Sizzling! We checked out the summer’s best BBQ scorchers
Whether you’re a traditional charcoal devotee, trying your hand at wood flame, or happy to poke the sausages over a modest gas rack — the choice in garden BBQs this summer is scorching.
Oddly, despite our 21st impatience, it’s wood and charcoal units that are getting us hot out the back once more. Thanks to the prompts of TV celebrities, Irish cooks are now keen to try their mittened hands at everything from pizza to smoking — even committing to 18-hour roasts.
Watching fat permeate cuts of meat and charring vegetables — even the basic kettle BBQ remains a delicious, open-air novelty.
However, before being seduced in-store, consider what you cook the most, what new alfresco techniques you might like to try occasionally, and how many hungry guests you are likely to cater for.
Add on Some Pizza
Pizza BBQ ovens are not only more available and affordable, but economical. Add-on pizza box ovens, selling from €80-€150, are burning up the aisles. Aldi, never to be beaten for imitating the brand giants, has its own version, priced at just €49.99. The Gardenline pizza oven in ceramic stone sits right down over a suitably sized, standard charcoal or gas grill and can be used to create biscuits, flat-breads, fish and meat. It even includes a semi-recessed temperature gauge, and promises to deliver a 12-inch round in just 10 minutes.
Missed it? Woodies do a €99 add-on Firebox, and Littlewoods has The Hacienda at €125, littlewoodsireland.ie.
The Allegro Della Nonna on Wheels can fire up two pizzas and is part of a huge range at House of Heat, at Ballycurreen; see houseofheat.ie
Before you buy, look for traditional stone baking chambers, and give it at least a rattle test. Attach to a quality, sturdy, appropriately-sized base gas or charcoal BBQ.
And what of alternatives to a built-in oven or full pizza oven unit? The George Foreman 24640 Entertaining Pizza Plate Grill can be shifted indoors when the weathers is dire, a firm advantage in my book, and again, capable of cooking 12 inch pizzas. €99.99 Littlewoods.
For a start in full, wood-fired pizza making and light enough to move into the garage in September, there’s the Uuni Portable Wood Fired Oven (rave reviews and a large online following; below) from €299, outdoor.ie Serious pizza lovers will want an authentic feel to their paddle. Weber does a quality piece at €34.99 for one swoop, oven to table — suppliers nationwide.
Hog Roasts & Big Green Eggs
There are solutions for ambitious, long cooking times that will accommodate huge cuts of meat that melt off the bone. La Caja China is among a few top brands offering spit and roaster cook BBQs. With 20kg of charcoal, you can deliver 9kg roasts up to an entire hog.
Prices from €414.70 for La Caja China #3 to take up to 2-3 whole chickens or 1-2 pork shoulders, or any other type of meat or fish. Free delivery, lacajachina.eu.
The Big Green Egg has cracked the market in Ireland for amateur and professional cooks. A ceramic stove (technically a broiler as it has a lid) the Egg is feted for its buttery mouthfuls for the summertime carnivore. With its sealed firebox and precision airflow it has the ability to cook several dishes simultaneously, from the MiniMax to the XLarge model. Furthermore, the BGE comes with a monthly lifestyle magazine. From €695 - €4,325, depending on accessories. Dealers include: The Stove Yard (NI), allalfreco.ie and The Garden House (Malahide) and The Cork Gas Centre.
The Room Outdoors in Wexford & Limerick also carry the Monolith range of Egg-like ceramic cookers with superb bamboo side tables, from €525. Hanley’s in Ballycurreen, Cork have a lovely chuff-chuff style and huge BBQ/smoker Texas style combo on wheels (for day-long, wood-chip nurtured, spare-ribs). €565, hanleysofcork.com.
Cheap, compact, classy? Take a look at their lollipop-like Barbecook for proper grilling without a lid at just €199.
Built-in barbies
Building your own permanent BBQ site doesn’t have to mean the Pyramids of Giza. We love Woodies Bar-Be-Quick build (€79.99, below) which comes with full instructions to create surrounding brick walling. With bricks, cement, sand and a little muscle, you could bring the whole adventure home for as little as €150 in a weekend. Using reclaimed brick, expect to pay in the area of €1 a brick, woodies.ie.
The surroundings of the BBQ should always allow for replacement of the cooking parts, but you can go with stone, brick or skimmed blocks as a lasting garden feature tied to the wider landscaping. Leave wood elements on wheels or protected under an overhang.
IKEA’s Klasen choices in BBQ comes with generous, integrated trolleys and
cabinets in steel and wood from €300 all in, (charcoal only).
If your construction skills are shaky, or you want something to take with you, if you move, Buschbeck masonry BBQs with their Mediterranean charm in quartz composites and including steel and copper detailing, with double-walled finish, are well worth the structural thump.
Charcoal purists with champagne tastes love these beauties. The smallest (€645 delivered) is over 2m high, and they take everything from solid fuel to gas (with an insert option at €220), buschbeck.ie.
For the truly serious, year-round cook assembling a real, honest to God, outdoor room combining steel and wood elements, try WWOO by Piet-Lan van den Kommer (Holland) wwoo.nl.
Beefeater Artisan modular steel kitchens start at €3,000 from Outdoor Scene for a carcass/grill, all doors and a small fridge.
