Thuros T1 Review:
I first saw the Thuros T1 a few years ago and was particularly taken with some of the kebab cooks people were doing with the skewer attachment. I always had it in my mind to buy one when the time was right so I was delighted when David Hughes got in touch to ask if I wanted one. It probably wasn’t possible to reply yes any quicker than I did and 4 months on I have cooked on it quite a lot so the time is right for the Thuros T1 Review.
What is the Thuros T1:
You will have seen plenty of pictures of the T1 grill and some folk will be wondering “What is the Thuros T1?”.
Thuros are a German, family owned business founded in 1992 and based in Georgentha, Thuringia. They focus on classical German barbecues based on a flue draught design of barbecue but they have modernised the design through the use of high quality, anti-magnetic, rustproof V2A stainless steel. All the grills are manufactured in Germany and the use of stainless steel makes them durable and easy to clean. The cooking grates are made of electropolished, food safe stainless steel. All Thuros grills come with a 25 year warranty.
The T1 grill is from the Thuros T-Line of classical German barbecues:
The T1 is marketed as a Small but mighty, compact and portable grill for two people and retails for a shade over £100.
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Unboxing the Thuros T1:
Bit of a cheek writing about unboxing the Thuros T1 as it arrives pretty much ready to use!
The Thuros T1 unit is 32cm wide x 32cm deep x 23cm high and the box is not much bigger than this. Total weight 4KG.
Once the packaging materials are removed you are left with a grill that’s ready to use. Tabletop grill, charcoal basket and grill surface.
This is the new generation of T1 grill with the protective black feet on the bottom to prevent scratches and to keep the grill stable when using.
Charcoal basket on the bottom and grill surface (30cm x 30cm) on top.
As easy as that!
Lighting the Thuros T1:
Lighting the Thuros T1 is ridiculously easy. Lift the cooking grate off and place two or three flamers underneath the charcoal grate.The Thuros T1 has two air vents in the base, you can see one in the picture below on the left hand side. These aren’t adjustable.
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Light them and put the charcoal grate back in position.
Place 2 handfuls of charcoal into the charcoal grate. This photo looks like more than two handfuls and is more than is actually required!
Wait 10 minutes.
It should now be up to temperature and ready to cook on!
Time to cook!
Simple eh?
Cooking on the Thuros T1:
On the standard grill (no accessories) you can cook some fantastic food. David described the Thuros T1 as “A steak machine” and after cooking some steaks on the grill I have to agree!
One of the first dishes I cooked on the grill was a pair of tuna steaks. It was an unplanned cook but passing the fishmonger I saw sashimi grade tuna so had to buy some for lunch. The T1 was simple to light and quick to get to temperature, I overcooked the Tuna a bit but it was incredibly tasty and an easy cook.
Next up were some very special Rib Eye steaks from Torloisk highland. I had been trying to get hold of some of their beef for over a year! Again, quick and easy to light and heat up but another simple cook, the steak was well cooked (medium rare!) and tasted fantastic!
A similar cook was beef from the same farmer but a big, thick T-bone steak. Again, it was quick and easy to light and cook the beef but it tasted incredible.
As the grill surface is 30cm by 30cm it’s also ideal for cooking on cast iron pans – I cooked some wonderful goat burgers on this grill:
I was impressed with these first few cooks. It was amazing what you can produce on this small grill with only a couple of handfuls of charcoal! For midweek cooks where time is limited the Thuros T1 is fantastic as it requires minimal charcoal, lights quickly and easily but can produce some awesome dishes too. At the weekends it’s also handy in a multiple grill cooking session for side dishes, cast iron pans or breads.
Thuros T1 Accessories:
The Thuros T1 is incredibly versatile as there is a large range of accessories available for it including:
– Skewer kit
– Wind deflector (with warming grill)
– Rotisserie
– Flat lid (for storage)
– BBQ Hood
– Water bath
– Smoker
From this list I have the Skewer kit, BBQ Hood and Water bath so will go into more detail on these.
