Don't know anything about em, anyone care to shed some light on what are good brands, features and the kind of price I should be paying?
Looking at buying a 4 burner, hooded BBQ
Lionheart on 25/09/2012 - 18:23
Comments
I was originally looking at the Weber Genesis E-310, but simply couldn't justify spending $1700 on a non full-stainless 3 burner. Breifly looked at the Q's, but wanted more of a bigger cooking area.
Thanks for the link to that forum, I will do some research.
How many people do you normally cook for? The guy at Barbecues Galore told me that you should buy a BBQ that would cover you 90% of the time and you can improvise for the other 10% - I thought it was good advice.
Good luck!
Check out any stainless BBQs carefully. Many are made with cheap grade stainless that soon goes brown. Far uglier than a weathered wooden one IMHO. (The price of course is one indicator of this.) Also beware of anything from stores like BigW… I used to pickup BBQs in council pickups, completely rejuvenate them and resell. You soon start to recognise things to watch out for. Like the BigW ones - they used to Australian made a few years ago. But now like everything it's chinese junk. All three they had the day I looked, the welds were so tiny and so few of them - you could see them straining when the lid was raised/lowered. I can imagine them soon breaking with that weight lifting up and down.
It depends on what kind of buyer you are though. I'm the kind of person that buys something good so it lasts a long time. Someone else might buy dirt cheap so they can just toss it and buy again in two years and constantly have new things.
I followed Stix advice and got a Weber Q320AU with the handle light, cover, griddle and short handled cleaner.
Will christen it tomorrow night!Have fun!
Another tip is to get quality meat from a butcher. I tried Coles rump steak and it tasted like any old BBQ steak but then I tried MSA rump from a butcher and it was amazing…restaurant quality steak.
Before cooking, I just brush on extra virgin olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper. Crank the Weber up to high for 10 mins to preheat it. Then put the steak on for about 3 mins (depending on how you like it and the thickness of the steak) with the lid closed. Repeat for other side. Whip up a mushroom or pepper sauce and you won't need to go out for a steak ever again. :)
We had BBQ chicken breasts last night and gees they were good too.
Thanks for the tips, I'm about to start construction of it now.
But your above post made me hungry lol…
So every time you cook you brush on a bit of olive oil to stop it sticking?
So you pre heat it on high for 10 minutes, put steak on then lower temperature to medium and flip after 3 minutes? Do you cook your steak with the hood up or down?
Yeah, brush a bit of oil on the steaks to stop them sticking.
In the cooking guide that you get with the BBQ, it says to leave the temp on high for steaks and turn to low towards the end of the cooking. I'm not sure if it means turn to low for each side and I'm still experimenting but try this - put it high for 10 mins, leave it on high, whack steaks on, turn after 3 mins, leave on high for 3 mins then turn to low for maybe a minute or two.
You can also get the square brand by whacking steaks on for 30 sec then turning 90 degress then leaving for 2.5 mins. Check the cooking guide as well because how long also depends on the thickness of the steak.
Cook chicken breasts/thigh fillets for about 5-10 minutes on medium heat. I normally brush a bit of garlic on the chicken as well as oil, salt & pepper.
And always cook with the hood down on a Weber Q…that's how they're designed!
Haven't tried a roast yet but apparently they are great as well.
Unreal, thanks heaps mate.
I just introduced myself if you wanna see my BBQ all setup :-)Nice. Hey, quick question…do you have any scratches on the inside of the hood? I had to return my hood as it had a scratch and I got the replacement one today and it has a similar scratch in the same spot! I saw the display one in Barbecues Galore had the same scratch as well so maybe it's a manufacturing fault.
Yep, small stratch in there I noticed when I was building it, I didn't care too much though as once it gets dirty it'll be hardly noticable.
Cooked a steak on it last night, man it's so easy. Just like you said, I did 2.5 minutes instead of 3 because it was about 10-12mm thick, came out perfect!!
Good stuff!
Thanks for letting me know about the scratch. I'm not going to bother about retuning it again. I brushed a bit of oil on it just to protect it from rusting but it should be good regardless.
We recently bought a Weber Q 320. They're not cheap ($700) and discounts are rare (apparently there's only one distributor so margins are slim) but it is a brilliant BBQ and should last us for years. We also got the cover for $50. It comes with 2 grill plates…if you need a hot plate, it'll cost $70 extra.
Check out www.aussiebbq.info/forum or whirlpool.net.au for a bit more help.
IMO, Webers are well worth the investment though.