Back To The Basics BBQ Series: Charcoal Grilling Basics

this is how barbecue started for me on a charcoal Kettle Grill in my backyard with an ice cold beer backed up by a cooler full and the nice beautiful summer weather for many of you it's probably how you started too and if you're just getting started with Backyard Barbecue cattle grills is the way to do it learning the most primitive way to cook in an affordable setting in your backyard using a kettle grow running charcoal is one of the best ways you learn a lot about temperatures you learn a lot about Fire Control you learn about a clean burn you learn about direct and indirect heat and honestly these are some of the Staples to Backyard Barbecue this is how my father grilled this is how my father's father grilled this is how my father's father maybe not quite that long ago but you get the picture I'm gonna go through everything you need to know about Kettle grilling between fuel source how to light it how to control temperature and even do a little bit of demonstration cooking on a live fire grab yourself a beer and let's get started thank you welcome to my series of Backyard Barbecue Basics today we are talking kettle grills you can see here we have a rusty old beat up Weber kettle I have run this thing through the paces for probably 10 years and to be honest with you when it comes to Kettle grilling this is something that is always going to be in my tool bag I will always have a kettle Grill why because they're fun to cook on they're easy to run and the results that you get for such a simple package is incredible and I'm going to show you all about that now when it comes to a Weber kettle things are simple it's live fire direct indirect heat nothing fancy they have models that give you a little bit more features they have the Weber Performer that gives you a little counter space to work with but it's still a kettle now you've got options like the S the slow and seared Deluxe this one here has a foldable side shelf it has a slow and sear insert it has a water insert it has a bunch of features and for just a little bit more money you can upgrade to something like this I've done a few cooks on this one already this summer just for my own liking and checking out the products myself and I personally love the features that come with this and it is an awesome package for the money I will put a link down in the description if you're interested in checking them out check that in the description below but when it comes to kettles everything's simple it doesn't matter if you have a Weber kettle or slow and sear or SNS grow for short it's all about live fire so what is live fire we are physically cooking over coals we're cooking over a live fire you've been to cookouts your fathers your grandfathers are probably done it in fact you've probably done it too there's a few things about running a kettle that make them special and make them versatile especially in just the package that it is now we're going to go through some things like your charcoal Choice how you light it how you control the temperature the features of the grill and and cooking space and how you can utilize it to different likings now since I got this fancy brand new slow and sear we're going to pull this old Weber out of the way and this is what we're going to focus on today thank you when it comes to kettle grills they all are about the same in terms of basic functionality you've got yourself a lid completely removable most of them will come with a thermometer or gauge right there on the lid it's going to help you Monitor and maintain those temperatures there are also a couple key components that help you control the temperature and those are dampers the main one that we're going to be using we're going to be talking about is the one here on the lid you also have a damper here that allows you to control the airflow coming in under the coals so essentially the fire is going to breathe from underneath through the bottom of the grill up through the coals and vents out the top now temperature is all about Fuel and airflow essentially so our fuel is our charcoal and our airflow is basically the gas that we're putting on the fire the more open wide open and the more airflow that we allow to cover the coals the hotter that fire is going to get so if you're going to be doing low and slow cooking or you're going to be doing some barbecue or you're going to be doing some high heat grilling everything is going to be about airflow a common misconception about Fire Control in a kettle Grill is that more charcoal means more heat that is false granted you do need enough fuel so you know a handful isn't going to produce a long 700 degree Grill but you also don't need the entire Kettle full of charcoal either so today we're going to be talking a little bit about that now another controversial topic is going to be fuel source you've got your lump charcoal you've got your briquettes they come in different sizes flavors Brands and let me tell you what everybody asks all the time lump or briquette briquette or lump jealous devil or Kingsford BNB or the good charcoal company let me tell you what for me I don't really think that it matters I have made great food with standard Kingsford briquettes and I've made good food with lump charcoal of various Brands now there's one caveat and one thing that I actually from experience will tell you makes a difference briquettes are the most consistent I don't know how many times I've bought a bag of lump charcoal and found that it was completely filled with just dust and tiny little chunks of broken up lump charcoal to the point where it doesn't light good it doesn't get good airflow and really it's a crappy overall product I have had bags in fact I have another bag of this in the garage that I opened and it's almost completely pulverized when it comes to briquettes I will say 95 out of 100 bags are absolutely perfect yes will there be some broken ones yes will there be dust on the bottom but I will say I've had the most consistent quality control coming out of briquettes now do I