Skewer Kit:
The Skewer Kit was the accessory I was most looking forward to using with the Thuros T1. I have seen a lot of cooks done with these over the years and felt this accessory would be a massive help to me.
The Skewer kit comes with a square stainless steel skewer holder that sits on top of the grill and you get six skewers also. These are high quality, thick and heavy skewers too.
It’s quite embarrassing that it took me a few goes to discover this, but any rotation of the skewers is immediately locked into place. To start with I was rotating the skewers and resting them on top of the metal but instead you just rotate them in position and they lock in place! Makes it a lot easier to rotate your cook by any amount for equal cooking.
These were some crevettes and chorizo cooked on the skewers. You can see the swirls on the skewer which helps rotate them.
Some chicken cooking, gives a better view of the skewer and rack.
The skewer kit is around £40 which is a bargain, I think it’s a must have accessory for the Thuros T1.
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BBQ Hood:
The BBQ Hood is a lid for your Thuros T1 which allows you to regulate the temperature better but also recirculate the heat to cook your meal quicker and more evenly.
The hood feels like another good quality bit of kit. It’s made from the same stainless steel as the T1 grill and includes a sturdy handle, temperature gauge and adjustable vent.
I have used it on a few cooks but especially when cooking hot dogs:
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Water Bath:
The water bath is an interesting idea. You can use it to add aromatics when cooking fish dishes or you can use it to create an indirect heat zone in the grill.
When I cook sausages I cook them slowly over an indirect heat zone to save burning the outside whilst the insides are still raw. The water bath lets you split the grill surface in two and cook the sausages over the water bath so they cook slowly. Combined with the BBQ Hood you can place the vent over the sausages so the heat is pulled over the sausages and out the vent. Great combination!
This is the water bath in position:
This is with the sausages cooking over the water bath:
You can see how little charcoal was required for that cook, seriously impressive!
I can’t find it on Amazon but a quick Google search should find it for around £35.
Wind Deflector:
The wind deflector sits on top of the grill and stops the wind hitting the coals or blowing dust/sand onto your food. It also provides additional slots to raise the height of the grill to slow down a cook or just use the included smaller rack to keep food warm once cooked to temperature.
I think if you are cooking outside or at the beach this would be pretty handy. It would also be useful to have a higher grill position to slow a cook down or hold a finished cook whilst cooking some side dishes on the main grill.
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Rotisserie:
The Rotisserie looks really cool, it’s small as it spans the 30cm grill surface but is big enough and powerful enough to spin and cook a whole chicken!
I haven’t seen the rotisserie for sale on its own, only bundled with the Thuros T1 grill. I am sure David Hughes can hook you up with one if you already have the T1 grill though.
Packaged with the Rotisserie is the Wind Deflector which holds the rotisserie in place. You can buy the rotisserie without the wind deflector if you already have one. Again, David Hughes can help you.
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Flat Lid:
The flat lid is designed to be used for keeping rain out of the grill when it’s not in use. It’s a flat lid to help with storage by keeping the space required to a minimum.
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Smoker Attachment:
This is very exciting as it takes the T1 grill and BBQ hood then adds in a smoker body that sits on top of the grill with the BBQ Hood on top.
In this configuration you can hot smoke or cold smoke food using the 2 racks provided. There is also a 3rd level at the top which can be used for hanging meat.
This video explains it quite well:
I am hoping to get my hands on one of these as we are now approaching the colder months and it’s time to start curing/smoking bacon and smoking cheese, butter and garlic again. With such a small footprint this will make overnight cold smoking a lot easier.
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So many possibilities for this grill, impressive range of accessories. David is in the process of launching a new website for Thuros in the UK which will make it a lot easier to buy the various bits and pieces. I will update this page when it’s live but it will be here.
Cleaning the Thuros T1:
I noticed in my last cook my T1 was looking a bit grimy, time for me to find out about cleaning the Thuros T1!
