How straightforward is it to cook with the Everdure by Heston Blumenthal 4K barbecue?

There are two main ways of cooking with the 4K – direct grilling with the lid open and convection/slow cooking/smoking with the lid closed. Much like a kamado, to control the heat inside, there’s a vent on top and one on the front that open to raise the temperature and close to reduce it.

I started by cooking two steaks on an enamel grill with the meat probes inserted. While the temperature was high enough to cook the meat when I opened the lid, because it remained up, the barbecue started to drop in temperature quite quickly, even though it was a sunny day. This meant I had to keep adding charcoal at the side and grilling the steak took longer than anticipated. However, the meat probes provided a level of cooking accuracy that would usually be difficult to achieve with a conventional barbecue.

I added corn and peppers next, placing the latter on the raised stainless-steel grill to start so that the heat didn’t singe them. These both cooked evenly without burning, and remained juicy and sweet once removed from the barbecue.

I finished by cooking chicken drumsticks with the probes in place, mostly on the enamel grill but with one on the higher grill to gauge the difference in cooking times, which was about 5-10 mins.

These were grilled with the lid down, enabling me to review the internal temperature as well as those registered by the meat probes on the glass display. I found this worked better as a cooking method as the 4K held its temperature well, didn’t need the lid open to check on progress and needed less topping up with fuel.

While the front vent had a tendency to slowly slide back from fully open to halfway open, this didn’t appear to affect the temperature inside the barbecue drastically. The chicken emerged golden brown with crispy skin, yet moist inside, after about 20-30 minutes, plus there was no worry of undercooked meat in the centre.

In addition, the aluminium exterior of the barbecue didn’t grow too hot, even when it was at peak temperature, so the 4K could also be a good fit for families.

Is the Everdure by Heston Blumenthal 4K barbecue easy to clean?

Cleaning the 4K is pretty much the same as most barbecues. While it’s possible to clean the grills in the dishwasher, it’s not recommended as it can erode the coating. However, this is handy to have as an occasional option when there isn’t time to clean up immediately. I found that most of the food debris came off easily when washing by hand while still warm, with a second scrub to remove stubborn residue once dried.

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