Newbie help

[DSHEP]

Hi guys,
I cooked with my new Weber last night for the first time.
The coals were lit, the lid was left off for the flames to burn, and as per the instructions, once the coals were coated in ash and nice and warm, the food went on, and the lid was closed.
The first burgers were cooked incredibly well!
Then the second lot went on, and the heat had gone, and they were not cooking.

How can i keep heat going for as long as i need?

Add more coals while there is still heat to ignite them?
Put more coals on and light again?
How best to do this with/without removing the grill and getting ash everywhere?

I found some more lighter cubes and had some more coals, so with the aid of some rolled up paper i got the new coals running again and had plenty heat to finish off the half cooked 2nd batch of burgers...

Thanks guys

[1buckie]

Howdy, again !!!

I'm following you around temporarily........just over saying welcome to your 1st posting......

Might could start in just a tad sooner.......I dump coals in (using a starter chimney) when they're still a bit orange & for a grilling like burgers, cap the lid with all the vents open top & bottom for a few minutes so the cooker concentrates the heat & the cooking grate gets a chance to heat up good....

If you are doing several rounds of cooking, you could perhaps lay in a bed of unlit coals, then dump the lit ones on top & adjust the vents on the bottom pinched down a little to account for the extra load of coals.....this again is assuming you're using the chimney starter.....the idea here is the lit coals give you your 1st heat & as the unlit begin to then catch on, the heat continues......may take a few runs at it to get the hang of it & keep your temperature where you'd like, but it's easier than it sounds describing it over the phone like this !!!


Now, if you're lighting the charcoal right in the kettle, there's still ways to get things extended in terms of heat...........you can light  a goodly pile & set in some unlit NEXT to it, then as your get up to the heat you'd like to be cooking at, bridge the gap with a few lit ones & start the unlit ones to catching on.................

Other things to consider:
Make sure to store your charcoal in a dry, closed area / container....the stuff is like a sponge for moisture & can give you fits keeping it lit when damp.....

If you find, like this 1st time, you ran short, make a mental note, or better yet, write a  few notes about how many lit, how long before beginning to cook, etc.
This gives you some basis to check back on....

Set up your coals on one side of the grate so you have a hot grilling area & light a few more than you think, based on your previous cookups.....this gives your two areas: a hot direct grilling area & a cooler (not over the coals) indirect area to fall back on if needed, or for more extended cooking......

Hope I'm not just driveling over stuff that's all obvious, let me know if some photos would help, or if I'm explaining well enough?

[DSHEP]

Thanks!

So im not using a chimney, im lighting coals in the middle of the bottom grill directly under my food.
I definitely think ill use more coals next time, my main concern is, say they last for 45 minutes, and i still need to continue cooking, do i take the middle grill out, pop some in, and keep going? If so, i guess i'd have to do that pretty early on as if i do that when the heat has died down then they wont light anyway and its game over!

[1buckie]

 Hold on just a moment here.....I''m finding a few cookups & pics to maybe demonstrate better........

[1buckie]

OK........... here's a goodly pack of coals for a grilling of turkey legs:



This is as the first batch was burning down a bit & as you see in the 1st pic, I've added some coals directly on top to then bring the fuel level & heat up....



From a different perspective with, I believe, even a few more added in...............



Moving the food back & forth as needed to cook at slightly different rates (some were sauced & wrapped in foil, some not):



Here you can see the blocks of wood used for flavoring & also as an additional fuel...............




Saucing.....here you can see there's almost 2/3 of the area with no coals underneath........a 'safe zone' ..............a ' baking zone' ....... a 'lower heat zone'..... very useful area.......




Not sure on your European & new model, but do they give you a grate with the flip-up sides?



If not, then it becomes a bit more tricky to add coals at any given time....pulling the cook grate out is one way, another is to carefully drop in thru the small open area near the handle.....just orient that to your coal pack at the very start.............
I think adding unlit coals a few at a time is not a problem......were it to be a big load of unlit, you might get some off taste, which is why the initial instructions call for waiting 'till ashed over.....

One more thing I thought of.....avoid the "instant light" charcoals if at all possible....too much chemical taste, esp. if adding unlit ones.............

