sitting chicken - dumped the balance that didn't fit into the water in the water pan that goes below the food. 4 hours at 230 F. Also very favorable results - and I used the meat thermometer to do check on the beer in the sitting chicken after I pulled it out. I measured ~185 F in the beer (or what was left of it) - basically the same temperature as what I was measuring for the chicken itself.
As the boiling point of ethanol is about 174F, there is no question the alcohol boiled off in the sitting chicken, and I could readily smell a beer 'aroma' when I removed the chicken from the smoker. Now, this was a four hour low temp smoke, not an hour in the oven so your mileage may vary :E. But at least for the way I use it, beer butt busted is BUSTED :ok:

Brilliant, thanks TDRacer that's exactly what I need. Next time I have a US trip I will try and source one.

Just tried the Weber Sear Grate for steaks and very impressed too....:ok:

There is never a close season for our kit.

There is always the garage [with door open and car outside] if needs be. Not that I wear shorts and a floppy hat and sunnies ..............

Good grief LB.....
 

.....you mean you keep a CAR in your garage> How very quaint and old fashioned.

The Ancient Mariner

So in addition to the PPRuNe BBQ Squadron having Gas (Premier) and Charcoal Flights ... We now have an 'Electric' Flight ... I need a lie down and BEagle is probably reaching for his Beta-blockers :p

Car is a hangar queen .......... the original shiny bomber. I am lucky enough to have a double garage and one car, so the "other" doubles as a workshop.
When we move house the car insists on being first in, so it bags the space that others would fill with tea chests, MFOs, cases crates and half bikes.

This suits nicely in the winter as the car is warm when I reluctantly set out, hence no cold bum for first 5 minutes.

Even my little teutonic tourer has heated seats - although I rarely find any need to use them as the car resides in the garage overnight. As does the wonderful black orb, the only true Weber barbi'!

'Electric' smokers indeed? Why not just wheel the oven outside and use an extension lead....:rolleyes:

The bottled breath of Satan's backside is bad enough - but electrickery :eek:

That's two PPRUNERS who use a garage as designed!

Maybe......
 

....I never got over quarters garages where it was nigh on impossible to get the car into the garage and then get YOU out of the car. Even when I did get a double garage, by the time I'd installed the bandsaw, lathe, workbench and all the paraphenalia there STILL wasn't room for a car. I've found that the answer has been a carport between the end of the house and the garage.

The Ancient Mariner

Yes, now you mention MQ versions ....... OMQ, Portadown Way JHQ were a very tight squeeze for baling out.
Where they WERE useful was for street BBQs and thrashes that involved wet/cold/windy weather ......... a whole row of garages, smoke billowing out, red eyes, coughing ........ drink anyone?

Right, people, all three BBQs serviced and ready for a glimpse of clement weather.

Big red one: new handle, home made. Leg secured [at last, it fell off once too often when being trundled, Weber no use as a bipod]

Smoky Joe: might just last another year. Not too pleased, its only 22 years or so old. JHQ PX. Do they do refunds?

Gas. A spare cylinder of Satan's Backside Breath on standby.

Please report status.

Come on sun.

Happy to report Coff's Gas BBQ passed it's 'Annual' certification after a full service and is ready for action ...

However current Wx Colour State here in E. Sx. UK is 'BLACK' :(

The main question though ... Has BEagle completed the annual hacking of his garden undergrowth ready for commencement of Ops this year :}

BLK? Ice on the patio? Path blocked by crashed wheelbarrow?

A murky YLO here in S Lincs, but drinkies at 1800 so trending RED through bottom of glass.

