Cadac Chef BBQ review

[philw111]

We have decided that we need a Cadac BBQ in our life and have been looking at the various alternatives. The Chef model looks good but we are confused by the high pressure or low pressure option. What is the difference in terms of ease of use?

If you have one of these (or even a similar alternative), I would be grateful for an unbiased review:thumb:
Ta

Phil

 

[pappajohn]

could be wrong so dont qoute me.....

high pressure will have a regulator built in and connects directly to the bottle.

low pressure will use a bottle mounted regulator.

while the Cadac is of South African origin, the majority of American BBQs are high pressure.

then again....it could be one is suitable for 27mb and one suitable for 50mb....neither of which could be construed as high pressure oh:

 

[pappajohn]

Ignore all that rubbish above.....:Blush:


High pressure has a rigid centre pipe that screws straight into a camping gaz bottle, and uses that as its base.

Low pressure connects via a rubber pipe, which is either connected to a bottle via a regulator, or via a fixed BBQ point.

 

[philw111]

Ignore all that rubbish above.....:Blush:


High pressure has a rigid centre pipe that screws straight into a camping gaz bottle, and uses that as its base.

Low pressure connects via a rubber pipe, which is either connected to a bottle via a regulator, or via a fixed BBQ point.

Thanks for that - but does it actually make any difference in terms of cooking?

 

[Armytwowheels]

We have the Cadac Carri Chef, low pressure. Would not go camping with out it, even in the winter. I will be cooking a roast lamb dinner on it this weekend for 8 people. The advantage of the low pressure version is that you can connect it to your vans supply or carry a Calorlite propane cyclinder as we do. This has the advantage of acting as an emergency supply for the van too.

The cadac is very good quality but treat the flat side of the griddle with care to avoid scratches. We mainly use this side and the skotle for stir frys, currys etc. have recently bought a 'no name' paella dish, but not tried it out yet. I do think that the cadac paella dish at £40 is a ridiculous price, but only time will tell if this cheap one is any good.
Hope this helps:thumb:

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[pappajohn]

Thanks for that - but does it actually make any difference in terms of cooking?

i doubt it very much.

the high pressure version will probably have much smaller jet to compensate for the increase in pressure.

high pressure one will restrict you to using Camping Gaz bottles whereas the low pressure can be used on any bottle, with the appropriate regulator, or fixed tank.

 

[Armytwowheels]

Thanks for that - but does it actually make any difference in terms of cooking?

Not really other than the pain of carrying and buying the extra cylinders. I believe ours cooks hotter since we swapped from butane to propane.

 

[hilldweller]

The Chef model looks good but we are confused by the high pressure or low pressure option.
Phil

The cannister powered one warms food, we sent it back, the pipe fed one cooks it.

Excellent tool, very versatile.

But can't cope with wind.

 

[pappajohn]

The cannister powered one warms food, we sent it back, the pipe fed one cooks it.

Excellent tool, very versatile.

But can't cope with wind.

now thats very odd Brian.

i quoted your post to say mine (low pressure) burns food quitre well.

the text in the quote is completely different to the original post...


oh: i quoted your post just as you edited it

 

[Soaringman]

I have one and use the flat griddle all the time for breakfast and general grilling, it does blow out in a wind though:Sad:

My only other gripe is that I cannot find any instructions for help on cooking with it etc, like how do you roast a dinner? And how is the skottle used ?

A few ideas would really help:thumb:

Martin

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[hilldweller]

now thats very odd Brian.

i quoted your post to say mine (low pressure) burns food quitre well.

the text in the quote is completely different to the original post...

OK I'm human, got it the wrong way round on the basis low pressure sounded low but it is but isn't at the same time.

 

[pappajohn]

I have one and use the flat griddle all the time for breakfast and general grilling, it does blow out in a wind though:Sad:

My only other gripe is that I cannot find any instructions for help on cooking with it etc, like how do you roast a dinner? And how is the skottle used ?

A few ideas would really help:thumb:

Martin

I use the griddle (both sides) for 'solid' food....bacon, burgers etc.....ribbed side for meat, smooth side for eggs.

i then use the skottle for 'liquid' food....curry, stirfry etc

i also use the pan stand for pizza.

place the wire pan stand on the griddle, place the pizza on baking foil on the pan stand then cover with the domed lid.

