JonM
Well-Known Member
Not too long. I prefer to use the skinny carrots because they cook through faster. I never really timed it, but I occasionally pick them up and try to bend them against the grate. When they bend easily, they're ready.
Man, the food in this thread looks yummy. The grilled veggies are amazing but how long do whole carrots take? I could eat a pound of grilled asparagus without issue. In fact, I downed a 1/2 # Saturday night before my steak was touched.
Boil the carrots first, just long enough so that you can barely get a fork in them. Then toss them in ice water to stop them from cooking. You can do this long before you grill. This way they will be soft when the grilling is done.
At grilling time, coat with butter, grill, when done grilling, glaze again with butter/honey/orange zest/be creative, sprinkle with some parsely, and serve. Perfecto!
I grill asparagus and pole beans and other small veggies on a shallow stainless basket like this:
Anyone ever experiment with somehow blowing air in through the bottom vents to stoke the coals and get a hotter fire? I'd like to do a whole chicken at around 500 with indirect heat, but with the vents wide open and a whole chimney, I could only get around 350.
Seems like it would work in theory, but there'd likely be ashes blowing around and landing on the food. Wondering if anyone smarter had figured out a way to make that work.
Anyone ever experiment with somehow blowing air in through the bottom vents to stoke the coals and get a hotter fire? I'd like to do a whole chicken at around 500 with indirect heat, but with the vents wide open and a whole chimney, I could only get around 350.
Seems like it would work in theory, but there'd likely be ashes blowing around and landing on the food. Wondering if anyone smarter had figured out a way to make that work.
Anyone ever experiment with somehow blowing air in through the bottom vents to stoke the coals and get a hotter fire? I'd like to do a whole chicken at around 500 with indirect heat, but with the vents wide open and a whole chimney, I could only get around 350.
Seems like it would work in theory, but there'd likely be ashes blowing around and landing on the food. Wondering if anyone smarter had figured out a way to make that work.
I've got the Auber smoker controller with the smallest blower on my smoker. It would attach just fine to my kettle, too. I'm sure it would do exactly what you're proposing. I mike get my kettle stoked this weekend, I'll put the controller on there and see how hot it gets it.
Here's mine!
Hmmm. Fruit pie in the Weber. This must be done.
I bought my first...and ONLY...Weber kettle in 1973. I did do a "rebuild" of it two years ago: new wheels, new kettle handle. I called Weber-Stevens to get replacement dampers...one of mine escaped some years ago...and they sent me a package of three free! The only thing I've never done with my Weber is bake a cake! Turkeys? Yummy. Fish? Delish! It does need a new charcoal grid and a new cooking grid...but it's the very same kettle I bought 41 years ago!
glenn514
W I had the fire set up for indirect heat with the coals on the outside and a cooking area in the middle. I had an oven thermometer in the cooking area so I could keep an eye on the temps. When I saw that the temps were going nowhere with the fan, I removed the fan and put a couple pieces of dry oak on the coals and let them flame up. Guess what? The temps in the cooking area got to 500-550.
So indirect open flame cooking. Since this was just a dry run, I think I'll have to try that method with a chicken or something. EDIT: Once I saw that the temps were going way up, I added some more wood and that, of course, made the temp go up even more. The oven thermometer goes to 600, and I had it pegged, leading me to believe the temp in the cooking area was 700 or more. That sounds like steakhouse oven temps to me.
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I fill a coal bin, dump it into the chimney and light it with paper. Once it's going, I dump it back into the bin and do that again with the next bin. This way, I've two bins of well lit coal, rather than one well lit and one that might go out.
If I wind up with coals trying to burn from the top down, I rake them down some and either add coal or wood to the top. Or, and there are top down techniques, I rake it so the lit coals fall down into spaces in the bottom and catch the coals on fire that way. That technique seems to make a lower slower heat. I don't use a thermometer though, so I'm just going by feel and how long it takes to cook.
And strips of paper seem to light coals better than wads.
That looks awesome! Did you use the recipe on the Weber website?
On my old Weber, the cooking grate has "handles" with an open space in the grate. When I cook indirectly, I position the "handles" over the location of my hot coals. Then, when more charcoal is needed, I can add it through the "handle" holes. I also have a long, metal tent stake that I use to position the new charcoal, if need be.
glenn514
I can add coals okay. I need to get them lit in the chimney which has to sit on a grate and not my deck railing. I have no place to do that with food cooking. How do you light more coals when the ones lit before are spent?Have you tried gently shaking your kettle to make sure the ash finds its way below the unlit coals? I usually find doing this on my smoker helps on long cooks.
For adding coals on a kettle mid grilling, the grates that you can lift the side 1/3 are really nice.
How do you light more coals when the ones lit before are spent?
How do you light more coals when the ones lit before are spent?
I grilled a Tri-Tip Sat but had some leftovers.
Happy to find this thread. I am no gourmet like some of you appear to be, but here is my weber grilling some pork chops for dinner tonight.
Fun fact: my kettle was made before the date code system was started at weber, which means my grill is older than I am. It was given to me 5 or so years ago by my vegetarian aunt and uncle. I don't think they used it since going vegetarian in the 1970's. Happy grilling!
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