22.5" Weber is at full readiness now that wheel attach defect has been remedied. This past weekend the following were cooked on the grill with soaked mesquite chunks added for smoky flavoring:

Two sirloin steaks (cooked to medium)
12 hamburgers with secret seasonings only known to certain rotary lupines
4 chicken breasts, they were MOIST after being cooked on the grill! (Seasonings are simple: salt, pepper, garlic, paprika. It's the mesquite smokiness that gives the signature flavor here)
zucchini
mushrooms
fresh jalapenos
fresh red bell peppers

The missus was most pleased, and the local food critic, my son, gave all served a thumbs up. Evolution was conducted under South Texan Weber Standard 3.20, which requires at least two pints of Boddington's (the ones in the magic can with the cartridge in the bottom) and a cigar.

My hopes to you all thawing out soon and enjoying your Webermania! :ok:

Right - tennn chutt.....

I am truly blessed in the change in circumstances, we have moved to Gods Finest Created Work ( Cornwall) and are residing in the countryside.

As I now have junior spanner monkey very mobile and "helpful" I can no longer permit the use of half an oil drum and fire to cuisine with...

I fear I am about to join the breath of Satans Arse brigade and go gas..... Shudder

However, our house cooker is a gurt big oil fired Rayburn and I shan't be cooking on that in the summer - so recommendations for a gas grill please as it is going to get quite a lot of use

Thank you, ease springs

We had a really mild winter here (lots of rain though - there is more moss in my lawn than grass :eek:). The mild temps mean the grill has been in use all winter long (one advantage of gas is the minimal tending it requires to get good results, so the time spent outside in the cold is minimized). Did a really nice grilled chicken last weekend :ok:.
Cornish, for my money Weber makes the best gas grills out there (their charcoal grills are top notch too). Not only does the Weber give better results than other gas grills I've used, it lasts. I've had the gas Weber for over 10 years and it's nearly good as new - the only maintenance being replacing the 'flavorizer bars' (metal bits that go over the burners) a few months back. Before the Weber I don't think I had a gas grill last more than 5 years before it would rust out :rolleyes:

If you mean have the Flymo and strimmer been out to cut down the jungle....or rather the few tufts of grass around my shoebox, then the answer is yes.

But the recent sun has also caused the trusty blackfellow to be awakened from hibernation; nothing too exotic yet though, just etwas Bratwurst mit Bratkartoffeln accompanied by Senf mit Mayo....and some Hefe-Weißbier, selbstverständlich!

The weather-guessers have alleged sunshine again today, so some chook is destined for the Black Orb treatment later!

Late on Parade BEags. The Teetering Towers trusty black orb performed for the first time this (calendar) year on Easter Sunday, when it fed 3 generations of Teeters - well, the tinies weren't into steaks just yet, but enjoyed the garlic mushrooms.

I even - Weber forgive me - grilled some veggie sausages for the herbivorous Junior Daughter. :yuk:

Of course, it was wheeled out for the now traditional Turkey BBQ on 25th December .... :ok:

A Flymo ...

Good God BEagle ... A 'device' such as that is far too close on the evolutionary scale to those other 'things' that beat the laws of physics in to submission to get airborne ... How could you ;)

(In a slight misquote of an old adage)

To fly is human, to hover is divine.

The Flymo knows its place as a hovercraft - the rotating part is close to the surface and cannot be confused with those awful clattering things which are so hideously ugly that the Earth repels them from its surface.

If the earth did not repel a Flymo it would not work, would it? Rather similar to a helicopter one might think.

When in a hole ................

Go on, don't rise to the bait. Grit your tooth.

:D l;ss;ds;d ';[; '[';ds d;'dwl;w

A "flymo"? I cannot imagine what that might be. A homosexual in an airliner?

That would add a new dimension to performing a barrel role....:mad:

Gentlemen ... We should all have one of these :}

A well executed series of 'Wingovers' after each pass should give one the desired Wimbledon Stripes :ok:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kNWfqVWC2KI

Coff

I trust that's a charcoal-powered flying lawn mower, Coff.

