Have you ever been deep in thought in the midst of smoke rising from your Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes barbecue and fantasised about becoming a professional griller?
The US professional circuit kicks off in Kansas City this weekend (March 14-15) with the North Kansas City Missouri State BBQ Championship. The state championships work on a system of points allocation, for the winners of the 15 to 20 events that may take place across the season. First place in just 3 or 4 of these events could secure you the position of state champion!
John Ryan, recent ‘griller extraordinaire’ at the Heat Beads® Degustation BBQ for Steven Raichlen, is a serious backyard BBQ chef. He travels the world, and particularly the US, entering BBQ world championships. John is moving to the US later in the year and hopes to be able to explore more of the renowned professional US BBQ circuit.
Drawing on his years of experience cooking on Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes he hopes to tackle both the backyard and professional circuits, of course the ultimate being the Kansas City – The American Royal BBQ Contest, held in the first weekend of October. This is the largest contest of its type in the world and John describes it as, ‘really good fun’, having participated in the event before.
This festival is held over two days, with most contestants wishing to pursue the title of Kansas City BBQ Legend. This delectable event also involves a sauce competition and entertainment for all those who flock to Kansas City.
The Southern states in the US thrive on a barbecue culture, the pinnacle of which is Kansas City, Missouri. It is famous across the world for its unique barbecue style that involves char-grilling and wood smoking (mainly hickory wood chips) to infuse flavour into the food. According to the Kansas City Tourism Website today there are over 100 barbecue establishments in the Kansas City area, each boasting its personal house specialty from ribs, to pork, ham, sausages and even fish.
So if you’re sitting at your computer, still fantasising about being a Kansas City BBQ Legend, your dream may come true! Happy Grilling!
Sometimes in cooking (as in life), things don’t turn out exactly as planned. Now you can find the answers as to why (well, in relation to cooking, not life!) right away at the Heat Beads® FAQs page.
We’ve added fresh troubleshooting content to address problems you might have while BBQ-ing, to help salvage your food or avoid the mistake next time around! Check it out.
We thought we’d share one of the hot tips with you here:
Often, a recipe calls for a ‘hot fire’… but what does this actually mean?
Q. ‘How many Heat Beads® briquettes do I need to achieve the fire temperature I want?’ A. The BBQ temperature is determined by the number of Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes burning inside. Here are the quantities to follow to reach your desired heat:
Indirect cooking method
- For a hot fire, use 64 briquettes (32 each side)
- For a normal fire, use 50 briquettes (25 each side)
- For a low fire, use 36 briquettes (18 each side)
- For a low smoke fire, use 12 briquettes (6 each side)
Direct cooking method
- For a direct fire, use 40 briquettes
- For a low direct fire, use 25 briquettes
One of our office Head Beads® briquettes fans recently spent a weekend camping in the Grampians with friends.
But there were no canned baked beans in sight for these intrepid travelers! Instead, they whipped up a delicious Lamb and Red Wine Casserole in a camp oven powered by Head Beads® briquettes - and videoed the process to share with Sizzle readers.
If you’ve got your own fun video of Heat Beads® briquettes in action, we’d love to see it! Upload to YouTube, tag as Heat Beads® BBQ briquettes, and post a link to it in the Comments section.
Here’s the recipe for those of you who wish to try this out over the holidays!
Lamb and Red Wine Casserole
Ingredients:
Lamb
Onions
Carrots
Potatoes
Red wine
Water
Butter
Self-raising flour
Salt
Method:
1) Light Heat Beads® briquettes 20 minutes before cooking
2) Brown onions and lamb
3) Add carrot, water and red wine and simmer for 10-15 minutes
4) Add potatoes and simmer for further 10-15 minutes
5) Ensure vegetables are cooked, then add damper to top of casserole and allow to cook for approx 10 minutes or until golden brown
For useful guidelines on camp oven temperatures using Heat Beads® briquettes click here to visit Derek Bullock’s site.
Camp oven cooking has become Sizzle’s ‘flavour of the month’… but given the tangible groundswell that has been steadily building around this style of cooking, we think it’s one that’s here to stay.
Back in September, the Heat Beads® company supported the second annual Redesdale Camp Oven Cook Off at Redesdale Tavern, in regional Victoria.
Around 50 teams of up to five people entered this year’s cook off, chasing the glory of being crowned camp oven cooking champions. (See event photos above - click on an image to enlarge.)
Basic ingredients and Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes were provided… but chefs and imagination were definitely BYO! Starting from a level playing field, teams had until 4pm on the day to whip up a feast (of their invention) fit for the esteemed judging panel.
