British BBQ Society Forums

Hi,

Started off with a Weber 57cm kettle, purchased a Pro Q smoker a month or 2 back and was lucky enough to win a Weber Q3200 in the recent World of Power competition!

Never cooked on the cast iron of the Q before, not sure what the benefits are of if I need to do anything with it.
Still trying to work out what BBQ is best for doing what products.

The Pro Q is easy, i'll use that for long smokes requiring low temperatures, with Weber long life briquettes.

Would I be best using the kettle for grilling and the Q3200 for roasting? Seems a waste of the cast iron grates.
I have a Weber round pizza stone, the high temps of the gas would prob work well though i'm not sure the stone would fit on the 3200, will have to check.

If I am just using the kettle for grilling, would it be better keeping a stock of the Big K charcoal. I understand thats better for grilling. Is the ACH15 the best one to get? The differences/benefits aren't really clear.

Thanks

The ProQ for smoking and if needed roasting. For filing the choice between the next too comes downs to time, gas will always be quicker but in my opinion lacks the flavour you get from charcoal, even with some smoke added from chips or pellets. Don't tailor your cooks to use all of your cookers, go with your heart and if you don't want to use it sell it, I've bought and sold quite a bit, it's all part of the journey. As for the cast iron grates, well they're great, sear marks on meat just makes it look good, which we all no is an important part of the eating, if it doesn't look good you probably won't want to eat it.

I don't know if the cast iron (CI) plates are coated or not but if not DON'T WASH THEM IN DETERGENT/WASHING UP LIQUID or you will undo all the hard work. Basically the idea is to season the CI plates by cooking on them, there are plenty of good videos on youtube and articles on the internet as to how to season them but it basically involves coating the plates in oil and raising them temperature till they are smoking, let them cool and repeat. This builds up a layer of virtual nonstick on the plates which makes for easier clean up with a brush. I have cleaned stubborn plates by allowing the detritus to burn off over the gas.
Of course if the plates are coated then the above can be ignored.