Ever had one of these moments while grilling?


 
H

Hayden McCall

TVWBB All-Star
LOL

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If so, describe how you arrived at this point.
I had one not too long ago when I emptied the ashcatcher on my Performer in the trashcan more than a full day after I'd last cooked...and it caught fire.
 
No moments like that. Good for me cause my hoa makes me put the garbage can in the garage, the house would have caught on fire. I always wait to days and I have a metal bucket. I learn thru your experience.
 
I have been pretty fortunate and only worn those expressions on two occasions (although the second time lasted a few days).

The first was when I was learning to do long slow cooks on my Performer with a big pile of coals on one side behind a couple of firebricks, with a few lit coals placed on top. First time suffered from beginners luck - I used Kingsford briquettes, watched it like a hawk, and everything went smoothly for ~10 hours or so. Second time I used lump and didn't feel the need to fuss over the thermometer...

Of course the lit coals fell down deep inside the pile of lump (which happened to be long stick-like shapes that time), the entire pile of coals caught fire at the same time, and the pork shoulder I was smoking was pretty much incinerated by the time I noticed an hour or so later.

The second (and third and fourth) time happened while I was learning to use a pizza peel to slide pizzas onto a stone. The pizza pretty much disassembled itself into a pile of dough over *here* and a pile of toppings over *there*.

Toppings that smell really good on a pizza can really stink when turning black on the far side of a pizza stone.
 
Yup, first thought that came to my mind was transferring a pizza. Boy can that be awkward.
 
i was doing an all night pork butt smoke on my mini

the vents were getting pretty loose, and no longer air tight.
it was windy.

I thought all was well, so i left the house for about an hour or so.

I came back to a 650 degree smoker.
Apparently the loose vents, in combination with lump charcoal, the wind, and too much grease for my clay saucer resulted in a fire inside.

When i took off the lid, flames were licking the butt. Meat still turned out great, but the bark was pretty crispy on the bottom, and it finished about 5 hours sooner than normal.
 
i was transfering two slabs or ribs one on top of each other from the smoker to a table with two pairs of tongs. One of the spring things on one of the tongs broke wich made the tong slide to the side and both slabs of ribs fell in dirt. ( does 30 second rule apply here? ) it did for me
 
I was making ABTs and moinks for a party - our covered dish. I had a large pizza pan completely covered and took them outside, balanced the pan on the rail of my deck (OK, all together now, "What a dumb***"!), and started transferring them to the Weber. After transferring about a third, you guessed it, the pan became unbalanced and over they went, about a 10 foot drop. No 30 second rule here. Bought the covered dish on the way.
 
I can honestly say no for one good reason; my "ashcan" is a small galvanized steel trash can. It's sold at most hardware stores for only a few $ and works perfectly for this type of job.
 
I had one of those moments about a year ago. I was still fairly new to the WSM, and was smoking one pork shoulder (that was a whole other mistake) with neighbors coming over. The butt was done, looked and smelled great, but when I was taking it off the smoker it dropped and exploded on the patio. No recovery was possible. Since dinner was planned around the pulled pork, I had to run to a local Q place and get a few pounds of meat.

The lesson learned was not only that butts can be jelloey and slippery, but it never hurts to have more than one thing on the smoker at once.

Peter
 
I had left my smoker over a friends house. I was on my way over the his place and was running a little late. He volunteered to clean out the smoker for me so all I have to do is get it lit and throw on the meat. He watched me clean it on numerous occasions so I thought it was a great idea. I lit the coals and assembled to cooker. I see the needle on the thermometer fly up past 500. I took the lid off to be greeted by a huge fireball the singed my beard and the left side of my head. He only changed the foil in the water pan and didn't clean out any grease that was in the bottom. Beard was growing in nice too.
 