think some of the lump charcoal is a little bit more premium no additives no chemicals anything like that absolutely but when I spend 15 or 20 on a bag of charcoal and it's completely broken up into tiny pieces and dust it's useless now when it comes to briquettes there is one thing that I want to tell you right now do not buy match like white charcoal don't buy it if you're starting a campfire that you're not going to be cooking on fine do whatever use lighter fluid use gas we don't do that here we don't use any petroleum products to get the fire started now let's talk about that when it comes to lighting your charcoal grill this right here is the most effective and affordable tool that you can possibly have this is what we call a Chimney Starter you load the charcoal up in here there's a space or Gap underneath there's vents here to allow airflow and we use something like this this is a tumbleweed starter they're cheap they work really well and they don't really interfere with your food there's no harsh chemicals or anything like that essentially what we do is we light this we set this on top now we're not doing that right here in fact what I typically do is I will make sure that the bottom vent is wide open and I will light it right here on the grill if there's any ashes or particles that fall down while it's burning it's not going in the yard it's not going on the driveway it's not going on the deck it's falling right here into the place it's supposed to be so now let's get some charcoal lip like I said I've been a big fan of briquettes my dad used these forever the Kingsford the blue bag I've used the professional they're all good and they're consistent when it comes to Quality we're going to go ahead and use some of this today now for most Cooks I'm going to use a full chimney got my Tumbleweed starter placed below I'm going to use a lighter when I get that thing lit place that right on top and we're going to give this a few minutes to get lit and I'm going to show you how you know when the charcoal is ready to actually get into the grill getting your charcoal lit is just the first step now that we've had it lit we want to know when it is ready the charcoal itself will start to get white cap so it'll start to turn a little Ashy and you will notice a lot of heat actually coming from this chimney as you can see here we've got Flames escaping the top the charcoal on the top is starting to show its Ash it's time to get this down in to the slow and Sear now what's special about the Sloans here this SNS Kettle is the fact that we have the slow and sear Deluxe this is basically a way for us to capture all of the charcoal into one corner of the grill and keep it contained we're going to go ahead and dump that down evenly [Music] now we're going to get the grate back on top now when it comes to grilling on this you've got two different options you've got the direct and indirect heat the slow and sear is the best of both worlds you have direct heat contained on one side you have an away from the coals side as well which we're going to call the cool side which allows you to take food on and off that direct heat this is perfect when you're doing Sears like on burgers or steaks it allows you to achieve that sear without burning the surface because what can you do you can just spin the food away from the heat now it's no longer directly above the coals it works great for methods like reverse searing where you're going to keep it away from the heat let it slowly rise up to temperature and then slide it over here over the direct holes to achieve that nice sear so to demonstrate some of that functionality we're going to go ahead and make ourselves a steak today we're going to start off with a T-bone a grass-fed grass-finished T-Bone from certified piedmontese these are some awesome steaks and perfect for this directed indirect heat demonstration we'll pat dry this mostly dry just to get any Purge off of that meat as you can see even as a grass-fed T-Bone this has some great marbling now for seasoning we're going to be using the bearded butchers buttery blend this is one of my favorites on steaks it's honestly great get a nice coating on the steak itself season down the sides don't forget those and we'll flip it over now for temperature control you're probably wondering what am I supposed to set this at what I do is I always leave this bottom damper all the way open now that we've got the steak seasoned up get yourself a good pair of tongs this is one of the best tools that you can use on a grill like this something that gives you some length to stay away from the Heat and something that's sturdy that's going to hold a large piece of meat something heavy like this T-Bone now today we're going to be searing first and then slow cooking it to to finish so what are you going to do you're going to set the sucker right down above that slow and sear right above those coals and we're going to leave it there for a moment now one of the easiest methods to remove from the direct Flames when it comes to these kettles is just grab the handle or the grate spin it around now the steak is no longer on top of the coals it's away from that direct heat we're going to give this side of the grill just a moment to heat up then we're going to flip it over and apply heat to that side now when it comes to steaks right now I'm not really worried about temperature I just want some hot coals to sear it apply this to the hot grate that's going to give you those Grill lines now you could apply some butter you could base some butter right now that's something that I do a lot when it comes to steak now if you're cooking a steak like a ribeye something that has a little bit of extra fat as it drips down into those coals you may see some flare-ups so you may need to pull it away you know from the heat a little bit you can see we're getting some nice golden color there we've got the color that we want we're going to get this over here and get this lid closed when it comes to Kettle cooking you have to understand temperature control like I said this damper down