Your First Charcoal Grill

The beautiful smoked flavor, and decided you wanted to try to replicate it. After doing your research, you decided that a charcoal grill is right for you. Now what?

Now that you have decided you want a charcoal grill, you have to decide what type of charcoal grill will suit your needs. Are you planning on traveling and using your charcoal grill? If so, you will need a charcoal grill that is small enough to travel with you. Smaller charcoal grills are ideal for cookouts, camping, and tail gate parties, but would not be useful if you were cooking for a larger amount of people. If you plan on feeding a larger amount of people, a larger charcoal grill will better suit your needs. If you are having issues deciding on which type you should get, you may consider getting both. Smaller charcoals grills can cost as little as $10 to $15 dollars, and will give you the ability to travel.

Charcoal grills contain hot embers and fire when it is in use. Safety should also be a major concern when you are picking out your first Charcoal grill. Look for a charcoal grill with a sturdy structure and sturdy legs. If you grill does now have sturdy legs, it’s chances of falling over is much greater. When a charcoal grill falls over, it will send the hot coals flying. Many charcoal grills also have built in safety features such as a water reservoir and smothering valves. Undoubtedly, when you are cooking with fire, accidents can happen. In the case that your grill gets out of control or become to hot, these safety features will prevent potentially dangerous fires. The fire department has much better things to do then help you cook.

One of the most noticeable features when using charcoal is the flavor of the food you cook. To cook with a charcoal grill, you must buy charcoal briquettes and lighter fluid. Charcoal is a one use item, and will need to be discarded after each use. Charcoal can be picked up at your local superstore, gas station, or grocery store, and is typically pretty inexpensive. Charcoal must be light and allowed to burn until the charcoal is no longer on fire, but is red embers. The best way to get the pile to burn is by stacking it in a pyramid.

While no one likes to clean their grill, it is necessary to maintain your grill if you want it to last it’s intended lifetime. One problem you will face is the fact that Charcoal grills stay hot for a long period of time. You can remedy this situation 2 ways. First you can leave your grill open, allowing it to burn out. This method typically burns a lot of the grease off, but can potentially cause problems if you are not near your barbeque grill. You do not want to start a fire. Another way is to completely close off your grill and deny the fire oxygen. As soon as the grill is cold, or cold enough not to burn you, you will want to clean the grill. Leaving the grill dirty for any amount of time will cause the buildup to become hard, and may make it harder to remove. Use a wire brush to clean off the surface areas of your grill, and then spray cooking oil on the surface. Take the racks off and clean them with dishwashing soap. Dawn or other brands that have degreasers work best. Rinse the racks off, and replace them in the grill.Perhaps you have just moved into your first place, or you decided that you wanted to broaden your horizons and try new things. Maybe you went to a Fourth of July barbeque party and tasted.

Portable Charcoal Grill

We used to have a portable gas grill that we would use for picnics. It worked alright, but the food it cooked didn’t taste all that good. You see, many people think that barbecuing is always fun, but not all portable bbq grills are the same. It is not a good idea to use profane because it will give your food a slightly bitter flavor, whereas a portable charcoal grill will give it a smokier and more natural taste. It only cost a little bit of money, and it sure is a lot of fun.

Since we bought it, we have taken the portable barbecue grill everywhere. You’d be amazed by how many places you can take portable charcoal grills. Even when we go to the state park which has outdoor grills available for public use, we still usually take the portable charcoal grill. You see, last Fourth of July we thought we would just use one of the public grills out there. They are bigger, after all, are higher up off the ground, and a slightly safer. When we got there and couldn’t find one that wasn’t occupied, however, we realized that we should have brought a portable charcoal grill along.

Even with a big group, with portable charcoal grilling you can make enough food if you plan things well. I have been spoiled, I admit, by working on a commercial charcoal grill that we have at home in our backyard. When I decided to go out to the lake taking only the portable charcoal grill along, I was a little bit skeptical that I would be able to make food for all 15 of my friends who were coming. Nevertheless, with a little bit of tweaking, the portable charcoal grill works great. It had two rows of racks so that you can grill twice as much at once, and if you carefully move the meat around, you can get every cut to just the perfect temperature for whoever is requesting it.

Of course, if you use a portable charcoal grill without the right charcoal, things won’t taste quite as good. Many people don’t recognize the difference, but once you use smoker charcoal, you will not give it up. Although using regular charcoal is better than propane, it doesn’t compare to smoking the meat with some good smoker charcoal. It is enough to make your portable charcoal grill experience complete.

Stainless Steel Charcoal Grill

I make the same mistake each year, and I swear I am not going to make it this year. We don’t cook out in the yard very often because it is very inconvenient. We live on the second floor, and we have a long walk to get to the back yard. Though it’s not normally a problem, when you have to carry a lot of things, it can be a pain. We buy a cheap grill each year because we are only going to use it a few times. I think this year, however, I might go ahead and get a stainless steel charcoal grill.

The cheap grills that we get don’t make it through the entire summer. They usually rust out rather quickly, and this is caused by damage from the fire. I never thought it was a good idea to spend a good amount of money on something we won’t use very often, but I think if I invested in stainless steel charcoal grill that I will take better care of it, and I know it will not do the same thing that the cheap versions tend to do. I would rather spend money on something that will last, and I wish I had come to that conclusion earlier.

Some prefer a gas version to the stainless steel charcoal grill. While I will admit that the gas grill has a good taste, I don’t think it is as good as charcoal by any means. Each person likes their own though, as my parents have gas and they hate charcoal. I don’t want a gas grill, mostly because of the space we don’t have outside, but at the same time, I do want something that will be just as sturdy. Though I know that charcoal can be messy, the taste is better, and I have seen gas grills have problems that could have easily ignited the gas tank. No thanks.

The stainless steel charcoal grill might not be as popular as the gas grill, but they can look almost identical to them, and they can be just as fun to own. The charcoal is messy, and the grill will require more cleaning, but any grill should be cleaned on a regular basis anyway. It might be a great alternative to something more expensive when looking for a good grill that will last but will not cost an arm and a leg. The stainless steel charcoal grill can be found where home and outdoor products are sold, or can even be found online. Just watch out for the shipping costs when deciding.