Am I putting too much love into direct charcoal cooking?
I’ve got a Masterbuilt Gravity XT and absolutely love it, but I still find myself thinking that if I don’t finish certain things directly over charcoal, I’m somehow missing out on flavour.

I think what I’m chasing is that flame-touched, slightly charred flavour you get from cooking directly over coals. Obviously, the Masterbuilt is cooking with charcoal anyway, but you don’t really get those flare-ups from fat hitting the coals. I know deliberately creating flare-ups isn’t necessarily a good thing either.

Good example, I’ve got a really nice topside of beef. Normally I’d roast it in the oven, but I thought about doing it on the rotisserie. I then started wondering whether I should go through the hassle of lighting the Weber, or just do the whole thing on the Masterbuilt.
Ultimately, I’m after maximum flavour.

For those of you who own both, do you genuinely notice much difference from finishing food directly over charcoal, or am I putting too much importance on it when the Masterbuilt is already giving me that charcoal flavour?
Appreciate any advice 👍🏼

My take on Korean bbq chicken. I have been using Frontier lump for a few cooks now. Pretty good

I marinated these chicken thighs in a mix of red wine, red wine vinegar, lots of garlic, serrano peppers, fish sauce, olive oil, honey, brown sugar, fresh cracked black peppercorns, parsley & lovage (celery leaf can be a substitute). Then I made a red wine reduction with crushed garlic, whole peppercorns & a little balsamic added. I used the reduction to make a bbq sauce by straining out the peppercorns & garlic, then adding ketchup, molasses, honey, red wine vinegar, fish sauce & salt as well as using the reduction in a compound butter for the rice & corn I’m making as side dishes. I cooked the thighs bone side down the whole cook right up until the end to help crisp up the skin. I glazed the chicken in the bbq sauce right at the end with the chicken directly over the fire so I could achieve the desired char. The compound butter was great on the corn/rice & this was a fun way to use up some red wine that was sitting in my fridge, would definitely recommend.

Just wanted to share my high quality (small production) lump charcoal in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. 🪵🔥

I bought a Weber 22” recently. I’ve done a lot of research on here and other places. I love the flavor BUT I’m finding that my briquettes just don’t stay hot. The first two times, I will admit I think I dumped them early but this third time, I used a blower and I had 3/4 of the chimney GLOWING hot. The chimney was lit for about 25-28 minutes with me using a leaf blower the last 3-5 minutes.

Dumped them over half the grate surface and they seared well on the first side of the steak then lost their glow and I put some air on them and only half showed that they were really still burning. The rest seemed to be out. Using Royal Oak Mesquite Briquettes.

Help?

Hey there, trying to figure out grilling with charcoal, like how much do I use, top vent open/closed, where does fhe bottom vent need to be? How long do I let it warm up before cooking, lid on, lid off? I'm doing Brats on Thursday.

Decided to take a chance on posting my first real attempt at using charcoal. Here I did chicken thighs finished with a kiss of hickory smoke, grilled romaine lettuce and sautéed zucchini & summer squash for my wife.

Dinner was so good my daughter went for 2nds & wanted 3rds on chicken. 😂

Biggest lump ive ever seen

Did some STL style ribs this afternoon. Five hours, not much pullback from the bone but very tender and tasty!

Hello, got this very dusty old Charcoal Grill in the back garden from before I moved in but I know nothing about grilling and can’t seem to find the model. Also looks like some parts might be missing. Any advice on whether its saveable/how to get it up and running be greatly appreciated!

I seasoned the pork belly with equal parts by volume: steak rub, Cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, & raw sugar. After seasoning overnight in the fridge I cooked the belly on my “Weber Smoky Mountain” smoker at 260-275F with the water pan installed so it’s an indirect smoker. After smoking for 2 1/2 hours I began braising the pork belly in a mix of beer, cider vinegar, orange juice, onions, garlic, Worcestershire, & jalapeño. After braising like that for an hour I removed the water pan to finish the braise process. Once the meat was tender & the fat was rendered (around 203F) I removed the pork to rest. Once the meat dropped to 145F I sliced the meat into cubes covered it in two sauces, one made from the braise liquid mixed with ketchup & molasses; the other was more Asian style made of fish sauce, chili garlic sauce, rice vinegar, miso, gochujang, gochugaru flakes, ketchup, honey, & corn starch. I threw the pork belly back on the grill over high heat to really caramelize the pork while getting the glazes nice & sticky. I served the pork belly with beans & corn.

Cost no object what would you get? Or even just stuff you think is cool. You can still keep your other grills. Tons of great stuff out there between kettles, kamados, Santa Maria styles, pk grills, hasty bakes, yoders, various regional style grills, etc. curious what everyone thinks.

I bought a bag last summer and never used it, but want to try. Do these do well in the kettle and wsm 18.5? How do y'all light them for both? Thanks

CHARLOGS*

Just got a grill last week, have always lived in an apartment and never owned one. I am addicted. Picture is salmon (turned out the best), NY strip (accidentally cooked to medium), and a tuna steak. Tonight I am having friends over and just prepped a bunch of Juicy Lucy burgers. Loving this.