BBQ thoughts....

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another rabbit hole! after reading this thread I then watched BBQ videos on youtube and learnt about vortex and snake!!
who knew!!
I can see another revenue drain here lol.
 
If anyone is considering a travel/beach barbecue Amazon have some decent deals today on the smaller Weber's.

The Smokey Joe is £51 and the Go-Anywhere is £68. Really impressed with the Go-Anywhere, its a fantastic bit of kit.
 
I love my Smoky Joe!
Cooking the IPA burgers tonight and serving with the Bourbon sauce from the previous page. (It was the boys idea, not mine).

94A6BD46-2F04-42A2-A22A-3085898D50E1.jpeg
 
Would you recommend the smokey Joe, I need something light for the beach or days away.
Absolutely, and invest in a small chimney lighter too. you should get a good hour or more of cooking time from decent quality briquettes. Mine has seen a lot of action at Castlerock. When you’re finished cooking you can lose the grill, pop the lid back into its stand and you’ve got a wood burner.

The only down side is that the grill area is quite small so you can’t get a decent 2-zone cook set up. I still do coals on one half and I always pre-cook chicken a bit just be be safe.
 
I generally use lump charcoal on the BBQ and hardwood chunks for smoking; especially after reading the Californian Safety Warnings on smoking!

Apparently, when smoking stuff, we are effectively creosoting it with cancer forming chemicals …

… so God only knows what they think of the stuff used to glue briquettes together!

Does anyone have any information on this please?
:hat:
 
I generally use lump charcoal on the BBQ and hardwood chunks for smoking; especially after reading the Californian Safety Warnings on smoking!

Apparently, when smoking stuff, we are effectively creosoting it with cancer forming chemicals …

… so God only knows what they think of the stuff used to glue briquettes together!

Does anyone have any information on this please?
:hat:
At your age Dutto you need not to worry 😁😁
 
I generally use lump charcoal on the BBQ and hardwood chunks for smoking; especially after reading the Californian Safety Warnings on smoking!

Apparently, when smoking stuff, we are effectively creosoting it with cancer forming chemicals …

… so God only knows what they think of the stuff used to glue briquettes together!

Does anyone have any information on this please?
:hat:
Give me a couple of days and I’ll come back to you on this one. Off the top of my head, I think it comes down to quantities, in the same sense that water can kill you if you drink too much, and a lot less than you think if you’re a marathon runner.
 
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If anyone is considering a travel/beach barbecue Amazon have some decent deals today on the smaller Weber's.

The Smokey Joe is £51 and the Go-Anywhere is £68. Really impressed with the Go-Anywhere, its a fantastic bit of kit.
Do you have links. These prices aren't showing on my prime day deals
 
I generally use lump charcoal on the BBQ and hardwood chunks for smoking; especially after reading the Californian Safety Warnings on smoking!

Apparently, when smoking stuff, we are effectively creosoting it with cancer forming chemicals …

… so God only knows what they think of the stuff used to glue briquettes together!

Does anyone have any information on this please?
:hat:
I’ve done a bit of digging today and relevant evidence is hard to come by. Here’s a short synopsis on where I am at the minute.
  1. There’s a lot of basic science on the mechanisms through which polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heterocyclic amines (HA) cause a variety of cancers, both of which are produced by smoking or charring animal protein.
  2. There is also a wealth of occupational health studies showing uptake of both of these compounds by chefs in BBQ grills, and interestingly a lot of these are from the Far East. The southern states of America also feature.
What i haven’t been able to find easily is
  1. Safe levels of PAH and HA exposure, and
  2. Likely level of exposure in my back garden on an average cook day.
My take home (so far)
  1. It’s not hard to see how Sunday supplement journalists, the Food Babe (who isn’t a babe and know’s fxuk all about food) and other such numpties get a hold this story and go off on one.
  2. You’re going to expose yourself to much lower levels of PAH and HA than the typical BBQ chef in other parts of the world. To use a tobacco analogy, they’re the heavy smokers as opposed to social only. And we don’t see the sorts of levels of the relevant cancers in those occupations as were being actively suppressed by tobacco companies in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s.
  3. Red meat is worst than white. As a general rule we should all be trying to eat more white meat and fish regardless of how it’s cooked anyway. So if your really worried about health, optimise your proportion of veggies and steer your protein intake in the right direction.
  4. Processed meat is worse than fresh. I assume that better quality cured products are more likely to have been better handled than the mass produced. They certainly taste better, and as your buying them in small quantities, why not treat yourself and support a passionate local small scale food producer at the same time.
  5. Marinades help mitigate against PHA and HA formation, and make food taste better. So, up your cooking game.
  6. Less exposure to direct heat, and more to indirect also reduces PAH and HA production. So, up your ‘reverse sear’ cooking game (and after trying them all many times, I can vouch for it as the best way to manage big cuts).
  7. How often do you BBQ anyway, I reckon I average a little more than once a week, all year round and I think that I‘m an outlier. So around three quarters of the total protein I consume is cooked conventionally.
So, in summary
  1. Relevant good quality evidence is lacking.
  2. You’ve almost certainly got bigger things to worry about healthwise.
  3. And to paraphrase my favourite uncle after his heart attack. “They want me to give up all the good stuff. If I do, it won’t make me live for ever, but it’s definitely going to feel like it”
 
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