Barbecue – Compared to the Charbecue
With a Charbecue you can roast a hog or other large joints of meat and barbecue at the same time.
Set out below are the other main advantages of using a Charbecue as opposed to traditional barbecues:
Versatility
Unlike many barbecues, the cooking area of the Charbecue caterer is completely configurable, meaning that you can use any combination of:
- Grill
Which itself can be used conventionally or turned over and used as a grilling basket for such things as vegetables - Flattop or La Plancha
Again, this can also be turned over and used for frying, browning or reducing sauces. - Paella Pan
This is an accessory which has the capacity to provide up to 100 portions of Paella or Jambalaya at a time, smaller quantities could be made using the over turned flattop. - Large Gastronorm
Can be used for steaming, poaching or as a bain marie or for just keeping cooked foods warm.
All these options are available at the same time.
Flexibility
The options above when combined with the use of the Charbecue’s oven space allow the user to be able to cater for a much wider a variety of audiences using a single device, broadening your potential market. The Charbecue has been designed to deliver whether it’s:
- High Volume – Single serving
Such as a wedding when all the guests need to served at once - High Volume – Rolling service
Providing a variety of foods at festivals or all day events - Speciality Catering
Themed events – where guests want a food fit a type of event or is from a particular origin - Small, Intimate and Exclusive
The private dinner party with an extra twist
Flavour
As the Charbecue uses charcoal for fuel the authentic flavours associated with food grilled this way are already.
Control
As the Charbecue’s cantilever rack can be adjusted at any time from a height of just 6cms to 30 cm and the fuel can be easily moved around you are in complete control.
Keeping Food Warm – If catering for large numbers, then food can be cooked until it is nearly ready and then placed in the oven space below the grill, while more food is cooked allowing for a greater number of servings to be ready at one time.
Direct grilling – Some traditional barbecues recommend setting up the barbecue with different zones, such as a hot zone, medium zone, and cool safety zone, so that you can move food around within a range of temperatures to give greater control. This also reduces the volume of food that can be cooked.
None of this is necessary with the Charbecue, just move the fuel around or raise the rack.
Indirect Grilling – Indirect grilling is designed to cook larger or tougher foods that are likely to burn if cooked using the direct method. With indirect grilling you would place food next to, but not directly over the heat source and close the lid of the barbecue to hold in the heat, turning the grill into a sort of outdoor oven.
Obviously you can’t do this without a lid and in any case none of this is necessary with the Charbecue as it has it’s own purpose built oven.
Fuel Consumption
Fuel consumption is a lot less than traditional barbecues, this is for a variety of reasons which include:
Other barbecues that use charcoal
The fuel is placed on a grate and air flows under the coals, as it reduces in size the smaller pieces fall through the grate where the remained of the heat has little or no effect.
With the Charbecue no fuel is wasted with all the coals being allow to fully burn in the cooking area as a result, there is little or no waste.
Barbecues that use LPG
Whilst LPG has a higher calorific value than charcoal the burn rates higher and fuel consumption greater making the units more costly to run and maintain over time.
N.B. We are also aware that as LPG is not a renewable resource, some event organisers are beginning to limit the number of provider’s using it as a fuel.
Using Charcoal from FSC sources is a sustainable and cheaper source of fuel.
Refuelling
With typical Charcoal Barbecue’s refuelling when cooking over a long period of time can be an issue primarily because the design makes it difficult to access the fuel area or they become full of spent fuel or ash. This this is not the case with Charbecue which is designed to be easily re-fuelled and is designed to run 24/7 365, if necessary.
