Oil the grates after heating them, before you cook anything—it’ll help keep food from sticking. Attaching the vent, ash catcher, and legs to the Weber is dead easy—everything simply snaps into place. Throughout, weber charcoal grill we also tested our “necessities”—accessories such as spatulas, tongs, grill brushes, and sheet pans. We learned a lot about them , but they also helped us identify a few design strengths and flaws of the grills.
This Weber’s plated steel cooking grate is hinged so that it’s easier to load charcoal, even while cooking, onto the heavy-gauge steel grate below. With this method, the coals take about 10 minutes to light and another 10 for the grill to get hot. The Weber kettle grill has been around since the early 1950s, so chances are good you’ve eaten a burger, a hotdog, or a steak cooked on one. As a kid, our family had a gas grill, while the neighbors had a Weber. Their food was always a little bit tastier, so I made the Weber Original my first grill when I got a home of my own. Essentially just a grate sitting between two pieces of metal atop a tripod, it’s hard to imagine a simpler cooker beyond just an open fire on the ground.
The legs and ash catcher slot effortlessly into built-in sockets and lock into place with idiot-proof spring pins—not a bolt or screw in sight. Weber even supplies a simple plastic tool to help you attach the thermometer without digging out a wrench. All you need is a Phillips screwdriver to attach the side handles, and something dense to tap the end caps of weber genesis 2 the wheel axle into place. One person can have the grill up and running within minutes of opening the box. While still not small enough to fit in a day pack, it makes for the perfect city-living, can-only-grill-in-the-park grill. It’s got Weber’s charcoal-standard ash catch at the base and airflow dampers on the lid (there aren’t any on the base, sadly).
For the same reason, don’t let your charcoal grill sit out in the rain, as the resulting lye will quickly corrode any metal it touches. Instead, bring your grill into a garage, put it under an awning, or tent it with a grill cover . We backed this reporting up with comprehensive research—the in-depth, professional reviews at AmazingRibs.com being a standout source—and hands-on time with grills at the big hardware chains. Email updates from our community of barbecue masters, food enthusiasts, and lovers of outdoor cooking. Not to beat a dead burger, but the aforementioned thermometer really did help me manage my fire better. The Weber also features a hook on the inside of the lid, which you can use to hang the lid off the side of the grill.
We set all air vents on each grill to the halfway-open position. Lastly, we place one rack of ribs on each grill for indirect cooking, with the meat not sitting directly above the coals. Cooking over charcoal takes longer than cooking with a gas grill, and we typically need to add more fuel during cooking to keep our grills above 350 degrees F for the full duration.