Well done Bomber - Gas all the way. Stay vertical!

My charcoal-powered black ball lives outside, and was completely unused in 2019. Perhaps I should try to improve on that in 2020.

I grill year round, and I use charcoal. If it's windy, I wear a jacket, and a hat.

To be fair, winter in Texas is rather more mild than it is in most places...
Regardless of weather, the convenience of being able to start cooking ~10 minutes after I start means I use the gas grill far more than I would if I was using charcoal. Not just for complete meal prep, but I'll use the grill do things like brown meat before it goes into another recipe that I'll then cook with the stove/oven.

Been a charcoal user for years with an old 4 burner gas grill that's been sitting in a corner looking neglected, a near summer long fireban changed that! Gas is deemed ok to use while anything charcoal or pellets is a no-no on full fireban days.
The old 4 burner is still sitting in a corner looking neglected as it was replaced by a shiny new Ziegler & Brown twin burner, with the 2 zones and lid I can more or less cook on it like I used to do with charcoal.

Dragged our charcoal powered orb out at the weekend as part of the ongoing battle against having bored kids.
Somehow the ideal of a long languid afternoon of slow cooked food, beers and convivial (immediate family) company is never achieved, the reality being more light, shout at kids for fighting near the bbq, food on, shout at kids for fighting near the bbq, food off, shout at kids for fighting at the table, eat, shout at kids for fighting near the bbq, give up and go watch tv.

Fair Weather Weber-queing
 

It's gotten sufficiently fair enough in Seattle, believe it or not, to fire up the Weber (22") for smoking ribs. Ahhhhh the aroma.

Sunday saw the mighty Karcher powered up to spring clean the Smokey Joe and 22" correctly powered Webers. Unfortunately the sack of correct fuel I had squirrelled away was a tad damp and needed some TLC, but with some perseverance performed as advertised. Just a basic burger, brattie and marinated chicken meal was cooked but the aroma of the correct fuel was welcomed.

The breath of Satan's nether regions shall power Tartare Towers outdoor incineration device, as we in the Antipodes turn clocks back, pull out the warm clothes, and watch the darkness descend.
And only metres away shall smoulder the family Chimnea, happily lighting the gloom, banishing ye virus and merrily contributing to climate change.

Nothing Wrong with a good bit of horse meat

Ah Beagle alright for the likes of you posh kids from Zummerset, me who grew up on the wild edges of Dartmoor our primary school seemed to be always served lunches frequently composed of a meat known as beef olives which by popular consent were definitely horse meat:eek:

First confirmed horsemeat I ever had was in Northern Italy (was it Verona? Vicenza? I forget) in the mid 90's.
It was most excellent.
But as with anything else, one needs to cook a piece of meat properly ... and since they didn't use a Weber. :sad:... just kidding.
It was on a great big rotisserie of some sort. (Arrosto?)

Last week,when the UK temperatures soared, we had another BBQ using the 29-year-old Weber 22.5 inch One-touch, with lumpwood charcoal, and a very pleasant meal it was too! This year I have started using these Weber kettle BBQ char-baskets, and have found them to be very useful for control of indirect cooking, i.e. cooking with the food not directly above the charcoal.

Sit these two char-baskets on the periphery of the charcoal grill i.e. below the food grill, and cook the food in the centre of the food grill, whilst catching all the dripping fat in a foil tray sat between the char-baskets. If you need your burger pattie or sausage a bit more charred, just move it directly over one of the char-baskets!

The char-baskets are a bit pricey, but I still recommend them. Those with some decent tools and a bit of DIY skill could probably knock their own up quite easily for a lot cheaper?

Howzit, MrB? Those charcoal holders look good, but pretty expensive?

Mine's only an 18.5 in model, but I just leave the indirect wire things in place and put the lumpwood charcoal either in the centre for direct cooking or outside for indirect. They work just fine!

Weber have stopped making the excellent ash catching device on 18.5s - heaven knows why. Only that useless hub cap thing and 3 finger biting wore clips now.

Fired it up yesterday evening - as quick and easy as ever!