I had done 4 butts and 9 racks of ribs for a party in my chargriller and a week or 2 later I invited some friends over for some beer can chickens. used teh chargriller like a grill with the coals on both ends. about 45 min into the cook, a friend was noting how much smoke was coming off the grill and just kind of laughed it off only to turn around to see the dreaded black jet engine of smoke blasting out of it. Ate the chicken and it was pretty good but I swear the cans almost melted and was slightly worried about possible coors can toxins. also destroyed the probes for my ET73 in the process
 
Had mine this morning. I cooked steak on Saturday evening, and when I was bringing them in I didn't have enough hands to grab my timer. Long story short, I planned on going back out after eating to get it, and then totally forgot about it. We had a huge rainstorm roll through last night, and when I looked out my back door this morning there was my timer. Needless to say, it was ruined.

Now, it wasn't a very expensive timer, only cost around $10 to $15, but I hate wasting money when I can avoid it. I was not happy with myself this morning, but decided I was simply going to use the timer on my iPhone from now on as opposed to buying a new timer.
 
My only story is, I slow cooked some chicken a couple of years back and was letting the meat rest on the top of our oven for 15 mins or so.

Wife lets our 4 labs in, and they lay down and go to sleep, or so we thought. The next thing we know one of the dogs had somehow pulled the chicken into the floor (left the plate on the stove) and all 4 dogs had a chicken feast. lol

I was livid at first, but after a few mins or of seeing them smacking their lips I had to laugh. I ended up going back out to the grill and cooking burgers I believe.. Dogs had chicken while we ate burgers. lol
 
LOL This is the first time I checked this thread since I started it. What a great read. I now feel comfortable contributing a couple of my all-star grilling moments.

About a year back, I wanted to do my first brisket. At the time, I was ignorant of the fact that a brisket should have a fat cap, and that a "flat" was just a portion of a brisket. I bought a flat with no fat cap. It was probably only 3-4 lbs. I set up my Performer using a couple firebricks as charcoal separators, lit 8 briquettes and tosses 'em over a bank of unlit. I sat on my back porch in the blazing heat, screwin' around with the vents while trying to maintain proper temps, for hours on end. When the meat finally hit it's target temp, I took it off the grill and let it rest. When I went to cut it, it was like trying to cut a brick with a butter knife. The dryest, most utterly inedible piece of garbage ever. Even the neighbors dog wouldn't eat it. And...I got a nasty sunburn for my efforts.

Another instance of charcoal that wasn't extinguished that happened about 15 years go when I first started grilling. I lived in a townhouse rental community. I dumped ashes from a cook two days prior in the huge trash dumpster they provided for our portion of the development. The ENTIRE DUMPSTER caught fire. Had to call the fire department to get that out, and it still stunk for days.
 
I guess I've been lucky in my many years of outdoor cooking, and haven't had any serious incidents. However, I did have one incident that left me more frustrated than anything else.

I lived in an apartment where grills were outlawed by fire code due to stupidity by people leaving grills unattended. I kept a cheap char-broil gasser in my patio storage closet and I would sneak it out after dark to grill a quick burger or steak. I would leave the burners on for a few minutes after grilling to burn off the crud, then scrape with a grill brush before I let it cool completely and put it back into the closet so nobody would know I was grilling.

Did you ever have one of those moments after a great steak meal where you felt sleepy? Well, I gave in to the sleepy feeling & forgot that both burners were blazin' away on the patio outside... until the next time I wanted to grill & found the tank empty and had to replace the warped & rusty cooking grate.'

It could have been much worse, thank goodness. Now I set a timer on the stove (it will continue to sound an alarm until I turn it off) when I take food inside from the grill/smoker so I will remember to go back outside & shut everything down and bring anything left outside in.

You CAN try this trick at home, kids. It works!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Hayden McCall:

If so, describe how you arrived at this point.
I had one not too long ago when I emptied the ashcatcher on my Performer in the trashcan more than a full day after I'd last cooked...and it caught fire. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Been there, Done that.
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