Weber Master-Touch GBS Premium E-5775 Charcoal Barbecue 57cm review: Sear-iously good
The Master-Touch GBS Series barbecues add some smoking hot versatility to the classic Kettle design – they’re worth paying a premium for
Pros
- Multiple cooking options
- Sensible design
- Produces great results
Cons
- Much pricier than the basic models
- Wheels are a tad rickety
Weber’s kettle-style barbecues have long been a firm favourite here at Expert Reviews, and now the company’s Master-Touch range aims to push that classic design to new heights. If you’re looking for a good quality barbecue that can tackle everything from a whole chicken to inches-thick cuts of meat, and sear and smoke with equal aplomb, then one of the members of the versatile Master-Touch GBS family will make a great addition to your garden.
Weber Master-Touch GBS Premium E-5775 review: What you need to know
- Weber’s Master-Touch GBS Series barbecues all use the same basic kettle design, but the various models add different features and accessories. The Premium models swap the basic removable lid for a sprung, hinged lid and the E-5775 tested here includes the optional drop-in GBS steak searing grate
- Weber’s Gourmet BBQ System (GBS for short) allows you to swap the central cooking grate for various specialist cooking accessories such as a steak searing grate, pizza stone, dutch oven, poultry roaster or griddle. These are sold separately
- Flexible design supports multiple cooking styles: direct heat, indirect heat and smoking
- Tripod leg design and twin wheels for easy manoeuvrability
- Built-in analogue thermometer
- Large ash catcher
- Tool hooks for hanging cooking implements
What do we love about the Weber Master-Touch GBS Premium E-5775?
Versatile range of cooking options: Pile up a pyramid of briquettes in the Weber and you can effortlessly cook a mean array of burgers, sausages and standard BBQ fare but the supplied accessories also make it easy to tackle more adventurous menus. The large charcoal grate allows you to use indirect heat cooking to cook large cuts of meat or even a whole chicken or turkey, and you can use the supplied diffuser plate to turn your hand to slow, steady smoking duties. If you’re looking for a barbecue that can go beyond bangers and burgers, this is a great place to start.
Easy to build and use: The Weber doesn’t come ready-built but it only takes around 20 minutes to put together. The instructions are simple and easy to follow and also provide a variety of useful information for cooking with the three barbecue methods of direct heat, indirect heat or smoking. Even if you’re a complete beginner the clear guides make it easy and to tackle more daring food such as whole fish or chicken or to try your hand at smoking duck and ribs. The kettle design does a great job of providing a steady, consistent temperature for cooking, too.
The Gourmet BBQ System is ingenious: The Weber’s large cooking area is brilliant for everyday barbecuing, and provides plenty of scope for effectively cooking a wide range of food, but the removable central grate is ingenious. The E-5775 model we tested comes with a steak searing grate as standard. Drop this in place and the thick iron grate heats up to give steaks those attractive criss-cross scorch lines – we got some stunning results using it for reverse searing during our testing. Other optional drop-in extras include a pizza stone, poultry roaster, griddle and dutch oven, so there’s no shortage of cooking options should you wish to expand your barbecue repertoire.
Sensible, user-friendly design: It isn’t high-tech but the design is shot through helpful little design touches. Hinged side grates allow you to top up the fuel supply without having to remove the cooking grate and those same handles allow you to hang the grate from the side of the bowl so you don’t need to risk putting it on the floor when you’re setting up. Meanwhile, little hooks on the barbecue’s external handles give you somewhere to hang your tools, and the ‘one-touch’ cleaning system makes it quick and easy to scoop ash at the bottom of the bowl through the vents and into the clip-on ash holder without getting your hands dirty. The thermometer is a massive boon, too.
What don’t we like about the Weber Master-Touch GBS Premium E-5775?
Rattly wheels: The overall build feels acceptably solid once the whole lot is put together, but some of the parts do feel a bit lightweight. For instance, the plastic wheels simply slot into place and feel a bit rickety when you move the barbecue around. That said, Weber is confident enough in the construction of its barbeques that it guarantees the lid and bowl against rust and burn-through for ten years; the one-touch cleaning grate for five years, and the plastic components are also backed up by a five-year warranty. Given that you’re unlikely to be wheeling your BBQ on any long journeys, we’re probably just being overly picky.
