Disposable barbecues – are they really any good?

 

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My first experience of using a barbecue was nothing short of disastrous. I can’t remember how much lighter fluid I used or how long it took me to actually get the great big kettle thing to light. But then fired up with enthusiasm, I flung on the food and found that it was too hot for me to get close enough to actually do anything with my sausages that were turning black at a frightening rate!

This, like my tent, was kept unused in the back of the garage for many years until it was unceremoniously thrown away. It was many years later that I decided to have a play with a packet of disposable barbecues and they were little short of mind-blowing in their simplicity and reliability. The instructions said that they would light with just a single match. I didn’t believe it, but they did and still do.

In the course of writing this guide, I have tried to select recipes that work well on a disposable barbecue given their limitations. If you want to cook for over an hour for example, you will need to remove the grill and the lighting sheet, add some more charcoal and replace both before lighting as normal. Similarly if you want to use one as an oven, you will have to create some kind of temporary lid. It can be done and I have used all sorts of things to achieve this. From an upturned plant pot or saucepan to a bit of cleverly arranged tin foil.

 

I have also used a Cobb, a kind of charcoal oven that you may have seen on the Hairy Bikers (cooking for those afflicted by a North Eastern accent) TV show. Very nice, you can pick it up and take it into the tent when it’s stopped smoking, but it’s expensive and an absolute pig to clean up.

 

And a Beau Claire gas-powered griddle, which I accept is a bit of a cheat, but hey, I bought it for a specific purpose & still use it occasionally, but to be honest it’s a bit too heavy to take with me very often.

 

 

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