Cooker/bbq/grill advice

[Comps]

We bought the Cadac Safari just before our recent trip to France, plus the nifty Cadac Power Pak which takes two of the 500g gas cartridges (so no need to fiddle about with the Cali's onboard gas bottle), in our view the Cadac has been superb including staying alight in a gusting force 7 that caused many awnings to flap about and more than a few branches to fall from the trees. Overall a great piece of kit and a welcome addition to our Cali.

 

[rookeryview]

Sounds good. How did you manage lighting it in the force 7? Did you cook anything unusual?

 

[uniqueadventures]

we had a cobb. took it through france to Italy one year and it was pretty good, used it to do pizzas for my girls too. But as other's have said, it is a fag to clean, and it takes up too much space when carting around the kit for a family of four on a fairly long tour (and we have a beach so plenty of storage).
We bought this which is excellent and ridiculously cheap:
http://www.millets.co.uk/equipment/62022620-summit-foldable-stainless-steel-bbq.html

it folds down so small you hardly notice the space it takes up, yet it has a reasonable cooking surface for a family of four.
I have used it for quite a while and it has lasted pretty well. It is held of the ground so no problem with scorching the ground although sometimes some of the hot ash falls through the holes - you can easily stick and aluminium tray underneath to prevent this being a problem.

I saw this recently and pulled the trigger because I like the idea of it being adjustable, it comes with a metal plate for the ground, it is much more solid than the one above, and it can be used as a fire pit, again without scorching the earth. considerably bigger and heavier when folded than the micro one above but still very small when flat packed and an excellent bit of kit:
http://m.gooutdoors.co.uk/outwell-cervon-grill-and-fire-pit-p322030

 

[sbmcd]

I have been in France and Corsica for the last 4 weeks. We brought our charcoal bbq but only been able to use it once as bbq's are not permitted on most sites, wish I had not bothered packing it. Most people seem to use electric or gas griddles for outdoor cooking, think these would also be much easier to clean than a charcoal bbq. For smelly cooking outside we are using a single gas camping stove with is great for stir fry cooking and pan fried whole fish.

 

[rookeryview]

The simple outdoor stove is by far the cheapest, lightest, smallest solution, and unless you are an aspiring chef, as you say it will deal with the smelly and spluttering stuff with ease.
To get the full-on BBQ effect, you will need one of the lidded gas jobs, which at the moment seems to be between cobbs, cadacs, and weber Q's. Anyone got experience of all three of these for comparison?

 

[rookeryview]

Here's a brace of solar cookers I've just made, while in the waiting room. The small one (left) is making hot water for a shower or washing up later on today. This simply has a 20L solar shower bag in it. The other one (my own UK design adaption) is currently cooking the famous baked bean recipe mentioned on the forum, and is actually boiling as we speak.
They work in the UK fine, even in the winter, but they do need good clear days of uninterrupted sun when out of season which puts the spanner in the works in the UK a little. I have boiled water on the 22nd of December in the UK, so I know they can work in theory. I made some focaccia the other day too, which was very effective, and only took an hour or so to cook after 4:00pm. They do not burn food, so there's little danger of overcooking, so cakes are very good, as are stews etc.
They fold flat when not in use, and are based on the "All seasons solar cooker" from the internet which you can Google if you are interested.
You can make one from cardboard boxes, kitchen foil and PVA glue. These ones are made from Estate Agent signs and aluminium repair tape, so are waterproof.
They would definitely work well in Southern Europe.
I need to try them out when out and about in the Cali, which still hasn't arrived yet, but watch this space....
If the results are consistent, I'll post some more about the project.

 

[Comps]

Hi Rookeryview, lighting the Cadac in the wind was no problem. I used a hand held gas fire lighter giving a constant flame so no burnt fingers from matches. To be fair I had my back to the wind to shelter the flame other than that it lit easily and most importantly stayed alight - I was surprised by this to be honest and regularly checked the flame was alight.

Nothing exotic on the BBQ, steaks and skewered pork kebabs from the local supermarche - still very enjoyable.

 

[Huey]

Have just bought a CADAC Safari Chef deluxe (includes pizza stone) after reading lots of arguments for and against. We previously used a CampingGaz oven-style BBQ bought over 15 years ago (still going strong) and had used Coleman petrol stoves (single ring backpack stove and double burner fold-out cooker) for boiling kettles etc. With the CADAC we can combine all these functions plus still utilise the two 907 bottles we used with the BBQ (we bought the CADAC LP version). We have a Weber Q2000 (or previous version) for use at home.

I think my only niggle (aside from it's not obvious how to pack it up) is that the gas connection is of such a design that when connected the legs really need to be extended, as the stove cannot be placed down on anything (unless upside down) with the gas hose connected. This also means it needs to be connected and removed each use, requiring a spanner to be included (and to remember it has a reverse thread!). I think a better solution would have been a right-angled connection which could have been left fitted.

One tip I continued from my CampingGaz BBQ (and I have seen on here also) is that I use quick-release gas hose connectors. This means I can add an extension hose piece in if I need to, or keep the run short if I don't, and also use different appliances with the same gas bottle, or even use the garden gas bottle if I use them at home. I got mine from the main CADAC outlet, they are item number HA035H at £6.90 each.

I do have a question relating to storage. Whilst the CADAC comes with the bag to pack it all into, it only comes with 'sleeves' for two of the accessories, so what do folk use to protect the other parts, especially the pizza stone, and the roasting tin I bought as an extra? Some of the edges look quite sharp (yet frail), e.g. the bottom of the main unit when the legs are folded up, so I don't want to have metal on metal whilst journeying to my destination. I was thinking jiffy bags for some and/or camping mat sections for other padding??

