New on the sitea Knowledge base, a BBQ party plan and calculators inside the cook guides

Picture the moment. The smoker has been running since breakfast, the probe says something you weren't expecting, your hands smell of rub and the phone is balanced on the side table at an angle that suits nobody. That's when a website needs to be quick, and that's the moment most of this month's changes were built for.

Here's what's new, and how to get the most out of it mid-cook.

The Knowledge base

The Knowledge base is a single hub for the reference material that used to be spread across the site. The centrepiece is a cheat sheet listing every cook we cover, with smoker temperature, rough timings and the finish you're aiming for side by side. You can filter it by meat or by type of cook, so finding the ribs line doesn't involve scrolling past three kinds of fish.

From the same page you can reach:

• Troubleshooting. The smoker troubleshooting page is organised by symptom: temperature dropping, bitter smoke, meat stuck, fire going out. Start with what you can see and it points you at the likely cause and the first thing to try.
• The temperature chart. One page with the usual smoker and finish ranges for each cook, handy when you just want a number and not a whole guide.
• The butcher's map. Our UK vs US cuts guide now has a map of where each cut sits on the animal, with British names first. Useful when an American recipe asks for something your butcher calls by a different name, or doesn't call anything at all.

The BBQ party plan

The new BBQ party plan is for anyone cooking for a crowd rather than for themselves. It walks through the day in order, from working out how much meat to buy, to when the fire needs lighting, to what can be cooked the day before. The calculators are built into the page, so you can put in your guest numbers and eating time and get a shopping amount and a start window without opening three tabs.

It won't stop your brother-in-law opening the lid every ten minutes. Some problems are beyond software.

Calculators inside the cook guides

Each cook guide now has its own calculator embedded on the page, pre-filled with that guide's rule of thumb for cooking time. Open the pulled pork guide and the cook-rate range for pork shoulder is already there; you only need to add the weight and when you want to eat.

Those pre-filled figures are clearly labelled as still being checked. They come from mainstream recipe guidance and are given as ranges, but they haven't all been through a final review yet, so treat them as a starting point and go by the probe. The standalone smoking time calculator is still there if you'd rather set your own rate.

Faster search

Press the "/" key on any page and the search box opens, ready to type. On a laptop by the back door, that's the quickest way from "why is the bark going black" to the page that answers it. On a phone, the search icon in the header does the same job.

Using the site during a cook

A few habits that make all this more useful when you're outside:

1. Open the cook guide and the Knowledge base in two tabs before you light up, not when something's already going wrong.
2. Run the calculator the night before, write the start time on something that isn't your phone, and keep the guide open for the finish.
3. If the cook stalls or the temperature wanders, go to troubleshooting first. Most mid-cook problems have a boring cause and a simple fix.

If you're planning anything bigger than a family Sunday, open the BBQ party plan now and put in your guest numbers while there's still time to ring the butcher.

FAQs

Are the calculator figures in the cook guides final?

Not yet. The pre-filled rules of thumb are labelled as still being checked, and they give ranges rather than exact times. Use them to plan, then cook to temperature.

Where has the butcher's map gone?

It sits within the UK vs US cuts guide, and you can also reach it from the Knowledge base.

Does search work on a phone?

Yes. The "/" shortcut is for keyboards; on a phone, tap the search icon in the header.