British BBQ Society Forums

Good morning,

My names Mark and I'm currently studying for my final year in Furniture & Product Design at Nottingham Trent University, this course entails designing and creating objects that could potentially made for manufacturer and sold in the marketplace. For my minor project I've decided to look into designing a new range of Utensils, however after much deliberation I've decided to focus my efforts onto BBQ Utensils as I can see limitless possibilities for these.

However I need a bit of help as I'm trying to determine what is wrong with current utensils and what could be developed or improved to make cooking on the BBQ a lot easier/reliable. Which leads me to this questionnaire, if you could simply copy the below questions with your answers and thoughts and post them below that would be fantastic! If you've got anything else to add please mention it at the end as any slice of information can be useful when developing new ideas. Thanks again for your time, I'll keep you posted with what's going on when I get the prototypes completed before Christmas.

Edit: If you want to PM me the questionnaire instead of posting below please feel free to do so

Cheers,
Mark Hampson

Hi
How about making a shovel sized Fish slice that has a handle that you can hold with two hands, with slightly raised sides to stop big cuts of meat rolling off.
Saves burnt hands getting the joints off the smoker, and you can take the meat straight to the prep area without poss contamination.
Forget Bottle openers as any half decent BBQ'r can open them just by osmosis, I have only got to look at them and they evaporate!

By the way this advice will cost you 20 percent of your take, after tax.
ADMIN; Remember this post I might get Rich!!!!!
Cheers
Si the CyderPig( AKA Dragons Dump )

1. How often do you BBQ a year?
2x/week

2. Do you BBQ for special occasions?
Yes

3. When you're on the BBQ what 'Utensil' do you prefer to use? What quality do you like about the utensil?
My goto is a set of tongs imported from the USA. http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-149187/Stainless+Steel+Tongs+by+Edlund They are incredibly sturdy, but very simple. They are all steel so they dont rust. Its so strong I can use it to pickup the grate if needs be but delicate enough to pick up small bits of meat off the greates. There are some weaknesss, like it gets very hot to handle if you leave it on the bbq, there is no feature to hang on the side of the bbq. I would like to see

-You ideally need some kind of generic hook/clip so you can hang on any bbq
- It would be useful to have a bottle opener on this
- It would be useful to have a sharper bottom lip so you can use it for slicing sausages/steak to see if its ready
- It would be useful to have some kind of retractable spike in one of the arms in case you wanted to spear a sausage/piece of meat
- An integrated thermometer would be useful

4. Are there any utensils which you've purchased which you've never used? Are there any particular reasons?
Meat probe/skewer. It was shit.

5. What meat/foodstuff do you struggle cooking the most? What part of the cooking process lets you down?
Fish - it goes from cooked to overcooked in seconds. They typically fall apart on grates so you need a utensil to cook it with.


6. How do you store your utensils when you're finished using them?
Chuck em in the drawers after they have been washed int eh dishwaster

7. Finally, a bottle opener on every utensil? Yes or No?
Yes

Is it term-time already? Yep, another design student, expecting us to do their course work for them.

"...I've decided to focus my efforts onto BBQ Utensils as I can see limitless possibilities for these."

Wow. Limitless!

"However I need a bit of help as I'm trying to determine what is wrong with current utensils..."

And that is everything that is wrong with teaching "Design" these days. It is a solution, looking for a problem to solve.

I mean this suggestion to be helpful. If you don't already know about BBQ and BBQ Utensils, don't base your project on it. Find something that you are actually knowledgeable about and interests you, and think about that instead.

For the record, I use a fork, the qualities of which I like is that it can be used as a fork; and tongs, which are great as you can pick things up.

Chris__M wrote:Is it term-time already? Yep, another design student, expecting us to do their course work for them.

"...I've decided to focus my efforts onto BBQ Utensils as I can see limitless possibilities for these."

Wow. Limitless!

"However I need a bit of help as I'm trying to determine what is wrong with current utensils..."

And that is everything that is wrong with teaching "Design" these days. It is a solution, looking for a problem to solve.

I mean this suggestion to be helpful. If you don't already know about BBQ and BBQ Utensils, don't base your project on it. Find something that you are actually knowledgeable about and interests you, and think about that instead.

