No, it is for the rich. A much higher priority is heating!

Weber BBQ Grills are old hat these days....really old hat.

I am taking delivery of a new Wood Pellet fired Grill Smoker....with all the Bells and Whistles....plug it in, fill the hopper with pellets, set the temperature you want...what mode you want...when the temp is reached...insert the meat complete with temperature probes....use the Phone App to control it and watch it do its thing.

Wind blows, rain falls, snow blows....the desired Temp is maintained.....works from 180-700 Degrees F. If it is half as good as the reviews there are going to be some finely smoked meats, fish, and oysters and the odd chicken, turkey, and Venison. Photos to follow after it is up and running. Merry Christmas to me!

Agree on all points, having enjoyed the relatively convenient use of a pellet grill for ribs, turkeys, steaks, burgers, sausages, fish.

But for those oldies among us who have used the Weber grill for decades, the flavor the charcoal imparts is still the best. In particular, when cooking with direct heat, you can’t beat the Weber. Even with indirect heat smoking, I get best smoky flavor from the Weber.

But the pellet grill is convenient and gives much more precise and trouble-free control, especially when doing an extended slow smoking.

Well, as the weather-guessers have alleged a few days of decent Wx in the UK, 'tis surely time to take a break from all the serious threads on PPRuNe and to think of more simple and enjoyable silliness?

My black orb was awakened from its hibernation at the back of the Teutonic Tourer's concrete cave last week and will soon be pressed into proper charcoal beast-braaing once again!

How sad that it has taken until now for the Black Orb Dinosaurs to emerge from their chilly man-caves and finally see life.

Those with any sense and non-Russian-gas BBQs will, like me, have been enjoying properly grilled food without having to wait for the tricky British weather to decide if it is safe to cook outdoors.

Go gas and save yourself the trauma that the charcoal brigade seem to suffer - and remind us of their difficulty - every year!

Exactly ex-fast. My gas Weber has been fired up multiple times this winter/spring (and that doesn't count the several meals I cooked on gas Webers while on a ski trip to Colorado in February-March).
Moved to a new place last summer - lost my covered deck but gained a huge covered carport where I can park my Weber and smoker (along with a couple cars :E). The only downside is that it is a short walk from back door to the carport so if it's raining I can still get wet 'in transit' :sad:). Thinking about adding a roof to the deck to solve that particular problem, but it's low on the priority list at the moment.
This is a holiday weekend on this side of the pond (Memorial Day) - so as a minimum I'll be cooking burgers and some chicken on the Weber on Sunday and/or Monday.

Gas....Charcoal....obsolete.

Wood Pellet Grills and Smokers are the new tech and combine the good features of the other two.

Plus you can sit down the Pub and control the Grill. using your smart phone!

Look up Recteq and their 700 model with Smoke Box......pretty close to perfection.

As someone who still uses a 'dinosaur phone' Nokia 6310i, the idea of using some 'smart' phone controlled e-barbi' is frankly anathema to me!

But chacun à son goût!

I did consider setting light to the red orb but have a confession to make: I am a Luton Town supporter so will be watching the Wembley crisis from behind the sofa.

Charcoal: It's like a big double banked radial engine slobbering oil all over the ramp, then belching huge amounts of smoke on startup, then off with a couple of hundred others to bomb Germany

Whereas gas: it's ok ... but it's like yet another 737 on final approach to Stanstead

The trick is to have a lot of sausages handy that you can throw on the charcoal after you've cooked the "real" meal
oh and I'm in Texas, so the only effect the weather has is whether or not you actually need a grill to cook the food :sad:

GOOD DECISION

I was in Costco yesterday - they have a Traeger 'Redland' wood pellet grill on special for $800 (normally $900).
It definitely looks appealing, but the bottom line is that it won't do anything that I can't already do with my smoker and gas Weber (with many years of experience to perfect the technique). I also have a 4-channel remote sensor to monitor the internal meat temperatures in the smoker.
If/when it comes time to replace the existing hardware, I'll definitely consider a pellet grill, but the Weber is so well built it should last a long time (the first two gas grills I got were cheap $100 deals that fell apart in a few years, that's when I looked at the Weber and appreciated how well made it was and it's already lasted over 20 years).

Engine cooking.
 

I've never used a carburettor to cook food, but we did fit a welded steel box to the exhaust manifold on our car, to heat baby food cans in hot water, whilst driving.

I recall the late Keith Floyd cooking something wrapped in foil on a car engine somewhere in the outback - "30 minutes at Cortina Mark 4" was his comment!

