Some tips please for a newbie


 
Pat Colbeck

Pat Colbeck

New member
I tried my eBay Performer out for the first time at the weekend. I used briquites (a good brand here in the UK not supermarket specials). They lit pretty easy using the one touch with the baskets over the flame.
The ones on the bottom started going white / grey first and the ones on the top or at the sides still werent lit. Do you mix them arround so they all get some time over the gas and are all buring evenly, thats what I ended up doing ?
I kept the lid off whilst I was getting them going which took about 15 minutes on the gas then turned it off moved the baskets to each side and put the lid on with all vents open until the temperature hit over 400F.
The initial sear was really good but I found the temperature never climbed back up to as high (stuck at about 200F). The burgers I was doing over the baskets cooked really well but the chicken kebabs I did indirectly in the middle didnt do as well even though I left them on longer, I ended up finishing them off over the baskets.
This is my first time with a kettle and to be honest I normally use charcal rather than briquets but as its not BBQ season here I had to use what I could find.
 
hard to say what happened. You can allow the lit coals to light the other coals, once they've caught the flame. I probably wouldn't fuss around with stirring them over a lit flame.

The other option is to use a weber rapidfire chimney and use the performer flame to ignite them. That's a little overkill, and placing a full charcoal basket over the flame will have a similar effect.

Regarding your cool heat, it's possible that the briquettes weren't fully lit. Two charcoal baskets full of hot coals should make for a hot hot kettle that could cook some kababs no problem.
 
Stuck at 200? That's not good. To me, it sound like the coals were not fully "involved". I find that the RapidFire chimney starter lights the coals more evenly and quickly than leaving them in the baskets. Also, were the baskets FULL?
 
Yes the baskets were completely full. I didnt see any flame at all off the briquets and it was a dull day so if there were any flames I would have seen them. The burner flame was yellow is that the right colour or should it be blue like that of a natural gas cooker ? Perhaps the canister is almost empty, I have another two new ones that came with the Performer but I was just using the one allready connected.
 
Hey Pat....all I can tell you is how I usually start my performer up for a hot cook. I fill both baskets, lid off, vents open and I run the gas assist for about 5 minutes leaving the baskets in one place. After five minutes I turn the gas off, move the baskets to where I want them again the vents are wide open and I leave everything lid off for about 15 - 20 minutes. I then put the lid on for about five minutes, remove lid, clean grates and grill. Good luck next time and keep us posted please.
 
No need to light the baskets for 15-minutes with the propane. Four or five minutes tops is all you need. After that the lit coals will make the rest catch. That takes about another 20~30 minutes.

If you're cooking burgers and kabobs you don't need to separate the baskets as all that is high flame sear stuff.

The reason your grill stayed at 200 afterwards is because you burned all the coals too early. It's always good to start cooking while some of the ones on top are still black.

Hope that helps :).
 
Jose Suro said:
No need to light the baskets for 15-minutes with the propane. Four or five minutes tops is all you need. After that the lit coals will make the rest catch. That takes about another 20~30 minutes.

If you're cooking burgers and kabobs you don't need to separate the baskets as all that is high flame sear stuff.

The reason your grill stayed at 200 afterwards is because you burned all the coals too early. It's always good to start cooking while some of the ones on top are still black.

Hope that helps :).
Click to expand...

Bingo ! I prefer lumpwood and now I know why. Everything you read says dont cook on briquets until they are grey which I have alwasy taken to mean grey all over ..... Will give it another go at teh weekend if its dry.
I seperated the baskets as I wanted to cook teh kebabs slower (quite big chunks of chicken) and make sure the middle was cooked not just a fragged outside, didnt work out.
More practice needed me thinks.
Thanks for all the advice people.
 
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