Meat & Greet BBQ Podcast
Your Guide to the UK BBQ Community
Meat & Greet BBQ Podcast is the UK's premier weekly podcast dedicated to outdoor cooking, smoking techniques, and the passionate community behind barbecue culture. Since launching in 2021, we've released over 88 episodes featuring conversations with pitmasters, brand ambassadors, equipment manufacturers, BBQ school owners, and backyard enthusiasts who share their authentic experiences with grilling and smoking
Meat & Greet BBQ Podcast
Rekindling the Flame: Back to Barbecue Basics
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After a refreshing eight-month break, we're finally back at the grills and ready to reconnect with our barbecue community! This comeback episode delves into why we needed time away and how we've been rekindling our passion for outdoor cooking.
Dan shares his experiences moving house and setting up a new barbecue sanctuary—from positioning his Monolith ceramic grill to adding a Blackstone griddle and Gozney Rock Box to his arsenal. Meanwhile, Owen reveals his deep dive into the craft of sausage making, curing his own bacon, and exploring the possibility of turning his passion into a small-batch artisanal side business.
We take you along to our recent visit to Sean "Irish Egg's" new barbecue school launch in the picturesque Norfolk countryside, where we sampled incredible brisket dishes and connected with fellow barbecue enthusiasts. The experience reminded us why we love this community—it's about far more than just cooking food outdoors.
Both of us share candid thoughts about social media fatigue and how the pressure to document every cook began overshadowing our enjoyment of barbecuing. Dan admits deliberately stepping away from posting online to rediscover cooking for personal satisfaction rather than external validation—a sentiment many passionate hobbyists will understand.
Looking ahead, we're shifting our podcast format to feature more casual conversations between the two of us, peppered with guest interviews. We're excited to explore barbecue restaurants, attend events, and engage more deeply with you, our community.
Whether you're firing up your first kettle grill or managing an impressive collection of smokers, we're thrilled to be back sharing this journey. Subscribe now and join the conversation—we'd love to hear what you've been cooking while we've been away!
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Welcome Back After Eight Months
Speaker 1Today's episode of the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast is brought to you by AOS Outdoor Kitchens. They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast with Dan and Owen. So it's been quite a while since you've last heard from us unless you're binge listening, in which case thank you but we wanted to say hello to everyone and give you a bit of an update about what we've been doing and why we've been quiet for so long. How are you doing, owen?
Speaker 2Yeah, really well. It's been what? Eight months since we last did the show, so really really looking forward to getting back on the horse and recording some new content so the first thing we should probably do is just explain to everyone what we've been up to and why we've been so quiet.
Speaker 1So, um, not only did I move and we can talk about the faff of moving barbecues from one house to another and setting them up where you want to be soon but also doing DIY, if anyone's been following me on Instagram knocking ceilings down, getting things rewired, moaning too much, which is something that we all like to do, but trying to get everything in the right place at the right time. It takes up all of your days and nights, which is a shame because, also, I've not been barbecuing as much as I'd like to. But we're starting to get back into the flow of things. You know, it's april coming to may. Now the sun's out, it's good to get back out there, back on the grill, and be in the right mood to be recording again.
Speaker 2You know what I mean yeah, I mean, there was a large part of that. You probably wanted to record something six months ago, but I was the person that was just saying not to Needed to, similar to when I was talking to you about having a bit of social media fatigue. I think we did so much block recording last time that I fell out of love a little bit with it and just needed to have a break and enjoy uh, doing other bits and pieces, uh, which I'm sure we'll come on to, but uh, yeah, so really excited to get back to to kind of recording and, like you said, the weather's starting to warm up and uh, you know, we're just kind of getting out and enjoying, enjoying the barbecue side of things again and you might be able to hear in the background.
Speaker 1Um, we're currently just driving back from a wonderful event that we've actually been to, um, put on by the lovely irish egg, who is in the process of putting together and launching a barbecue school, so we've had a lovely few hours there. What were your thoughts on the day and highlights?
Speaker 2oh, yeah, obviously, you know sean's well known in the community, um, really nice guy, and uh, the fact that we've obviously got to kind of go to his sort of launch event, uh, you know, really, really lovely, setting out in the north. You know norfolk countryside, um, and you know he cooked some great food you briskets, legs of lamb, hot links. It was a real pleasure A to see him and see a few people locally and in the community, but just to try some food. And I tell you what, it's going to be a great setting to have barbecue classes for sure. To have barbecue classes for sure, um, you know, looking at countries, country, fields and the fresh air and, uh, it's certainly going to beat being, uh, you know, doing something that's a bit more industrial, um, so, yeah, I think he's got the right, right place for it and wish him the best of luck for sure I absolutely loved.
