What is outdoor cooking all about

So you thought you knew how to BBQ... well think again. We're not talking about cremating sausages or poisoning the neighbour with uncooked burgers, we're talking about REAL barbecue... cooking food "low and slow" whilst adding smoke for flavouring.

First, lets get the terminology correct:

GRILLING - What we are familiar with, here in the UK, is known as "grilling", this involves cooking directly over a heat source, and is best suited for steak, burgers and sausages. It is quite difficult to master as there is little margin for error when cooking over high heat.

BBQ - With this method of cooking you want to cook at lower temperatures (low) for longer periods (slow) in order to retain all the goodness and flavour of the food, smoke is the magic ingredient that gives you colour and extra flavour. BBQ is also known as "hot" smoking and is generally more suited to cooking large joints of meat, whole chickens and fish, in fact you can cook almost any food in this way.

EQUIPMENT - True Q can be done on a variety of cookers, be they gas, electric or charcoal fired, the main criteria is that they have a lid (in order to keep the smoke in) and have a means to control the heat... the ability to manage the fire is the mark of an accomplished cook, especially when they are cooking over charcoal. Some people frown upon the use of electric and gas units, whilst we wouldn't scorn you for such practices, our preferred way of cooking is over charcoal. There are two basic styles of cookers, vertical and horizontal.

VERTICAL - Also known as bullet smokers, available from many different manufacturers, ProQ, Weber, Brinkmann, Meco, Charbroil, Grillpro, BDS and others. These BBQ's are probably the most affordable and easiest to master, as once they are set up, they require almost no further attention. Usually they will have a charcoal tray at the bottom, a water pan sits above that, followed by 1 or 2 cooking grills and last of all a dome shaped lid. The better ones will have vents at the top and bottom to allow for more control. Our ProQ Frontier is a good example.

HORIZONTAL - The main advantage of a horizontal / offset BBQ is that you can cook larger amounts of food on them. They do however use more fuel and also take a bit longer to master. Again, there are a multitude of brands to choose from, Brinkmann, Klose, New Braunsfels, Rumo, Charbroil, Lang, Backwoods, Chargriller to name a few. We distribute two makes, the Rumo and the Chargriller . The Rumo's are at the top end, being meticulously made from 6mm plate and finished to high standards. The Chargriller's are more affordable, but have some really cool features that the other makes don't have.

Primo Grills - We will be launching these fine ceramic cookers in 2008. Based on the ancient, Japanese cooker, known today as a “Kamado”, a ceramic grill and smoker is the perfect combination of functionality, versatility, durability, and style. There are other brands available, Big Green Egg and Komado, but in our opinion, Primo's are the best.

We stock an extensive range of BBQ accessories Rib racks, probe thermometers, charcoal chimney starters, chicken racks, smoker boxes and some really high quality tool sets.

Wood For smoking ProBBQ Ltd are the exclusive distributors for Jack Daniel's® wood chips and BBQr's Delight wood pellets. We also do our own range of wood chips and dust.