Thanks Brian and bikermike. Will have a look for heat beads or briquettes then as it will definitely be very expensive using two cobblestones per day I ordered a pack of 12 from the Cobb website - that was £16.50 (ouch).
We have cobb and think it's a great bit of kit, we have had it about 2 months and have used it every weekend mainly in the back garden .
Things we have cooked
Whole chicken, spatch cocked chicken, spatch cocked duck, steak, spare ribs, and smoked trout the one in the recipe book and every thing has come out GREAT also cooked some scones that came out superb as well.
Just bought a cadac safari chef today, more wonderful grub coming up.
Hi folk's smoked trout just reminded me moppetsdad, you can actually smoke stuff yourself on the cobb, i just use a small tin can (think it had pat'e in it, any way it was smaller than a small b/bean can) get your self some smoking chip's (beech or oak are good) fill the tin then empty into a bowl & soak for 1/2 hr drain off the water & put back in the tin & place them on the hot cobbles or briquette's you may have to experiment to get the smokiness that suit's you but you will soon get the hang of it.
A quick update from me. Used our Cobb for the first time last night and am really impressed. The food tasted great. I made the mistake of using only half a cobblestone though (had read somewhere that you could save money by breaking them in half and using just half at a time). That turned out to be a big mistake - not hot enough and took 40 mins to cook sausage, bacon and egg!
I managed to get a bag of heat beads in our local Waitrose but haven't tried them yet. They ended up costing me £50 cos I couldn't resist all the other yummy stuff I had to pass to get to the barbecue aisle
We were forunate that a friend bought a Cobb last year for home use then decided she couldn't be bothered with it as it looked too complicated. Out of the blue she very kindly gave it to use refusing to take any money! We dropped her a gift and some photos of us using it whilst away. We've found it very good. Easy to use and easy to clean if you do it soon after use/cool down. We dont use the cobblestones. We find normal (pebble) charcoal works fine for us. One or two firelighters, a few coals and 15 mins later you are ready to go which is plenty quick enogh for us. They get plenty hot enough for long enough. As said a little mess with the ash, but you soon work an easy cleaning routine out so that doesnt matter. TBH as its so convenient we've used it at home a gew times in preference to the bbq in the garden as it makes a better job of cooking the food!
We dont use the cobblestones. We find normal (pebble) charcoal works fine for us. One or two firelighters, a few coals and 15 mins later you are ready to go which is plenty quick enogh for us. They get plenty hot enough for long enough. As said a little mess with the ash, but you soon work an easy cleaning routine out so that doesnt matter.
I'm not very impressed with the cobblestones and certainly don't think they're worth the cost. I used another one last night instead of the heat beads as I wanted it to be ready quickly (I don't get home from work until 6.15pm so knew we'd be eating late as it was a roast). I was trying to do a chicken but it still wasn't done after two hours and the cobblestone ran out. I ended up finishing it off in the oven! Not only that, but because it spits so much when the coating is burning off, I ended up with bits of ash in the moat (where I wanted to cook my veg) so had the lovely task of trying to get tiny bits of ash out of a boiling hot moat - not pleasant.
So I know now not to use the cobblestone if I intend using the moat or if I want to cook a chicken!
Will try the heat beads tonight with some burgers. Hopefully they won't have the same ash problem.
Cobblestones shouldn't spit...not sure why yours are doing that. Ours also tend to last around 3 hours plus. Only trouble I have with them is lighting the things. My last attempt took 23 matches and some cardboard and paper.
------------- If you see a family struggling to put up the tent then it must be us!
We used ours for the first time last week whilst in north norfolk... wow.
We found the cobb really was as good as they say... now back home we are still cooking jacket spuds on them, yum yum.
We found as another poster said, they cook better with a kebab skewer through the middle as the metal heats from the inside... failing that a clean stainless tent peg works just as well!
Simply skewer the spud and poke the tent peg through one of the griddles holes to keep away from the griddle surface... hey presto great smelling & nice and crispy jacket spuds.
Never had problem cooking a chicken on ours, the cobblestone seems to last for ever. We light ours by holding it over the camping stove gas flame for a few seconds, lights really quickly
Last time we were away the regulater packed up on our gas bottle (on the hebrides). Thank goodness we had the cobb - cooked everything on it for a few days from roast chicken with stuffing to sausage hotpot.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Cobb Ovens
I ordered a pack of 12 from the Cobb website - that was £16.50 (ouch).
this is the miss
is doin egg bacon on cobb and makin a brew good eh