Speaker 1He did a brisket dish with kind of sweet corn. It was quite creamy, um kind of mild cheese, and by cutting up and kind of tossing brisket in that and also with a little bit of hot sauce, the balance of flavors was fantastic. Um, probably haven't described it very well, so maybe yeah not to be mixed up with tate. That's a very different experience but um definitely worth reaching out to the irish egg sean asking about that and replicating it, and also looking into the classes as well.
Speaker 2Just a lovely, lovely day and thank you for inviting us as well, sean yeah, and you'll see a load of stuff coming up on the socials over the next few days.
Rediscovering Our BBQ Passion
Speaker 1Took loads of videos and pictures, uh, so I know that he's got his first class towards the end of may, so definitely worth having a look at and it's just nice to be back speaking to people about barbecue and enjoying barbecue again really, um, I said when we first started this episode, I've started to get back into barbecuing, finding the time for it, finding my rhythm again and getting out and doing some nice cooks. Really, really enjoyed actually doing a load of reverse seared steaks. Um, particularly just trialing doing it across two barbecues as well. So, using the monolith to kind of do some smoking, bring it up to temperature and then to get a really good, strong sear on it. I've used the blackstone to get a nice kind of beautiful bite out of it. It's worked really, really well and it's simple dishes like that, which can sound maybe difficult or different if you're a beginner, but are quite easy to execute once you know what you're doing that have made me fall back in love with it, because when you're tired, when you're busy, sometimes you start to feel like, am I doing this just for the sake of doing it? But enjoying meals like that and cooking like that reminds you why it's so good and makes you want to do it more and more.
Speaker 1Um, so I've been doing that quite a lot of spatchcock chickens, but also not cooking for the sake of posting it online. I spent a little while with a general rule of just not posting stuff on social media to make sure I was actually doing stuff I wanted to do. I'm not doing it for the sake of social media, but I'm quite excited to start looking into different ideas and inspiration to get different types of cooks out there, and, similarly, we'd love you to reach out to us and tell us about what you've been doing recently, what you've been enjoying cooking, any inspiration that you've seen. Really, I don't know some of the cooks you've been doing, oh, that have got back into your day-to-day barbecue lexicon, as it were I've actually been doing really simple stuff quick, easy convenience barbecue.
Speaker 2Um, it's been a while since I've done any kind of low and slow smoking. Uh, the easter weekend recently had loads of friends and family over and I actually just wanted to spend more time socializing. So I I did some of the classics. Uh, you know, can't go wrong with some moinks, some sausages, some shawamas stuff that wasn't taking 10 hours to cook and just kind of enjoying the moment. And, of course, any time you're firing up wood-fired ovens or fire pits and cooking over that, you've just got that added theatrics that I've definitely kind of been enjoying over the last few weeks and months it always kind of surprises me when we talk about barbecue just how different we are and what we enjoy about barbecue and why we do it.
Speaker 1I mean, I enjoy being out there. I think I find it very good for kind of the mental health and playing with fires always fun, even if you end up kind of burning yourself or singeing yourself in some way or another. Um, but for me it's that, and obviously the food, because who doesn't love beautiful food that I enjoy so much about it? But I know you love the theater of it and cooking for other people and how it brings friends and family together and enjoying it. And also it's a nice excuse to be able to relax, have a beer, have a nice drink and just be outside, um, and make the most of it with friends, I guess yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2I mean, obviously we've documented it and you know loads of times about the kind of benefits and why we do it, um, but actually for me, so far this year I've been less, less about the drinking, really cut back on that, uh, and and kind of enjoying the food side of things more, um, and actually I've I've really been getting into making. I've kind of spoken about, you know, curing bacon here and there, but kind of of getting into that more and definitely trying lots of different things. But also I got into sausage making over the last couple of months and really taken to that. Absolutely. That brings me so much joy and then going out and cooking them.
Moving BBQs and Equipment Setup
Speaker 2So, yeah, just been playing around with loads of recipes and different kind of flavours that you wouldn't get in a supermarket necessarily, with loads of recipes and different kind of flavours that you wouldn't get in a supermarket necessarily. And I think also people appreciate additional effort if you're hand-making your sausages or you're hand-making bacon etc. So it's just kind of putting that extra love and soul into cooking food. So, yeah, it's been a good start to 2025 actually in terms of kind of cooking, um and, uh, looking forward to the weather getting a little bit warmer and probably just everyone feeling more comfortable being outside and joining you, so you're not doing it on your own all the time and someone who's known you for years, it doesn't surprise me that you've got particularly excited about getting your hands on a load of sausages and putting all those skins on and everything involved with it.
