Fuel: Wood, gas | Grill size: 30cm
Another dual-fuel outdoor cooker, this compact oven cooks pizza and more, either with gas or wood. The Gozney Roccbox (£399) is designed to be portable, with tripod legs that fold away. It comes with two burners, one for each fuel, that attach to the underside.
Our Roccbox was a colourful green, thanks to its silicone outer, but it’s also available in grey. There’s a thermometer on the side and inside there’s an integral pizza stone. This makes it heavy but it does come with a carry strap to make it easier to lug. The price also includes a pizza peel and the oven is big enough to turn out 12-inch (30cm) pizzas.
What’s more, it’s fast. Once it gets up to temperature, you can cook pizzas in less than two minutes each. We got great results from gas but found the peel to be invaluable because we needed to turn each pizza twice to get it evenly cooked. Leave the oven on for longer and results become more even.
Cooking with wood was fun but arduous. You load the hopper with thin (kindling-sized) pieces of wood. Hardwood burns hottest. It needed to be stoked regularly and didn’t get as hot as it did when cooking with gas. It’s fun to have the wood option on a campsite when you have all the time in the world (and like a challenge), but it’s no patch on the gas for churning out pizzas.
Pros: Pizzas; dual fuel; fast Cons: Pricey; the wood is hard work
Price: £399 | Check price on Amazon | Gozney
How much should I spend on a BBQ?
There’s no simple answer to this question as BBQs have an immensely wide range when it comes to price and quality – from disposable to gas BBQs with all the bells and whistles. Thankfully, we’ve catered to all of these prices in our WIRED Recommends best BBQ guide. If you’re not a regular BBQer and just looking for something for the odd camping trip or party in the park, you can get the Bodum Fyrkat for just £40 (check out our review above). For the hardcore BBQ fans, the Char-Broil Gas2Coal Hybrid is our favourite griller available right now (also check out more information on that above) but it is more of a commitment – costing upwards of £410.
What size BBQ do I need?
Like many products, this will come down to your individual needs. Want the best-of-the-best for using in your garden regularly? Then, you’ll probably want to go for a larger BBQ built for staying put rather than camping. If you want a capable BBQ that isn’t necessarily for camping but also don’t want it to take up too much space, BBQs like the Campingaz Attitude 2100 LX are much smaller than heavier-duty cart-like offerings but still, impressively, get the job done. If space is at a premium and you don’t want to overspend then the Bodum Frykat is our best cheap BBQ that has a grill that’s just 25cm in diameter.
Gas or charcoal?
There are several different factors to consider when choosing between a gas or charcoal BBQ. For the most part, gas BBQs are more convenient – letting you get cooking faster, offering a greater range of options in terms of BBQ sizes and accompanying features, the ability to adjust temperature via a dial as well as being easier to clean than charcoal equivalents.
However, gas BBQs do generally cost more, you’ll need to store some – often heavy – gas canisters and some may feel something is lost without the chargrill flavour. You’ll have to weigh up these positives and negatives when choosing charcoal or gas. Our WIRED Recommendations above do run the gamut of both BBQ variations, showing different solutions can be right for different people.
How much does a BBQ cost to run?
The running costs of a BBQ will depend on whether you use charcoal or gas as well as your cooking methods. However, homeware retailer Oldrids & Downtown handily boils it down to the following: a gas BBQ should cost you less than £1 per use while a charcoal BBQ will cost around £2 per use.
