British BBQ Society Forums

Hi guys,

I hope some of you are able to find a Tescos near you with this deal, but I just managed to pick up ten 5kg bags of briquettes for £10. This was at Brookfield Farm in Cheshunt.

Stocks were nearly gone when I got there, so if you're in the area get there quick! Otherwise, I hope other Tesco stores in the area are getting rid of them cheap as well!

cheers for the tip, which brand were they?

we got some of these - cant remember which brand - just the SHOCKING quality - burn out super quick!
Only get what you pay for!

Fuel Express. I've used this brand on six hour low 'n slows before and they seem reasonable enough. Although I fully respect that I dont know if they are good or bad in relation to others!

Could you recommend some good brands?

I've used them in the past and found that you can have a rogue bag that is "easy light", i.e. impregnated with lighter fluid, not a problem if you only cook with fully lit charcoal but a big no no if you use the minion method or put unlit charcoal on your fire to top it up mid cook. If you are looking for alternatives then Big K, Bar-be-quick and SupaGrill are all very similar, for me the SupaGrill Cocoshell briquettes are the winner but the rest come a close second

I have bought briquettes from Tesco a few times for grilling when desperate - though not recently. The ones I had burned with a weird smell - though the food tasted OK. As Clair mentioned they burned quite quickly too. I dont think I would risk them for slow cooking but they seem OK for a quick backyard grill.

I have wondered about that in the past JEC, but my reasoning was based on the packaging. While all of the Fuel Express briquettes come in red bags, some are normal "paper" but others seem to have a vinyl coating instead. But that could be a complete misnomer...

I'm going to try a beef joint on Saturday using these coals, so I'll keep you all updated (in the appropriate thread of course ).

I found them to be VERY smokey in the chimney, but fairly hot and lasted a fair while.