Beagle: the 3 finger biters are meant to be rotated, not attacked. And the useless hubcap, battered and filthy, soldiers on. 25 years if a day, under thechipped bright red orb with gash thermometer.
I know how it feels.

Slight thread drift:
For a long time I'd only heard of the 'Big Green Egg' - but lately they've started to show up in the local stores and I'm curious. What makes them so desirable to justify the huge price premium over a similar sized Weber? Yes, they appear to be very well made and should last forever (assuming you don't drop it), but does it make outdoor cooking that much easier or better?

Not heard of the aforesaid egg but to my simple mind the essence of a BBQ is simplicity. Weber [battered or otherwise] for leisurely, pre-planned and best; gas [beagle look the other way] for spontaneous, short notice, I'm starving. The gas one is equally battered, the inside only sanitised by application of heat.

Easier in that it's usually dead easy to keep a low and stable temperature for ages without having to resort to building a snake in the weber. Just pile in the charcoal, light it in one spot and as it comes up to temperature just shut the vents down for a stable cook. I've got a Chargriller Akorn and 10+ hours cooking without having to bother with adding any coal makes pulled pork and similar easily done.
And on the other side of the spectrum you can get them screamin hot if you want to by just leaving the vents open.
Usually hold moisture better too so generally no need to add a waterpan.

Hassle with them is that it's real hard to get the temperature down if you overshoot as they are so well insulated. And they can crack if you let the temperature go up or down too fast.

Well if people think that Webers are pricey, that Big Green Egg is considerably more so! I mean around £700 for the smallest?

Getting the back orb fired up really doesn't take that long! Always close all vents after the previous session, so that there'll still be some charcoal left. A quick whizz over with a trowel to remove most of the ash on the coals, riddle with the propeller thingy, empty the cack catcher and you're ready to go again. A single firelighter, some fresh lumpwood and a squirt of starter gel. Then scrap the grille with a wire brush before lighting (only needs one match normally). It only takes about 25 minutes to get the coals up to temperature, which is about the same time as it takes to down a decent sized G&T (80 ml gin, lots of ice, wedge of pink grapefruit and a 150 ml can of Schweppes)!

I swear by my Weber chimney starter. Never a drop of fluid needed. Pile it full, stand it over a lit firelighter (or even just paper) on the bottom grille and come back 10-15mins later to something a blacksmith could work with. Tip it out, top grille on, cook. If feeling bold you can sear bits of steak or tuna over the ‘furnace’ before tipping it out. It transformed my BBQ experience!

One more vote for the chimney starter here: 25 minutes max from lighting to having the grill hot enough to cook. Also, I read on another forum that kitchen roll soaked in cooking oil works well if no firelighters are to hand.

Greetings, Beags! Yep, as I wrote in my earlier post they are a bit pricey, but given how much money I haven't spent during lockdown, I thought "Ahhhhh, what the heck!" and bought them! :O (And this despite my employer reducing my salary by half for April and May ...)

I have a set of those "indirect wire things" too, but what I like about the char-baskets is the ability to move them around, if necessary, after cooking has started - push them together for a big direct cook, and push them apart again later if you want to. Not really practical to do that with the "indirect wire things". ;)

My 29 year-old Weber is the only one I have ever owned, and it only has the aluminium hubcap which, I agree, is not much cop, being too small and too shallow. Even in a slight breeze, any ashes that have been 'raked' into the hubcap just end up getting blown all over the place. Which seems to be another advantage of the char-baskets - they retain so much more of the ash during the cooking, so a lot less falls into the bottom of the kettle!

However, if I were to buy another Weber kettle, I would certainly go for the fancier ash catcher variety! We don't really need a BBQ the size of the 22.5 inch any more, and I dare say an 18.5 inch would be much better suited for cooking for two of us ...... but the requirement for a proper ash catcher would mean buying the 22.5 inch, which as you have mentioned before, means a bigger kettle space to heat up for cooking. C'est la vie! For laughs, I might just write to Weber and ask why the 18.5 inch kettle doesn't have the proper ash catcher any more.

