Background information
Kettle grill tutorial part 3: How to master different cooking methods
by Daniel Haupt
Kettle barbecue tutorial part 2: How to tame the heat in your barbecue
7.6.2016
Translation: machine translated
Having warmed up the topic of kettle barbecues in the previous article and given an overview of basic kettle barbecue operation and the different types of heat, let's fire up!
If you find yourself with one of the following problems, then this article is just right for you:
- Your barbecue is always far too hot and everything burns?
- The embers don't really get going and the food regularly comes off the grill half-raw?
- You're constantly fiddling with all the controls and adjusting screws, taking the lid up and down and up and down and everything is getting worse and worse?
No need to leave the sausage pincher hanging! Mastering the embers and the associated temperatures in the kettle grill is a top class skill that needs to be learnt. Humans have been preparing food over a fire since time immemorial. And what the common Neanderthal man could do back then, we can do with ease, can't we?
If you pay attention to the following points, things may not go perfectly right from the start, but a little practice should help you to get to grips with the problems and be able to control the heat well in the long term.
Rule 1: Use the same fuel
In addition to the perhaps already known difference between coal and briquettes (coal burns hotter and faster, but not nearly as long as briquettes), each supplier's coal always has different burning properties, which sometimes diverge widely.
Different types of coal have different burning properties.
Different charcoal is cut into different sizes, smokes differently, glows faster or slower, has a different burning time and glows at different temperatures. The differences are sometimes striking.
No one is telling you not to try different types of charcoal. Quite the opposite: find the fuel you are happy with. But once you've found it, stick with it! By using the same charcoal or briquettes every time you barbecue, you will get the best feel for how much charcoal produces which heat in the barbecue.
This inevitably brings me to the next point:
Rule 2: Remember the amount of fuel used
If you are using a chimney starter to light the embers, you can easily memorise how high you need to fill the chimney for which temperatures. By marking the filling level with a brand, you don't have to strain your grey matter unnecessarily and have a simple reference point.
For those of you who own a Weber kettle barbecue and, like me, were initially wondering what those strange funnel-shaped plastic things are: They are charcoal scoops. You can also use these as a guide if - quite incomprehensibly - you don't have a lighter chimney.
Rule 3: Use the ventilation sliders - nothing works without them
The ventilation openings on the kettle barbecue and the associated sliders and regulators are the key tools when it comes to regulating the temperature on the barbecue. Because your charcoal barbecue needs exactly two ingredients to ignite its infernal hellfire: Charcoal and, above all, oxygen.
You control the supply of oxygen using these regulators on the ventilation openings. The kettle barbecue usually has two. One opening on the lid above and one ventilation opening, which is usually located below the charcoal grate and fans the embers there.
The lower ventilation regulator
Let's start with the lower regulator: This regulator directly controls the amount of oxygen supplied to the embers and therefore directly regulates how much the charcoal glows and how hot it gets.
In other words, this means that this regulator is the most important tool for regulating the heat. Normally - at least on my Weber grill - this slider is directly connected to the ventilation slats and is located below the charcoal grate.
In addition to the open and closed positions, there are of course many other smaller differences in the fan positions. For example, the louvres can also be opened only a quarter, half or three-quarters of the way.
Since we are clever, let's take a look at the whole thing in advance in the empty grill and use a brand on the outside of the controller to mark the controller positions at which the louvres remain in the above positions.
So you don't have to unnecessarily lift the lid later to check how wide the ventilation is open - only to realise that you can't see anything through the charcoal, embers and ash anyway. It's a mystery to me why Weber hasn't been putting these markings on the regulator as standard for a long time.
You should also note that all settings that you make using the lower ventilation slider only take effect after a delay of several minutes. So suppress the urge to fiddle around wildly with the slider. Instead, grab a beer, a thermometer and take your time to observe how the temperatures gradually change.
The upper ventilation regulator
The upper ventilation controller only slightly controls the temperature. It determines how far it is opened
- how much hot air and smoke remains in the grill
- how the suction of the air runs from the bottom to the top
In particular, when I add smoking chips to the embers to get certain smoky flavours to my meat, I tend to leave the top control open only slightly to keep more smoke in the ball.
You should not close the slider completely, however, as it influences the suction of the hot air in the grill and therefore the strength of the chimney effect. I usually keep the top slider half open.
Rule 4: Keep the lid closed
The lid of your kettle barbecue is also an effective tool for managing the heat in the barbecue. It is very easy to use: just keep it closed as often as possible
I also know this from my early days. You just can't resist taking a peek inside because you don't really trust the roast. Hello? Is everything really OK in there?
All I can say is: trust your kettle grill! It works. Give your chop or steak a few minutes on each side with the lid closed. Give your roast the several hours it needs, if necessary. And without constantly poking under the lid.
Every time you remove the lid from the grill, only the following actually happens:
- Much of the hot air escapes
- The embers suddenly draw in a lot more oxygen and suddenly burn much hotter
Conclusion: Taking the lid off and putting it back on a few times causes uncontrollable temperatures inside.
Rule 5: Measure the temperature
All the tips about measuring the filling height of the chimney, marking fan settings, using the same coal and so on and so forth are of course worth nothing if I don't know the actual temperature in my sphere.
One thing in advance: the temperature can only be determined very roughly with the lid thermometer, it is really no more than a guessing tool. Temperature deviations of up to 30 degrees compared to the temperature on the surface where the food is placed are not uncommon.
This is simply due to the fact that hot air rises, collects on the lid around the outlet and builds up, resulting in higher temperatures there than a few centimetres lower down on the grill grate. The fact whether the thermometer is located in the lid directly above the embers or in the indirect area also influences its measurement result.
In this case, I can only advise you to use a decent barbecue thermometer, ideally with a wireless function. You can then place one of the probes directly on the grill rack near the food and get the exact temperature.
Here is the third part of the tutorial:
...and if you missed the first part:
If you want to put your newfound grilling skills to use:
What, you don't even have a barbecue yet?
Grill thermometer
I was born in the Rhineland, am a project manager in IT and a family man. Away from ones and zeros and at the latest with the move into our home I have found my only true project: The barbecue!
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Since 2015 I have been writing about this on my blog. There I give my readers all sorts of tricks and tricks about barbecuing with charcoal and present my latest creations and ideas.
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You'll find more of me here:
<a href="http://project-bbq.de" target="_blank">project-bbq.de</a>