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It’s between semesters and I’m on break so I thought I’d take a moment to blog about something besides design and school. One of my passions is grilling. I grill on average 2-3 times a week year round. Over the years I have developed a few techniques that I figured I would share.

To begin, I’m a religious charcoal fanatic. Gas grills are nice and convenient and all (and I’ve even designed a few) but I can get more flavor from my stove. If I’m going to grill I want my food to taste grilled. People complain about charcoal grills taking too long to get ready. Personally I find this time outside enjoying the sunset and a nice libation rather nice. Plus, if you use the following technique your grill will be ready to cook on in less time than starting with a fresh batch of charcoal each time (typically 15-20 minutes to ready-to-cook). I’ve tried all types of charcoal but good ol’ regular Kingsford is by far my favorite. Chunk or “natural” charcoals are popular with the gourmet crowd but I find that they burn too hot and fast and are very difficult to control.

Next, I’m a Weber 22 1/2″ kettle grill nut. This is my 4th or 5th Weber charcoal grill over the past 15-18 years. I’ve tried a variety of Weber models but keep coming back to the basic 22 1/2″ model. The biggest design flaw with all the Webers is the design of the ash catcher. Their premium models feature an ash can that fits tight to the bottom of the grill. It looks nice and all but blocks too much airflow through the grill and becomes impossible to deal with once the soft aluminum becomes deformed. The base models’ aluminum dish is pretty crappy, too but there’s less ultimately that can go wrong. Weber, you can and should do better. Oh, and Weber, if you are listening, please bring back the wooden handles. Plastic conducts heat, you know.

So, on to the meat ;-) of the article! The secret to recycling charcoal begins with the previous grilling. Once you are finished cooking, close all vents on the grill and place the lid firmly on top of the grill to extinguish the coals. With the Weber this will completely smother the fire within about 10 minutes. DISCLAIMER: your mileage will vary with other grills. Do yourself a favor and go buy a Weber. End of Weber plugs.

When you go to start your fire you should find something like this:

I use my grilling spatula to rake the old charcoal back and forth a bit. This dislodges the old ash which drops into the bottom of the grill.

Once the raking is done pile the old charcoal to one side of the grill and, cycling the bottom air vent back and forth, empty the ash into the ash catcher. This is a critical step as ash build-up in the bottom of the grill hinders airflow through the grill. Be sure to leave the bottom vent open when you are done. Now is also a good time to take a pull or two on that frosty beverage as you’re hands will get dirty in the next step.

On the opposite side from where you piled the old charcoal pour out a small amount of new charcoal (typically about 1/2 to 2/3 what you would use for a virgin fire) and arrange into a nice mound:

Add lighter fluid and light:

While the charcoal is getting ready, I start work on what could be the most critical part of the process…preparing the hickory chips. Recall the words of Kenny Rogers. “It’s the wood that makes it good.” I always soak a handful of hickory chips in hot water in preparation for adding to the coals later.

Once the coals are ready…

rake them out evenly across half the bottom of the grill…

now, rake the old coals evenly over the new hot coals (still only covering 1/2 the grill bottom):

Wait 5 minutes or so and the old coals should be fully lit and ready. NOTE: the grill will smell like something is burning. That’s just the drippings burning off the old coals. Also serves to add more flavor during cooking and attracts nosy neighbor types.

Evenly spread the coals over the bottom of the grill (or leave on one side for indirect cooking):

I usually put the grill grate on over the hot coals to cook off anything left over from last time. As you can see, I like a good build-up on my grill to add even more grill-y flavor ;-)

At this point the coals are really too hot to cook on so I install the lid for 5 minutes or so with top and bottom vents fully open to bring the temperature down a bit and get a fresh beer/glass of wine:

Now that the fire is cooled down a bit and ready for cooking, I remove the grill grate and add my (drained) hickory chips evenly over the coals:

Replace grill grate and immediately add food to be grilled:

Replace the lid and let the smoke do its magic. Cook as usual. Enjoy your beverage.

You’ll likely only get 5-10 minutes of smoke from the hickory chips but it’s plenty to impart a nice hearty wood smoke flavor to your meat. I use hickory chips every time I grill. They are my only real secret ingredient and now I’ve gone and blabbed it all over the internet :P

I like to flip the meat at least once during this smoky period, but I doubt that has much effect on the flavor and probably only helps to more evenly brown the outside of the meat. Also, I always cook with the lid on. Cooking over open coals will only burn the outside of your meats and dry everything out, while cooking with the lid on locks in the heat like an oven and ensures evenly cooked and juicy meats.

Finally, as soon as you remove your grilled foods be sure to close off all vents and firmly replace the lid to extinguish the fire. This will make sure that you have a good batch of recycled charcoal for tomorrow night!

Happy green grilling :D

UPDATE:

I picked up a Weber Charcoal Chimney Starter and cut my charcoal ready time in half. Also, I’ve replaced lighter fluid with my girls’ recycling bin art scraps to start the charcoal. This thing’s like a friggin’ charcoal blast furnace. Pretty awesome. At $13 it will pay for itself in less than 6 months. It’s much bigger and better made than the other no-name versions I’ve tried and thrown away in the past. Too bad it uses the same crappy plastic handles as the grill….

December 17th, 2008 | Tags: 22 1/2" Kettle Grill, charcoal, chicken, chimney starter, flavor, green, how to, Kingsford, recycle, smoke, used, Weber | Category: My life | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL