Weber Flat top??? (Australian eBay find)


 

Ryan Gardner

TVWBB Fan




Anyone know anything about this Weber Flat top? I've never heard of anything like it before... I personally wouldn't want one because of the lack of a lid... but it is clearly a Weber.

Are these popular in Australia?
 
I tried to find info about that grill sometime ago. Seems Weber makes them for over seas only. Just like the cast iron grill and grate setup for the 22.5" kettles. I was lucky enough to get the wire grill part, that holds the cast iron insert, but never found the CI grate insert for the wire grill. I use a Lodge CI grate instead. While not an exact fit it does set in there ok, will not fall through. Not sure why Weber does what they do, but I do like that flat top grill in your picture, and would love to have one. Sorry just blabbing out loud.
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Phil Hartcher should be able to shed some light on it for us.
 
weber seems to miss the boat at times. just look at all the flat top grills being sold at the big boxes. that would be a sweet setup to have.
 
The Flat Top grills were produced for the Australian market to satisfy market needs. Most Australians still BBQ (Grill) on a flat top and only use the lid to cover the mess. They will fire up the flat top and get it as hot as they can and throw a piece of steak on. They then continue to push it around the solid grill plate finding all the hot spots, if any juice starts to ooze out of the meat they flip the meat over and continue to do this until the meat is like shoe leather. It takes about 6 beers to cook a steak, By the time they are ready to eat the steak they have well lubricated throats and the meat slides down unaided.

Well at least they do it something like that. The Australian traditional BBQ is done on a hot plate not a grill hence the Weber flat plate BBQs were made to get into the Gasser Market. (they are no longer sold in Australia). Australia now has a limited range:
The Spirit range (with an optional side burner) 210, 310 & 320
The Genesis (Black or SS) 310 & 320
The Summit (SS) 420, 450 & 650, and
The Summit Built in (SS) 440 & 640

My humble opinion is to do all grilling with the lid closed - Gasser or Charcoal. I consisantly get much, much better results doing this. When I demonstrate cooking on the Weber range of BBQs doing it this way and the customers try the results, the BBQs sell themselves, the store staff just facilitate the orderly procession of BBQs out the door. I continually have customers come back to see me 12 months or 2 years later saying how wonderful their BBQs taste now and the marvelous array of dishes they now cook compared to before just burning a sausage or a steak.

And now you know why all my friends love my barbecued food so much, it's moist, juicy, tender, flavoursome and cooked to perfection.

Regards
 
I want one for a corn roaster. Put 3/16" steel on the flat top. Then you get some corn on the cob, a burlap bag, and little water. Now that's good eats.
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Just to add-on to what Phil wrote, I too am Australian and remember the days when what we knew as BBQ was to throw a few sticks into a brick hole under a hotplate then when it lights up,put the big wood on it and stand back.

The hot plate over the fire which is always there and usually bowed from the intense heat it has suffered and gets sort of cleaned up just before the next bbq with a bucket of water and maybe some salt on the hotplate rubbed in with some foil which I was led to beleive, was for scraping the rust off it.

Then came the sliced onions,meat, snags (sausages) oh yeah us Aussies got a little adventruous,we open a can of pineapple rings and throw em on too, just to give it a Hawaiian effect.Sometimes we'd throw a banana on with the skin split in the middle but not many liked that as it was too mushy.

Dad's thought they were sophisticated cooks because someone told them down at the pub, the best way to bbq onions was to pour some beer on em after they hit the hotplate.In some respects I agree with that!

Ok, now it's 2008 and we've moved on (thank God) and we have the great gassers all over the place but the difference with the Australian Gassers is....half of the cooking area still has the Hotplate with the barred grill on the other side.

The Full Hotplate gassers are still very popular with sporting clubs,and rotary clubs raising money for charities because they can hold alot of food like sliced onions and sausages by a method we here in Australia call "the great sausage sizzle"

Cheers

Davo
 
Agreed BBQ-ing is slowly moving away from grilling here in Oz. They now sell BGE's down at Barbecues Galore and I've seen another WSM (besides my own) at a mates place.
In general when the local surfclubs have a do it's all on hot plates...
 
Although we here down-under have moved along with sophisticated equipment such as the the super-gassers with everything including the kitchen sink, sometimes it's just great to get down to the basics like a traditional Aussie sausage sizzle and not much matches the sizzle than a solid hotplate.
Food like bacon & eggs, sliced tomato,zuchini and onion rings are great on a hotplate and won't fall in through the grates of a grill.
Whilst out American friends occassionally use a griddle over the grates, Here in Australia, having a Solid hotplate sharing at least half of the cooking area is almost mandatory.
Hotplates are not for purists, but for big Aussie get togethers where food becomes just an accessory to BEER!! hahahaha
 

 

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