Speaker 2It's just you all over um, I know, and I've, I've, I've gone for the proper hand. You know, using a manual machine to mince and also do the sausages, rather than an electric machine, so I can really feel the sausages as they come out.
Speaker 1Talking about mincing and sausages. It does feel like you're flirting with me and I'm not 100% against it, frankly. But yeah, as you can probably tell, we've had a lot of things going on between us. It's nice for us to just sit down and talk about anything really. But I wanted to talk about the pain and faff of moving barbecues. Uh, particularly I imagine when you moved house a fair few years ago now, but moving from your perspective, what's basically a shop worth of barbecues must have been interesting.
Speaker 1But moving, but moving things like ceramic eggs, even when you get movers in heavy, big, easy to damage and if they go it could smash up. But then the fun also of deciding how you want your new setup to look, where you want it to go and everything. It's just making sure you don't break anything, particularly if you're then going to introduce new barbecues into the area. Break anything, particularly if you're then going to introduce new barbecues into the area. I mean trying to work out where I wanted my monolith once we moved in, also setting up I was very luckily sent through a blackstone, which I'm very thankful for, um, which I've got alongside it and then also setting up the gosney, uh, rock box while making sure I don't burn anything down in unison. It has been interesting and difficult at the same time, particularly as it felt like we had a very cold and wet winter this year. But what was it like when you moved and moving barbecues and things around? Was it as difficult as I found it, or did you just not really care?
Speaker 2uh, I don't think it was as difficult as you found it I'm. Yeah, just, you know, I very much made sure the movers knew how precious they were and to take extra care and was watching them like a hawk when they you know, when they did move stuff and some of the smaller barbecues, you know, like I've got the portable master bill and I think even the onion stuff um, I move myself, uh, in the boot of the car because you know, I know I could kind of control that, um, but yeah, you just again, obviously I've got a few more than you, but I've probably played around with where things go a few different times and even now I still move things around depending on who's coming and what I'm doing and how close I want stuff to be together. So yeah, nothing's ever static.
Speaker 1The other thing it's done is really made me appreciate multifunctional barbecues for multiple different reasons the fact that with a ceramic I feel like I can do almost anything on it, but then having something I can quickly fire up, like the blackstone, that we quite often have pancakes over the weekend. So we've started doing that more and more often outside, as I've said, using it for kind of searing off steaks and things, but then also using the rock box for more than just pizzas, making naans in there as well, doing more garlic breads and just playing with that. It's something I've enjoyed. But it's also made me look at other types of barbecues that I'd want as well, and I really, really want and will look into getting either a kadai or a fire pit.
Speaker 1That is a nice communal area that can burn around and enjoy and help you stay out in the winter but also is multifunctional and you can cook on as well, whether it be s'mores or whether it be getting the different racks and things up so you can do curries and all sorts on there and even use it as an asado. It's nice to have something that can do so much. It also makes me wonder if I should go back and get another kettle, because that's something I've not had in my arsenal for years. But maybe it's when you have a bigger cart and you start wanting more things and more toys to play on. Is that what happened to you before you got the arsenal?
Speaker 2uh, yeah, I mean, you know, to this day, the first thing I had was a 57 weber kettle. It's still one of my most used barbecues. I absolutely love it. Um, so, and it is multifunctional, uh, and, and the are just not. You know, it's never been a need, it's always been a want, and the others are just nice to have, and sometimes it's nice.
Sausage Making Side Hustle
Speaker 2You know, last weekend for Easter, I had three or four going at the same time. Part of that was because of the amount of people and it was a need, but some of it was just the theatrics of doing something on a wood-fired oven, then moving to a kettle and then perhaps doing a drager and and then some bits on a blackstone or whatever, just almost to show people that are not barbecuing the versatility of stuff. But where I've obviously, as everyone knows, where I do have so many, um, there are ones that I have not used for over a year now I've almost got three or four that I'm kind of going back to, not saying I'm necessarily going to start getting rid of stuff, but I'm definitely using less of all of them than I ever have before. If you've been looking or thinking about an outdoor kitchen, then look no further than AOS Outdoor Kitchens.
