You don’t need to buy an expensive smoker to enjoy a perfectly cooked meal enhanced with a flavour of smoke. Your charcoal or kettle barbecue can be turned into a smoker. All you need are a bag of charcoal, wood chips (NOT chunks or sawdust) from a non-sap laden tree variety and a good piece of meat.
1. Prepare your Meat
It’s always best to make your meat ready few hours or even a day before cooking in a smoker. First, place the meat in a large dish and pour the marinade of your choice, make sure all the meat is coated with marinade. Then, cover with a lid or cling film and leave it in the refrigerator for 2-6 hours or better, overnight.
2.Prepare Wood Chips
Soak the wood chips in water for at least 2 hours or better, overnight; the more soaked the chips, the more smoke they produce.
3. Start the Barbecue
Place the disposable aluminium container or any other heat resistant container next to your charcoals and fill it halfway with water.
There are two reasons for this: the water will keep the meat moist and tender, and it will control the temperature around the meat.Light the charcoal.
When you’ve reached a low heat of about 120 C (can be checked by using a barbecue thermometer), place 1 cup of drained wood chips on the charcoals. Position the meat onto the grate directly above the water container, away from the charcoals.
Cover the grill making sure all the vents are closed. Smoke for the amount of time indicated in your recipe.
4. Keep an eye on the Temperature
You need to check the temperature every 30 minutes. If the temperature begins to rise higher than 100 degrees, open the lid and let the charcoals burn off a bit and top it up with some more drained chips. If the temperature drops, open the vents and add more charcoal and wood chips.
5. Turn the Meat
Every 30 to 90 min, turn the meat. If your recipe contains a barbecue sauce, apply it in the final 30 minutes of cooking.
6. Ready to Serve
Your meal will be ready to serve when the meat on the bone will start pulling away, and when trying to turn the meat, it will fall off the bone.
Transfer the meat to a platter, add some more sauce and let it rest for 15 minutes. Now serve with your favourite sides and enjoy!
1. Coat the chicken pieces with olive oil and season with salt
2. Grill the chicken over hot coals for 5 min on each side to create a nice golden skin. Remove the chicken from the grill onto a platter and put a cover on.
3. Put some soaked and drained oak wood chips on the coals. Place a water container next to the coals.
4. When the temperature of the grill drops to about 120 – 150 C, place the chicken pieces on the grill directly above the water container. Cover the grill and cook for about 30 minutes.
5. Turn the chicken over, check the temperature of the grill, adjust it if needed. Cover the grill and cook for another 30 minutes.
6. Turn the chicken again and baste it with barbecue sauce. Cook for another 25-30 minutes.
7. Check if the chicken is done by inserting a tip of the knife into the thickest part of the chicken piece, if the juices run clear the chicken is cooked.8. Baste the chicken with the sauce and serve.
Smoky Salmon On The Grill
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients required
Approximately 2 pounds of salmon fillet or however much will fit onto the rack below
2. Ensure you remove all pin bones from the salmon
3. Placing the brown sugar, salt and pepper into a small bowl and mix thoroughly. Place approximately 1/3 of the mixture in the bottom of a baking pan, sit the salmon on top and then cover with the remaining mixture.
4. Cover and chill for a minimum of 4 hours, preferably overnight. The mixture will pull out moisture from the fish and infuse it with flavour, helping to create the distinctive extremely firm, slightly sweet flavour of a traditionally smoked salmon.
5. Place the selected wood chips in a large bowl and cover them with water, letting them soak for at least 30 minutes before draining.
6. Prepare your grill for indirect heat. For gas grills: Heat ½ of the desired quantity of burners you have and set a foil-wrapped pan with about an inch of water in it under the cooking grate, on the turned-off burner. For charcoal grills: Light a fire, when the coals are ready, push them to one side and set a foil-wrapped pan with approximately an inch of water in it on the other side of a coal grate. Put them into a small smoker box that comes with some grills, or simply put the soaked chips over the hot coals.