15 to 20 minutes...piping hot pizza without the obligatory rock hard crust you usually get in an oven.

 

[MikeandCarolyn]

We have a Carri Chef which plugs into the BBQ point on van (fixed LPG tank).
We started off using the griddle and the BBQ plate,but got so fed up with the cleaning of it that we were about to 'get rid' when we were introduced (by Ambilkate) to the Paella pan This pan fits over the whole area and no grease gets down by the burner :thumb: I now leave every thing else at home and we only use the paella pan.
If it's windy there is a hook in the Cadac lid to hook the lid onto the burner tray on the windward side-works ok for us.
I forgot-we also take the wire pan stand and can use a sauté pan on that for 'liquid' dishes.

Mike.

 

[Armytwowheels]

Spatchcock Roast Chicken

I have one and use the flat griddle all the time for breakfast and general grilling, it does blow out in a wind though:Sad:

My only other gripe is that I cannot find any instructions for help on cooking with it etc, like how do you roast a dinner? And how is the skottle used ?

A few ideas would really help:thumb:

Martin

A well placed windbreak will solve the blowing out problem.

Get your butcher to spatchcock a whole chicken, or do it yourself but you need a good knife and a strong arm. Get BBQ nice and hot and brown off skin side, just for a few minutes. Turn over to bone side down and do not turn it back again for the whole of the cooking time. Cover the chicken loosely with tin foil, turn the heat down to low, lid on and leave it alone. Have faith and don't mess with it. Ours took 1.5 hours for biggish chicken.
Now I had mixed some herbs with a table spoon of oil and pushed this under the skin of the chicken breast, kept the meat very moist and there's no need to bast. I do remember we had to turn the BBq off for a few minutes when first turning it down as it doesn't cool down very quick.
With 45 mins to go I par-boiled pots and chunky cut carrots and parsnips and then arranged them around the chicken for the last 45 mins. Even did the gravy on the BBQ while the meat was resting.

 

[HymerB544]

Cadac

Hi, we bought our carri chef a few years ago and it has served us well, on the road and at home. Low pressure version - haven't seen anything else. We managed to buy a Cadac paella dish at the Northern Motorhome show when it was at Pickering, for the excellent price of £25. And now we hardly use anything else. We leave the skittle and small griddle at home, and have never used the standard BBQ grill. I can do curries, full English breakfasts and anything else in the paella pan and if cooking fish simply poach it in foil boats with white wine. Hill dweller is right though; Cadacs need to be sheltered if the breeze gets up and using the lid as a wind break doesn't really make much difference. Given the number of Cadacs you see on site, they are clearly very popular. We got ours from Riversway.

Cheers, Gary

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[pappajohn]

for the last 4 years or so when cooking with the smooth side of the griddle i use a sheet of silicon oven liner....no griddle cleanup and a quick wipe and rinse cleans the silicon sheet.

defeats the object of the ribbed side of the griddle...you dont get the char grilled effect on meat.

I've also used it in the skottle when making runny curries, sweet n sour etc.....no burnt on curry or sauce

 

[Chockswahay]

But can't cope with wind.

You or the cooker?

 

[Chockswahay]

We don't have a Cadec but be DO have a Cobb

To be honest the Cobb is rubbish

 

[pappajohn]

We don't have a Cadec but be DO have a Cobb

To be honest the Cobb is rubbish

theres as many folks praise the cobb as there are praising the cadac.

must be a personal choice thing.

 

[Scattycat]

I think our cadac is the carry chef. Well it's the table top one with a lid and 2 types of griddle trays.

Our only complaint is that it's a bit on the heavy side when scrambling around in the back of the van trying to get it out, but then most bbq's are I suppose

It really works well though and the lid can be positioned so as to reduce, if not block, wind/draft problems.

We did have a problem with one of the griddle trays where the surface started to peel off. But I sent an e-mail with attached photo of the problem and a new one was sent free of charge within a couple of days.

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[SMUDGER2FLY]

Cadac

we love ours just a bugger to keep clean :thumb:

 

[WAG2CRU]

Bought a safari chef yesterday, haven't used it yet but I looked at the options and purchased a Cadac power pack to go with it, the powerpack has a built in regulator and connects two 500g Cadac cartridges together, its very neat and solves the problems associated with the HP version.:thumb: