This arrangement is better than the Santa Maria-style grill where the food moves up and down and the coals are stationary because the head room above the food isn’t reduced. If the burners are deprived of oxygen, the flame goes out, but the gas fuel keeps coming, building up under the hood and creating a serious fire hazard. The opposite is true of charcoal grills, which function best as sealed systems with solid, tight construction for effective air control. Just as with gas, the charcoal fire needs oxygen to burn, and you can use this oxygen flow to your advantage. Shut down the air dampers to drop the cooking temp or snuff the charcoal out entirely when finished. Open them wide to flood the fire with oxygen and create a rip-roaring, red-hot coal bed.
The Cuisinart Kettle Grill boasts on its box that it only takes 15 minutes to set up; it actually took us 27 minutes to complete the task. Both the Char-Griller Kettle and the Oklahoma Joe’s Kettle Grill took us 45 minutes to set up. Clean the cooking grate as you would any other grate — use a good grill cleaning tool to remove food debris (when it’s still warm), but don’t use anything metal. You may want to occasionally wash it with warm water and perhaps a mild soap.
Built to Last- Charcoal Weber Grills feature a tried and true design and solid engineering. Weber believes in the quality and craftsmanship of their grills, and offer the warranty to back it up. If you want a charcoal grill to last decades, then this is the brand for you. The Weber Kettle is capable of searing steak, grilling hamburgers weber q and hotdogs, vegetables, etc. It can also be easily transformed into a smoker through the strategic arrangement of charcoal. The last Weber kettle I owned was given to me by my father and lasted 10+ years; The grill is so old that it doesn’t have newer features like a lid thermometer, handle heat shield, or lid hanger.
If you’ve never cooked with charcoal before, the Original Kettle is an excellent grill for discovering this style of barbecue. Some of the ash will fall weber genesis 2 through to the ash catcher a few inches below the bowl. For the rest, Weber has equipped the Original Kettle with its “One-touch” ash removal system.
We looked for charcoal grills with good heat retention, but that also allowed for easy airflow adjustments through dampers and vents or other functions like an adjustable charcoal tray. The most exciting thing about this grill, however, is the crank handle that raises and lowers the charcoal tray. An access door on the front of the grill makes it easy to add or manipulate coals while cooking too. This grill hits the sweet spot size-wise too since it’s lightweight and fairly compact, but still has plenty of room to create both a high-heat and indirect-heat zone. The round grate has ample cooking space for an entire Thanksgiving turkey, at least 10 burgers , or a few beer-can chickens.