7. Rinse the salmon from its mixture by patting in dry, set it skin-side-down onto the cool side of the grill, on the cooking grate that is over the pan of water below. Cover and then cook until the salmon is fully smoked and flaky, this should take around 30 minutes.
8. Serve and enjoy your fish!
Grill Smoked Trout On The Kettle Barbecue
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients required
2 trout (filleted)
1 fist-sized wood chunk or 1 cup of wood chips (oak and hickory are favourites with trout)(Brine)
4 cups of water
2 tablespoons of table salt (4 tablespoons of sea salt)
1. Brine the trout and soak the wood: In a large bowl, stir the salt and brown sugar in with the water, wait for the salt and sugar to dissolve. (this may take about 5 minutes). Add the trout fillets and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (up to 4 hours). While the trout is brining, soak the smoking wood in water.
2. Set the grill up for indirect medium-low (120 – 150°C): Prepare the grill for cooking on direct medium-low heat.
3. Make a foil tray for the trout: While the grill is pre-heating, take the trout out of the brine and pat it dry using paper towels. Double fold a piece of heavy-duty baking foil to use as a tray, a little wider than you will need for all four pieces of trout and lay the fillets onto the foil skin side down.
4. Grill smoke the trout: Drain the smoking wood and add it directly to the coals. Carefully slide the tray of trout onto the grill grate, as far away from the lit coals as possible. Close the lid (if using a kettle grill, rotate the lid until the vent is directly over the trout to pull the smoke over the fish). Cook with the lid closed until the fish is thoroughly cooked and browned from the smoke, 40 to 45 minutes.
5. Serve: Serve immediately or chill the smoked trout first. To chill, move the foil tray of trout to a sheet pan, let cool at room temperature for 15 minutes then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 3 days. To serve, scrape the trout fillet away from the skin with a spatula – the skin will stick to the foil.
1. Cut each rack of ribs in two halves, coat them with olive oil and salt them.
2. Prepare your grill for smoking by putting some soaked and drained oak wood chips on the coals. Place a water container next to the coals.
3. Place the ribs on the grill directly above the water container and slow cook them at 120 C for 90 minutes.
4. After that, turn them every 30 minutes and baste them with a sauce. Keep cooking for about 3 hours.
5. When you notice that the meat is falling off the bone, baste the ribs with the sauce and move them to a hot side of the grill. Cook them for 1 – 2 minutes until a golden skin appears.
Preparation and cooking instructions 1. Prepare the barbecue for cooking on indirect heat. Once the barbecue’s temperature reached steady 120 C, it’s time to put wood chips on the charcoals.
2. If you are using linked sausages, separate them and place them 1 inch apart from each other on the rack. This way the smoky flavour will cover their whole surface. Don’t puncture your sausages as they’ll lose all the juices.
3. Cover the barbecue with the lid and smoke the sausages for 3 – 4 hours depending on the thickness of the sausages.
4. You can check the internal temperature of the sausage with the meat thermometer 1 hour before the end of cooking.
5. If the meat thermometer reads 75 C, your sausages are ready.
6. Serve them hot or chill them in the fridge for 3 – 4 days.
How long ? It depends on your food choice. Below is an approximate guide on the timing for smoking different food types using wood chips.
Chicken – an hour to two hours at 120 C.
Rack of ribs will take from 2 hours to 4 hours 30 minutes at 115 C.
A boneless beef or pork joint can take as long as 6 hours at 115 C.
Vegetables – 90 minutes to 2 hours at 95 – 105 C
Seafood – 35 to 45 minutes at 100 – 105 C
If you are using barbecue sauce wait to brush it on until the final 30-45 minutes of cooking. You do not want it to burn, and because most barbecue sauces have a lot of sugar in them, they will burn easily. When barbecuing fish, do not sauce until the last 15 minutes. You will be able to spot that the meat is ready with some visual cues. Meat on bones will begin to pull away.
When you turn or rotate meat it will begin to fall off the bone. The flakes on fish will separate easily. The interior of a beef or pork will be somewhere around 70 C – this is the only meat that should be barbecued or smoked with a meat thermometer. What happens if your heat was just too high and things are looking charred? Well, hopefully you did not let it go this far because you’d been checking every hour to 90 minutes.
But if it looks like you have too much char and the meat is not yet done, have no fear: Finish the meat in a 120 C oven. You will still have enough smoky taste to impress your guests. Once your meat is done, remove it to a platter, add more sauce and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. Let a big meat joint rest for 20-25 minutes. Add even more sauce right at service and enjoy! You’ll know you cooked real barbecue if everyone has sauce under their fingernails…
There’s nothing quite like enjoying the great outdoors with a roaring fire, good company and a night sky full of stars. Building a fire is one of those things that you might sort of know how to do, but don’t really have to do it that often. Building a fire is actually quite simple, whether it’s a campfire or a cozy one in your living room. Here’s how to build a safe fire with firelighters.
What You’ll Need for Building an Outdoor Campfire:
1. A safe place to build your fire. If you’re outdoors, that means a fire pit away from trees and bushes. Select an open location for a campfire. Build the fire pit away from other items. Build about 10 feet (3.0 m) away from tents, trees, roots, overhanging bushes or dry leaves, and other flammable items. This is especially important if there’s no fire ring available. Sweep away loose twigs, sticks, leaves or roots. Underground roots can catch on fire in dry conditions. Do not place a fire near these. You don’t want to be starting any forest fires. Also, if you’re at a campsite, double-check that fires are permitted in the area.
2. Matches. Obviously, you’ll need these to start the fire. Best to use long safety matches, because, well, it’s in the name, they are safer.
3. Tinder/Firelighters. This is what you’ll use to start your fire. Outdoors, this means small, dry sticks and twigs, or firelighters do the trick. We prefer Woodabrix Firelighters, as they are eco-friendly, compact, mess-free and don’t smell of petrol. Put some tinder in the center of your fire pit.
4.Kindling. This is wood that’s slightly larger than tinder, usually a bit less than an inch in diameter. This will burn easily and get your fire going. Make sure this is dry. Stack your kindling on top of the tinder in a “tepee” structure. Make sure to leave an opening on the side you’re going to light. Take your matches and light the firelighters.
5. Logs. Usually a few inches in diameter, this is the wood that will go on your fire last, that’ll build it up to the right size and keep it burning for awhile. Again, you’ll want to make sure this is dry before you use it. As the fire burns, you can gradually add logs and larger sticks.
6.Water. But make sure you have some water handy to put out the fire when you’re done. Only you can prevent forest fires. Always be watchful of small children and pets nearby, never leave your fire unattended. Be sure to put out your fire completely when you’re done!
Note that lighter fluid is nowhere on the list. It’s looked down on by many as dangerous, and frankly, you just don’t need it. At best, you’ll have some weird tasting marshmallows, and at worst, you could burn down your clothing or tent.
That’s it! You should have a roaring campfire in no time, and if you’ve remembered to save a few of those sticks, you can get your marshmallow roasting on.
There is an abundance of products on the natural eco firelighter market nowadays. The main two options are firelighter cubes and wood wool firelighters. We would like to have a closer look at these two eco-friendly products and compare how they affect the environment.
What are Eco Firelighter Cubes made of?
Firelighter cubes are made from compressed sawdust and vegetable oil. That’s it, just two ingredients, no additives! The sawdust is a bi-product of wood manufacturing, like production of building timber, pallets, furniture and firewood. So, instead of being thrown away, the sawdust is turned into something useful and beneficial for both the wood manufacturer and the end consumer.
No paraffin or palm oil is used in firelighter production, therefore they are non-toxic, and consequently it is safe to store the cubes beside your food. Also, the use of vegetable oil means that when the firelighters are lit they do not give off the horrible petrol smell unlike the traditional petroleum-based firelighters. And this makes them ideal for cooking the food.
What are Wood Wool Firelighters made of?
Wood wool firelighters are made from the same products as the cube firelighters, but the manufacturing process is slightly different. Wood wool is a light, bio-degradable void fill made from shredded timber.