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Speaker 1So if you want to make yourself the envy of your friends and neighbours, get in touch with them today to arrange a consultation and take the first step in transforming your back garden into the most incredible entertainment space. So storage then if you've got barbecues that have been there for almost a year I mean I went quite a long period where I didn't really cook much, if not all, and you know you go back to the egg after a while and you open it up and you think it's not in the best condition and you fire and burn it up and you do lots of scrubbing and things. But do you take any specific care in storing stuff or is it more accepting that's going to be the case and thinking about what you're going to do after between next use it and how long it's going to take to clean? Do you put much thought into that if you know you're not going to use something for a while?
Speaker 2I mean, all of my barbecues have got covers, um, but ultimately that doesn't stop anything. If you don't use something for a year, you're going there's going to be some form of mold or something and it does need to clean. Truth is, I'm really lazy after I cook and I can never be bothered, so most of the time I leave it and then forget and then it's in a bit of a shit state. But you know that's what heat's for. Right, just fire it up as hot as possible, brush it down. Right, just fire it up as hot as possible, brush it down. Sometimes I will then give it a proper soap wash etc, depending on, uh, what it is, and a proper who you know, ash hoover and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1But nothing, a bit of heat and scrub won't do and do you think having a number of barbecues haven't used for a year does that make it less likely that you're looking at other options and other ideas of different barbecues, if you know you've got those to fall back on and play with?
Speaker 2uh, yeah. So at the moment I've got no interest in buying any uh any new barbecues. Um, as I said, because I've got more into sausage making, I've been sort of buying machinery I say machinery, mincers and uh bits and pieces for that, as opposed to, uh, as to new barbecues. But you know, never say never. I still haven't got an offset smoker, and I've mentioned it more more than one occasion that I will uh, you know I will get to it. Uh, I just I've just had other things to spend my money on at this time, but that would still be the one A proper offset smoker.
Speaker 1The other thing about looking at different fun items is the older we get, the more fun it is to spend money, right, so it's always nice to shop around and have a look. But you've talked a lot about making your own sausages and bacon and produce. Do you have an end goal of what you're looking to achieve with that or, at the moment, is it just doing it for fun, because it's something that we've talked to multiple guests about? I know that when we spoke to spice punch, he talked about how much he enjoyed making sausages, curing his own bacon, playing with flavours, playing with different kind of fat contents for different mouthfeels, with different types of sausages and things. Is it just fun or have you got other ideas up your sleeves?
Speaker 2I mean, I am working towards trying to, you know, get a side hustle going from the day job to actually try and sell sausages and bacon, whether I do that direct to consumer or just try and get into some kind of local, you know, local farm shops, delis, etc. That would be quite cool, delis, etc. That would be quite cool. But I again I want to, you know, purposely, it's all small batch, handmade, butcher, butcher ingredients, uh and um, trying to do flavors that you don't, you know, necessarily normally get. So, uh, yeah, that's, that's the kind of goal really sounds like an interesting journey.
Speaker 1I'm sure it's something that we're going to hear more about in future episodes, and it gives people another reason to listen. Right, let's find out what owen does and how well it goes as well. Either way, it's going to be fun for me, and I'm going to enjoy every second of it I was going to say didn't you enjoy the guinness bacon for breakfast this morning?
Speaker 1Absolutely loved it. That's the other joy I've got. I mean, you've done me rosemary bacon before had some Guinness bacon. Just keep giving me free stuff, really. If you keep doing that, then I'm sure I'll let you record some more episodes with me. All right, thanks, yeah, well done. So from that perspective, then, has your thoughts on your attitude towards barbecue changed? If you're thinking of your joy of food and it's moved into maybe looking at it as a side hustle and doing more making stuff, has your thoughts or attitudes towards barbecue changed?
Speaker 2No, I don't think so. Think so just still love doing it, uh, still love the process, still enjoy cooking, for people always have done, always will do, uh, and, and the community and what other people do, and you know, like people like sean and elke and all you know, marcus, all these people that are trying to teach people how to do barbecue, and all the other producers rubs, sauces, whatever it might be yeah, I think it's just strengthened my passion to be part of it.
Speaker 1It's interesting. So the extended period away from doing as much barbecue as I had been doing made me think about it slightly differently. I've done episodes before about kind of social media and how it comes in waves, but more and more time that you, I find that I spend on it and understand it, and things like if you're doing a reel, if you're not verified, and damn matter if I'm going to give them anything like my driver's license to prove who I am, as it were. It limits your reach and you think, well, why should I be caring about that? If I'm caring about it, is that having an impact on what I'm cooking? What I'm cooking and everything? It's just important that I don't want to be doing it so much just to show other people. So I've tried to completely eliminate that from what I've been doing.
