Review a product and win a prize!

Each month, our E-commerce webite www.smokingBBQ.co.uk will be offering customers the chance to win prizes by simply taking a few seconds of their time to review any products they have purchased from the website.

This month we will be offering 3 prizes, each containing the following BBQ products…

Smokey Joe’s Sauce Gift Set

Wireless remote smoker thermometer

ProQ® Variety Pack of Wood Chips

April 2011 Prize

Guide to BBQ/ Smoking Woods

Using wood chips, chunks, dust or pellets to create smoke is a great way to transform sometimes bland barbecued foods into meals that will have your friends and family begging for more. I often wonder if people pay enough attention to the quality of wood they use for smoking food. Smoke is used as you would a spice or herb on food… to impart flavour, so don’t compromise (you wouldn’t use spices or herbs that were old, or moldy).  A good quality wood, specifically harvested and prepared for barbecuing and food smoking, can make a significant difference. When you chose a wood it’s important to take the following into consideration…

• Bark – If the wood you use still has the bark on, it will impart a bitter flavour to your food. The bark is also the tree’s protection and often contains stuff like mold, old bug carcasses, bug poo and other unsavory contaminants.

• Origin – Where the wood comes from is of great importance…

1. Be friendly to our environment by buying woods that are harvested from sustainable resources.
2. I often hear of people visiting the local woodworking shop to ask for off-cuts/ shavings, while this may be saving you money, please make sure that the wood you’re getting has not been treated, doesn’t contain traces of oil used to lubricate the saws and hasn’t been swept from the floor.
3. If you’re harvesting your own wood (the cherry tree has fallen over in the back yard) do not use wood that has been cut with a chainsaw, as most chainsaw blades are lubricated by oil. It’s time consuming and hard work, but if you’re going to use the wood for food smoking, use a hand saw and make sure you remove the bark.

• Wood Variety – The type of wood you use will make a huge difference. The general “rule of thumb” is that fruit woods are mild and nut woods produce a very strong flavour. See our guide to woods HERE

Lastly, don’t be afraid to try different wood varieties to what you’re used to using… In the UK, Oak wood is the most popular wood to use for smoking just about anything (to be honest, oak’s not my favorite). I prefer to use Hickory for chicken and Pork shoulders, Apple for Ribs and Beech for fish. These are just my personal favorites, but bear in mind that the amount of different flavours you can create, by mixing different wood varieties together, is mind boggling.

All woods purchased from Mac’s BBQ are free from bark and are specifically harvested, from sustainable forests, for food smoking. Over in the USA, I recommend buying wood from Smokinlicious.

Wine infused Oak Chips

I am going to be testing our latest product this week, Oak wood chips that have been soaking in red wine for a couple of months… Red wine, smoke, low and slow bbq food, what can be better

Paella on the BBQ – Cape Town

During our wonderful holiday in Cape Town, South Africa, we stayed with my wife’s parents. It was a great opportunity to spend time with our extended family, which sometimes meant cooking for up to 25 people. Now while I’m quite happy cooking for that many on my ProQ Excel 20

The setting... Staart Farm. Paarl, Cape Town

(just a case of throwing a few chickens/ joints on), the one evening we decided to stray from the normal fare of BBQ and try Paella instead. Having selected some Prawns, Snoek (similar to barracuda), Hake, mussels and a couple of Crayfish tails from the fish market (a 40 mile round trip) we returned to the farm.

This is where things got a bit “tricky”… where do you find a pan large enough to do a Paella in that will feed at least 20 people???  Ooops! Hadn’t thought about that one – Duh! Anyways whilst sipping on a bitterly cold Amstel larger, the “light bulb” moment happened… The ProQ Excel 20 has a large water pan which could, possibly, do the trick, plus it was the only option available, so I had to give it a go.

Well it turned out great… Remove the lid of the Excel and place the water pan on the brackets in the top stacker/ section (you don’t need a huge fire, so only half fill the charcoal basket)… Carry on preparing Paella in the normal way. The added advantage is that you can pop the lid on, throw some chunks of wood onto the fire (we used grape vine) to create some wonderful smoky flavour.

Just about there.

Paella on the ProQ Excel 20

Merry Christmas

Christmas BBQ

Christmas is not too far away, so I thought I’d share how we did the Christmas meal on the ProQ™ Excel 20 BBQ Smoker, including an 18lb Turkey. It was great fun and the results were fantastic!

New Product – TableTop Kettle BBQ

We love barbecuing wherever we go, so have now brought out our version of a portable kettle grill. It’s great to use on the beach, at the park and while camping. It’s also great for using as a small Firepit, now that the winter’s here. See more details HERE

ProQ TableTop BBQ