Dumb Question of the Day: How do you use the Weber One-Touch Gold?


 
JeffB

JeffB

TVWBB Pro
Bought it and put it together without a hitch, but when I tried to "season" it by running a small bag of Match Light charcoal through it, it died on me. I had big flames going but putting the lid on snuffed out the flame, even with the holes open on the top lid.

So, how do you use it? Do you have to open the lower grates a bit to keep the flame going? By lower grates, I mean the elongated holes that exist to remove ash.

I guess the 2 questions are (1) how do you control temps and (2) how do you keep the fire going on a long cook?

Thanks!

JeffB <===exits stage left quickly before the "hey idiot!" comments begin from the unruly crowd.....
 
Jeff you have seen the vents on the bottom right? If not look at the bottom of the OTG inside you will see three slot type vents you control with the handle outside by the ash catcher.
Do yourself a favor also and use a permanent marker and mark on the housing next to the handle full open, 1/2 and closed for reference. And if they are not open at least a little the fire will snuff out.
Also I close top and bottom when I am done cooking and it shuts the coals down and I reuse coals all the time
 
Thanks, I see that now. I was not paying careful enough attention.

Back to it.

So embarrassed....
 
The only dumb question is the one you don't ask and don't get answered.

This is one of the few forums where people wont call you dumb, stupid or any other name and will just try to help you. ( of course you know, you've been here a while)

Glad it worked out
 
Jeff,

I agree Rick about the folks on this forum.

As far as temp control on the One-Touch Gold, I almost always run with the bottom vents wide open while using the damper on the lid for temp control. Only when I need to get my temps down either really quickly, or way down, do I attempt using the bottom slot-type vents. I want to say this is how Weber recommends controlling the temps (or at least they did about 11 years ago when I bought my first one-touch), but I'm not sure about that. Personally I just find it easier to see how fully open the lid damper is than it is with the bottom vents. Just my $0.02!
 
Jeff,

Using the vents to control temp is the essence of charcoal cooking. It takes some time to develop a feel for it and each grill is different. The down side is that you need to log some grill time to get it down to the extent you can get fine control of the temp. The up side is that you get to log some grill time to get it down to the extent you can get fine control of the temp...

I also suggest you punt the Matchlight and invest in a weber chimney. Why season your grill with hydrocarbons when you don't have to?

Regards,

John
 
I typically use the bottom vent for temp control and the top wide open when smoking but that's for getting low temps.

Definitely get a chimney although I remember a time when I thought match light was awesome or better yet the stuff where you light the bag.

Part of me misses dousing charcoal in a can of lighter fluid and watching it burn off only to have no coals! I made many a hamburger hockey puck in those days!
 
I would suggest getting rid of the Match Light charcoal and buying a chimney starter. That charcoal is soaked with chemicals that impart a terrible, metallic taste to your food. Regular briquettes or lump charcoal will make all the different in the world, and it will always light with a chimney.
 
Embarrassed?!?! Don't be. You came to the right place for help buddy. I see the folks have already squared you away. You'll be cookin with the best of em in no time flat.

We all have our techniques and soon you'll develop yours. When I go wide open on lower and upper vents I get in excess of 450*F. I have a half way open mark that is pretty accurate at 350*F. If I need less heat I close the lower vent a little more and start using the upper vent. I can cook most stuff knowing that.

Welcome to the fold. ...but get rid of the Matchlight! Starter cubes or newsprint and chimney is all you'll need with regular charcoal - lump or briquettes.
 
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What he said ^ ^ ^ dump the match light. that alone will greatly improve the flavors! Then, with the lid off move the lower vent control to just wide open and mark where the lever is. Then move it to half way closed & mark it. I first used a Sharpie marker but that faded fairly quick so I scratched the marks with a big nail then marked it wit the Sharpie and it has lasted much much longer. In my experience i found that using the lid vent to regulate temps can sometimes lead to a "bitterness" to the food on a longer cook with lots of smoking wood, so I always use the lower vent(s) to regulate temps.
 
Ken C. said:
What he said ^ ^ ^ dump the match light. that alone will greatly improve the flavors! Then, with the lid off move the lower vent control to just wide open and mark where the lever is. Then move it to half way closed & mark it. I first used a Sharpie marker but that faded fairly quick so I scratched the marks with a big nail then marked it wit the Sharpie and it has lasted much much longer. In my experience i found that using the lid vent to regulate temps can sometimes lead to a "bitterness" to the food on a longer cook with lots of smoking wood, so I always use the lower vent(s) to regulate temps.
Click to expand...

Ditto what Ken said....
 
I leave the top vents wide open and control the fire with the bottom vents -- marking wide open, half open, and quarter open with a sharpie is good idea.

For direct, high temp grilling, I leave the bottom vents wide open. For indirect roasting, anywhere from half open to wide open. For low and slow, probably a quarter open or less.

When, I'm done, I close the top and bottom vents and the fire goes out. I reuse the leftover charcoal the next time.
 
Kind of new to cooking with charcoal, but this is what I've figured out so far.

Fire needs oxygen to burn. Closing off the top and bottom vents starves the fire of oxygen and the charcoal will go out. Closing the top vent keeps smoke in the bowl which can leave a bad taste on whatever you are cooking. So, use the lower vents for the air intake and the top vent as the exhaust. Open/close the lower vents to dial the temp up or down for fine tuning. Here's a kind of important part though. Your temp will largely be based on how much charcoal you have burning at one time. Wide open vents with 14 lit coals won't be as hot as 36 lit coals with the lower vent 1/4 open. Generally speaking, more lit coals = more heat.
 
Can't really add anything, but as always the good folks on the forum were there to help and not criticize. Wish all the forums I'm on were like this one!
 
Don't feel bad. If you didn't ask this question, we wouldn't have known to tell you to get rid of the matchlight. :D
 
Thanks for all the posts. Truth be told, I NEVER use matchlight. I exclusively use K-Blue or Stubbs, but opted to use the matchlight in this case just to season the grill before its maiden voyage. ;)

I got the idea of using the matchlight to season the grill from a Youtube video.



Smoke on! :wsm:
 
Jeff you've received some great advise but I'd like to add just one more important piece of the puzzle. Keep an accurate log of all your cooks, times, temps, vent settings, how much wood used, how much charcoal and what kind and what your cooking. After a couple dozen cooks you'll began to see patterns to coincide with your results. Remember there is no pass or fail, just a lot of fun and some great food. Here's wishing you great cooks.

Bill
 
I must say this a couple of years ago I found this site and read about all these great kinds of cooks you could do if I only had A kettle. So I found a performer on CL . So started cooking with not great success. So I asked my freinds here what I was doing wrong and boy did I learn a bunch quick. Now I love cooking on coal much more than gas.
Next I got the bug to get a WSM and I was back here to learn .
Great site great folks great info. Real people here.
Kevin.
 
If you get a weber chimney, use 2 paper towels with a little cooking oil on them to start the coal - little to no ash vs. using newspaper.
 
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