Hundreds of spectators turned out to watch the challenge unfold, also sampling offerings from the market stalls of local producers and wine-makers and enjoying live entertainment.
And, the next camp oven cooking event on the Heat Beads® radar is happening this weekend!
The Great Victorian Camp Oven Festival is being held over the weekend of November 3rd & 4th, 2007 (at Gordon Street Reserve, Heyfield).
As well as a variety of camp oven cooking competitions, including best damper and best main meal/specialty dish, there’s something for all the family, from live music and entertainment, to carnival and helicopter rides. Visit the event website for more.
To get you in the mood, we’d like to share with you another delectable camp oven cooking recipe from ‘The Camp Oven Cook’, Derek Bullock. As you’ll see from his website, Derek’s doing his bit to promote camp oven cooking in Australia!
Chocolate rum and raisin muffins
(Makes six large muffins)
Ingredients:
1 cup chopped raisins soaked in a ¼ cup of Bundy rum (do this the day before if you can)
1¼ cups self-raising flour
¼ cup of cocoa powder
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup chocolate chips
1 egg
½ cup melted butter
½ cup milk
Method:
Mix flour, cocoa, sugar and chocolate in a large bowl. In another bowl mix together the beaten egg, melted butter and milk. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well but stop as soon as it’s combined. Spoon the mixture into paper muffin cups that you have placed in a muffin tray. Place tray on a trivet in a preheated camp oven and cook for about 20 minutes.
This week’s guest blogger is ‘The Camp Oven Cook’, Derek Bullock. Derek’s website is a goldmine of information for campers, and here he shares his inventive camp oven cooking method.
Over the years, a growing number of camping grounds have disallowed the lighting of fires - meaning it’s near impossible to make a fire for coals for the camp oven. As such, I seek to teach people the art of cooking in a camp oven using Heat Beads® briquettes as a source of heat. It really is very simple and with a bit of initiative you can be baking and roasting even in a caravan park.
Firstly, you need something to place your camp oven and Heat Beads® briquettes in when cooking. I use an old electric frying pan - easy to look after and takes up little room when packing. You can usually pick one up for a few dollars at a garage sale. The one I have is a large old round Sunbeam. Both my twelve inch Bedourie and my cast iron camp ovens fit in it perfectly. (This method is suitable for all types of camp ovens.)
If using the Bedourie I first place a trivet in the frying pan to sit the coals on, and to help circulate the heat. Because the cast iron oven has legs there is no need to do this.
The number of briquettes is something you might like to play with. Generally nine under the oven and 14 to 17 on top will give a heat of about 180 to 200 degrees and that is a pretty good heat for baking. You can see the number of briquettes clearly in the photographs. A good idea is to light about 30 and then experiment with different numbers top and bottom.
A good little investment I made that only cost a few dollars was a small oven thermometer. This photograph shows it sitting in my cast iron oven with a temperature of about 180 degrees (you can click on the photos to enlarge):
Okay, you have your Heat Beads® briquettes, an old frying pan, a Bedourie camp oven and a trivet… you are ready to begin.
Place the briquettes on the trivet in the frying pan and light them up. Here I am using Heat Beads Easy-lite - no firelighters are required, just light with a match.
Next, wait for the briquettes to ash over. This will take about 40 minutes. Remember that the briquettes need to be covered in a light-coloured ash:
Once the briquettes have ashed over, place the required number on top of the oven, leave the number you want under the oven in the frying pan and place the extras to one side:
Put the camp oven on top of the briquettes in the frying pan and leave it to preheat like you would the oven at home. It’s as simple as that!
The good thing about using a frying pan is that you can cook just about anywhere with it. The legs on the frying pan keep the heat off whatever it is standing on - as the photos show, I have even used it on my glass-top patio table.
Give it a go yourself to see just how simple it actually is. And stay tuned to Sizzle for some of my delicious camp oven recipes!
John Ryan – BBQ fanatic, member of Kansas City BBQ Society, and enthusiast of Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes – reports from Kansas City, the BBQ capital of the world.
I’m fortunate to be in Kansas City right now, when ‘American Royal’ is on.
American Royal is a bit like a traditional ‘royal show’ (such as the Royal Melbourne Show), featuring live entertainment and music, food and drinks, horse shows, rodeo, livestock… and the 28th Annual American Royal Barbecue.
On from 5-7th October, this is a state championship BBQ contest with a difference – a $125,000 prize up for grabs, as well as automatic entry into the World Series of Barbecue championships (world championships), for the winner.
As you can tell from the prize money, they take their BBQ-ing very seriously over here – there’s over 400 teams competing this year.
