PITMASTER PEARSE

My #1 bit of advice - shop small. Your local butcher will immediately/need to become your new best friend. There's nothing more manly than talking about meat (keep it clean Richard) but the knowledge they will instill on you will only make you a better pitmaster. Start with forgiving and/or easy meats - think chicken wings, pulled pork, beef short ribs. These at first sound daunting however these are realtively easy and make for knockout dishes. Then move onto your ox cheeks and the king of BBQ, the infamous brisket. Typically considered leftover, these are a pitmaster's low'n'slow dream. Master this and you are on your way to BBQ'ing immortality.

Back to meats - should you need any recommendations then I can personally vouch for the wonderful guys at Larder who have helped source the finest of USDA Prime briskets at rather reasonable prices. Another fabulous establishment with world class communication via Whatsapp is The Village Butchers with the wonderful Joe at the helm of this Essex based butchers. These guys have a great 'Up In Smoke' package which delivers astonishingly great value.

Grain v Grass-fed; the debate. What is the difference? UK cattle are traditional grass-fed which gives them their beefy British flavour. This is however at the detriment of marbling (the intramuscular fat which when fully rendered gives meat that delicious buttery like texture). This typically needs to be cooked longer to ensure the fat is rendered otherwise it will likely come out unpleasantly chewy and very much reminiscent of my first ever brisket fail. The plus side, this is considerably cheaper than grain-fed which tends to be typically imported. This is where your butcher trumps any supermarket as grain-fed is my go to. Simply put, when cooked properly, these cuts ooze in juicy goodness and on the level akin to true Texan BBQ greats.

Quality fuel is need for quality BBQ. Personally I have two sources that I interchange between; Woods Direct and Smokey Oak BBQ. Both offer quality dried woods which allow for a long clean burn. The 'thin blue smoke' pitmasters require helps to deliver a rich smoke ring which captures the smokey flavour of the wood Both offer quality dried woods which allow for a long clean burn. The 'thin blue smoke' pitmasters require helps to deliver a rich smoke ring which captures the smokey flavour of the wood

I'm a big fan of Oak (which is found in abudance here in the UK and relatively cheaper in comparison to other woods) and Hickory as I tend to smoke a lot of pork, beef and chicken. There are plenty of other imported woods, each which lend themselves to particular meats however I am yet to fully experiment in this area due to higher-than-justifiable costs.

Charcoal is also key and I would highly recommending investing in a BBQ Chimney to help ignite your fire. Weber make a reasonably priced one that can be found easily online however be ready to replace these every so often. Anyways back to charcoal, personally I've always been a fan of lumpwood charcoal, with it being 100% burned down natural wood. Briquettes on the other hand are made of recycled compressed sawdust which really doesn't sound appealing even if they have a longer burn. Help out a UK business and check out the The Hampshire Charcoal Company.