at the bottom we're keeping it full open full open is going to give us anywhere from 450 plus now if we want something medium heat 350 to 450 then we're going to turn this to half is going to restrict some of the flow it's going to slow down the flow of air into the grill and it's going to cool it down but you have to understand it's not going to happen immediately the fire actually has to choke down a little bit if we're looking for a lower temperature like 250 to 350 we're going to want this a quarter open and if we want this to be 225 to 250 we need about an eighth of the way open in fact it's going to look mostly closed adjusting this here is going to choke out the fire it's going to choke it down to where it's just a smolder but it's going to take some time so in the case of the steak right now this Grill is 400 degrees you know so we have to pay closer attention to the fire itself and we have to pay attention to temperature now since this is a back to the basics barbecue series and we're starting here with this Kettle grill with a simple steak this right here is a thermoworks thermapen one this is one of the best tools that you can possibly have when it comes to Backyard Barbecue this right here is the difference between eh I guessed in this steak is pretty close or this is absolutely perfect so for me since I got this my barbecue has improved significantly temperatures are spot on because I'm able to monitor it accurately so get yourself an instant read thermometer these are about 100 bucks they have cheaper versions that are available that are much more affordable down to like the 25 to 30 dollar range and honestly it'll change the way you cook since we are concerning ourselves with temperature a little bit why don't we check on the steak we did Sear it let's see how much we've affected that steak all right [Music] now as you can see we have a pretty hefty sear on that steak we've got some dark spots and we're reading honestly in the 80s so what I'm going to do is I'm going to position this steak far away from the heat as possible leaving the coldest part of the stake closest to the fire and I'm going to get this lid closed which I have at that about 225 to 250 setting on that damper and we're just going to let this go we're looking for a medium rare probably going to pull this thing at about 130 132. this T-bone steak should be just about done pull out my instant Reed thermometer like I said we're looking for like 132 133 we're right on the money I'm gonna pull this stake and you can see here that thing is beautiful we're going to get this off to the side we're going to let it rest resting your meat is great Dome it up with a piece of foil wrap it up with some Saran Wrap rested for about five to ten minutes now the steak is off and it is resting we're going to give that like five to ten minutes time but you're probably saying what am I supposed to do this Grill is still hot Fire's still going charcoal is still cherry red what are you supposed to do well the best way to handle it is completely shut the air off this is going to choke out the fire now we'll come down here we'll turn this off now one thing to notice is we do have an ash collection here while that Grill is running the little bits and pieces of charcoal and little Embers and Ash they're going to fall down into the bowl of the grill and since we were cooking with that bottom damper open completely that Ash is going to fall into that Ash clean out pan now we're going to shut this off the charcoal is going to continue to burn until we smother it basically by cutting off the the oxygen supply because we've closed both of those dampers the charcoal is going to continue to Ash so the next time that you go to use this once it cools down a lot of that Ash is going to fall down it's cool it's going to be safe you're going to be able to clean this out remove all the Ash and unused charcoal and get rid of it cooking with a kettle Grill is honestly pretty freaking simple in fact it's one of the most primitive and basic ways to cook that you can possibly do I will always have a kettle Grill in my Arsenal because pulling out the Grove to do some steaks pulling out the grill to do some burgers and just getting that good charcoal flavor on your food can't be reproduced anywhere else and for the low price that some of these kettles run like a Weber kettle or like this slow and sear Deluxe they're very affordable now even with the slow and sear Deluxe there are cheaper options that don't have the Sloan sear that have a different version of the slow and sear check them out got a link down in the description now I'll tell you what our steak's been resting let's go ahead and cut into that and give it a try because we got to know how do we do give it a try very delicious steak even this grass-fed grass finish being a little leaner had a great marbling and this thing is super juicy you can 100 percent tell with every single bite that this came off of a charcoal grill and honestly you could see how simple that was super delicious super simple and that is all this back to the basics barbecue series is about we're going to be attacking a ton of recipes anywhere from bone and steaks boneless steaks roast then things like flank steaks hanger steaks but vet Stakes we're going to be doing chicken ribs pretty much everything in between and it's all going to be done on the kettle so be sure to subscribe and I'll see you in the next video of this back to the basics barbecue series

Channel: Andersons Smoke Show

Views: 171,949

Keywords: Andersons SmokeShow, Andersons Smoke Show, anderson smoke show, andersons smoke show, sns grills, sns grill kettle, sns grills slow n sear, sns kettle grill, slow n sear, kettle grills, charcoal grill, charcoal grilling for beginners, sns grills kettle, slow n sear kettle, slow n sear review, bbq, slow and sear, slow n sear kettle grill, sns grills review, certified piedmontese beef, certified piedmontese, slow and sear review, sns kettle, slow ’n sear kettle

Id: 4GNRI1-Z-EI

Length: 17min 32sec (1052 seconds)

Published: Fri May 26 2023