Hmm, I never did like stripy lawns. Always reminded me of the sort of thing you'd seen in an ATCO catalogue of the 'lashings of ginger beer' era of the 1950s, with Father (not 'Dad' in those days!) in his tweed suit puffing away on his pipe whilst mowing happily away. Mother in a deck chair in a sun dress with a glass of said ginger beer, with the rosy-cheeked son in his Viyella shirt, tie, sleeveless pullover and grey flannel shorts and pig-tailed daughter in a pinafore dress. The sort of kids you'd see in a Hornby Dublo catalogue - except, of course, for the girl. Girls had dolls, not train sets - such gender stereotyping was the norm in those days.

Petrol-powered motor mowers of those days all shared a traditional British characteristic - they were absolute buggers to start. Usually because they needed decoking, thanks to the wrong oil:fuel ratio in their diets. To keep you on your toes, they would often kick back if they had starting handles, or catch you on the shins if fitted with kick starts. Once underway they were reasonably reliable though and cylinder mowers could be persuaded to produce those infamous Wembley stripes.

But for sheer malevolent brutality, the daddy of them all was the infamous 'Allen Scythe', a device which can only have been designed by a psychopath. It resembled a small howitzer, but without the gun. It had 2 large wheels, only one of which was driven as a differential would only have been something else to go wrong and was powered by a 150cc Villiers 2-stroke, which incorporated the traditional British starting reluctance until the rope wrapped around the flywheel had been yanked sufficiently for the engine to tire of the game and start with clouds of blue smoke. A clutch disengaged the wheel, but the brute had a pair of scissor-action inter-meshing teeth on a 3 foot wide blade at the front - which were always driven whenever the engine was running....

The Allen Scythe was assembled by people to whom 'precision' was something of an unknown concept. To get round this, they recommended that the brutes should be serviced annually, advice which few owners would heed. With time, vibration and indifferent ownership would add an extra dimension of fun to Allen Scythe operation, entirely due to the clutch. A slot in the clutch lever was supposed to hold the thing out of drive by engaging on a short ratchet device which poked down through the slot. In theory you pulled up on the clutch lever and the ratchet held it in place. But the ratchet teeth soon became worn and the various joints in the linkage became sloppy. So often the vibration of the engine would cause the ratchet to let go when you were least expecting it and the device would charge forward to bury its fangs in whatever was in front of it! Lesson No.1 - never stand in front of an Allen Scythe if the engine is running! But even more fun was that the slop in the linkage was sufficient for the ratchet to move out of its slot, so that when you pulled the lever it would jam against the ratchet and you had to aim the brute at something safe before stopping it by the cut-off - which merely shorted the plug to earth.... Lesson No.2 - declutch early!

All this made the starting ritual most entertaining and it was guaranteed to attract a small crowd of spectators, who would wisely stand well clear. Turn on the petrol tap, tickle the carburettor, apply the choke, set the throttle on the left handle and heave away on the pull starter, whilst holding the clutch lever up. When it eventually fired, you had to release the choke with one hand, wiggle the throttle with the other to keep it going and hold the clutch lever with your third hand.... Wheel speed was directly proportional to throttle setting, so once it was going you aimed it in a safe direction and cautiously let out the clutch - which was somewhat binary 'all or nothing' in nature. Often it would set off at quite a surprisingly brisk pace, much to the amusement of the spectators, as the operator clung on for dear life!

Doubtless elf 'n safety would use the Allen Scythe as a classic example of 'How Not To' - whereas all I have to do with the Flymo is plug it in and avoid running over the cable. Much less terrifying than wrestling with an Allen Scythe possessed of diabolic intent!

But the sun is out; even though the weather-guessers have arranged for an unpleasantly cold easterly breeze, the Black Orb will be performing again this evening!

I remember the local council workers using them when I was a kid. Lethal looking bits of kit ISTR

Woody42, the version in that clip seems to be a slightly later model than the infernal device I knew. For one thing, it has a proper moulded plug cap, rather than the screw top plug I knew....

The problem with the screw top plug was that tall greenery would fall on it after being chopped down, efficiently shorting the exposed plug top to earth thereby stopping the engine. Which was almost impossible to restart if hot.

