Hello,
I've bought one of these fireside barbecues and it's a mess.
I think the main problem is that it's closed at the bottom. So I guess it doesn't get any air.
I got myself a special €10 chimney starter to light it. It's great. I light it with normal charcoal and tip it out when it's well done. Then I have 5 minutes of nice heat on the barbecue. But shortly afterwards the charcoal starts to smother. The grate is not really fully loaded and the chimney effect is also clearly visible. Nevertheless, the charcoal suffocates after about 10-15 minutes. Am I too stupid? Is charcoal the wrong choice? Does anyone have experience with a barbecue like this?
by Pumucklking
22 Comments
The picture you posted looks like it’s made of Lego bricks.
>So I guess it doesn’t get any air.
Yes. Charcoal needs good airflow from the bottom and it’s clearly not getting enough in whatever setup you are using. Your best bet is to use a standing grill grate, something like this: [https://www.ebay.com/itm/175999599537](https://www.ebay.com/itm/175999599537)
Make sure your coals are ashed over before using them.
This thing looks fun and neat but in practice it seems like it has less utility than a ~~$50~~ €50 Weber Kettle, which does have dedicated bottom vents for precisely this reason.
I used this Kind of Grill in our Holiday, and you are perfectly right in your conclusion – rubbish. You could either put some Kind of grate at thebbottom or Just discard it. Or usw ist as a flowerpot.
Get a (used) Weber kettle 57 or a Thüros for flachgrilling;)
I think you already ID’d the issue, no air flow. You need to get the coals up off the brick. I have an offset smoker that did that, ended up getting a piece of expanded steel grate to keep the whole fire up off the bottom of the fire box. I don’t know what you would do here, doesn’t look like there’s a lot of room for fire/air space, grill and food?
I genuinely thought it was a grilling play set from Playskool or Step2.
I like it
As u/AfternoonPast3324 said….
That will look great next to your Eazy Bake Oven.
That looks like the grill version of a fisher Price easy bake oven.
I can confirm these are rubbish as stock. Just go ahead and drill down a couple of holes through the charcoal plate, it’ll make it work somehow for casual bbq
Very euro
I have one like this, maybe a bit bigger, I have a steel grate insert that the coal sits on so there is an inch or so beneath for air to get in,
But even without the grate it should light fine,
Usually I fill my chimney starter, get it red hot and tip it out, then throw more charcoal on top,
A tip is to mix your charcoal with briquettes which last longer and burn more evenly than charcoal, that should give at least an hour of cooking but top up if you need to.
Lastly, get a cast iron grill to cook on, the stainless steel rack is really just for resting cooked food on at the top.
A bit of practice will make it work, I love mine cos there’s almost no cleaning and I can have a cook going in 30-45 mins.
We had one like that in our dorm and it works.
Are there better grills out there? Absolutely! Is it the worst? Nope
We even had a yearly 24h BBQ Event and we’re able to create breakfast and pancakish cakes.
Is that Lego?
I’m thinking of building something like this with fire bricks on the inside to reflect heat and vents on the back wall. Making it about a 40” wide cooking surface for it will give me way more cooking surface than a kettle and I can offset or place fire bricks anywhere to get coals or wood as close I want it to the grill grate. I’m tired of kettle grills. I’m thinking of using cast iron grates for more heat retention.
Procrastination on digging and pouring it a foundation is keeping it from being built. I never smoke stuff but if I ever want to I can get a dedicated smoker. If I like this brick grill I’ll build a big pizza wood fire oven next to it.
I originally wanted to do just a pizza oven but I figure I’ll get my feet wet by making a brick grill first.
A few dozen concrete blocks and a $15 replacement grate would end up being a way better place to cook than this
Lmao I thought it was a kids version, like fisherprice is rolling out bbqs for kids
These types of grills are used through the Mediterranean. I use them in Croatia on holiday, literally every house has one. Never had a problem with it myself. Don’t pile the coal/wood up. It’s not intense heat, small cuts and fish are perfect.
i do NOT like that there are only three positions for the grill grates. You want a moveable grate, like a santa maria grill has.
also, you want a space to turn pieces of wood into coals, and THEN sweep the hot coals under the cooking area (i.e. that is not wide enough)
take a look at some of the brazillian grill videos on how they run such a grill
I love it. I need one
I hope this wasn’t too expensive. There’s no air flow from the bottom or back, so whether you use wood or charcoal your file will smother and die out. I don’t think lifting the coals is the answer because I don’t think there’s be enough air flow. But I’m certainly no expert!
So you’re on the right track identifying no air flow as an issue, but that could work to your benefit if you want to use this piece as a smoker. You can use a full sheet pan to cover the front, trapping smoke inside, and subtly suffocating the flames to produce even more smoke. Great for salmon, ribs, pork shoulder… Probably won’t get high heat from that method, but it would be a great way to let ribs catch some smoke for a few hours before you wrap them and finish in the oven.
That idea aside, you should get a fire grate. It doesn’t have to be a $200 heavy duty fireplace log cradle, even a $6 stainless steel wire cooling rack will work, you may just have to replace it every 1-2 dozen uses as it will warp quite a bit.
In order to expertly control your temperature, it’s a good idea to have an external fire burning, like a nearby fire pit. Take a small fireplace shovel and transfer some hot coals into your grill, then you can add or remove hot coals as needed. Otherwise, you’re going to have to be very specific about how and when you light and feed your fire, what time the food needs to go on, etc. When lighting, I’d go with the fail proof method I use when lighting pizza ovens – very dry logs stacked log house style (in a square, bigger logs at the bottom, smaller logs at the top, middle stuffed with broken cardboard), then blast it with a propane torch, fan it often, and don’t touch it until you have red hot coals to feed. That said, it’s a great idea to get a fire fan of some type — old school bellows, new school electric bellows, an electric wood stove fan or bbq air mover, or just a simple manual hand fan. If you’re not too proud, a leaf blower might work too, but could be too powerful.
Temu was my first thought
Wait, is this a miniature? So weird..