Men who can't grill?


 
Originally posted by TroyRedington:
i'm 32.

i have very fond memories of my dad grilling with a red weber kettle.

i have scary memories of me almost burning down the house by sweeping the one-touch cleaning system back and forth and watching the glowing embers fall from the bowl onto the wooden deck.

I didn't learn to grill until i was 24 or 25.
My first few attempts were down right embarrassing.

I'm notoriously UN handy and I don't partake in MOST of these 'manly' stereotypes. I don't work on my car. I don't watch sports.

I don't think of grilling (over charcoal of course) as manly. However, I do feel it's something that will be passed down and kept alive as a family tradition.

I sometimes task my wife or my 14yr old daughter with lighting the charcoal for me. It's pretty easy on my performer though.

I'll get them cooking soon
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Annnd - regarding the rise in people who can't grill or even light charcoal...
Society is in a rapid declination of culture, intelligence, and consideration. Idiots and morons are breeding, producing a cancerous population that will eventually end the world.
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Wise beyond your years. I agree as well. I blame the majority of it on technology. For all of the developments in it, it's set us back disproportionately to what it's advanced us. I wrote a paper on it.
 
Funny I read this thread today and I remembered the Local newspaper I read today written by a local writer. It talked about the grilling seaso starting and how to light a proper grill. Of course it said place the briqs. in a pyrimid shape and douse in lighter fluid, it in fact said douse. I was sitting there with my morning coffee shaking my head, my wife said you got to the griling acticle didnt you. I just wonder whay they didnt call me or any of my many friends to write that story the correct way.
 
I'm 44 - when I was a kid all of the grilling at our house was done on a gasser - by my mom.

I got my first grill when I got married (a cheap charbroil gasser) and a few years later I was given a weber kettle - which i used once or twice and (now don't get mad) then put behind the barn for years because it was too much hassle.
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Then a few years ago, for reasons unknown, I brought it out again and never looked back. Yes, I do have a nice weber gasser too which gets used when I don't have the time to wait for the coals to get hot.

As for the kids, my son is now 6 and has been helping set up the chimney since he was 4 - even lights it now under supervision. My daughter, now 11, has been helping me for years. she's more than capable of turning on the gasser and cooking burgers, chicken or steaks. Also knows how to set up the chimney and get it going, etc... Not perfect and still needs supervision - probably more so becuase I'm paranoid, but definately heading in the right direction.

I'm a firm believer in sending my kids out into the world with enough knowledge to make them good citizens - and that includes being able to take care of themselves and not having to rely on others. And besides, we all spend so much time eating that I feel cooking should be fun!

oh...and my daughter has been cutting the grass since she was 10.

Sorry for the long post. Hope all you dads (and moms too) enjoy your Father's Day.

Mike
 
Originally posted by Geir Widar:
Manual transmission- are you talking about synchronized or unsynchronised ones?
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Brings back memories of double-clutching my 61 MGA to downshift - on my way to cook burgers on the grill (had to add relevant content)
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My youngest son just invited us over this weekend so he could grill us something. He has one of those pale green performers they sell at Crate & Barrel. (His bride likes green.
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) He uses a charcoal chimney and paper to light his fires (as we learned in Boy Scouts) and has been experimenting with lump which I provided. His older brother also knows his way around a kettle. In fact, he knows his way around a lot of things. He works in IT but at the moment a lot of his spare time is spent refurbing a house he bought including plumbing, electrical, carpentry, dry wall and so on. He's also the guy that does my welding.

But not everyone learns the same skills. And as far as the original post goes, perhaps those guys were more familiar with gas grills and know their way around that. Or maybe they knew exactly what they were doing and wanted to make sure they didn't have to deal with grilling duties again. (As in watch this - I bet his match doesn't go long next week.
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I think there may be a significant number of men who, for whatever reason, were observers of their fathers, uncles, grandfathers, etc. grilling, but were never taught the fundamentals or were taught incorrectly.

I watched my father turn perfectly good cuts of steak, chicken, and burgers into leathery & crunchy remnants of their former selves, because he believed in two hard & fast rules for grilling, and that's about all he taught me, besides using gasoline
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to start charcoal fires.

1. "Son, you have to cook meat until it is completely done to keep from getting sick."

2. "Son, you can never cook a steak as good as they can in a restaurant. Their equipment is far superior to my Weber (kettle) grill."

I have spent a good part of my adult life trying to prove him wrong on both counts. Now if he were only still here for me to show him what I have learned on my own:

1. I can cook a steak as good as any restaurant, and 2. I have cooked and eaten enough tender, juicy and delicious meat to know that "over done" does not equal "done enough to be safe.", a.k.a. use and trust your thermometer.