 

[Eileen]

We have a Cobb as we went on early recommendations but we do not rate it at all, the cobblestones need to be very new to light as they only have a year shelf life, we also found it a real chore to clean on a campsite, now to top this we now read you can't use it in the south of France where we are heading for in September!! We will now sell it it an buy a CADAC instead I think.

 

[Skylark2.0]

They all sound like a pain in the neck to me. Thank goodness the Cali has a fantastic two ring stove!

 

[Andyclockwise]

I don't work for Lidl, honest! But they have a very similar BBQ to the Cobb that I just purchased, at £39.99 with three year warranty seems a bargain http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=25391

 

[bilberry]

I don't work for Lidl, honest! But they have a very similar BBQ to the Cobb that I just purchased, at £39.99 with three year warranty seems a bargain http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=25391

Actually, that's not like the Cobb but the LotusGrill. You can see the differences here. Remember, though, that even these posh barbecues use charcoal and that's pretty much a no-no in mainland Europe (the hot bits of Europe anyway).

 

[GrannyJen]

I love my camping gaz. Takes seconds to set up, all the messy fatty bits fall into the water trap, cleans in seconds, packs up neat. Grilled swordfish with a lime and chilli dressing, wonderful and no mess or smells inside the van.

 

[stevieb]

Hello

Just wanted to share my wife's DIY windbreak for our single burner Super Carena R which we attach to our spare 907 bottle.
Made from a 50p IKEA bag works a treat against the wind for our outdoor cooking.

Steve

 

[stevieb]

Oops photo didn't go first time

 

[Skylark2.0]

I love my camping gaz. Takes seconds to set up, all the messy fatty bits fall into the water trap, cleans in seconds, packs up neat. Grilled swordfish with a lime and chilli dressing, wonderful and no mess or smells inside the van.

W
Hi, what does it look like and can you still buy the camping gaz bbq?! Sounds great

 

[motacyclist]

I don't work for Lidl, honest! But they have a very similar BBQ to the Cobb that I just purchased, at £39.99 with three year warranty seems a bargain http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=25391

Hey Andy I was right outside Lidl when your post came up on my iPhone!

So I went inside to have a look, but couldn't see it properly in the box so thought best thing to do was buy it and take it back if it was no good.

I'm not normally one for messing about with charcoal, but this is about the least messy BBQ I have come across, so we ended up using it for our dinner.

Cooked our steak & sausages a treat with no burning or flaring up and was easy to clean afterwards. Very economical with the charcoal, the container is about the size of a jumbo can of beans, so you don't need to carry a large quantity. Well made too.





I don't think we would take it on a longer holiday due to space constraints but for day trips or weekends it will come along. Great thing to have anyway.

Good find

 

[GrannyJen]

W
Hi, what does it look like and can you still buy the camping gaz bbq?! Sounds great

I don't have a pic of it but it just screws into a 907 bottle, fill the screwing part with water ... er... fill the bowl that screw in with water ... slot the teflon coated non-stick grill on top, light, big gas flame, lots of heat, place bit to be grilled on grill piece, cook, eat, throw away water with the grease and gungey bits.

 

[IanE]

Bung it on the Cali burners - it's a camper van!

(Unless you can have a proper bbq of course)

 

[paulevans]

I've just bought a double burner with grill from Mountain Warehouse. I'll be using it on our upcoming trip to Denmark alongside our Cadac Safari. Now, we have the gas bottle in the Cali and I have a further bottle for the Cadac and the new burner will run off the same type of bottle. My quandary now though is that I am likely to want to use both the Cadac and new burner at the same - is there a away to run two appliances off a single gas bottle? I really don't want to have to disconnect the Cali bottle and really don't want to have to cart around 3 gas bottles.

I hope all the above makes sense

 

[snowy55]

I've just bought a double burner with grill from Mountain Warehouse. I'll be using it on our upcoming trip to Denmark alongside our Cadac Safari. Now, we have the gas bottle in the Cali and I have a further bottle for the Cadac and the new burner will run off the same type of bottle. My quandary now though is that I am likely to want to use both the Cadac and new burner at the same - is there a away to run two appliances off a single gas bottle? I really don't want to have to disconnect the Cali bottle and really don't want to have to cart around 3 gas bottles.

I hope all the above makes sense

Why not use the cooker in the Cali and the Cadac? Why the additional cooker?

 

[jeff]

I've just bought a double burner with grill from Mountain Warehouse. I'll be using it on our upcoming trip to Denmark alongside our Cadac Safari. Now, we have the gas bottle in the Cali and I have a further bottle for the Cadac and the new burner will run off the same type of bottle. My quandary now though is that I am likely to want to use both the Cadac and new burner at the same - is there a away to run two appliances off a single gas bottle? I really don't want to have to disconnect the Cali bottle and really don't want to have to cart around 3 gas bottles.

I hope all the above makes sense

Just buy a t- piece for the gas pipe then you should be able to run both on one bottle.

 

[splitmike]

An easy way I've found to light the older cobblestones, is to put it in the basket then pop it onto the single camping stove that I use then pop it back in the Cobb. No hassle lighting that way. I normally have the kettle on the camping hob while I'm cooking. Or frying onions on it so its out.

 

[splitmike]

Has anybody tried the gas Cobb?

 

[Romke]

Has anybody tried the gas Cobb?

We have one but you don't want to take it in your Cali. It's BIG (both in diameter and height). Plus you need a gas bottle. And it doesn't come with a carry bag.