Charcoal Grill / Kettle - Biggest Beginners Mistake #charcoalgrill #beginnersmistake #bbq #doNOTdoit

real sergeant here what's going on grillbillys in today's episode we're tackling issues every new kettle owner gets extremely frustrated about let's start the show [Music] all right if you're new to charcoal barbecue or contemplating getting your first kettle this video is for you or if you know someone who just got a new kettle you might want to share this video with them or if you know someone who knows someone who let's face it there's nothing more frustrating than buying a brand new kettle and being totally disappointed on how the food came out now if you've ever tasted food coming off of a kettle you know it's so good you just might never go back to propane again sorry hank hill propane sucks cube bastards charcoal grills and kettles come in all shapes and sizes but whatever you have the advice in this video is going to be universal now before we dive in if you're new to this channel at the end of this video if you found the information helpful i'd ask you hit that subscribe button and like button to stay on top of all our barbecue adventures we're a barbecue community here and i'd love for you to join us along alright let's dive in when it comes to charcoal you pretty much have two options you have lump and you have briquette now pit masters and backyard barbecue warriors will have their preference on the two but most will agree there's a proper way to light your charcoal and most beginners make this mistake using lighter fluid now if you walk into any department store you have your charcoal barbecues and you have your lighter fluid right there so you would think hey they go hand in hand right wrong now the whole reason you ditched propane for charcoal barbecue is to get away from that chemical taste using lighter fluid can impart chemical off flavors into your barbecue to fix this issue what you're going to need is a charcoal chimney now how this works is you fill it up with your charcoal that you're going to use for your barbecue and you can either put newspaper or a chemical free fire starter underneath and in about 15 to 20 minutes your charcoal is gonna be screaming hot and ready for use next mistake is not getting fully lit no i'm not talking about recreational marijuana i'm talking about not giving your coals enough time to heat up before you dump them into your kettle i remember my first barbecue we invited a bunch of friends over i got a bunch of rib eye steaks and i heated up my charcoal chimney for about five to ten minutes i dumped them in and the coals went out i was so embarrassed we even had to finish the steaks on a propane grill the key to fixing this mistake is giving enough time for your charcoal to get screaming hot in a charcoal chimney that usually takes 15 to 20 minutes now a dead giveaway if you see white ash on the top of your coals you know they're ready to dump if you do it before then there's a good chance that your coals can actually go out because they're not properly lit all right now that you got your charcoal screaming hot it's time to just dump them in right wrong well not really but it really helps understanding direct and indirect heat zones on your kettle if you're doing hot dogs or burgers or quick cooks sure dump them in the middle spread them around you're good to go but where the kettle shines is understanding your heat zones let's look under the grill if you are doing a quick cook yes you can basically just pour them out all in the center put your burgers hot dogs on top they're good to go but they do make charcoal baskets and if you don't have charcoal baskets you can actually bank your coals to one side but what really helps is actually making a hot zone which is underneath the charcoal and then making an indirect heat zone which is apart from the coals so if i was cooking a big steak there's a method known as reverse searing and i can actually put the steak on this side and the heat is going to come from here and it's going to rise up and with the kettle shape it's actually going to inductively cook your steak and you're basically bringing it up to the temperature you want and then right before it comes up to temperature i'll take it and i'll flip it now on the hot side to basically give those nice sear marks and give that nice char in that steak and then i'll pull it another method what you can do is you can actually take your charcoal basket and put in the center and you could put your barbecue wings all around the kettle shape again they'll be cooking indirectly and you could do that for maybe an hour or two and then right before you take them off you can put the wings in the center of the grill and give that nice crispy char to them and your wings are going to be killer now there is another method called the snake method and you actually build what looks like a charcoal snake around the edge of your kettle and instead of having them all lit you're only going to light one end and this is for when you're doing barbecue low and slow so if i have say two racks of ribs right here i'll light one into my charcoal snake and that will slowly burn giving me those low temperatures like 225 250 and that will burn for about six seven hours enough time for me to slow cook ribs now i will post a link in the description and that video will show you all the different types of cooking methods you can do on your kettle and it really helps understanding what you're trying to cook because your kettle is going to make that food come out so much better if you understand those heat zones all right now that you have an understanding of heat zones when you put your coals in the next mistake you don't want to do is putting your food on right away the reason being is if you put your meat on a cold grate that eventually starts heating up the proteins in your meat will actually stick to the grate itself if you give some time for your kettle to heat up usually 10-15 minutes the grate will be warm enough to that when you throw your steaks on you won't have your meat stick to the grill now usually what i'll do is i'll let the grill come up to temperature and then i'll take a grill brush i'll wipe the grate down and if you want you can take a little rag with some cooking oil on it and basically wipe down the grates really quick and that will give a nice non-stick surface so make sure your kettle is heated up before you put the food on and you'll be good to go now the next mistake comes in the form of a question and yet it gets asked all the time how long is something going to take to cook now i get it that question actually seems very innocent but what you have to understand when it comes to barbecue there are so many variables what's the outside temperature what fuel source are you using what was the temperature your meat there are so many variables when it comes to barbecue that it's better to go by temperature rather than time what you're going to need to do is basically get a barbecue thermometer and you're going to put it into the center of your meat and you're going to pull it whenever that meat comes up to the temperature that you want it you can come up with estimates of how long things take to cook but to get really consistent results you're cooking to temperature and not by time i've been doing barbecue for who knows how long but still my wife will be like how long is it going to take how long is it going to take and i'm like it's ready when it's ready girl come on now so if you want consistent results over and over again get yourself a barbecue thermometer and you'll be good to go now there's a saying in barbecue that goes like this if you're looking it ain't cooking what that means is keep your lid on as much as you can how kettle works is you basically you have all this heat and smoky goodness trapped inside and so when you go to lift your lid to you know check on your meat take instagram photos whatever all that heat and smoke that you spent so hard to build up now just went adios hasta luego literally see you later to avoid that keep your lid closed now you might be saying how do i know if my food's going to be done or not and that's when you rely on your temperature probes now if you want to bring your barbecue game up to the next level introducing hardwood smoke with your charcoal is a great place to start hardwood smoke and meat go hand in hand but the mistake here is just throwing on any wood that you can find hardwood comes in all varieties and on the back of the bag it will usually state what meat that wood is good for now a wood that's good for beef might not necessarily be good for fish so you do want to pay attention to what hardwood you're putting on but the cool thing is you can actually mix different hardwoods to get a unique flavor that's custom to what you like i'll give you an example when i'm cooking ribs i like using hickory wood and cherry wood that gives a nice smoke flavor it is so good now before we get into the next mistake i need a vent no not me personally my charcoal vent your kettle has vents on both the bottom and the top and it really helps to understand how to use those vents the main gist of understanding the vents is your charcoal needs to breathe now how much you let it breathe depends on how hot it gets if the bottom and top vents are fully open your charcoal is going to be screaming hot because there's a lot of oxygen passing through but when you start to actually close those vents that temperature actually starts to drop now if you open your top end bottom vents halfway your charcoal will get less oxygen and it will cook at a lower temperature and it will actually cook longer because you're not burning up the fuel sources fast now let's talk about when you're done barbecuing you take the food off and you're enjoying it now the big mistake here is letting that unused charcoal that's in your kettle go to waste what you can do is you can fully shut off the top and bottom vent that is going to kill the fire on the inside of your barbecue now whatever doesn't burn off you can actually reuse and you can put that in your chimney and then put new charcoal on top and then use that so for your next cook you're actually using less charcoal than if you were to just put brand new charcoal in again so save the charcoal that you don't use all right last step and this is a huge one is know who you're cooking for now if you're cooking for yourself and you know what temperatures you like on your steak go for it so i've made the mistake of you know cooking to what i like and then serving it and for the guests to actually be afraid because they think it's too undercooked so before you put your steaks on it does help to ask how they like their steaks cooked too everyone has a preference some like it rare medium rare medium well well well done and if they like it well done you can probably just escort them out your house because they're not going to be friends that you want to be with anyway all right guys thanks for watching this video if you did have any questions feel free to leave a comment i'd be happy to answer them i do hope you felt that this video was informational and if you haven't already do hit that subscribe and like button other than that i'll catch you guys in the next one alright girl sergeant out cheers you