Miss you, Pop.
 
As someone who grew up learning from my father to build a pyramid and douse with lighter fluid, I can say that I knew of nothing but improper techniques although the outdoor cooking over fire desire was always there. He shared what he knew but unfortunately it was not the best ways. I give a ton of credit to this site and all of y'all in correcting my misguided ways. I now have my 6 year old son lighting the chimmney and placing the smoke wood in the WSM. Maybe it is the start of a reversal for the trends listed previously. HA!

My Dad taught me how to work hard, work on cars, throw a spiral, hit a curveball and body surf at the beach. I hope to add BBQ to that list for my son.

Happy Father's Day weekend to all.
 
I'd eat one of the lighter fluid doused char-broiled steaks If I could get one more chance to cook for/with my Dad

Happy Father's Day Dad I miss you
 
I think I finally got my dad to think more about charcoal being a viable cooking fuel, just this morning. We've had gassers at my parents house for my entire life. Dad believes that lighter fluid getting into the food can cause cancer. Maybe he's on to something there, who knows... but anyways he never knew that there was a better way to start charcoal until the chimney happened to come up in conversation today. I'm now scheduled to be the grillmaster at our huge July 4th family get-together. I'll have two 22.5" Webers running. A good time at the very least to show him what he's been missing out on all these years.
 
I bought my dad a Weber charcoal chimney for Father's Day. He has a gasser but he also has a Smokey Joe which he uses most of the time (when he's just cooking for himself.) I introduced him to the chimney a while back and he has been wanting to get one but never has. I think he will love it
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I think the greatest compliment to a charcoal grillsman, is when he/she can convert someone from gas to charcoal. Granted, you have to learn not to be offended if they can't be converted. It's still a very fulfilling thing.

On another note, I have a Japanese couple that lives next door to me. They don't speak any English. It's a family of four. A fairly young couple, roughly my age (low 30's), and two of their elders. I came home one day, and they had a kettle in the driveway in front of the townhouse. They had a huge mound of charcoal, and were doing the whole lighter fluid thing. The coals kept going out because they weren't letting it soak in. I have several chimneys, so I went over with one and a few sheets of newspaper, got them properly situated, and they were up and running in no time. The next day he rang my doorbell, and had the chimney in hand, I told them they could keep it. The next day, my doorbell rang again. This time, it was the entire family, and they were all dressed as if for church on a Sunday. The young couple presented me with the most gorgeous tea set I've ever seen. I was beyond humbled. Now I see them out there with the chimney all the time, and they're grilling more than ever. I've since given them charcoal rails, and a number of other goodies I have extras of. We can't even speak the same language to one another verbally, but we still have a common language, food...and the desire to make extraordinary things with it. It's amazing watching them take traditional Japanese cuisine, and take it to the grill. I'm learning as much from them as they are from me.
 
Originally posted by Hayden McCall:
I think the greatest compliment to a charcoal grillsman, is when he/she can convert someone from gas to charcoal. Granted, you have to learn not to be offended if they can't be converted. It's still a very fulfilling thing.

On another note, I have a Japanese couple that lives next door to me. They don't speak any English. It's a family of four. A fairly young couple, roughly my age (low 30's), and two of their elders. I came home one day, and they had a kettle in the driveway in front of the townhouse. They had a huge mound of charcoal, and were doing the whole lighter fluid thing. The coals kept going out because they weren't letting it soak in. I have several chimneys, so I went over with one and a few sheets of newspaper, got them properly situated, and they were up and running in no time. The next day he rang my doorbell, and had the chimney in hand, I told them they could keep it. The next day, my doorbell rang again. This time, it was the entire family, and they were all dressed as if for church on a Sunday. The young couple presented me with the most gorgeous tea set I've ever seen. I was beyond humbled. Now I see them out there with the chimney all the time, and they're grilling more than ever. I've since given them charcoal rails, and a number of other goodies I have extras of. We can't even speak the same language to one another verbally, but we still have a common language, food...and the desire to make extraordinary things with it. It's amazing watching them take traditional Japanese cuisine, and take it to the grill. I'm learning as much from them as they are from me.
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well done sir!
 
I have a couple of family members and friends who like to grill, they just have no idea how to do it.

I cringe every time I have to go over to their houses for a "BBQ" which consists of them cooking hamburgers on their gassers and using a spatula to smash the hell out of them until there is no juice in the meat at all.
 
Originally posted by PaulFisher:
I have a couple of family members and friends who like to grill, they just have no idea how to do it.