There's lots of  help & guidance here......all kinds of added & different experience.....you'll be able to do pretty much anything you'd like 'cause someone will know how to get you up & running !!!!


.

[tdw]

1buckie - do you always use briquets instead of lump charcoal ... I really liked using briquets the couple of times I tried low & slow using your snake method; but, I've gone back to lump charcoal as I thought it was preferable.

[1buckie]

Briquettes are a little more predictable, but if you're easily able to get the general range of heat where you'd like, then go with that.....

I've had a few times where the chain or 'snake' didn;t go so well w/ lump coals, part of which may have been me having too many things to attend to all at once, but some of which was that lump needs careful setup to get good contact......the people using WSM cookers will a lot of times say load up & shake the basket down to compact the charcoal, I  believe for that reason..................

Here's what I'd usually do:



Briquettes with smaller chips of lump added on top..............."burn insurance"......uses up lump rhat would ordinarily fall thru the grates & helps make sure the  line goes smoothly..............

From this cookup:

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/food-pr0n/bob's-beef-o-rama/msg20382/#msg20382

[DSHEP]

Thank you!
And yes, i have the pop up sides.

Looks good, so what I'm seeing is while there is still heat, slowly feed in more unlit and allow the heat to burn the new lumps.

Finally!! How would you advise to use the bottom vents and lid vent? Ie around time of all hot and cooking, needing to ignite new lumps, etc.

Many many thanks for your time on this! I will reply back when i next cook with pics etc

[1buckie]

You can feed unlit a few at a time, yes.......if you acquire  a chimney or we figure out some other method, you could also drop pre-lit ones.....slightly more tricky as care must be taken in transfer, but I do it all the time over the paving stone cooking pad I'm working on..................

Glad they do supply the flip-ups.......I milk those for all they're worth ~~~>

[1buckie]

"Finally!! How would you advise to use the bottom vents and lid vent? Ie around time of all hot and cooking, needing to ignite new lumps, etc."

.....forgot this part......

I run top vent always open to let the fire exhaust cleanly....some will pinch it down for fine tuning the heat control.....

The bottom vents are still the main key to fire management......a large amount of coals can be made to run longer by closing the vents aways down......wide open with a large amount, high heat grilling......smaller areas or chains of coals, maybe pinched down to then run for many hours......

Here's a story about that with some additional photos & such:

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/other-recipes/something-different/msg25015/#msg25015


I don't happen to have pics, but some folks mark on their cannister (Gold Models) where the vent is open to, so as to not have to open the lid to check........that loses a major amount of heat every time you do that......the old BBQ adage: "If You're Lookin', You Ain't Cookin' !!!!"

.

[DSHEP]

Haha indeed.
Well i just need to learn where the lever is, as to what is open and what is closed
TBH, my friend kept lifting the lid yesterday and i told him off numerous times lol
Thanks again, really appreciate it. As i say, ill document my next cook  and report back

[1buckie]

          You're gettin' the hang of it !!!

Gotta go, but I'll check back in for updates !!!!

[One Touch Platinum]

Go to bbqpitboys.com , they have hundreds of videos that will help you out......they will really help you out with two zone cooking since most of what they do is either indirect or a combination of direct and indirect cooking. They have a bunch of videos on just different burger cook ups too. As a side note, the recipe for their bacon cornbread is GREAT!!!

[DSHEP]

Thanks for the tip OneTouch! Im on it!

[AJ328]

Play around with the vents and charcoal and it won't be more than two or three cooks before you get to know the grill. One problem you might have had was having the vents on the bottom closed.

About a week ago I cleaned out one of my grills with the one touch system, filled a chimney and then prepped the meat. I went out in time to dump the coals and arrange them when I saw a friend passing by walking his dog so I put the lid on, and walked over and started talking to him, 20 minutes later I came back to a 150 degree grill that should have been well over 400  

Turns out after cleaning I forgot to return the bottom vents to the open position

If I was just cooking burgers I would have gotten through the first batch no problem , but the second would have been a problem.

Luckily I hadn't put the chicken on it yet.