I am getting serious about grilling and need some help. I went to Wal-Mart the other day and bought one of the $40 charcoal grills. I really like it I am just having a tough time with getting my heat right. It is the dome style grill that has the coal catcher underneath it. Do I need to put a bunch of coals in this and let it burn down good before I start cooking? If I put a little in it, it works real well for just a little while then get's to cool again. Any help will be appreciated

Hellow fellow Okie! Make a pile in the center of the grill and light. after its turned white, spread it around evenly. the trick is to control the air going in and out with the vents. more air means a hotter fire.

Build a "pile" of briquets in the center of the bottom grate (enough to cover the bottom when spread out.) Pour some charcoal lighter fluid on the "pile" and wait 2-3 minutes before lighting to let the briquets soak. Light the briquets and wait for 85-90% to turn gray, then spread out on the grate. It is nice IF there is a breather vent on the bottom and top of the pit to regulate the air-flow/heat. You are now ready to cook!

Randy...

First off, throw away the lighter fluid!!!!!

What I would highly suggest doing is to go to WalMart or (preferably Home Depot or Lowes) and buy a Chimney starter. HD & Lowes carry the Webber brand which is larger and built much sturdier. The cheapies will run about $12 with the Webber running about $3-$4 more. Pictured here is the Webber.



With the chimney starter you use no nasty starter fluid! Believe me, you can taste the difference!!!

Just dump the coals in the chimney and drizzle some veggie or olive oil on 2 or 3 paper towels and set underneath the full chimney. Light the paper towels (they will smoke some) and walk away. In about 20 minutes the coals on top should be starting to turn gray. Just pick the chimney up and dump the coals on the charcoal grate on you grill spreading them evenly.

As for controlling the heat, make sure that you have plenty of airflow underneath the bed of coals on your grate. If not they will choke and die.

From there, if you have an adjustment for the intake and exhaust, keep the exhaust (in the lid) 100% open and adjust the temp with the intake (in the bottom of the grill).

If you are getting interested in grilling, check out the Texas BBQ Forum for tons of good information and lots of friendly folks that love to talk about grilling and help people.

I hope that this works for ya!

When you get used to the grill, then you can start playing around and build a 2 zone fire or cook indirect heat, etc...

Nascarchuck is right.....using a chimney starter is the only way to go.

If you can, stick with the Weber products. IMO, their products are the only option when cooking with charcoal.

That's what that thing is. We have one just didn't know what it was used for. Thanks for the help. I am going to grill something tonight, just don't know what.

The chimney starter will be like a jet engine, and creates very hot coals in less time than charcoal fluid. Use a quality briquette like Royal Oak or Kingsford, or a natural hardwood charcoal.

When the coals are grey, it's time to cook.

Briquettes are pressed waste products... Use lump charcoal - it stays really hot for a long time and burns consistently. B&B is a great brand and is produced in Flatonia, Texas.

Ditto on the starter. If you have a propane burner (turkey fryer or for crawfish boils - wait, do you have crawfish in OK? Anyway...) you can just put the chimney on top of that and let it rip. The coals will be burning in about 1 minute. Good luck!

Nascarchuck for the win! Couldnt have been any more correct!

i agree with panko i have a green egg i only use the lump charcoal.

Use Chimney starter buy best brand and largest size
Zero Fluid starter
Allow quiality briquette to get white

spread a few baseball size chunks of seasoned oak on grate and spread charcoal on top of those.

Oak will smoke for great flavor and increase longivity of heat in fire.

Next year if you still enjoy BBQ go buy http://www.academy.com/index.php?page=co...0263-40521-3725

This is a starter smoker and makes the most awesome food. Anyboby can use it becasue it is EASIER than a circle pit.

Good luck

Chimneys and lump charcoal are the only way to go. Anything else is a waste of food.

Let your grate heat up then brush off old crust. just before you put the meat on, wipe grate down with a wadded up paper towel soaked in canola oil.
Whatever meat you grill, (cept fish), let it set on the grate for at least 5 minutes before touching, then don't flip it but give it a 45 degree turn. (Perfect grill marks). Another 5 minutes then flip. Now grill to finish.

