Cooking Direct

[Duke]

I have often wondered what George's idea about direct cooking was. Like in the Smokey Joe, you almost have to cook everything direct because of the size. Even with an indirect setup there really isn't that much room on a 22.5. Was his idea to not use a lot of charcoal and do everything direct? Or just add roast pans or tin foil to gaurd the meat from the direct flames? I might start practicing his method.

[Craig]

It would be cool to find pics of him grilling. Would love to have had an opportunity to pick his brain for a few.

[TheFinkFarm]

I cook direct almost exclusively. I leave the lid on with the vents wide open. If I flip something and get a flame it goes out within about 5 seconds of the lid being put back on. You just have to know how hot your grill is. If you have too much charcoal you may have to wait a little after you spread your coals so let them cool by getting more ash on them.

[Duke]

I cook direct almost exclusively. I leave the lid on with the vents wide open. If I flip something and get a flame it goes out within about 5 seconds of the lid being put back on. You just have to know how hot your grill is. If you have too much charcoal you may have to wait a little after you spread your coals so let them cool by getting more ash on them.

Thanks FF, I am going to give it a try with a whole butterflied chicken soon. I also have a depiction of a very large steak possibly a london broil that looks good and I also plan t give that a try. It had mushrooms on top and looked like it was being cooked slowly direct. My plan is to just have a low bed of charcoal far from the main grate and do it slowly.

[Cookingmama]

I have often wondered what George's idea about direct cooking was. Like in the Smokey Joe, you almost have to cook everything direct because of the size. Even with an indirect setup there really isn't that much room on a 22.5. Was his idea to not use a lot of charcoal and do everything direct? Or just add roast pans or tin foil to gaurd the meat from the direct flames? I might start practicing his method.

I'm going to admit my first thought was that you were referring to Go Anywhere-George... Then it hit me.   Lol

I'm going to admit at first I thought you were referring to go anywhere-George?...then it hit me lol

[Cookingmama]

I cook direct almost exclusively. I leave the lid on with the vents wide open. If I flip something and get a flame it goes out within about 5 seconds of the lid being put back on. You just have to know how hot your grill is. If you have too much charcoal you may have to wait a little after you spread your coals so let them cool by getting more ash on them.

I saw your videos with the 2 chickens.....and I was like, whoa he spread coals everywhere, there's no cool zone.  But they came out pretty good.

[1buckie]

Yeah, it was real interesting to see Fink's video for 'turds on a Smokie....

For me, it was a very short step to 14 hour pork shoulders & 18 hour clod roast, as I spent years & years using a smaller & smaller amount of coals, direct, to do stuff longer & longer time......

If you think about how many billions ( Trillions ?) of burgers & dawgs have been done on a kettle over 60+ years, direct makes sense....
It seems like from some of the old photos & ad's that people have put up here that they were testing out doing roasts & larger cuts to demonstrate to "families" that Dad could do whatever Mom could do in the house just fine outside.......
Didn't have to take out a second on the homestead to do a prime rib in those days either.....

I cook direct almost exclusively. I leave the lid on with the vents wide open. If I flip something and get a flame it goes out within about 5 seconds of the lid being put back on. You just have to know how hot your grill is. If you have too much charcoal you may have to wait a little after you spread your coals so let them cool by getting more ash on them.

I actually have a tough time with high heat direct, sort of....   but that's the ticket, right there ^^^^^^^