barbeque cast iron grill

[Martin Bonner]

For the fastest known method for lighting a barbeque see:

[Man at B&Q]

Try a dictionary search for the word "normally".

MBQ

[The Medway Handyman]

Almost right Dennipoo's. BBQ food gets its flavour from the smoke from the fat vapourising when it hits 'either' the hot charcoal or the hot lava rocks (heated by the gas burner. Since charcoal & lava rocks are completely inert it matters not what causes the fat to vapourise.

You can just as easily add wood chips to lava rocks if you want hickory smoked flavour of whatever.

[The Medway Handyman]

Caused by? Charcoal is inert & doesn't taste or smell of anything -0 thats why they use it in filters.

[The Medway Handyman]

So does my BBQ :-)

[Andrew Mawson]

totally

Outback

whatsoever

cooks -

anything -0 thats

Inert - I don't think so or it wouldn't burn !

( INERT....' Not readily reactive with other elements; forming few or no chemical compounds' )

AWEM

.

[Steve Firth]

Oh FFS, it's the Medway Pratt on his mission to prove that he knows f*ck-all about chemistry, again.

Charcoal is not "inert". And if it were it would be useless for filtration. The material used for filters is "activated" charcoal. This is produced either by a chemical treatment (sodium hydroxide followed by roasting in an oven is one such treatment) or phsyically such as by the action of steam on charcoal heated to 1200C in an anaerobic oven.

This produces a material with many small pores, a huge surface area and the ability to absorb some chemicals actively onto the surface. That is, it is far from inert. It's also not the same material used for barbecues. No one in their right mind would produce expensive activated charcoal just to burn it.

Barbecue charcoal retains some organic material other than carbon. The process doesn't run at high enough temperatures to drive off all the volatile compounds, as if fairly obvious if one opens a bag of charcoal and sniffs it.

Charcoal briquettes are something else again, these often contain coal ash and assorted rubbish bound together with starch paste. I wouldn't cook food with it.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Charcoal is not inert by any means. There's loads of pyrolised (?) chemistry in it from the original wood, and its that which gives the smoky flavour, not the burnt fat.

Well you can, but thats not teh same as carmionised wood tahts been around a while.

Its like saying that grain alcohol is 'just the same' as vintage wine, just throw some grape juice and water at it'

If you want an outdoor gas cooker, that's fine. Just don't call it a barbecue, because it ain't.

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

For once I agree with you.

Briquttes are carp.

Scarp branches off trees are pretty good. Maple I quite like as well.

[Steve Firth]

When I'm in Italy we use olive wood from pruning our trees. It's the best wood for barbecues IMO, especially for lamb. The only negative with it is that it burns much hotter than oak/beech and it needs experience to get the best from it. In the UK we use apple and oak. Bagged charcoal is really one for when I'm in a hurry and I use willow and beech charcoal produced by a friend of my wife.

[dennis]

Charcoal is far from inert. You will find it in (some (I have to insert that because you don't understand normal English)) safety masks because it is not inert.

[JTM]

Pretty damned good for an open fire too, a little goes a long way and gives good heat

John

[Andy Dingley]

Whilst it's generally true that "barbecues use charcoal" you can get charcoal by either partially burning it in a clamp or retort first (i.e. the bagged stuff you buy), or else you can burn wood on the barbecue until it's burned down to just charcoal. Cooking over burning wood, before it's down to just the charcoal, makes your food taste of wood more than of food.

The second only works if you're using a few non-resinous hardwoods. Beech and fruitwoods are good, oak isn't unless it's in 6" cubes and you've a few hours to wait. Ash burns too quickly and doesn't leave enough charcoal behind. Softwoods are useless - all the heat they have to offer was in that resin. If your larch is still hot enough to cook over, your sausage will taste, literally, of turpentine.

Never tried olive. But it's a slow-growing dense timber, so I'd expect it to burn like English fruitwoods. Give it longer to burn up before you cook, but then it's fine.

Charcoal varies a lot, according to the species it's made from and how carefully it's made.

[Steve Firth]

It produces good coals when burned, it is a very dense wood ideal for carving, it's also unusual in being a wood that will burn easily when green. It doesn't take long to burn down to charcoal and then it will smoulder for a long time and as John Mulrooney said earlier a little goes a long way and it produced a good heat. I don't know of any olive farmers who use anything else for a barbecue. The smoke from burning green leaves can be used to add flavour to the food, just as people add hickory wood chips to charcoal fires in the USA.

[geoff]

Yes, but where's the cheapest car hire place in Naples?

[Steve Firth]

Fucknose, only a loony would go to Napoli.

Oh hang on, I've seen the ads in the local paper for car hire in Napoli. You err probably wouldn't want the *cheapest* car hire place. IIRC you don't even need a driving licence.

Yup.

Malbes Service Station, Cagliari. Eur 23 per day for a Ligier.

[geoff]

Wedding, no choice

I have my violin case

5 up ?

[Steve Firth]

You'll need more than that. A suit of armour is more useful.

You didn't say that first time around, you just asked for cheap.

You're looking at around EUR 50 per day minimum. I'd recommend booking in advance and using Avis. If you have a Tesco Clubcard they'll give you points, their rates are usually lower than the local companies and the cars are much better. They also seem to give free upgrades at the drop of a hat.

They're showing a Focus at £320 a week, a Nissan Note at £280 from the airport.

If you want to try cheaper,

are showing £215 a week for a Picasso.

There are no supercool cheap local deals IMO.

You can save quite a bit on the insurance by taking out an Insurance4carhire policy to cover the excess. Much cheaper than the hire company insurance.

[chunkyoldcortina]

The "metal plates" you describe are actually "heat tents".