BEag,

Aa doos knaw that 'tis grim oop Nawth. 'Tis far better in Calahonda and Canberra; but 'twer int' other lives. And 'ere Aa bees.

Those in the north of England can be comforted: its not Scotland.
I went there twice; the second time was to see if my first impressions were correct.

I fired my Weber up for the first time this season yesterday. It was bought in the Rheindahlen BX in 1988. The main problem is that my local sainsbury's sell charcoal that is 99% smoke, just to annoy the neighbours, so I'm having to think about succumming to a gas monster....

Looks like your monster is the same as mine, and we bought ours in the JHQ PX [not an impressive emporium] 2 years after you. We ran a Smoky Joe for years as a sidekick, but it has gone to Weber heaven.

Stick with it!

I do have gas as a backup/ supplement for a big thrash [the Bell Ringers annual BBQ is for about 25 souls] and also for very spontaneous quickies, but there is nothing like a Weber meal.

You guys need to do a better post Brexit trade deal with The Donald - I did a quick Amazon check and the basic 22" Weber Kettle grill goes for $99 - the red special edition you noted was $149 - both with free shipping (I'm on Amazon Prime). That's easily half what you're quoting even with the dropping value of the pound.
I did another pork loin in the smoker last weekend - threw in some chicken thighs as long as I had the thing going. Pork was really good, but the chicken may have been even better (pork makes a better sandwich though).

If there is anyone out there seeking a change from bratwurst, find yourself a butcher that stocks boerewors, a sausage that comes from South Africa. Boerewors, translated, literally means 'farmer's sausage' (no sniggering at the back ...). Made properly, it contains a coarse-ish mix of quality meats together with aromatic spices such as coriander seed, cloves, nutmeg, pepper and allspice. It is perfect for barbecues. How do I know this? I may just have been born and raised in African climes. :ok:

Noooooooooooo!:eek: And there are always other sources of charcoal!

And what is that 'spike' in the lawn next to your 'racing red' Weber. Were you grounding the thing in case of lightning strikes, LOL? I also see the temperature gauge next to the lid handle - that was available on a 1988 model?

tdracer, it has long been an issue here in the UK that we have had to deal with the rip-off culture. Those prices I quoted are straight off the official Weber UK website. Hunting around elsewhere on the web can produce discounts, but not at the levels you mention. Which is why my trusty Weber kettle was purchased in a USAF BX! C'est la vie!

PS: The last time I was up in Everett, during a layover in SEA, I was taking a drive up to the Mt Baker area, and stopped in at the Future of Flight Aviation Center for a little visit. The weather was like it was here yesterday (and today!) - horizon to horizon blue and temperature in the mid-20s Celsius. I do envy your Washington state mountain and sea views when the weather is good ...... but there are other times when that Pacific Northwest weather is enough to drive a man to alcohol abuse! ;)

It is indeed the sausage of the braai gods! Now, do we try and convert people onto pap and chakalaka?:ok:

"Braai is an art-form, BBQ is a form of cooking"

Chakalaka I can accept, but I have to admit that pap (sadza as it is known where I was raised) doesn't really 'turn my crank'. I suspect that your average Brit or American would not be overly impressed with it, but I acknowledge it's place in the southern African kultur! Horses for courses! ;)

It is a marvellous day out today in the southern UK, is it not? Do I fire up the Weber again? Hmmmm. Those of you from elsewhere on our Blue Marble might wonder why we enthuse so much about a couple of days of warmth and sunshine - it is rare here to sustain such weather, that is why. Ordinarily we might awake to blue skies, consider a barbeque, followed by a long walk with the dogs, only to find that within 30 minutes the wind has picked up and there is 8/8 cloud cover. And it remains so for the rest if the day.

I do miss those wide open African skies and empty spaces ....... but I don't give a damn for African politics. :}

Cleaning the BBQ! :eek:

Stuff some extra charcoal in there, go for a beer and everything will eventually burn off. :ok:

I must admit that it did cross my mind that MrBernoulli isn't the sort of chap I'd normally have thought would be overly fussed about barbi' cleaning....

Once the whirly spinny thing has got most of the ash into the catcher and I've emptied it, I just take off the grid, give the inside a quick brush down and then turn the black orb upside down over the wheelie bin.... Every few months being sufficient.

Regarding Saffa delicacies, there's a place near here called Farmoor Stores which sells boerewors, biltong, ostrich, buffalo and zebra steaks - even braai pap. Perhaps also popcorn, chewing gum, peanuts an' bubble gum, ice cream, candy floss an' eskimo pie? Or even n***** balls an' licorice, Pepsi Cola, ginger beer and Canada Dry?

