The Cobb is very fascinating to me and we have some great rubs and marinades that might be brilliant for cooking meat on a bbq or cobb, would those kind of things be useful? I was also thinking I made a mean Lamb Tagine and with the right pot this may work well in a cobb. What do you think? I've never used one but I think Ive seen yours. Tagine is quite a long cook time not suited to a stove, could that work in a cobb?
Sounds brilliant, I would be very interested in your review of the Thermal cooker. I will be getting a ridgemonkey it seems I am behind the curve
Haha
Hello Matt,
I purchased a charcoal Cobb cooker some time ago and I have always enjoyed cooking with it. The issue with the Cobb is that once the food has been placed inside the Cobb you need to leave it well alone and not look at it much. Drink plenty of wine and let it get on with it. Every time you remove the lid you loose the heat and therefore slow down the cooking time so don't be tempted to keep looking. However, depending on what you are cooking you may need to turn it once or twice.
The other issue is guessing how long you need to cook it for and how much fuel you need to use to get you to the end of the process. The cook book that comes with the Cobb gives you all the information you need.
As an example, one of my best results so far was a roasted Gammon. For this I loaded the basket with nine charcoal briquettes (that's full). Then having ignited them you have to wait until they've all turned light grey before attempting to cook anything. (I recommend using barbecue fire lighters not gel to light the briquettes). Then I placed the gammon joint inside and left it to cook for a couple of hours. Always allow more time than you would with a conventional cooker. When you think it should be done, give it an extra 30 minutes or so. (These things are really slow cookers and are ideal for relaxed lazy camping days). You will have to turn a joint a couple of times and in this case, at about 30 minutes before it was fully cooked I placed the joint on a sheet of cooking foil and covered it with thick cut Seville marmalade and then sealed the foil around the joint. I then returned it to the Cobb for the remaining half hour or so. I always use a thermometer to check the temperature of the meal before serving. This gammon joint was a simple thing to cook and the results were excellent. We have cooked many more complicated meals and on the whole they too have also been excellent.
The amount of fuel required and the cook time will obviously vary depending on what you are cooking so there is a learning curve for all Cobb owners to tackle.
Where our meals haven't been perfect it has either been because we hadn't left it to cook for long enough or we hadn't used sufficient fuel.
Overall, this is an excellent cooking device but you need to experiment and keep trying if it doesn't work out perfectly.
Cobb cooked bread and butter pudding. Yum yum!
I like your Tagine idea. It should be possible in a Cobb.
The Mr Ds 3litre thermal cooker is also a wonderful fuel efficient device that is ideally suited for Cali life. We were recently introduced to it by Briwy who has had one for a while. It is really the modern equivalent of the hay box principle. To test it out, I recently made up a lamb stew whilst Mrs B was at work. Not being any kind of whizz in the kitchen, I followed a recipe in the cook book that came with it. It only took 15 minutes to prepare and after that you just leave it to cook for several hours in its own sealed thermal container.
Basically, I chucked 1kg of raw diced prime lamb, chopped veg (various), a chopped red pepper and a tin of chopped tomatoes with juice, sprig of rosemary, a lamb stock cube, into the cooking pot and just covered with water. Then I put the lid on and brought it to the boil. After being at the boil for 5 minutes I turned off the gas and placed the lidded cooking pot into the outer thermal container and sealed the lid. Job done.
Four hours later we had a lovely tender lamb stew with crusty bread to soak up the delicious juices. The amount (3 litre capacity + 80% full which is where is works at its most efficient) would easily serve six adults.
The workmanship appears to be excellent and this versions size is very compact. We intend to use it for mainly when we go away in the Cali. After a quick 15 minutes cooking you just stick it in the van and when you arrive at your destination hours later, your delicious hot meal is ready for you. We also purchased the insulated "Meal in a Bag". This is an insulated carrying bag that is designed to accommodate plates, eating irons, knapkins and the thermal cooker vessel. So idea for days out, picnics etc.
There are numerous other makes available that work in exactly the same way but I have no experience of them. There are also numerous videos on the use of the Cobb and Thermal Cookers including Mr Ds Cookware on YouTube.
We have also just purchased a Ridge Monkey for use in the Cali. We haven't use it yet.
) there’s nothing like a change of scenery to lift the spirits.
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