Excuse the noobishness - I’m not referring to the cooking grate btw.
I have a 22.5" Weber “One Touch” (whatever the hell that means) - but it has a 3 fins on the bottom that not only allow air in, but scrape the ash onto the ash plate below. That parts easy.
BUT - how do you clean the inside “sides” of the grill, there’s a lot of ash caked onto the sides.
What’s your preferred method for cleaning it and how often do you do so?
Fwiw, I’ve used the grill maybe 15 times without doing it, it certainly needs it.
Not sure why it would really need to unless it is blocking air for circulation purposes but the metal bristles of a long handled grill cleaner seem to work well. I noticed this happening if moisture would get into the grill after a storm or from continued exposure humid conditions.
I usually would do it every time I empty out the ash.
I’ve had my Weber charcoal grill for about 6 years and don’t think I have ever cleaned the “inside” sides. I only use the “fins” to dispatch the ash to the ash catcher.
I have used my Weber Kettle One Touch Gold at least three times a week for the past year and a half and have never even thought about cleaning the insides. I do however need to get a new fire grate as mine is starting to warp.
My One-Touch will be 19 years old this fall. I’ve had to replace the original wooden handles, the fire grate, the cooking grate, and the cleaning fins (some of these 2-3 times). A couple of times I’ve used a strong jet of water to thin the crust of ash/grease in the kettle when it was seeming really thick. I agree with others that you do not want to restore the interior to a like-new reflective state.
One is generally enough for my intended purposes of searing and cooking beef critter. If doing a whole chicken, I usually just add a handful via the swinging gate.
I just bought a second chimney for when we have larger parties. On Mother’s Day, one chimney-full wasnt enough to keep the entire surface area at high heat with all the meat on it.
So to answer your question, I’d say 1 chimney is fine unless you plan on grilling for 5+ people.
Learn the “touch method” of determining steak doneness. Works for lamb and pork, too, as long as the cuts aren’t actual roasts. I haven’t stuck a thermometer in a pork tenderloin in years.
I’d love to grill enough to learn that - I can always tell when it is rare, but to get to medium rare or medium, that’s a bit tougher for me to rely on the touch method. I had sticking the thermometer in there and watching all the juice come pouring out.
It’s a relativity thing, Todd. Not all steaks are the same firmness raw. You have to sort of gauge it by poking each piece of meat and judging the changes in firmness from the raw state (I do it when I first turn steaks). If you have to resort to a thermometer, use one of the remote jobs where you can put the probe in the meat before it goes on the grill and leave it in during cooking rather than poking with an instant-read.
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