The Thuros T1 is dinky enough to fit straight into the sink. I started off with a dish cloth and warm water but it wasn’t shifting much. I was nervous using a scourer in case it scratched the stainless steel but I tried one of the wire scourers and it removed the grime without leaving any scratches. With a bit of elbow grease it was looking much better after 10 minutes. Not perfect but I just wanted to get the worst off! I didn’t do much with the charcoal grate, couldn’t see the point getting that sparkly so focussed on the rest of the grill.
I will keep on top of it and keep it a bit cleaner going forward!
All my cooks:
All my Thuros T1 cooks to date can be seen on this page:
The Future:
The current Thuros T1 is small and light enough to be deemed portable. One minor issue is that with the BBQ Hood on you need to hold the grill underneath to transport it. Not a major deal but a more portable version is going to be available soon – The Thuros T1 “To Go” is the same as the Thuros T1 and BBQ Hood but has two clips on the lid which hold the lid to the grill body and allows you to transport the whole unit by holding the sturdy handle. You could transport this with your flamers in place, charcoal in the grill and cool bag with meat in the lid. Job done!
This video shows the new grill in more detail:
The current grills can’t be upgraded to provide the “To Go” functionality. If you want this feature you need to buy this version of the grill when it’s available.
The Competition:
The main competition to the Thuros T1 would be the Weber Go Anywhere or the Weber Smokey Joe.
Go Anywhere:
The base and lid is made from the same porcelain enameled material used on the Weber kettles. The whole unit is 37cm high by 53cm wide and 31cm deep and the plated steel grilling surface is 42cm by 26cm.
Two vents on the lid to control temperatures and two vents on the side of the grill. The legs fold up into the grill to allow for easier transport. The UK version doesn’t have the side handles found on the US version which is a bit odd as they would make it easier to move when warm.
UK version:
US version (see the side handles):
The Go Anywhere typically retails for £79.99.
Smokey Joe:
The Smokey Joe is also made from the same porcelain enamelled materials used on the Weber kettles. The unit is 43cm high by 36cm wide and 42cm deep and the plated steel cooking grate is 37cm. The lid has a vent to control the cooking temperature. There isn’t a vent in the bottom but there are two side vents.
The Smokey Joe typically retails for £69.99
As far as I can see there are no accessories for the Weber Go Anywhere or Smokey Joe. They are simple grills with lids. You could use 3rd party skewers but they would have to rest on the grill and wouldn’t be as easy as to use as the Thuros T1 skewer kit which locks the skewers in place on every movement.
The Smokey Joe has a smaller cooking surface than the Go Anywhere but is also taller so a bit harder to store when not in use.
The ability to transport the grills by carrying it with the handle is good. By comparison you need the Thuros T1 “To Go” version to match that functionality.
Summary:
I have really enjoyed cooking on the Thuros T1 since I got it. As mentioned previously, it’s easy to light, quick to get to temperature and it uses a very small amount of charcoal each time so is economical to run. The small footprint makes it easy to store and light enough to transport away from the house yet large enough to cook a meal for two people on.
The base unit is good value at £100 and you can cook some great food on that. One of the things that appeals with this grill is the fact that it’s so versatile with a large number of accessories available to alter and enhance the type of cooks you can do on it. After a few birthdays and Christmases you could have the full set!
A good example of how much I have enjoyed cooking on this grill is that I have done 14 cooks on it over 13 weeks and that doesn’t include when it’s been fired up at the weekend to help out with larger cooks on the other grills. I see it as a key bit of kit within my hut now and am looking forward to trying the smoker attachment on it!
To summarise, all positive and I recommend this grill. It’s a cracking bit of kit!
As well as writing this review I have launched a mini Thuros blog within the main KungFuBBQ blog which can be found here. The content is the same as is found in this review but broken out into sections. I will update the blog going forward but this review page probably won’t change once published unless I have made some mistakes!