I’m new to the Arduino (although not to programming), so my first step was to buy a simple Arduino experimenter’s kit and do some general non-BBQ projects, to familiarise myself with the kit and its capabilities. This is still ongoing. I made a point only to buy the Arduino kit, and not the add-ons I might later require, such as the WiFi and LCD Screen options – doing so means I will learn to walk before I run, and limits my spend, in case the project doesn’t fly.
Tag: bbq
I read a nice recipe for loin of pork, where it is cooked on a bed of cooking apples, which go to make the sauce. I liked the sound of this, so I looked for a loin yesterday, but they were all quite small. In the end I bought one that might feed a family of 4, so I also bought a tenderloin, which was on offer.
I had planned to do just bangers and burgers, the usual fare, but instead of grilling, I was going to slow cook them on “smoke” setting. This would be a bit different from what I had served before from my Weber kettle, and should also mean that when we broke for lunch, the food would all be ready.
I’ve just ordered the StartFun Inventor’s Kit to get me going, which is a heap of varied components together with an Arduino Uno controller – an easily programmable microcontroller. It looks a lot of fun, and it is possible to build quite a bit of stuff with a minimum of soldering, which suits me. It means I can play away developing my prototype, then call in a friend with a steadier hand when I have something worth building.
So I thought I would have a try at making a fatty. A fatty is a large sausage-like object, made from sausage or luncheon meat, and smoked. They can be as simple as a log of sausage covered in rub, or wrapped in bacon, or they can have all sorts of fillings.
Although I have used it quite a bit for smoking and slow cooking, I haven’t done a lot of straight grilling on it. So this weekend I experimented with all manner of burgers, sausages and chicken, until I got a feel for the temperature ranges and timings.
I’ve been going through papers and stuff from my trip to Consonance and I came across this filk, which I had forgotten about. Early on at the convention, I mentioned that I was interested in barbecue, and after that, it became a popular topic of conversation.
Burgers (standard supermarket Aberdeen Angus burgers)
I got it assembled without too many problems. Noticed a couple of spots that need touching up with paint, but nothing horrendous. These grills are basically ex-demo – they have never been cooked on, but they have been standing around, and to be honest, I expected more dings than there are. Of course, that is what got me the superb price, and I won’t obsess about scratching/denting my new toy, because it comes already christened. This is good – with my Weber kettle, I’ve been wanting to fit a dome thermometer for a couple of years, but couldn’t bring myself to drill the shiny new(ish) thing. With this, I’ll have no hesitation about making any minor changes I think of.
Ashford looks a lot closer on the map, than it is – 3 hours drive there, and 3 hours back. But it was mostly motorway, and easy driving. Having got on the road just belfore 11am, I arrived at the American BBQ Company just after 2, and Jackie had my new pellet grill out ready to show me. It is mostly preassembled, all I have to do is fix the pellet hopper to the BBQ unit (4 bolts), and fix on the chimney (4 bolts) and I am ready.