Channel: Grill Sergeant

Views: 193,282

Rating: 4.8997302 out of 5

Keywords: charcoal grill, charcoal grill tips, charcoal grill for beginners, charcoal grill cooking, charcoal grill cooking time, charcoal grill cooking temperature, cooking by temperature not time, new to kettle cooking, new kettle bbq, new to kettle bbq, new to weber kettles, new to charcoal bbq, charcoal bbq tips and tricks, kettle bbq troubleshooting, troubleshooting charcoal bbq, learn how to charcoal bbq, beginners mistake, how to, how to bbq right

Id: xHiDAKPF_H4

Length: 11min 54sec (714 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/nachobox]

Not trying to be negative, but video thumbnails like that make me not want to watch. Feels click-baity, but I guess that's normal on YT now

[u/sweetishfishmafia]

In addition to lifting the lid to look at the meat, folks should know how to properly slide the lid to the side and not create a vacuum. Yanking the lid up draws ash directly into the food

[u/Iamvanno]

This was great. I got a Weber last year, and was having so much trouble since it was my first charcoal BBQ.

Once I figured out that I needed a chimney to use with the propane assist, it was like a light went on. Now I have flames shooting out the top of the chimney and it's so much easier getting and keeping temperature.

I will be trying the wood chips once in store shopping opens up here.

[u/bakins711]

Professor X outfit to match the thumbnail?

[u/ClutchAndChuuch]

This was pretty good! I’d maybe add “Oil the food, not the grates”