Stuff That Fire's Me Up, Issue 2
Featuring my fave BBQ, a joyful little tale about the woods and a very good question on air vents..
Greetings fire friends, once again big thanks for hanging with me here. A joyous whiff of spring over the last week or so, making my heart soar at the thought of winter buggering off. Also a low-gut tensing realisation that my first Fire School class is in just over 3 weeks, before which I have to fit in a trip to London for a pop up with Ben Tish of Cubbitt House and a Cornish fish-matters research trip to hang with fellow fire pal Simon Stallard of the Hidden Hut. So the long winter I had to write my next book is nearly over, and as yet it’s only halfway in the bag. No choice then but to work a little harder…
So, what’s my Favourite BBQ?
It’s the one thing everyone wants to know when they come through Bristol Fire School. I have many, many barbecues and I love to be able to show people that they actually all function in a pretty similar way. Once you know about the physics of fire, the differences between radiation, conduction and convection heat you are in a position to practically cook anything on any bit of kit. Yeah that’s exciting, right? I promise I’ll get to explaining these 3 words more very soon in an upcoming newsletter. The temptation for me to try and tell you everything all at once is great but I need to download my brain in manageable short reads otherwise you won’t, well, read it.
That said, if I could only have one barbecue it would be my Classic Weber 57cm kettle BBQ. I’m an ambassador for Weber, something I am both proud of and always open about. But my love of this grill is genuine and goes way beyond my contractual obligations: I write all my BBQ books on it; it’s a classic bit of design; it works simply, with has no unnecessary bells and whistles; doesn’t take up too much room and is at the affordable end of the spectrum. And I figure that counts for a lot, its the kind of kit most people might have in their gardens. If I can get a recipe to work on it, then so can you. It’s great for quick grilling, and with the right fuel I can be cooking on it in 10 minutes flat (which I always say is 5 minutes quicker than you could get a gas BBQ hot). People do question their ability to cook low and slow or smoke on a kettle barbecue and the short answer is of course you can, sending the whole thing back to the physics and the good fuel both of which more on next time. Sure, there are less hands on ways to cook over many long hours should you be wanting to cook, for example, a whole shoulder of pork, like a Kamado Joe (of which I have 4 and very much love also) but one of the reasons I cook with fire is I actually like things to be hands on. The best things take time, dedication, effort.
Lets talk about FUEL, part 1 of many (MANY!) parts
Your fuel is your number one ingredient with fire cooking. Your success and the final result begins and ends with your fuel. Full stop. There is so much bad negative shit I could tell you about fuel, and it will come believe me, but I want to start off on a positive.
Making charcoal in a good way can be hugely positive for the environment. Let me tell you a story… It may sound like stating the bleeding obvious, but charcoal is made from trees. You take wood and bake it in an oxygen-starved environment (a process called pyrolysis), driving off practically everything in the wood that isn’t carbon. But cutting down trees to make charcoal isn’t as bad for the planet as it may at first sound. Healthy woodlands need managing, this is vital, not optional. When you thin out a woodland, you let light into the forest floor. Nature goes wild for light and in no time at all dormant seeds on the forest floor wake up and new little species of plants grow. They in turn attract insects and other invertebrates that feed on them, that then go on to the attract birds, bats and other mammals that eat them. Those mammals will play a critical role in the woodland, any ecosystem is connected by a balance, no single species operates in a void of its own making (save perhaps us humans who are steadily cocking it all up but am trying to keep this positive). This is ecology in action. Woodland management increases biodiversity and that’s a really positive, essential, thing in terms of the health of our planet. The other thing to point out is that woodlands that are healthy and making money for someone are more likely to stay there for generations to come. In simple economic terms a woodland that pays is a woodland that stays. So by choosing to buy sustainably made charcoal you are having a positive environmental impact.
We’ll shift over to the shit side of the story next time…
Ask Me a Question?
This one’s from Tony. And its just a brilliant question because I can use it to explain such a lot, so thanks Tony. Remember, I will answer one question per newsletter so do keep posting, emailing, messaging them over to me.
“This is a very basic question but I'd like to know how to set up the vents on my Weber when I first light the charcoal. I have a 57cm classic - no fancy gubbings just a top and bottom vent. I use a chimney to get the charcoal going and once it's lit pour in, I have both the top and bottom fully open. Let's say I then want to cook something like a chicken i.e. not fast but not low and slow either, is there a general rule of thumb for the vents?”
The SIMPLE answer - you need to get to know your own kit. Full stop.
No point me telling you where I set my vents, even if we are using the same BBQ. Yours will be different, where you place it in your garden will be different - for example, it might be more exposed, more blowy, or it might be somewhere very sheltered and still. You might live in sunny southern Spain, or it might be pissing it down in your Bristol garden. Your lid might be a bit flappy or it might fit snugly. These things matter. A lot.
Oxygen is vital in fire, it fuels the combustion equation, its how we control temperature. More air = hotter, quicker fire, Less air = slower, cooler fire. So if you want to slow your fire, you shut your vents incrementally bit by bit and see where it gets you.
The more COMPLICATED answer
All fuel is different (yeah, back to fuel again already). Charcoal made from different trees burns quite differently. There is also good charcoal, pure lump wood, made beautifully and sustainably with love, and there is rubbish charcoal, full of chemicals. The way they all burn is different, they need different amounts of oxygen to burn, some naturally burn hot and fast (like ash, which is my standard fave charcoal) and some burn much slower and need more oxygen to light and stay lit. Like oak, which is a heavy dense charcoal.
So air vents cannot be standardised in any way. I see people who put up vids online where they mark their air vents with a sharpie going ‘if you set it here - boom! - it will run at 180C’. And I think to myself, what a load of old cockwomble waffle… (also, side note… what does a temp of 180C actually, really, fundamentally, mean?? That’ll come in our physics lesson next time. It often doesn’t mean a lot.)
Back to the simple answer, get to know your own kit, experiment to see how it runs with different species of charcoal if you like, or just nail it with a single species you use all the time so it becomes second nature. And be prepared to flex with the conditions, if its windy you may find you need to shut your vents a little more than you do on still days, whereas on rainy damp days where you might need to open them more than you are used to. We moderate and we adapt. Last word on vents for now - once you make an adjustment, sit back and hold tight for a good 10 minutes. If you keep sliding things up and down you will have no idea where you are. You need to let the air work though, see how it changes things. You are not operating a microwave after all. Which is why we like it, hands on cooking.
And that’s it folks. No recipe this time - I don’t want to bombard you. Paid subscribers will get a little sneaky bonus edition in their inboxes in the next week or so which may or may not feature clotted cream chat from one of my favourite people. And if your reading for free there will be one in a couple of weeks.
Once again, thanks so much for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate your support as I develop this community. Please feel free share and pass on far and wide.
Big love
GT
x
Hi Gen, thanks for the response but I could do with just a tiny bit more information if possible (I know I'm getting a free masterclass here, but I gotta ask).
I've lit and loaded my charcoal, both vents are open and the temp is nice and hot. If I want to bring the heat down a bit to cook my rotisserie chicken, which vent(s) do I close first? Top, bottom or a combination of the two? Or do I half close the bottom and then do all my adjustments using the top only?
'What bbq?' has been the question I've asked myself almost every day for a year now!
Kettle it is, but do you really need to go premium, is the diffuser plate worth it? I would do anything GT tells me when it comes to this!