Back in the early '70s, my late father borrowed an Allen Scythe to tackle the triffids in our orchard.

We should have known better.

After it had been unloaded, the first time he started it, it lunged forward in the traditional manner, to take a bite out of the can of petrol/oil mix which had been delivered with it, causing the entire contents to escape.

The following day was a Sunday. Being an idle student down from university for the vacation, I was in bed listening to my father's colourful vocabulary whilst he was triffid-killing in the orchard. We lived in the Old Rectory right next to the local god-shop and I could clearly (and somewhat guiltily) hear the good folk of the congregation happily singing away. At the end of one hymn, they'd just got to the 'amen' at the precise moment the Allen Scythe decided it would stop its engine after a dead triffid fell on the plug..... Unfortunately the moment of holy silence in the god-shop between the hymn and the vicar resuming the service was punctuated by a yell of "YOU BASTARD THING!" from the orchard. I lay giggling like an idiot, in the sure knowledge that if I could hear both my father and the congregation, then they could probably hear him as well...

Brilliant BEagle - a lovely dissertation on the superiority of British engineering!

Similar to Pommy motor-cycles of the era. I could never figure out why the foot-brake was the same side as the clutch and the gears were the same side as the front-brake (hand-brake on the throttle stem).

These days there are all sorts of warnings by the nanny state to protect idiots from themselves. Given the total illogicality of the British HMI of the day, surely something like 'do not operate this machine if you drink VB' would have been appropriate!

Gas still sucks and I have just cocooned the old girl after her 30th year of faithful service. She'll be back as good as gold after we suffer through another freezing winter.

Indeed they were!

Here's another clip of the version I remember - complete with the exposed plug top.




If you weren't careful, when you operated the shorting device to stop it, the HT electrics would take the path to earth through the operator - another endearing characteristic of the psychopathic brute!

In this clip, the operator has cheated and built himself an external electric starter, which looks almost as lethal as the brute itself:


The shorting effect caused by wet greenery falling on the plug is also seen - as is the device's enthusiasm for finding a location with minimum potential energy, from which it eventually emerges with drooling fangs, taking the operator for a brisk walk. He can also be seen practising the 'Allen Scythe tug-o-war' without declutching first - invariably the brute would win and bury itself deeper in the undergrowth!

A truly diabolical device, the Allen Scythe.

Still, last night's performance of the Black Orb was up to spec.!

BEagle,

I had a Qualcast Royal which was two years older than my mother! It was also equipped with a Villiers 2 Stroke engine with a starting handle and a Golden Lodge 2-piece spark plug. It was a complete sod to start but when it finally screamed into life I would have to sprint behind it to stay up with it. I could do the back garden at our old Type IV at Manby in about 7 minutes which left me blowing like a Grand-National winner. It's cast-iron sides and general over-engineeredness made it a complete swine to load into the car/trailer and after it tore my thumbnail off I donated it to my Uncle. Happy memories!:ok:

ABS

What about those incredible tiny things with two wheels, cylinder-cut, wooden shaft and T bar handle and push-power only?.

Those bastards only came out, I swear, for Bob-a Job week, so that the sadists could sit in the garden and watch poor little LB struggling with foot-high grass with embedded dog****.

And only a Bob at the end of it.

The experience made the person I am ................

Those of us who were unlucky enough to be misemployed as slaves during Bob-a-Job week will undoubtedly recall that it invariably coincided with the time that weeds appeared in peoples' gardens.....

Weeding some old bat's front garden (that isn't a euphemism, by the way...) for a mere 1/- for the scouts' funds was hardly fair. But there were other abuses (not of the Jimmy Savile kind) as well - taking a nasty little fox terrier for a walk, for example. The little bastard kept biting my ankles, so I let it off its lead - whereupon it buggered off over the far horizon and took ages to capture using the Spam from my lunch sandwich as bait...... "He did have a nice long walk", the owner commented later, "so let me give you 1/6d instead...." :(