Help w/ 1st charcoal kettle grill please?

[Juggy D Beerman]

I have at least 40 years of experience grilling/smoking on Weber Kettles. The only thing I cook directly on the coals are beef steaks and vegetables. Everything else, I cook indirectly with the coals being to the side of the meat being cooked. Most of these cooks involve the hot coals being on each side of the kettle with the middle being coal free. This is where the burgers, country style ribs, sausages, chicken parts/pieces, pork steak/chops and sliced bacon are placed. Of course I don't cook all of these meats at once. I do cook chicken wings in the manner you describe with a small fire in the middle and the wings placed around the perimeter of the grill.



I use a Weber charcoal chimney to fire up the coals and usually fill the chimney about 3/4s full of briquettes before lighting. I use hardwood chunks only for smoke. I have found that in a small cooking environment such as a kettle, good quality smoke is important. Hardwood chunks usually contain more heartwood than chips and IMHO heartwood provides a smoother smoke than inner and outer bark. I have been to a place where chips are ground from "trees" This well known chip manufacturer was using brush for chip material, not firewood. That changed my usage of chips to chunks.



The cooking grate that you have with the hinged is sure handy for adding pre-lit and hot briquettes without having to remove the grate. Do not add unlit briquettes to increase the heat or replace coals that are on their way out. This will draw heat from the kettle as the heat being emitted from the already burning coals will not solely be heating the meat. Some of the coals heat will also be spent on igniting the unlit coals. Unlit lump charcoal being added will work, but add small pieces, not the big pieces that Egg preferred. There will be some heat displaced from cooking the meat, but not as much and the lump will ignite much faster than the briquettes.


One last tip. You can double your cooking space area for indirect cooking for burgers, chicken pieces, sausage and bacon by using another 22" cooking grate. The regular grate without the hinges is the one you want. Place the hinged grate on the Kettle. Turn the second grate upside down. Place the handles 90 degrees to the handles to the first grill. Make sure there is some air flow going between the meats on each level and between each grate. Good luck!


Lager,


Juggy

 

[jjdbike]

I have at least 40 years of experience grilling/smoking on Weber Kettles. The only thing I cook directly on the coals are beef steaks and vegetables. Everything else, I cook indirectly with the coals being to the side of the meat being cooked. Most of these cooks involve the hot coals being on each side of the kettle with the middle being coal free. This is where the burgers, country style ribs, sausages, chicken parts/pieces, pork steak/chops and sliced bacon are placed. Of course I don't cook all of these meats at once. I do cook chicken wings in the manner you describe with a small fire in the middle and the wings placed around the perimeter of the grill.



I use a Weber charcoal chimney to fire up the coals and usually fill the chimney about 3/4s full of briquettes before lighting. I use hardwood chunks only for smoke. I have found that in a small cooking environment such as a kettle, good quality smoke is important. Hardwood chunks usually contain more heartwood than chips and IMHO heartwood provides a smoother smoke than inner and outer bark. I have been to a place where chips are ground from "trees" This well known chip manufacturer was using brush for chip material, not firewood. That changed my usage of chips to chunks.



The cooking grate that you have with the hinged is sure handy for adding pre-lit and hot briquettes without having to remove the grate. Do not add unlit briquettes to increase the heat or replace coals that are on their way out. This will draw heat from the kettle as the heat being emitted from the already burning coals will not solely be heating the meat. Some of the coals heat will also be spent on igniting the unlit coals. Unlit lump charcoal being added will work, but add small pieces, not the big pieces that Egg preferred. There will be some heat displaced from cooking the meat, but not as much and the lump will ignite much faster than the briquettes.


One last tip. You can double your cooking space area for indirect cooking for burgers, chicken pieces, sausage and bacon by using another 22" cooking grate. The regular grate without the hinges is the one you want. Place the hinged grate on the Kettle. Turn the second grate upside down. Place the handles 90 degrees to the handles to the first grill. Make sure there is some air flow going between the meats on each level and between each grate. Good luck!


Lager,


Juggy

Hello Juggy,

Thanks so much for these very practical tips from your extensive experience cooking on the kettle! This was exactly the kind of practical info I was looking for.

Wings: I will cook the wings around the parameter as you suggested, w/ vents fully open. Thanks also for that vent hint.

Fuel: I have a bag of super high quality lump left from my BGE. The pieces are huge chunks. I winder if I can break them up some how? I was considering buying a bag of Kingsford blue due to the size and consistency... but it sounds like your advocating for lump.

I have the old grill grate that came w/ the grill. I was going to toss it, but perhaps I should keep it and try to rehab it.

