ES Reuter
TVWBB Member
Well,
the time has come to look into high temp direct cooking techniques.
first i would like to start out with some tools.
there is a popular way to measure the temp of your grilling surface called the hand method, just hold you hand about 4 inches above the grate and count with either "thousand or Mississippi" (reminds me of back yard football days as a kid, when you had rush safety) any who, depending on the amount of time you can keep you hand comfortably above the grill your fire is about temp x.
i have been using this method with some good results the past few months but being inquisitive i want to know what the temps really are, as with this method the variable stack, all the things that affect closed cover cooking (wind, humidity, temp, sunlight ect) are added to your own variables.
what are "your" variables?
well every ones hands are different, are you a lumber jack who works with out gloves? then there is a high chance your skin on your hands are like hard tanned leather and can take the heat for much longer than the prescribed method.
Maybe your a surgeon, constantly washing your hands and keeping them moist will lead to sensitive skin and would falter quickly over a fire.
those above and the infinite combos are what i mean by "your" variable, adding that to the other outside variables makes it a big mess.
so lets see if we cant put some answers to time, coals and grill temp.
our tools will be a grill surface thermometer. this little guy i found at our new publix today and sparked me to do this trick.
it was 5.99 and has the kingsford label, though i have been researching these little babies for a long time, i really think the same factory in china makes them for all companies and just puts their label on the inside.
first off these thermos are not as big as one might think, if you look on kingsford website or amazon these babies look huge, like 6ins diameter or something. Ahh the joys of online shopping and wide angles lenses.
here is a fair recreation of a amazon shot. HUGE.
while in fact this gal is close to 2 and 1\8 ish inches. either way i was surprised when i saw how small it was.
well we must know how accurate our instruments are, as we all know we need a constant, what better than water?
soo is this little buddy accurate i found out yes! it is, though meathead will say its bunk, for the learning journey there is no need to spend 300bucks on a digital probe, yet.
to help out i also put in my digi instant read.
and here is the kingsford
fairly accurate. though i am off to the side skewing your perspective but i could photo with out getting a fogged lens. you will just have to trust me on that.
i will say this about these surface thermos as most of the reviews on shopping sites they are slow, and that they are slooooww. I assume its because of its heavy construction, this little baby is heavy and i figure thats because of the shielding needed from the intense heat. either way accurate but it is slow to read the temp.
plan on a good 5mins to let it settle in.
so that will be our measuring instrument.
our test will emulate the indirect burn except not with the other numbers of coals i will simply use a full chimney of about 100 coals in an weber 22.5 and then keep the time till the fire dies. so this will be one shot and according to many sources fairly short, as we seem to get about an hour to an hour and a half out of a uncovered coal fire.
i will time from when the paper catches fire to when the fire goes cold. Every 5mins ill do a temp check and ill record any major changes in the environment.
so with that the test is on. lets find out the temps and times of our coals and grills.
when we finish this learning experiment we can make some beautiful things out of all this:
esr
the time has come to look into high temp direct cooking techniques.
first i would like to start out with some tools.
there is a popular way to measure the temp of your grilling surface called the hand method, just hold you hand about 4 inches above the grate and count with either "thousand or Mississippi" (reminds me of back yard football days as a kid, when you had rush safety) any who, depending on the amount of time you can keep you hand comfortably above the grill your fire is about temp x.
i have been using this method with some good results the past few months but being inquisitive i want to know what the temps really are, as with this method the variable stack, all the things that affect closed cover cooking (wind, humidity, temp, sunlight ect) are added to your own variables.
what are "your" variables?
well every ones hands are different, are you a lumber jack who works with out gloves? then there is a high chance your skin on your hands are like hard tanned leather and can take the heat for much longer than the prescribed method.
Maybe your a surgeon, constantly washing your hands and keeping them moist will lead to sensitive skin and would falter quickly over a fire.
those above and the infinite combos are what i mean by "your" variable, adding that to the other outside variables makes it a big mess.
so lets see if we cant put some answers to time, coals and grill temp.
our tools will be a grill surface thermometer. this little guy i found at our new publix today and sparked me to do this trick.
it was 5.99 and has the kingsford label, though i have been researching these little babies for a long time, i really think the same factory in china makes them for all companies and just puts their label on the inside.
first off these thermos are not as big as one might think, if you look on kingsford website or amazon these babies look huge, like 6ins diameter or something. Ahh the joys of online shopping and wide angles lenses.
here is a fair recreation of a amazon shot. HUGE.
while in fact this gal is close to 2 and 1\8 ish inches. either way i was surprised when i saw how small it was.
well we must know how accurate our instruments are, as we all know we need a constant, what better than water?
soo is this little buddy accurate i found out yes! it is, though meathead will say its bunk, for the learning journey there is no need to spend 300bucks on a digital probe, yet.
to help out i also put in my digi instant read.
and here is the kingsford
fairly accurate. though i am off to the side skewing your perspective but i could photo with out getting a fogged lens. you will just have to trust me on that.
i will say this about these surface thermos as most of the reviews on shopping sites they are slow, and that they are slooooww. I assume its because of its heavy construction, this little baby is heavy and i figure thats because of the shielding needed from the intense heat. either way accurate but it is slow to read the temp.
plan on a good 5mins to let it settle in.
so that will be our measuring instrument.
our test will emulate the indirect burn except not with the other numbers of coals i will simply use a full chimney of about 100 coals in an weber 22.5 and then keep the time till the fire dies. so this will be one shot and according to many sources fairly short, as we seem to get about an hour to an hour and a half out of a uncovered coal fire.
i will time from when the paper catches fire to when the fire goes cold. Every 5mins ill do a temp check and ill record any major changes in the environment.
so with that the test is on. lets find out the temps and times of our coals and grills.
when we finish this learning experiment we can make some beautiful things out of all this:
esr