I’ll be there, along with Kansas City BBQ Society (KCBS), which sanctions the event. KCBS is the largest organisation of BBQ enthusiasts in the world, with over 8,000 members worldwide. A non-profit organisation, KCBS is dedicated to promoting and enjoying the art of the BBQ.
Since I’ve been in Kansas City, I’ve been sampling BBQ fare as well as doing a lot of BBQ-ing of my own. I brought my Heat Beads® company hat and t-shirt with me, so I’ve been getting lots of attention and questions about the briquette-style fuel source (pure wood is more common here). There is a distinction made when smoking meats here; it’s mostly cold smoking followed by cooking over a medium-to-low heat, with a basting period between the two, and another basting period after the cooking and just before the serving.
Now we open your eyes to the wonders of char-grilled pizza. The high, even heat of the grill makes it an ideal pizza oven.
Friend and fan of Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes, Urban Griller, has come up with the secret for making superb pizza on your BBQ.
NB Preheat your grill first – you want the hottest BBQ you can possibly get.
Once you’ve loaded up your pizza with sauce and toppings (ensure the toppings are cut finely), place it on a tray. We wouldn’t dream of telling you what toppings to use – we understand what an intensely personal preference that is! Arguments about the merits of pineapple, anchovies, chicken etc on a pizza have punctuated many a dinner table.
If you’re entertaining, you could consider making small individual pizzas, and allowing guests to select their own toppings. Once the grill is set up, cooking the pizzas is quick, so you can power through them in no time.
The secret:
Set up a tripod of three empty tomato cans (stripped of their labels), placing the tray on top.
When you shut the BBQ lid, the pizza tray stays right up in the hottest part of the BBQ, meaning the heat circulates around it, ensuring the pizza is crisp.
(To cook more than one pizza at once, you can set up more sets of cans and trays.)
The pizza should be grilled for about 2-4 minutes, or until the bottom has browned and the cheese is melted.
As ‘The Urban Griller’ (providing barbecue catering for functions and running barbecue cooking classes), I need my heat source to be reliable every time. I use Heat Beads® exclusively for a very simple reason… they always work! It’s important to me that I know exactly what kind of burn, how hot, and how long I’m going to get from my barbecue fuel. I have tried them all and Heat Beads® are the only briquettes which are 100 percent reliable! I would never use anything else.
At barbecue school we actually checked out a bag of Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes and a bag of an inferior brand and compared them. Every time, the bag of inferior fuel has broken beads; at least a cup (sometimes more) of just plain black dust in the bottom of the bag; and sometimes the inferior brand won’t even light properly.
In my world I require consistency, I need to be able to set my fire and walk away to do something else. With Heat Beads® I can do just that knowing that when I come back my fire will be perfect every time. Put simply, in my world there is no better solid fuel than Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes. For best preparation methods to ensure a great tasting BBQ visit the usage instructions and handy tips section of the website. Check out the videos for great step-by-step lighting instructions and other info, like how many Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes to use in your Weber or under your grill.
Cheers,
Chris, The Urban Griller
chris@urbangriller.com
Chris urges visitors to his website to ‘always play with your food!’.
Nothing beats our nation’s favourite pastime, the ‘great Aussie BBQ’, and what better way to wash the food down than with an ice-cold beer?!
Wine has most commonly been the focus of food and alcohol pairings, but now, with increasing numbers of small, independent brewers emerging with interesting, complex beers, it’s possible to complement your BBQ meal with just the right beer.
Just as the humble BBQ has evolved from ‘snags n’ chops’ to a means of creating gourmet feasts, so too has beer’s potential been recognised, as it becomes an accompaniment, a ‘dinner drink’.
So, which beer for your BBQ?
Naturally personal preference plays a part, but if you follow these food and beer matching guidelines, you’ll be able to impress family and friends at your next outdoor gathering with your recommendations (as well as enjoying the tastebud sensation for yourself!).
Roast meat dishes (e.g. lamb) and steak: amber ales, bitter (heavy beer styles)
Barbecued chicken: a pilsener complements the smoky BBQ flavour
Seafood: golden ales or lager
Spicy food: pilseners or pale ale
There’s also a synergy between beers and foods from the same country.
According to Beer & Brewer Australia magazine, ‘it’s about matching the weight, flavour or intensity of the beer with food, so enjoy mild beers with mild foods, robust beers with robust dishes and spicy, hoppy beers for hot and fiery feasts’. (Beer & Brewer Australia, Spring 2007.)
Don’t be afraid to experiment with pairing different beers and foods to determine what works best for you. Enjoy!
Australian Char encourages the responsible enjoyment of alcohol. Alcohol is only to be consumed by those over 18 years of age.