Speaker 1I deliberately didn't post anything on social media for a while for that reason, and now if I cook something and I can be bothered to photograph it, I put it up and I put it online. But I also think and you may disagree with me on this I found the community on social media has been a lot more quiet and slightly different than it has been over the last few years, since the pandemic particularly. I don't know if that's normal for want of a better word real life getting in the way, or if people are just getting sick of social media, or if all the external things that we're seeing day in and day out have just turned people off. That sort of thing. I don't know, but it all feels strange to me. I don't know if you've got any views on that.
Speaker 2I don't have any views. The problem is I have pretty much not been. I haven't checked our podcast page for over a month, so I'm probably not the best person to ask, because I have really just stepped away and just been enjoying the family, so, uh, but I suppose I'm contributing to what. What you've just uh, what you've just out outlined really, um, but you know, breaks over. Let's get back into. You're going to start seeing a lot more content coming from us and actually we've had as much as creating new content. We've had some great, great guests on over the what four years that we've been doing this and you know, I think we're going to start sort of kind of reposting some of the content and some of the videos perhaps you may haven't seen, so, uh, you know you'll certainly start to see and hear more from us over the coming months.
Future Content and Community Updates
Speaker 1Sorry about that let's also address the elephant in the room. So an omen mentioned a few times that, for many, many different reasons, wanted a bit of a break from it. Both of us have had changes in work life, what we do spending more time with the family, so for us it's not as easy for us to pre-plan and arrange and organise all different guests. And after speaking to a lot of you in person Some people over messages as well A lot of the feedback that we got about anything we did in the future Is that people quite enjoyed the episodes that we did, the two of us.
Speaker 1So what we're going to try and do is Put out more episodes that are the two of us Talking about different things, highlighting different topics, but meaning that we can post more often as well, because we don't want to have to necessarily go on like nine months or a year break. It's much easier if we can just grab time, the two of us, and record things together and give you what you want, which is more of us, right well, some people might say that's a bad thing.
Speaker 1But well then, you don't have to listen, but we will.
Speaker 2We will still get some guests. Yes, that you know. Fundamentally, that is what our podcast has been built on, but we'll probably just pepper in more stuff of us. Uh, yeah. So that's what to expect over the coming months it's exactly that.
Speaker 1So, um, basically, we don't want people to be surprised if we have to drop a few episodes, just the two of us, and then we pepper them with guests rather than necessarily the other way around. But either way, you've got more content coming your way. We're not going anywhere. No one needs to worry about that. And if anything, I'm sure people weren't worried. Oh, they were terrified.
Speaker 1I've had people asking me um, well, more probably thanking me that they've not had to hear my voice as much. Um, but yeah, we're looking forward to getting our hands dirty with barbecue again and talking everything about it. Um, particularly as the world seems so weird at the moment. Uh, and one thing I should probably address right now being rugby fans as people know, we were for the Welsh rugby doesn't exist at the moment. I don't want to hear anything about it.
Speaker 1I know that you enjoyed the fake Six Nations this year, oh, but, um, yeah, that's another reason I haven't barbecued as much, because normally we do loads of barbecue around the Six Nations and any sort of sports, but the Welsh team haven't really given me any confidence to enjoy that this year either. But we're also really looking forward to the upcoming barbecue season More events happening. We're wanting to get out and about more. We also want to try and get to a few barbecue restaurants and things as well, which is something that Owen and I have talked about for years and haven't really spent enough time researching and looking into. So hopefully we'll be able to be out and about and talk a bit more about some lovely food places. We've been right.
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely, and in terms of rugby, it's always a good day when Wales lose.
Speaker 1That's a bit offensive. True facts All right, be. It's always a good day when whales lose, so that's a bit offensive. True fans all right. All right, I'll let my co-host sit here and play with this sausages a bit more, um, but otherwise, do get in touch with us. Uh, you can message us on social media through instagram, join the facebook group. Uh, you can find the website easiest, thingiest thing to do just Google Meat and Greet BBQ Podcast. You'll find us any way you want and there'll be content everywhere. And if we put it out there saying that Owen's going to do it, guess what? We're going to do it. There you go, and we'd also love to hear your opinions on everything barbecue. So do write to us as well. And thank you for liking, subscribing and just following everything we do. We really appreciate it, and that's why we want to get back to giving you a bit more content yeah, great to be back.
Speaker 2Um, look forward to hearing everything that you think about, uh, the episodes, what you guys are up to, so do get in touch. But you know, look forward to the next episode and thanks very much for tuning in, and until next time, keep on grilling. Keep on grilling. Today's episode is brought to you by AOS kitchens, the south's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.