Lots of people have probably seen wood wool either in a hamper at Christmas or in a supermarket packed in a cheese and wine set. When used in packaging it is definitely 100% better than using polythene, polystyrene and plastic products. However, wood wool firelighters are made from compacted material, meaning there is a much greater amount of raw material required to produce those firelighters. Wood wool comes from shredding trees, which primary purpose is not to be used as a piece of furniture or building material, but rather a fire lighting aid.
Which one is better?
Similarly, both firelighters are made from natural products and are biodegradable. They are CO2 neutral and are safe to ignite, as they don’t flare up.
Burn from 8 to 20 minutes and do not dry out or lose their firepower, even after box opening. There is no unpleasant smell and they are not oily or greasy.
There are no petroleum products used in the production of both firelighters. No kerosene, paraffin wax, no formaldehyde nor added chemicals which makes them non-harmful if in contact with vegetation, plants and aquatic organisms.
Finally, if we are talking about price, then they are very similar.
So, which one to choose? You can weigh up all the pros and cons and decide for yourself based on your personal preferences.
For best natural eco-friendly firelighters go to: woodabrix.co.uk
People are creatures of habit, we don’t like change and are suspicious of anything new, but a little change can be actually good. Woodabrix Firelighters are very efficient, they don’t take up a lot of storage space and there’s virtually no mess.
“Was a bit dubious when the box came and it was so small, but 2 firelighters used to light our chiminea and it works great, so really good value for money, no horrible smells and easy to store, also good for the environment. Will be using these from now on.”
“Honestly, I didn’t think it would burn like the traditional ones, but they were great and I was very surprised, burnt well, easy to light, no Chemical smell or residue, I have been converted…. 5 stars”
“I didn’t know what to expect but I have to say, these work brilliantly. They light very easily and just 2 or 3 cubes will light a full charcoal firebox in my BBQ. No nasty smells or flavour and also packaged in a small eco-friendly cardboard box with no plastic packaging. Good value as well. Highly recommended.”
“Great product – after years of using paraffin style, white firelighters, I tried these and will never go back. Burn hotter, for longer and do a much better job of lighting big lump of charcoal on a Kamodo bbq.”
“These are great firelighters. They have the consistency of a very thick hardboard. They burn slowly but constantly.
I use a flame torch to get them going as that really gets them fully alight quickly. Once lit, they stay alight well, and they soon had my barbecue charcoal burning nicely.
I use 5 at a time, so 96 is going to last me good few years.
A good ecologically sound way to get your barbecue going, they work really well and represent value for money.”
“Very pleased! Fires light first time, they light really easily. They smell so much better than the old style lighters. You only need a couple to light each fire so the box is going to last ages. Definitely will be purchasing again!!”
“I use these to light an old anthracite boiler and when I handed it to an engineer who was fixing it for me he criticized them. He got out some fuel drenched ones and I suggested testing them against each other. We did and these lasted longer and gave a stronger burn. Suffice to say after he closed his gaping mouth he admitted that he may have been wrong. Just because it’s an eco product doesn’t mean it’s substandard. These are first rate firelighters and I swear by them. Thanks!”
So, why don’t give them a go, what do you have to lose?
Note: based on the reviews by Woodabrix Customers at amazon.co.uk
While you probably know how to build a fire with firewood, you may find it a little challenging to light a coal fire. Here are some tips for lighting a coal fire with eco firelighters:
Always start with a clean fire grate.
Place two firelighters in the middle of the grate.
Build a small tower with kindling around the firelighters and light the firelighters.
Once the kindling is on fire try to fill the gaps with more kindling.
Now immediately throw a generous amount of solid fuel into the fire, so it covers the kindling and firelighters.
After that close the door and adjust the air controls to the required level.
No flames should be drawn up the chimney but the window should appear to be filled with flames.
DO NOT reduce the air flow to the point where the fire is being hampered. If needed keep adding more coal to the pile.
And now, the most important bit, pour a cup of tea, sit back in your favourite chair and get cosy.