Allways allow your meat to rest before carving. Retains more of it's juices that way.

I agree with this post other than using the CharGriller as a smoker. The CharGriller makes a fantastic grill, but I wont use it as a smoker any more. You have to mess with it too often to maintain the temperatures for my likings.

I made a smoker out of a 55 gallon drum and I can put less than 1/2 bag of Kingsford in it with about 1/2 of a chimney and it will maintain 220 to 250* for more than 18 hours without ever touching the fire. All I have to do is adjust the intake 2 or 3 times through out the smoke.

I posted pics of it awhile back in the O/T and they all laughed, but it is easier and more efficient than anything that I have even smoked with before. I would be happy to share pictures and plans/details if y'all would like.

As far as the CharGriller, I paid $119 at Lowes for the next step down from the link above. Like I said, it's a great grill! I love mine!

Like I said, starter smoker.

This is my wish list.

http://www.gatorpit.net/prod01.htm

I smoke about 20 LBS a week in my CharGriller and it is work to keep tempature but the end result is delicious and the fact I draw pretty large crowds now is allowing my wife to agree I need the $4000 model.

FYI.... craigslist often has propane tanks for cheap or premade pits, if you just want the barrel style.

Thanks for the help!

Nascarchuck is right on the money....don't use lighter fluid unless you light the flavor of lighter fluid in your food. Use a chimney starter and you will be amazed how easy it is!

Good Luck

Gatorpit makes really nice smokers! That is also my dream smoker as well.

If you do alot of smoking, try to find you a 55 gal drum. I built mine for around $50 to $75 and it works great! The only drawback is the amount of meat that you can smoke. I can fit 2 whole packers or two butts (probably more) and with a rib rack can probably get about 8 racks on it.

If nascarchuck post anything about cooking or grilling you can take it to the bank. I have tried a lot of his recipes and have not been disappointed yet.

nascarchuck
what section did you post you 55 gallon smoker in? I will build one.

Icetea

Now a comment like that is nice enough to give someone a big head! thanks for the compliment!

I just posted the plans and a few pics at http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/2407271#Post2407271

The paperback book "Beer can Chicken" has some excellent recipes plus some good information on indirect heat etc. An excellent book for beginners I think or for anyone for that matter.

That little R2D2 looking smoker makes a good one for smaller items, I have worn out two of them over the past 20 years. It can be used as a grill, smoker etc, not the best for anything but for the price it works pretty good at a lot of things. Pretty much bullet proof cooking wise if you follow the directions that come with it until you learn your own style. Think they are under 30.00 at academy assembled. I kept one and a 55 gallon drum for bigger stuff until the floor finally gave out on the drum.

Chuck knows his stuff. I do use either a match light charcoal or lighter fluid if I am work traveling and want to grill outside my motel door sometimes, with those you just have to let use less charcoal to start the fire and let those burn down partly and then add extra charcoal and let it light off the starter stuff. By the time the extra charcoal has started to turn white the volatile stuff is lone gone. The chimney is much better though. I also used to use an electric lighter that worked ok. I prefer the chimney though. I really liked Chuck's tip about the towels and veg oil, I always used newspapers like the directions said.

To expand om the paper towel idea, I got about 5 or 6 paper towels and pulled them apart. Then I put them in a ziplock bag, throw a little oil in it and whamo! Now all that you have to do is open the bag and grab 1 paper towel and light the chimney.

I just bought a turkey fryer and the last time I grilled I just set the chimney on top of the burner and lit it using the burner. Worked great!

Hope this helps.

Grilled pork chops tonight!!!

get a larger pit or start a satellite fire, use real wood and dont rush it, if it scalds your eye brows then yes, its too hot, and good god, listen to everyone else about air control, whats too much or too little? you can usually tell after 15 minutes of opening or closing the air, i've noiced 1/2 inch making a difference, flair ups - use beer on that small pit or MOVE IT OFF THE FLAME... and more importantly, just grill over and over and over again not once a quater year. good luck, i'll show you pictures of my brisket and ribs i'm doing tomorrow morning.