Them thar heat beads

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resurrected

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jun 5, 2015
299
17
Staffordshire, United Kingdom
I've heard mention heat beads on here and have found Australian Heat Beads online from BBQworld. 

http://www.bbqworld.co.uk/weber-barbecues/accessories/australian-heat-beads-4kg-bag.asp

Are these the ones to buy and if so is this a good price?

So far I've only managed to get about a 4-5 hour burn using lumpwood I've bought at Homebase. I've used the minion method.

http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/lumpwood---4kg-814145

Is this a good burn time for one basket? 

I'm wondering as I see forum members posting about leaving a brisket in over night to cook and wonder how the hell they can have a basket burn for that long.
 
Hello.  Those are the Heat Beads and that is a very good price.  I saved the link.

Yes, I found about 4-5 hrs. for lump is about it.

For the longer burns the briquettes are the way to go.  Also the basket size can make a difference ( size DOES matter )  Keep Smokin!

Danny
 
The pork shoulder I done used a 1/4 of a bag of heat beads and went for the 10 hours cooking and I then put the coals in a terracotta flowerpot for a quick patio heater for a few hours.

Dave
 
Hello.  ZERO nasty taste with these.  I NEVER used briquettes ( HATED the taste! )  but Wade told me about these.  I thought he was full of SH** but these are the REAL DEAL!  He was SPOT ON!

When I finish cooking I shut off both vents on the Weber.  2-3 hrs. later I go out and the smoker is still to hot to touch.  I use some lump in the bottom of the cause the Beads are tough to get lit.  Keep Smokin!

Danny
 
 
Cheers Danny.

I steered away from briquettes as I read somewhere it's best not to use them as you don't know what is in them.
This is very true for the cheap supermarket briquettes. You can usually even smell that they are not too good when you light them in a chimney.

With premium quality briquettes, like Heat Beads or Weber Premium, you will mot get any off-smells or flavours. I will bring some along to the smoking weekend if you would like to try them?
 
Even WOWBBQ only have them at list price at the moment (£6.99) however if you buy 5 or more bags the shipping is free.
 
I found a branch of the Range about half hour away so picked up four bags of beads.

I'd put some pork on in the morning and realised I may run out of lumpwood.

I was right [emoji]128556[/emoji]. Got back and the temp had dropped to 180. So I started her up again.

Pork cooked but I thought was just a little dry compared to the previous one.

Now I'm not sure if that was down to the drop in temperature or the cut (I used a pork belly rather than shoulder).


Rubbed and going in the fridge.


Lifting off the rack.


Just before covering in foil for an hour.


Pulled, ready for serving.
 
Is that 180'C? could be temperature to high, try for around 105'C (220'F)

Belly is possibly not the best for Pulled Pork, could be wrong, and I am sure some will come along and tell me so!
 
It looks good but as you say it does seem a little dry from the photo. Great attempt though.
Yes, pork shoulder is what you ideally need for pulled pork as it has the right muscle fibre structure for pulling and fat marbeling rather than large streaks of fat. For pulling you also need to cook it much lower than 180 C. You can pull belly but i find that it has too much visible fat runnong through the meat and less muscle bulk.
As Steve suggests, you also need to be looking at temperatures of around 110-115 C.
The most important thing though, how did it taste?
 
No, no, that's 180F. It may have even dropped a little lower before I stoked it back up to between 230-250F.

I just bought the belly to try something different. I could tell as soon as I started to pull it that the structure of the meat was completely different to the shoulder I'd done previously. Tasted fine though.

Another rung of the ladder to learning climbed.
 
180 F? that is only 82 C. How long did it take to get up to temperature? That could be one of the reasons it was a little dry. You should be aiming for 225-250F
 
180 F? that is only 82 C. How long did it take to get up to temperature? That could be one of the reasons it was a little dry. You should be aiming for 225-250F

Wade,

I possibly was not to clear in my first post as to what occurred.

The bullet was at 230F when I popped tge meat on. Realising I would need some more fuel, I popped out to buy some (The Range). When I arrived back home tge fuel had burnt down quicker than I expected and the temperature had dropped to the aforementioned 180F. Obviously, I've no idea how long it had been this low. Anyway I heated some lumpwood and also used some beads to get the temperature back to 230F.

Sorry, if I was a little confusing earlier. Hopefully I'm now making sense. :30:
 
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