How To Grill with Charcoal?

[mkedda]

How do you know when charcoal is ready to be grilled on?

I loaded up a weber chimeny, I saw the orange in the middle and the top started to have some ash.

I dumped the chimeny into the grill.
I put the lid on the grill.
All the vents were wide open.

The temperature never got above 300 degrees?

What did I do wrong ?

Should I have left it open and allowed the charcoal to burn longer

 

[geek with fire]

Simplified, temperature is a direct product of volume and airflow. If you want higher temperatures, add various combinations of the 2.

Meaning, if you know you are getting good ventilation, add a second chimney of charcoal. You can also place unburned coals on top of the burned ones, but you will get an unflavorable smells (and taste) if you use bricks. Lump would resolve that problem.

Most smokers are either poorly designed for proper ventilation and/or are terribly inefficient. Most can always use more ventilation. Most can always use some sort of gaskets to fill gaps. So, raise your chargoal grate a bit and pump more air in there. I use a blower fan with mine and could melt aluminum if I want. Use aluminum foil to fill in gaps. When you see smoke come out of something other than the exhaust, seal it.

Not sure what kind of smoker or fuel you are using, but using lump charcoal is an easy way to add at least 50 degrees as it naturally burns hotter. It also has less ash, which reduces airflow restrictions.

 

[flagriller]

The charcoal should be 100% white befor you attempt to grill on it. I don't use briquetts I use natural lump, which burns hotter. As for the temps, well close the top vent a little and go 1/2 on the bottoms. Also, it depends on what type of grill you have but it should easly reach 500* but without know what you have I can't be sure. One big this, check to ensure your thermometer is working correctly. If you want to talk offline shoot me an e-mail.

 

[the dude abides]

Hey mkedda,
I'm guessing this is a continuation on the failed WSM grill.

I'm not sure what happened to you but here's what I do and have never had a problem. And it doesn't matter if I'm using lump or briquets. Or whether I'm using my Kettle or the WSM.

Fill the chimney. Put two full sheets of newspaper in the bottom (full sheets being a total of 4 numbered pages). Light the paper and let it sit until it completly ashes over. Dump the chimney. If you're just grilling, spread the coals out evenly. If smoking, I dump the hot coals into a ring of unlit charcoal with wood chunks mixed throughout. Here's a thread I did a while back showing me doing the Minion Method.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=78090

Your comment about seeing the glow in the middle but not completly lit yet on top may have been your problem, but I'm not convinced of that. Also, what were the wind conditions like? Did you have the grate installed underneath the charoal basket? Did you have the 3 bottom vents all the way open? Leaving them fully open will give the charcoal the most air and hence more heat.

You said it never got above 300*. When I'm smoking I'd have to work pretty hard to get it that hot in there. But then again that's with a water pan and grates full of meat.

I would think if you're using the WSM to just grill, and you're setting the cooking grate right on top of the charcoal basket, you should have had no problems. Also be sure to check out http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/index.html
to see if there's any other info there.

Best of luck to you.

 

[mkedda]

I am using a weber smokey mountain as a weber kettle.

So, after dumping the charcoal from the chimney into the grill, i need to wait until ALL the charcoal has gone white.

 

[mkedda]

First of all, thanks "The Dude Abides" and to all of you!. I really appreciate all of your help.

Yes, it is a continuation of the failed attempt. Sorry to clog the forums, please close the OTHER thread.

I have removed the entire middle section of the WSM and am using just the lid and a grate directly over the charcoal. All three bottom vents were open.

I have the chimeny over an outdoor gas stove instead of burning paper.

Wind conditions were essentially no wind.

 

[flagriller]

Smokers generally don't make good grills, so here is the easy way. Get a Weber Kettle for $79 or a knockoff one for $50. I've used a Weber Kettle for years and so long as you keep them covered you'll get many years out of them, same with the knockoff. Use lump, but no Cowboy, it's cheap.

 

[thestealth]

*Edit: I guess I should have refreshed before posting.

What kind of grill?
What kind of thermometer?
How close was the coals to the fire?
What kind of charcoal?

My wife usually put the meat on when the coals all have grey/white around the edges. This of course depends upon what she is cooking.

My wifes grill (yeah, I know) has a factory gauge in the lid that is not very accurate past 300*. We were grilling pizza the other night and you have to grill them at 400*+. The gauge on the lid read just under 400 but the oven thermometer I put on the grill was reading 475*. That was with one unlit chimney of coals and one lit chimney of coals, both spread around the very edges of the grill and the lid closed.

 

[bigsteve]

I agree, except that I would buy a used Weber off Craigslist before I bought a knock-off.

In my grill, a full chimney would spread out on the charcoal grate, 1 coal deep, and give me something like 300 degrees. If I took that same amount of coal and piled it up 3 deep, it would give me over 500* in a small area. For grilling many things, you should be setting up your hot coals about 3 deep in an area, 1 deep in another area, and perhaps no coals in a third area. IE; Hot, med and cool. That gives you intense heat to sear, and med heat to finish. The third area is where you throw the meat if it starts to burn, or finishes faster than the other meat.

BTW, this book is fantastic for grilling. Even if you don't use any of the recipes, he still teaches you how to operate a grill, and how to grill most any cut of meat.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Grill-Comp...9583393&sr=1-1

 

[flagriller]

I agree, except that I would buy a used Weber off Craigslist before I bought a knock-off.

Absoooluuutely!!!!!!! If you can find one.
I have a Fire Magic E790i island grill, and I supplement it with a Weber Kettle for charcoal, and a Char Griller Outlaw with SFB for smoking and building a fire with wood to cook on.

 

[jirodriguez]

Watch Craigslist. I picked up a 22" Weber Kettle, with the 1 touch ash bucket for $25. Even found one for a friend that was free - just needed a good power washing

.

I realized the trying to hot grill on my Char-Griller was not good, the high heat burned all my nice seasoning off of the grates - had to reseason all of them

. Plus I use the Weber Kettle as a place to light my chimneys for when I am doing a long smoke.

 

[fishawn]

Weber Kettles are near bulletproof also, I have one my grandfather bought new. It must be 25-30 years old & still functions perfectly. As mentioned earlier, Craigslist they can be had for almost nothing & even free sometimes.

 

[deltadude]

mkedda, there is NO reason you can't grill from your WSM! I looked at the WSM manual and there is some info on how to grill with your WSM.
Below is info from Virtualweberbullet on how to grill on you WSM.

First rem, having the right tools is always a plus, but its not the cooker its the cook that turns out great tasting grub. Like any other way to cook food, you have to learn how to use your tools to accomplish what you want.

Manage your heat...
One problem is the WSM recommended setup for grilling (according to the manual) makes the distance from charcoal grate to cooking grate TOO FAR or too great. The Weber Kettle distance charcoal grate to cooking grate in my Weber Kettle is 6". The W-Kettle of 6" is a design to accomplish a wide variety of grilling an average. However using various tricks you can shorten the gap and get some intense heat closer to the meat.
I don't have a infrared gun thermometer to check heat, when I cook pizza, I can get my weber kettle with a pizza stone to over 700 deg F (reading is a guess with a 650 deg Oven therm that is pegged), (search my aka and find the pizza posts, I explain the techniques).

Make Necessary Adjustments..
Read the below info from vwb site, choose or experiment with which method will give you the results you want and then apply.

Because you are asking, you inquiring mind will absorb the necessary info to adjust and you will be turning out great Q and excellent grilled stuff soon.

Good Luck