Newbie to the world of charcoal with a few questions


 
G

G Hicks

New member
Hello everyone. I have been a faithful Weber Genesis user for about 10 years until my wife ate a hot dog at a neighbors barbecue cooked on a charcoal grill. Low and behold, we made the switch to charcoal. There is no doubt the flavor and aroma cannot be "matched" to the ole gas burner. We have been using our new Performer Deluxe for a few weeks and have had success, but am scratching my head about a few things.

Just a little background... we grill about 2-3 times a week for our young family so its usually a few steaks or about a lb of chicken, fish, small pork tenderloin. etc. Our Genesis was a 2 burner and suited us just fine. Anyways:

With the gas ignition system, how much time do you typically give yourself from lighting the ignition to having the grill ready to grill on high heat? I have been using the 2 charcoal baskets and start by shaking them out before adding new charcoal on top of the old chunks that are grey but still solid. Then I run the gas ignition for about 5 minutes, shut of and give the charcoal about 25-30 minutes to warm up with the lid open, then closing the lid for about 10 minutes to let the grill itself come up to temperature and let the grate get hot. It is about 40-45 minutes total, which seems long.

Any thoughts on using the old charcoal again? Should I be starting will all new fresh charcoal every time I grill? Also, do you leave the lid open or closed while the charcoal is heating up? I guess the gas griller in me is struggling with getting the grill ready to throw food on there ASAP and would appreciate any input from the experience on this forum.

One other small issue. The back of the grill has slot to accept one of the handles on the grate, allowing you to neatly keep the grate out of the way while setting/warming up the charcoal. However, the grate has a removable center ring which just falls out when placing the grate back there. Thoughts? Thank you in advance.
 
I don't have a performer with one of those fancy-shmancy gas starters, but the rules of thumb are pretty general.

Old charcoal: Use it up! One of the biggest advantages to a Weber Kettle is the ability to shut it down when you're done cooking and save the coals. You will likely notice thought that after being heated they feel lighter, I think that's because some of the binder and moisture has burned out. They will burn a bit faster and become ash more quickly.

How long to wait? That is a question with a fluid answer. It changes. Anywhere from 20-30 minutes seems normal. How hot does it feel? Are the coals burning well? If you stick your tongue on the grate...no...wait...

Putting the lid on to get up to heat: This one, I call shenanigans. Your lid doesn't need to heat up. Just put it on, it'll get hot soon enough. Once my coals are hot I put the cooking grate, let it get hot for a minute, brush it off, add food, close lid. And you aren't getting the lid up to heat as much as you're cooling the grill down. As soon as you put the lid on you start regulating the air in the kettle. Less oxygen = less burning = less heat. Again, this is a huge advantage. Learn to use your vents to regulate heat as you cook.

Can't answer the question about the piece of lid falling off, but sure doesn't sound 'Weberish', sounds like something is wrong.

Lastly, don't forsake you're old Genny! I like using gas when I need convenience and speed, like after work. Coals have the weekends reserved.
 
I start with fresh coals and add the used ones as needed. I run my gas starter about 5-6 minuets, but we're up at 5600FT so the air is a little thinner up here. From start to finish it
usually takes about 30-35 minuets.
The removable center section is kind of a new feature and the Performer wasn't designed with that in mind. Maybe some day they will have a fix for it.
 
Those start up times sound about right. I use and would suggest a chimney to start your coals. About five minutes with the gas on to start them and them let the chimney do the rest. Coals should be ready in about 25-30 minutes. Once the coals are ready I just dump and place the cooking grate on clean the grate and add the food. What and how I am cooking determines if the lid is on. Most my cooks are coals to one side food on the other with the lid down.

I too reuse my coals. Typically I'll add a few new to the bottom of the chimney and a bunch of old to the top.

As for your hang grate question I have no idea. Weber has had those on their performers for some time now. I have a 2011 model and the slot worked great to hang the cooking grate until I upgrade to the cooking system with the removable center like the new performers have. Personally I just hang the cooking grate on the railing of my deck by the handle and have a book screwed into a deck post for the center. Works for me but you'd think weber would have figured something out for the new cooking grates on their new model performers.

Have fun
 
Almost forgot. If you go the route of using a chimney to start your coals buy the weber chimney (mainly quality/longevity reasons) and reverse the wire cone that holds the charcoal in place. With the tip of the cone pointed down this put the coals closer to the flame of the gas assist this more efficiently starting your charcoal. Oh and you can fit more in too.
 
I have the gas starter system on mine as well. I quit using it and just went with the chimney. The gas flame kept blowing out and in general was a pain to start. I now use the Weber FireStarters Lighter Cubes (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001AN7RGG/tvwb-20). I put one in the chimney cover with charcoal and light it off. 20 minutes or so later it is ready to go. To me it seems much faster than the gas system.
 
Dustin Flavell said:
Almost forgot. If you go the route of using a chimney to start your coals buy the weber chimney (mainly quality/longevity reasons) and reverse the wire cone that holds the charcoal in place. With the tip of the cone pointed down this put the coals closer to the flame of the gas assist this more efficiently starting your charcoal. Oh and you can fit more in too.
Click to expand...

That's is an awesome tip! Why didn't I think of that?
 
ChrisV said:
Am I reading that right... you put the cube IN the chimney? I thought you were supposed to but them under the chimney like if you were using newspaper?
Click to expand...

Me too. I did this last weekend for the first time. Now that I think about it, this was the first time I ever used starter cubes. I put one in the chimney but the variation is I used one piece of paper crumpled up underneath so I could just set the chimney down on the coal grate in the kettle. I lit the paper, it lit the cube, etc.
 
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