I used to do some mobile telecoms work long ago which often required being outside in the cold. On the way I would stop at the garage and buy some kind of pie and then promptly wrap it in foil and then tie wrap it to the exhaust manifold. Half the time you would arrive with a nicely warmed pie but the other half you would be greeted by half melted tie wraps. That's the gamble.

At one of the RAF BFTS stations in the 1970s, the groundcrew would pop a NAAFI rat pie on the jet pipe surround during turn round servicing.....

One day one of the lads was called away whilst his pie was warming up. Meanwhile the new crew came out, cranked up and taxiied out. Much smoke issuing from where it shouldn't and out came the fire wagons..... The crew weren't too impressed when they found out the cause, neither was the lad whose pie had been cremated!

I don't ever expect to see his equal.

I have seen something similar on the exhaust manifold of a diving compressor to heat beans while charging tanks.
I suppose that add to the quantity of gas generated.

After the BBQ, you can cook salmon by wrapping it in foil and putting it in the dishwasher with the dirty dishes.

He had a house in Kinsale and famously referrred to the old Cork airport terminal as "the pub with the runway"

Recently bought a new grill for my trusty black garden Blob….it cost more than my Blob did - which I’d purchased from the PX near Goch some 30 years ago!

Recently been to Weber BBQ school. After all these years of incinerating bratties and friks my outdoor cooking has gone in to warp drive. Now working my way through Tom Kerridge's outdoor cookbook all done on the trusty Weber kettle and washed down with wobbly.

'tis that time, sadly....
 

'tis that time, sadly, when the wonderful black orb plus garden table and chairs have been relocated to the back of the home within which my Teutonic Tourer (20 years old and still going well!) resides.

For some reason (too hot / too wet / too bone idle), I didn't manage to get round to firing up the beast this year. But a quick visual check reveals that it's still all tickety-boo and ready for next Spring! Hopefully the unopened bag of charcoal will still be OK then too!

In today's RAF, are people still importing the wonderful world of Weber to the UK after trips various to the USofA?

We only managed one BBQ this year, but Christmas Day turkey will be done in true fashion at my son-in-law's .......... like all of our four extended tribes they are true believers. And yes, we are invited.

BEagle
Only got 2 in UK one at Easter ironically and another in May. Other times out of the country or weekends wet or doing something else. Says a lot about UK summer in the Northern UK 😢

Cheers
Mr Mac

My daughter in Wales still uses my GV 80 Weber. My flat in HK is too small to accommodate it.

I'm currently debating whether to cook my (US) Thanksgiving dinner turkey in the oven, or in the smoker...
Normally the smoker would be the choice, but I just had rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder, and have very limited use of my right hand/arm - making cooking in general more difficult (along with just about everything else I do). The oven will be easier, and my wife is more apt to be helpful...

But I thought everyone knew that "It's grim oop North"?

Actually, my brother in Yorkshire asserts that this isn't actually true!

BEagle
Unfortunately this year the weather from July onwards has been pretty poor and not just at weekends apparently according to Mrs Mac. I have to say that when I have come back its been wet and grey, and not just the Weber under used, the Toy car has only done about 1k miles this year as well. Mrs Mac has spent few long weekends in Munich as a result with me, to actually see some sort of summer weather, where we have a small Weber, but Gas powered on the roof terrace, as Charcoal is just too much trouble.


Cheers
Mr Mac

I managed a good dozen BBQ's this year at Akro Towers in Yorkshire. There aint such a thing as bad weather, it's poor clothing. Having been to the Weber BBQ school I've upgraded my kettle to one with a temperature probe and enhanced smoke generator and aim to achieve that holy grail of BBQ's. the Texas brisket.:ok:

Those imported Webers are much higher quality than the ones on the UK market these days. Our RAF import is well used and 20 years old!

When I replaced my last Black Orb with a newer version, it came with an integrated ash-catching jobber. Excellent - no more wrestling with that wretched hub cap thing. Just riddle a couple of times, take off the pan and dispose of the ash...

But it's no longer available on th 47cm version - only on the 57cm which uses considerably more charcoal. Why oh why, Weber??

So that it is big enough for a standard size steak in Texas?

Ahh... but have you got one of these??

I have only ever used the 22 1/2 inch weber, which is more than enough for a couple of steaks, for using indirect heat to roast a turkey, or to cook many burgers for a larger event where we have plenty of people over. One need not use a large amount of charcoal if there is only one steak to grill for the two of us (The Missus and I): while the steak is "resting" we put the veggie skewers on to grill while the coals are still hot.
That is awesome.