Smoky Pastures BBQ

03/04/2026

Found these buns at Drakes the other day so thought I would give them a run. Sweet and soft just sounded perfect for a 'brekky' burger.

Bun top
Tomato chutney
Egg
3 slices of bacon
Burger cheese
Risk It seasoned patty
Bun b***y

Verdict on the bun: kind of lost its structure with the juiciness of the burger. Also you can see from the cross section that the bottom has squished down quite a lot, eveb though I cut it almost perfectly equal width bottom and top. I think probably better for a simple egg and bacon job rather than the full burger treatment. However, super spongy, amazing texture, really nice smell and taste too, definitely sweet.

Overall, I think this needed a bit more acidity to balance it all out. Even with the vinegary chutney this needed some pickles or something fresh and crunchy to really elevate it.

Would definitely bun again!

31/12/2025

Fresh lunch today to finish off 2025!

Some just ripened home grown cocktail tomatoes for a quick and easy Caprese salad, topped with a little 'Risk It'.

More BBQ to come in 2026! Happy New Year folks!

22/12/2025

Who's cooking a Xmas Brisket? Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! ....

03/12/2025

Summer is here! The sun is out and grilled veggies and Mediterranean staples are on the menu. Next time you are firing up the grill, try grilling a lemon, it goes with anything from grilled zucchini to a quick bit of air-fryer salt and pepper squid x the Weber Q 2800N+ is a weeknight warrior and does the quickest of cooks here x....

01/11/2025

BBQ at The Bend SCA recap

The steaks were high on the sunday.... actually the steak, truth be told, bombed out hard, so here are all out other entries!

We got a podium place for all 3 of these and were honestly blown away with the results. Big props to Russ Kol from Natural Smoke BBQ Woods for championing the 'Red' and 'Dessert' categories, they were his baby and he nailed it.

Tacos - 3rd place
Mini crunchy corn tortilla shells with rich pulled beef cheek, zesty lime guacamole and fresh pico de gallo with a toasted sesame seed sprinkle.

Anything 'Shell V-Power Red' - 3rd place
Gochujang fried chicken bites on a bed of green rice with salsa, served in a crispy flour tortilla cup.

Dessert - 2nd place
Red chocolate bars filled with choc brownie, raspberry compote and crunchy pistachio creme, garnished with dehydrated strawberry and crumbled pistachio.

29/10/2025

BBQ at The Bend ABA recap

Our ABA cook went pretty wel, especially seeing as it was cooking at a comp for the first time in 12 months. Pork was always going to be interesting as for about the last 6 comps we had cooked Open Pork and gone with pork belly as the cur, however for the bend we had to go back to classic pork, pulled and money muscle. Luckily for this and the pork ribs we had the legends at Stirling Variety Meats, in particular Daniel Drinkwater who was able to trim us up some awesome comp spec pork.

We ran 2 x 57cm Weber Smokey Mountain cookers and a classic Weber Kettle. The cook on all the bbqs went pretty straight forward, but our timings were a bit off. Tenderness in a couple of our hand-ins suffered as a result.

Still, except for the chicken, our flavour was bang on with the judges and that seemed to land us some good scores!

Results were:

Chicken: 9th
Pork Ribs: 3rd
Pork: 3rd
Brisket: 4th

We used rub and sauce flavours from Smoky Pastures BBQ, The Rub Society | BBQ Rubs, Boomas BBQ, Smokin’ Mangoes BBQ and as always wood from Natural Smoke BBQ Woods and fuel from Olive Pip Co.

Ironically it was the exact same rub and sauce combo on both the pork and pork ribs, and we landed a 3rd from both.

Stay tuned for our SCA boxes soon!

26/10/2025

Haven't gotten to post one of these shots before so couldn't help ourselves!

Big haul from a big weekend at BBQ at The Bend!

We capped off a couple of trophies from ABA yesterday with some great results in SCA today. 2nd place Dessert, and 2 more 3rd places with Tacos and Anything Shell V-Power Red for ancillaries.

Box photos to come but as always thanks to the legends that make all this happen, Knowlesy and Russ, you are both champions and its an absolute pleasure rocking comps with you.

Thanks to all the other teams as well, met a few new faces that make me hopeful that Competition BBQ still has a heartbeat in South Australia. Dan Hugget gets a special shout out for being the organiser of this cracking event for 3 years running now.

Cheers as always!

🪵 - Natural Smoke BBQ Woods
🔥 - Olive Pip Co.

25/10/2025

Day 1 at BBQ at The Bend done and a couple of trophies to take home!

Back to back 3rd place for Pork 2 years in a row, and a big improvement 3rd place Pork Ribs. Big thanks to Russ from Natural Smoke BBQ Woods taking us to flavour town and Pork from Dan at Stirling Variety Meats

Also a cheeky 4th in Brisket and a bomb for chicken.

Will post some hand-in box pics this week.

Glad to be back for our 1 comp of the year!

03/09/2025

14/08/2025

Thursday night, burger night!

5. Count em'. 5 years of Thursday Night Burgers.

To celebrate... and say goodbye for now, I cooked a classic smash burger with no less than 5 patties....

All good things must come to an end and after 5 years of a burger every Thursday night, I am concluding the series. I look back to when it all started and it really came about from cooking an easy meal for the kids on a weekly basis; dad's burgers on a Thursday. Time goes on, it evolves, and now I don't even see them on a Thursday anymore. Time to change things up and move on from being locked in to a specific routine.

I still love burgers, and this will definitely not be my last burger related post... far from it. I hope to do less frequent content that is more in depth and some guides on burgers will definitely be amongst what is to come.

The '5 Years' Burger
Toasted DICKBUNS top
Mustard
Bread and butter pickles
Tomato sauce
5 x 85g smash patties with Burger Cheese
Bun b***y

To those regulars who have tuned in regularly; I have loved the encouragement and support, and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It has been long past worthwhile doing this burger content for the clicks and likes, genuinely, if I was trying to grow my followership I would have changed it up a long time ago. But, the people who comment every week, and send me DMs with inspo, and love to share my passion and creativity, I did it for you, and I sincerely thank you