Grilling with a meat thermometer

[Wazowski]

Hi guys!
I'm going to camp with my family in June for a week or so. We want to make a camp with tents, hammocks, fishing and so on. I'm a big BBQ lover and my children too, but unfortunately, I'm an eater, not a maker. We're going to grill some meat, but I have no experience in charcoal grilling. (I got used to electric grills).
I searched for some info on the internet and found an article about grilling, where was said about meat thermometers. I have poor experience in grilling meat, so I think this accessory will be useful. Since I don't savvy in grilling, so I'd like to get your wise and experienced advice on that. Currently, choosing from this page, but I'm also open to all other options. Which one will fit better for me? Also, I discovered that there are 2 types of thermometers: leave-in and instant-read which one is better for beginner grill-maker?

[YorkshireT]

Hi. I do BBQ / smoking.

The first thing to consider is what will you be doing. Cooking on a gas grill is not BBQ or smoking, it’s grilling as you identify. It’s pretty awful to be honest you may as well do it inside- but I’m into proper BBQ and we don’t like gas grilling.

Grilling (preferably on charcoal) is fine for steak or other thin cuts of meat but for anything else you really want to go indirect cooking or smoking.

Proper BBQ is low and slow. You only need an internal thermometer really if you are cooking the low and slow method with things like pork shoulders or brisket. Otherwise if you want the best instant thermometer just buy a Thermapen- not cheap but worth it. But you don’t need any thermometer for steak, sausages, burgers etc (stuff you can grill) so it depends what you are doing. Chicken, 100% you want a thermometer for whole/ spatchcock but not for pieces.

I like to do pork shoulder, ribs and chicken on my Weber Smokey Mountain but you can get decent results on a Weber kettle. In fact the Weber Kettle is undoubtedly the best starter charcoal BBQ you can get, no question. It will also last you 20 years so just buy one of them unless you want to go down the smoking route earlier. Don’t bother with cheap copies that look the same.

On a Weber kettle you can make an attempt at a bit of smoking and it excels at indirect cooking with the lid on.

The panacea of BBQ is a Komado grill- originally the Big Green Egg but there are now many on the market. ALDI do one for 350 (BGE same size is over 1000) but it’s sold out immediately. There is however a mini Komado coming up at Lidl for £80 in May which may be a bit small but is good for taking away- but you’d need to get a heat deflector to put in for low and slow (basically a barrier to stop the charcoal directly burning the food). Most bigger Komados come with a heat deflector - including that amazing value ALDI one.

Feel free to ask any questions.

[wanye]

all good cooks have at least two thermometers. an internal meat probe style one, and an instant read, and possibly an IR/laser gun style one too. i'd say all three are essential and get used regularly.

for large bits of meat, even in the oven, i use a remote probe one. i have the weber igrill2 which i got for $100 in home depot a few years ago. cheaper versions are available now, but if i was buying a new one now, i'd probably buy a MEATER

amazon/Weber-iGril...nguag e=en_GB

if youre doing smaller bits of meat and just wanted to check its safe to eat, a thermapen is great, but again is quite expensive. but it really is instant read (within 1-2 secs at most) unlike the cheap knockoff i bought ages ago, which took nearly 10 seconds to settle on a temperature.

amazon/ETI-SuperFa...nguag e=en_GB

i got mine for £30 from the good food show a few years ago.

lastly, the laser gun style. i just went cheap with that one, and it does the job just fine. its great for checking the temp of pans, oils and stuff, just point and shoot! the only issue ive had with it, is the soft touch rubber went sticky after a few years in my kitchen drawer. i used isopropyl alcohol to scrub it all off, and it works fine now.

amazon/Xtech-A1232...nguag e=en_GB

hth

[wanye]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

The panacea of BBQ is a Komado grill- originally the Big Green Egg but there are now many on the market. ALDI do one for 350 (BGE same size is over 1000) but it’s sold out immediately. There is however a mini Komado coming up at Lidl for £80 in May which may be a bit small but is good for taking away- but you’d need to get a heat deflector to put in for low and slow (basically a barrier to stop the charcoal directly burning the food). Most bigger Komados come with a heat deflector - including that amazing value ALDI one.

See more...

ive had a pit boss 24" kamado from costco a few years ago (cost around £400) and its still good as new.

whats the lidl mini kamado all about? might be good for camping...

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by wanye

ive had a pit boss 24" kamado from costco a few years ago (cost around £400) and its still good as new.

whats the lidl mini kamado all about? might be good for camping...

See more...

Lidl Mini Kamado looks good for camping- would need to fashion a heat deflector though.

[YorkshireT]

I also have a BBQ Guru- which attaches to my smoker and is connected to a probe, and pumps air into the smoker to maintain the temps.

I also have a wireless thermometer with dual probes- a Maverick. Since I got that though some new ones are out as you say the Meater looks neat.

I would really like a Kamado though= retain heat much better. Getting one at the mo is difficult- the Aldi one is great. A very good one is the Masterbuild at about £600 which is a rebadged Kamado Joe, which costs about £1000 so whilst expensive it is a good deal. The Monolith Basic is also a good buy. I need to sell my Weber Smokey Mountain but it will sell quick on ebay if I get one of these Kamado.