For the record, I use a fork, the qualities of which I like is that it can be used as a fork; and tongs, which are great as you can pick things up.

Hi Chris,

I can understand your gripes, however part of the design issue is sometimes designing things that you don't know anything about. I've worked in industry and 9 times out of 10 I've been working on projects which don't interest me at all but it's part of the job. Sorry if my post annoyed you, it wasn't meant to come across that way I'm simply looking for feedback on what people use already and what they think of them.

Thanks for the feedback so far as well guys, I'll post a few updates on ideas early next week as I've got a bucket load of concepts which need honing down to a finalised prototype.

Ta,
Mark

i love it when students try to invent the wheel

Dear Fellow
Forgive the batey fellows, more than happy to answer your questions as best I can

BBQ about 20-30 sessions a year mix of gas and charcoal.
2 really essential tools which are a good fish slice and tongs. I also like my sausage holder, ooh err matron which allows me to clamp 4 sausages in it and turn them simultaneously .
When not using them my wife loses them but they are meant to live in the nice case I have for them.
I have been bought but never use my fish turning cage as I am afraid of whole fish. They are a bar steward to cook

What is missing for me is a decent set of tongs, they are always too short or to cumbersome or have bloody points on them that burst the sausage and set off towering inferno the bbq movie.

Bottle opener on every item, perhaps the answer is to try and create the omnitool off the bbq world, can I have a share for inventing the word omnitool?

Cheers
Tiny

I think the disparaging comments above are completely unnecessary - Surely research is a key part of any design project and as the leading BBQ forum in the UK, we should expect to be a point of contact for people looking for information on anything BBQ related. A forum should be a friendly, welcoming place where people aren't afraid to ask questions for fear of being shot down.

Anyway Mark, in answer to your questions

1. How often do you BBQ a year?
3+ times per month
2. Do you BBQ for special occasions?
Yes
3. When you're on the BBQ what 'Utensil' do you prefer to use? What quality do you like about the utensil?
The main things I use are a heavy duty, long pair of BBQ tongs, with scalloped ends for grip - I use them for everything; picking up meat, picking up hot grills, adding/moving coals and wood. The other item that gets constant use are my welding/heat gloves. - Cyderpig's "Meat Shovel" would be a useful tool.
4. Are there any utensils which you've purchased which you've never used? Are there any particular reasons?
Not really
5. What meat/foodstuff do you struggle cooking the most? What part of the cooking process lets you down?
I'd agree that fish can cause problems, due to being delicate. The main issues when cooking generally are fire control/battling the outside elements, but that's all part of the fun.
6. How do you store your utensils when you're finished using them?
Mine live in a plastic box with the rest of my kit
7. Finally, a bottle opener on every utensil? Yes or No?
I can't see it doing any harm - Tiny's "Multi-Tool" idea sounds good too!

Good luck with it all man!

Whilst doing some market research I stumbled on this which I think is the definition of an Omnitool!

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/stake-3-in-1-bbq-tool

Cheers for replies guys, I've been developing certain concepts for a few weeks now however already from what you've been saying I can definitely see a trend developing.

1. Tongs are the winners, primarily I guess because they're so multifunctional.
2. Steel is the way forward, however I've been looking at ways of dissipating the heat so that they can be a solid piece of kit but if you leave them on the BBQ for 10 minutes they're not going to incinerate your hand branding you for life.
3. The Fish Slice is an interesting one, I've been playing with a wedge shape, the first at around 150mm wide the second at 100mm wide both with a serrated edge on one side and a piece of steel which you can use to lean the steak/fish/chicken against when withdrawing it from the heat.
4. Pronged Forks seem to be rubbish, main reason is that they skewer the meat and then you've usually got to get a knife or something to get everything off it. I've been looking at a slip device within this tool to sort the problem, however I think it may be redundant due to the Tongs.
5. Bottle Opener on each is a must, although I might do a separate bottle opener just in case...
6. Fish is an issue, and this problem has only arisen here which is interesting, I've been thinking of a skillet styled device which you can use an independent handle system to take it off the heat.
7. Very early on I'd identified the need for the tools to hang, and the plan is to make this is a key feature in terms of looks.

Cheers again guys, all this chat of BBQ's making me damn hungry!