Thanks again!
JD

 

[jjdbike]

Sounds like a great feast and plan to me except use baking powder on the wings, not soda.

Interesting.
I mix those two up frequently.
Recipes on the interwebs, some suggest powder, some soda, but most suggest soda over powder.
Now I'm confused.
JD

Yes, baking soda, per Bon Appetite.

"Just Add Baking Soda. It's probably an ingredient you've never thought to rub on meat, but baking soda is the key to baked chicken wings with real crunch."

Ed

Now I'm confused too. Every youtuber I've watched says baking powder "not baking soda" they say. Corn starch is another popular coating.

A vote for powder by America's test kitchen:

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/3717-baking-powder-the-secret-weapon-for-crispy-chicken-skin

Thanks Ed,
Yes I saw that Bon Appetite. Malcum Reed of Killer Hogs from BBQ done right grilled them tossed in corn starch and said he liked how crunch they were. He said they tasted like a "grilled fried chicken wing". I wonder if a light toss in a combo of soda & starch would work?
JD

Hey everyone,

I did some deeper research on powder vs soda. It seems that in this instance, powder does make more sense. Both are leveling agents which release gas to make things airier. Soda require an acid & a liquid to do it's work. Powder contains an acid and therefore only requires moisture. Powder is also double acting, meaning it released gas when initially applied, and then again when cooking. Baking powder also contains corn starch.
Based upon these factors, I believe baking powder would be THE ingredient for this use.

Best regards,
JD

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

Yo JD, Most of the grilling/smoking I do on the Kettle lasts less than two hours. I usually have to replenish the coals after one hour. I use good quality charcoal briquettes when I start a cooking fire for indirect cooking on the Kettle. I begin cooking with two-thirds to three-quarters of a chimney's worth of lit coals. If the fire needs more coals, I either add more lit briquettes or small pieces of unlit lump charcoal. These lump pieces are no bigger than a briquette. Pieces bigger than a briquette can be broken down with a hammer. I leave the piece of lump I am trying to break up inside the bag when I strike it with a hammer. This leaves the dust and mess inside the bag and you won't have to search for the small pieces in the yard, patio or driveway.


I am not sure as to what vent hint I suggested, but I will tell you these tips. Weber used to put this information in the owners manual on how to properly set up the Kettle for indirect cooking. I am not sure if they still do this, so I will relate that information. Usually what Weber refers to as the front leg, it is the leg that is directly underneath the handle of the Kettle. If not, one of the three legs should face the wind. This should place two bottom vents facing the wind and the third vent running the same direction as the wind. Let's say the wind is blowing down towards the bottom of the page that we are reading. The vents should look like this: Y.



Your coals on each side should run the same direction wind. When you place the lid on the Kettle, the vents on the lid should be at the back of the Kettle. According to Weber, this set up allows for the most consistent air draw which will yields the most consistent heat from each side of the coals. After many trials and errors, I have found this to be true from cooking bacon on the grill. If one side's coals are burning a lot hotter than the other sides coals, one side of the meat will cook hotter and faster than the other.


One word of warning on that lid placement. If that is a used Kettle, make sure that lid seals down on the bottom part of the Kettle. Over time and usage, sometimes the lid does not seal like it used to. If the fire is hot, after replacing the lid on the Kettle, the lid although it feels or appears to be sealed, after about a minute, it l can pop back up and break the seal. When the lid is not sealed properly, the fire will get a lot hotter than the cooking temperature you are wanting. This leads to another tip. If you want to increase your cooking temperature or your coals seem to be going out, leave the lid loose with the gap between the lid and bottom at the leeward side of the wind. Just keep an eye on things when you do this. The fire may get hotter quicker than you expect.



I am sure you know how to cool down the fire if need be by using the vents. When I am done cooking, I close the top and bottom vents and make sure the lid is sealed. The fire goes out and I will reuse the extinguished and coal remnants in my WSM.



That cooking grate can easily be cleaned up with a wire brush and THEN use a stainless steel "Chore Boy" scrubber to finish things up. The chore boy will remove any wire brush bristles that may have shed during its use. Carefully inspect that grate if you use a wire brush! If the grill is rusty, rub some cooking oil all around the grate and place it over a hot fire. After burning off the oil and letting the grate cool, clean the grate with a rag and rub some more oil onto the grate.



I saved my best piece of advice for last. If I were you, I would do a practice run cooking something using the indirect method. Some cheap sausage will work or even burgers. A practice run will give you an idea of what you will be doing when you are trying to show off your cooking skills for your guests. You should have an easy time with the wings using the fire in the middle and the wings on the perimeter so you shouldn't need a practice run for the wings. Good luck!



I hope this helps,


Juggy