Another slight issue with my elderly (but still in very good nick!) Weber is the third leg, the one not on the wheel axle - it occasionally tends to drop out at inopportune moments when moving the BBQ. The legs are only friction fit, but I see that later variants had a spring clip introduced at the top end of the leg to prevent just this sort of problem. So, just after the last barbeque I raided our recycling box, pulled out an empty Tiger beer can, cut out a strip of the aluminium, and shimmed the third leg into place - much better now, ha ha!

I'd never heard of them until now. Had a look at the website, and concluded that is just stupid money. Probably priced to appeal to those who believe that, unless items are expensive, they probably aren't good quality? I wouldn't pay it, anyway, as there is there is much better value available out there, without having to resort to cheap, and I think my 29 year-old Weber kettle is testament to that!

I have had success with cooking and smoking whole chickens using the Weber kettle! Though it takes a few hours, and needs a couple of small additions of charcoal and wood chips, the heat can be controlled nicely with the top and bottom vents, and the kettle lid helps to retain moisture. Does a good job! :)

The Weber chimney starter is another gizmo that I bought this year and, I agree, it gets the charcoal going in no time flat! :ok:

MrB, I e-mailed Weber and asked them to reconsider an 18.5" model with ash catcher, but just received a "We will bear your suggestion in mind" response - a TVM & PFO e-mail!

Weber wobbly leg syndrome is a known malady, but in my case the socket rusted so badly that the old Weber had to go when I could see daylight through the bottom!

Let's hope the weather-guessers can conjure up some fine Wx again soon - I'm fed up with this wind and rain!

What goes around comes around. Forty years ago at Rheindahlen the de rigueur starter aid for the Portadown Way Wednesday evening Weber gathering was a catering size baked bean can, courtesy of the mess kitchen, with both ends cut out. Excellent VFM even if it had to be replaced every 4 or 5 years.

Back in the day when I could buy "quality coffee" in a two-pound can, that's what I cut the top and bottom out of and punched some holes in the side. Cheap, worked great, only downside, no handle, so vise-grips.

A fellow inmate!

Our first tour was in number 8, the second in the up-market number 13.
With a brake parachute for cover in the middle.
I remember the bean tin, black as sin.
And the third leg dropping off Webers.
And a certain Gp Capt specialising in eating an egg, shell and all.
Cheese bratties that were a health hazard when poked with a fork.
And Christmas with the fire engine.

Would that I could, we planned for today and binned it

Indeed! We were in No 12, 1980 - 83. and the designated provider of electrical power out through our basement window for the floodlight suspended from the peak of the brake parachute. Flood light courtesy of the thespians at Nos 2 and 4. Seem to recall that No 13 had always been the traditional home of the command's chief weather guesser. Fire engine also used to make an appearance on May Day to erect the maypole on the corner at the entrance to Portadown.

That weather guesser was I, 1989 -96, a grace and favour abode. We provided the electricity because "you civvies don't have to pay for it!"

The Maypole was certainly in use when we were in number 8: we have a photo taken on a wet May Day with dancers wearing the ubiquitous "yellows" and wellies.
ISTR a weird system whereby the road had one lawn roller, a few lawn mowers, a wheel barrow and a ladder on various inventories ...... perhaps it was an urban myth for we never saw hair nor hide of these items.

I think your next door neighbour was Met 1, a Scottish chap, initials J M.

Great days.

...but the real double dippers were the NAAFI area HQ types who were paying no tax anywhere, getting free accommodation and access to duty free


Not in my time. One side was an RAF educator, the other side one of the duty ops officers from the JHQ basement. No 8 was a Welsh Provost flt lt who used to do our PV interviews! The occupant of No 13 was the diminutive Patrick (Pat 'n Pat).

Great days indeed

Thank you. I can define the period exactly!
When we were touring Germany and Austria on holiday we were guests of Pat 'n Pat as we passed through. I shudder to think that Number 8 was occupied by a sleuth. In my day the sleuth was a Wg Cdr Retd so presumably entitled to a rather less basic MQ.
In retrospect number 13 was well below what we were accustomed to during private purchase in the UK, and, [I tell the truth] was initially designated as Air Cdre accommodation when first built. This was borne out by the inventory. Latterly, One stars were entitled to wallpaper! Luxury beyond belief!

Well, what else is there to do on a day like today, in the southern UK? The Weber is out of the shed, and the charcoal has been lit!

Boerewors on the braai, is it bru?

I will follow your lead later this evening, I think!!

Nope Beags, no boerewors. 😉

Just burger, smoked pork sausage, marinated pork and veg kebabs, plus chicken breasts for a slow cook in home made sweet chilli and ginger sauce. The chicken is still simmering in the Weber kettle right now!

Ag - sounds truly lekker! Mine will be simpler - just marinated pork steaks with some charlotte potatoes, sugar snap peas and baby corn cobs steamed with butter and garlic!

Missed you at Ronnie's 'dining out Zoom' - lots of 101 reprobates in attendance though!

(No gas was involved in this discussion!)

Gentlepersons,
I know you're all celebrating a snowy white Xmas (social distancing etc.) up there - but we've had a disaster down here at Tartare Towers.
The Weber - breath of Satan's bottom version - has finally shat itself, so to speak.
On Christmas day - one cannot put a prawn on the barbie.
Even though I'm a kiwi in this wide brown land, it is nonetheless something approaching an un-ostraylian disaster.
Second only to the beer fridge breaking down.
Bugger it, says I. Those lads and ladettes on the prune thing are always talking about the benefits of wood.
As does my Seth effrikin mate Bruce.
Have decided to become a charcoalist, rather than a gasist.
Any particular model you all recommend?

Don't even think of reverting to cave-man techniques - you will regret it...........

Stick with a Weber Gas - or, if you want to appease your friendly neighbours, an Outback.

Gas is good - charcoal destroys the environment, kills polar bears, and sinks beautiful tropical islands.

Be environmentally conscious, and stick with gas!

By the way - stay clear of your mate Bruce from Seth Effrika (?? thought they all came from Ostraylia ??) - they have discovered a new virulent strain of this wretched virus down there, apparently - if you believe what the media says.

Stay safe - cook with gas!

You sir are an utter disgrace. Tartare is an addict who has bravely chosen to change his lifestyle for the better and you are trying to keep him in your filthy mire. Tartare, there is only one brand of charcoal based BBQ and that is Weber. Do not let anyone try and convince you otherwise. Like gassists, these people promote and actively take part in a variety of socially unacceptable practices. Some even wear brown shoes when in town, the rotters. I wish you the best of luck for your new life.

Have a look here
The correct type of BBQ

Ohh so you want to coat your meat in non-organic mineral particles. If you live in a top floor apartment, forget the barbeque. Weber's are only any good for doing a whole chicken, don't put any good meat in it.

Anywhere else find a place where you can dig a hole. put a few kilos of sand in the bottom. A stone built barbeque can also work. Use proper barbequing wood, or charcoal if you are absolutely desperate. Don't even think of starting to cook until the coals are completely red, and a little white ash is forming.

Get a stainless wire grid and roast it to within an inch of it's life, Place meat with spaces around it, only turn it once at the half way point, and no oil or condiments on the meat until it is virtually ready to eat. Remove meat, let it stand for a couple of minutes, if you have the strength of will.

Enjoy,

IG

What a load of rubbish - you, sir, are an utter disgrace......

Short Ribs - proper beef ribs (bone in, of course) - fish of all sorts.........

Chicken, pork, lamb.................

All work beautifully on a proper gas Weber...

Gas, says it all really. Might as well use paraffin, I'm afraid you have succumbed to the crass advertising of the energy suppliers.

Let me assure you: Gas (Propane or Town Gas) has never been "clean" and never will be. "Working beautifully" does not equate with best tasting. They are mutually exclusive.

I Sir, am an unashamed purist, perfectionist and barbecue chef of note. I can well imagine that you probably barbeque your meat until it is well done?.

Sacrilege