I cringe every time I have to go over to their houses for a "BBQ" which consists of them cooking hamburgers on their gassers and using a spatula to smash the hell out of them until there is no juice in the meat at all.
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Here was my strategy in a similar situation ...I have a friend who has a new swimming pool along with a built in gas grill ... it's all very beautiful. The problem is that he has no idea how to cook.

Seeing him struggle at one party, I volunteered to take over the cooking. That cinched the deal. Now, every time I come over I get tagged to cook. His wife always apologizes for inviting our family over then expecting me to cook. My reply is that I probably get invited to more parties this way!
 
Had Father's Day at my brother-in-law's house, who was out of town until late Saturday. His oldest son was tasked with organizing and cooking for the event, and he dropped the ball. When we showed up around 1PM, he had the grill (a beautiful, brand new Genesis S-330) preheated, but no food on it. His fiancee was supposed to be there around 11:30 with marinated chicken thighs & legs, but she was late for whatever reason.

I showed up with two butts ready to be pulled that I smoked on my OTG the night before and Texas crutched overnight so we could go to church. When we arrived, 90% of the expected 25+ folks were already there. I told my nephew I would help him, and ended up taking over the grill giving him some pointers as the chicken was cooking. Taught him to learn how the grill cooks, looking for hot spots (only a couple), and how to set the burners on different temps to get the chicken cooked quickly, assembly-line style. He had a deer in the headlights look when I got there, and I told him that if he needed to plan anything like this in the future, I would be glad to help.

He said that growing up, his father would never let him near the grill, except to watch, and didn't teach him anything about grilling. Of course my BIL rarely grills anything besides frozen burgers & dogs, so I don't know what my nephew could have learned from him in the first place about outdoor cooking.

I look forward to teaching him the joys of grilling, especially over charcoal. I know I have his attention, because he keeps asking me to make more pulled pork & ribs. Like others have said, I am surprised that a 30-year old has never been taught how to grill, or bothered to learn on his own.

I guess I had to unlearn what my father taught me, but I was willing to do a little research & learn how because I wanted to cook for myself, not because my father didn't teach me the basics. Of course nowdays I don't use gasoline to light charcoal, which was lesson #1.
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Grilling was not passed down from my parents to me. Growing up it was a gasser, and whatever meat went on it was going to be dry. That's how dad liked the meat (back then), so that's how we all ate it. I didn't eat pork chops for years because what I thought a pork chop was resembled cardboard.

Both of my uncles loved to cook, smoke, and grill, and so when I was living with one of them, I learned to love to cook, grill and smoke as well. They always expected me to help and would always show me what they were doing. But the relationship I have with both of my uncles is not of the norm. They are more like best friends than uncles.

A lot of my friends have NO CLUE what to do with a grill. But I make sure to cook for them often, and several have started to learn. I wish I got commissions at Ace on weber chimneys!

I do not blame my father for any of this, it wasn't passed down to him. I think it is more of a world of eating out all the time, fast food everywhere, and a short attention spans. A lot of people look at us, people who spend hours on a weekend prepping and cooking a meal as crazy. They could just drive to a place down the street to eat.

But now my father has swung around full circle. I invited him over for father's day and cooked him some ribs. I was running behind, so when he got there I was just getting started. He was extremely interested in every little thing I did. He kept asking, how the heck do you know to do that. I told him, there is a lot of information on the internet if you want to read up on it. However, just like all things on the internet, 75% is going to be wrong. The best way to learn is to do it. See what works for you and go with it.

At the end of the day he mentioned he has a gasser on his porch, but has only used it once in the past year. He said that cooking for one person isn't worth it on the grill. But then he said, after watching me, he wants to be able to cook like that.

Thanks Dad, you just made your birthday easy. A OTG and a chimney!
 
I am 26, work on class 8 on high way trucks, those are the 18 wheelers, you pass on the highway every day. I can start at the front bumper and end at the tail lights. I fix broken things around the house, mow the grass, shovel the snow. I bake the cakes, breads, lasagna, pizzas. The cake is the only thing that comes from a box. I grill the stakes, hamburgers, brats, chiken. I smoke the roasts, butts, ribs. My mother can't make a cake that will rise, my dad cant't change more than a light bulb or a flat tire. However my dad is a stock broker and I will never have to worry about my retirement. I learned a little from all of my family members, friends, and co-workers. A great skill you can teach your childeren is observation.
p.s. My girlfriend will kill me if any one tries to set me up so don't think about it.



G. Bud Weber BBQ, 18.5 wsm, 18.5ots, 22.5ots
 
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