Page 12 - Barbecue News Magazine September 2021

bbq podcasts
My New Friend
‘Stretch’
Link: https://www.jagrdwoodfired.com.au/
Ben Arnot
BBQ Podcast Guru
https://smokinghotconfes- sions.com/
It was a warm sunny Wednesday morning when I first met my new friend ‘Stretch’. I had had a meeting in the morn- ing and just arrived home when there was a knock on the door. I opened it, and there was Glenn Tindall-Davies, co- founder of JAGRD Wood Fired. He had a big smile on his face.
“I’ve got your smoker mate. Can you give me a hand to un- load it?”
I walked out front of the house to find a removalist truck with a hydraulic lift on the back. I looked at Glenn with a puzzled expression on my face.
“What can I say? He’s big!”
Glenn wasn’t kidding. Whereas most smokers arrive in boxes, ‘Stretch’ arrived on a pallet. We wrestled him off the pallet, put him together in the driveway, and then set about wrangling him into the back yard to my new outdoor studio kitchen. And it was a snug fit too. ‘Stretch’ is 250cm high with his chimney attached, 80cm wide, and 50cm deep. That’s 8.2ft tall, 2.6ft wide, and 1.6ft deep in Imperial. He’s made from 6mm (1/4in) plate steel and is fully insulated with a combination of food
grade bricks and kiln grade
insulation. And it’s an in-
teresting design too - it’s a
smoker oven, with the
cooking chamber below
and the cooking chamber
above.
So far, I’ve done a test burn and checked for hotspots. I’m impressed with how steady it burns and how well it holds tem- perature. The hotspot test came out surprisingly even across all three shelves in-
side, with the lower one just a little hotter due to the bricks underneath it radiating upwards. I’ve cooked on it several times since, including roast whole chickens, pork ribs, and beef ribs. The most satisfying one so far though, was when we did homemade pizza night. We made the dough from scratch which was a great way for our son to get involved too. And the result was incredible. The bases came out tex- tured and crispy, just like I remember Pizza Hutt pizzas as a kid. I gotta say, I love my new mate ‘Stretch’.
Glenn and his wife Julie-ann had told me that these smok- ers were good, and to be honest, I really shouldn’t have been surprised - they are not only pit builders, they are also competitors. They’ve used their smokers to great success, having represented Australia at the Houston Rodeo, were awarded the 2020 KCBS International Brisket Team of the Year, and so far in 2021, they are running at #1 for Brisket and #2 for Pork Ribs. And they have some big plans for their smokers too.
Coming up at the end of October, they’re raffling off a ‘Stretch’ to raise money for Lifeline, a charity that provides food for the needy, shelter for women and families in abu- sive situations, and runs a suicide hotline service. Not just
that, but Glenn is working on a flatpack version of the smoker ovens for im- port into the United States.
To find out more about JAGRD Wood Fired, head on over to: https://www.jagrdwood- fired.com.au/
To check out the first three videos we’ve made with our ‘Stretch’, check out: https://bit.ly/3kdBevw
BarbecueNews.com - 12
SEPTEMBER 2021