The point of the kitchen foil is to make cleaning easier at the end of the barbecue season, prior to the kit being covered and tucked away at the back of the shed. Cleaning helps to prolong the life of the barbeque, and I offer my 27 year old Weber as evidence of that! ;)

LOL, Beags, fancy you being familiar with Jeremy Taylor? "Ag pleez Daddy won't you take us to the drive-in ..."

On my way home from a trip I sometimes stop in at Farmoor stores, to pick up a stick of biltong and some droewors!

Ag Pleez Deddy - VOETSEK!
 

A schoolmate in the late '60s was from Rhodesia and brought 'The Ballad of the Southern Suburbs' back to school one term.

Even then the expression 'n****r balls' wasn't allowed! Later, snowflake-friendly versions of the song use 'Snicker bars' instead...:rolleyes:

Even then the expression 'n****r balls

surely there is an * missing? Or are we not on the subject of Gibson's dog lacking something?

Sorry for the thread drift - but if you're in the Seattle area again, you can do far better than the Future of Flight museum - you can even do much better at Paine Field. The Seattle Museum of Flight is located at the southern end of Boeing Field and is very, very good - IMHO, in the USA second only to the USAF Museum in Dayton and the two Smithsonian Aviation museums around the other Washington.
Around Paine Field in Everett there is the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor museum (Paul Allen of Microsoft fame's private collection turned into a museum) at the south west end of the airport. On the south east side of the airport is the Historic Flight museum - much smaller than the Flying Heritage museum but still has some really cool aircraft (mainly WWII vintage). My understanding is that Historic Flight is also some rich guy's private collection - but they're rather coy about who it is. They just don't have that outdoor deck view that the Future of Flight does (been to a few parties on that deck at the Future of Flight - it is a wonderful view on a nice day).

And if you do go to Seattle, visit Microsoft and give the geek who inflicts Windows 10 upgrades upon us a hearty kick in the slats!

Could it be another black orb day today? The weather-guessers are predicting showers later today, so who knows?

Take no notice of them ............ all gone downhill since, shall we say, 1997.
Can't think why.

On that note, Wrex Tarr would have been a hit too! Very non-PC nowadays............................:mad:

Ag pleez deddy .. .. .. Takes me back a few years.
Getting on thread, Mrs B doesn't trust my BBQ skills; must be because it's an old gas job (the BBQ).

Clean it????!!!
That would eliminate 99 per cent of the seasoning and conditioning.
Once one fires up said outdoor oven - heat is increased to max briefly to kill any nasties.
Then smoke from accumulated barbies past lends delicate flavour to whatever is being cooked... ;)

Barbecues and Eggbeaters!
 

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A nice day for a barbeque, was it not? With horizon to horizon blue, and the thermometer steadily climbing throughout the day, the answer was a resounding “Yes”! So the shed doors were flung open and out came Mr Weber’s finest 22-and-a-half inch kettle, and various charcoal arranging/lighting (none of your gas nonsense here!) and cooking activities ensued. We had already consumed the small pepper-encrusted steaks and pork and ginger burgers, and whilst I was working on the next round of minted lamb kebabs and sweet chilli sausages, I became aware of a low frequency beat, rapidly rising in volume, somewhere off to the east.

In just a few seconds our afternoon reverie was shattered as over the ridge came a loose, low level formation of HM’s RAF eggbeaters – 3 Pumas with 6 Chinooks right behind! A lone Puma trailed the formation at a short distance – perhaps this singleton was the camera/spare/whip ship? One of the Chinooks was clearly wearing the 28 Sqn 100th Anniversary scheme.

What a racket! They circled the village and disappeared back east over the ridge, and the now less obtrusive sounds indicated they had likely landed at RAF Little Rissington. Shortly thereafter the idling engines could be heard winding up again, and a repeat audio thrashing of the village ensued, but this time the formation of nine was much tighter and neater, and they continued west out of sight.

My attention had, of course, not been entirely focussed on the barbecue in those few minutes so the kebabs, in particular, suffered from being rather well done on one side, ha ha! No matter, as they ended up tasting just fine, and with the sounds of rural Gloucestershire returning to normal once more, we resumed our afternoon relaxation, finishing off the meal with a rather good rhubarb, strawberry and orange pavlova. The entire meal was, of course, helped down with a very pleasant bottle of medium dry cava!

Cheers to the rotary folks, and thanks for the chest-thrumming, ear-slapping flypasts! Do I need to put in a heads-up call to RAF Benson or RAF Odiham for when I next have a barbecue? ;-)