Kettle Grill 101: Master Airflow, Vents & Two-Zone Cooking

Okay, folks, listen, I do read the comments, right? Now, listen, I done made this video already. Let me just hurry up and say what this is. This is how to use your backyard-like type of... We're gonna start off by saying how to use a kettle grill, right? It's a little bit of a science to it. You know, super easy. And if you guys can hear anything, you gotta remember, man, I still live in a concrete jungle. You know what I mean? I wish I was out in the open plains. You know what I mean? I got people over here, they blowing their yards and all of that. But anyway, I'm gonna show you guys how to take a standard kettle grill and turn it into something amazing, right? We're not gonna do no cooking, no food, nothing like that, but I'm gonna explain everything to you. Let's get it. If you don't know, I gotta say it this way because, you know, this is really educational, right? So this is what you call a kettle grill. This is it. This is made by S&S Grills. You guys gotta know that this is not sponsored because I'm gonna show you three different grills in here. And listen, these are the things that I use to make my life great. But I'm gonna tell you the basic principle of the two that I'm gonna show you. The two out of the three are just how to operate the kettle grill and understanding the flow, right? So if you want to know what they look like, this is what they look like in the inside right here. Come on. You see that right there? You got a grate. Then underneath here, you got a plate. I'm gonna explain all that to you, but I just want to show you this is the kettle grill. Then we want to look down at the bottom. If you look down here at the bottom, you got your ash tray and then you got your vent right here. This is for the open up the vent so that you can get your airflow. Now let me show you this other grill. Look, this is going to be grill number two. Now this is a Weber kettle grill. This used to be, I think it still might be the anniversary edition. That's why it come red. If you guys can still find it, you know what I mean? But this was more traditional. I don't know how they were going to improve on the design about how the way it works, which I'm explaining to you guys. You know what I mean? Just super simple. You know what I mean? They've been still making it. It's like trying to reinvent the tire, right? But there are certain things that you can do. We're going to talk about the add-ons and things that you can do to, you know, make your life much, much easier. I got one more grill to show you. That's going to look alike, but it's not. Come on. Now this is the one that I say look alike and all of that. Cause right off the glance, if you're not familiar with nothing, this has a hopper on here. So that tells me right off the bat when I saw it, you know, Oh, it's a pellet grill. That's what this is. It got the kettle, you know, design to it. You know what I mean? Might even be some type of way, some type of kettle, but this is the Rek-Tek Bullseye Deluxe. This is my go-to. And I'm glad I'm showing it to you like this. Cause when I finish, the right way is for me to take my brush, you know, and clean it while it's still hot. I usually leave it like this. Cause once I bring it up to temp, I let the heat sanitize and do everything for me. As that comes up, then I go ahead and just scrape off the edges and get it super clean. But this is a pellet grill. And for those of you guys that don't know what a pellet grill is, I'll look right here. Let's look right here. Inside of the little hopper and boom. This is my go-to. You might've seen some videos on my racing channel. You know, I use it. This is where I take it. You know, I take this out, put a bunch of wings on here and this is what we eat with. You know, no longer am I taking all that stuff out there, man. You know how hard it is to try to race a car, you know, and try to cook. You know what I mean? No, sir. Now let's just talk about these kettle grills. Come on. All right. So this is what we're going to do. Now we're going to get into the mechanics and the science of how this works, right? So again, we got a kettle grill. Let me show you this part right here. Let's open this up. You guys might like the way that this sits on here. It comes with a, you know, a little stand so you don't have to take it completely off, put it on the ground, nothing like that. Now we got a grate. It doesn't come with this. This is an extra. You know what I mean? Notice how this spins. I'm going to show you how that works in just one second. As far as why you want it to spin. Then when you want to put charcoal in here, look, you put it in this way, right? But I'm going to take this out. And what I want to do is I want to show you that down the bottom. You see that little pattern, them holes down at the bottom? Those are our vents. This is the way this works. It draws from the bottom, pulls, you know, air back this way. It goes over our coals, which stokes the coals, right? And then it goes out the top. But let me show you this right here. This acts as two different things. You see all this? This is ash. This is all perfect. Look, when I go like this, look, notice how it's pushing it all down. If you just keep doing this back and forth, back and forth, that's filling up the ash tray down at the bottom. And it also acts as a vent, right? So if you come back in here and take a look now, look, that's wide open, right? See, I want to cut my airflow down. I can start closing it. You see how this is working, folks? This is how we control our temperature, right? So let's just say we have it here. This is about where mine works at. I know I've been using this for years, folks. That's where I set it at, right? Now, let's talk about like zones and the charcoal. If you look right here, there's another grate here. You see this right here? Look, and it was important for me to show you guys how it looked. I know some of you guys probably think that I do something extra. What I do is I like to make sure it completely burns out. You can see some charcoal that didn't burn or whatever. I would take that out, clean this. You know, it should have been winterized, meaning I should have ran something across here to scrape all of that off the side, all the grease and all of the ash and all of that. And I just, you know, set it up, clean everything up and get ready for the, you know, spring. But you guys are seeing it how I last left it and we leave it like that. Now, this piece right here works with the spin rack. You see, it's got the hole. Then when I bring this back into play, you can see this is self-explanatory. That goes in there and then we can spin it. Now, with this grate down here, this is where we're going to put our charcoal, right? Now, when you buy it, it's going to come with this and it's just going to come with a regular grate that doesn't spin technically, right? So if we put our charcoal and we put it in here like this, just here, the imaginary line right here and say my charcoal is all on this side from here over here, that right there will be called my direct zone. That's direct heat. Anything I put on top of here on the grate over here is actually over that and it's super hot. So after I see or get things the way I want it to look, I always take my protein and I move it from here over to the side that doesn't have any briquettes, right? And this way we can use it like an oven, but we getting the flavor and everything from charcoal. Now, I'm going to even show you even better so you can get a better visual. All right. So by me putting these here, I'm not going to light them. I'm not going to waste them because I'm not getting ready to do anything today. But I just want to show you guys, this is what I mean. From here, imaginary line. You see where these stop, right? Over here, that'll be direct. So let me put this over the top so you guys can see it. All right. So let me close this. You see what I'm talking about now? And this is why the spinning grate is just, man, it's revolutionary. You know what I mean? Because just imagine we had chicken and all of that over here, right? And we want to get some, you know, heat under the bottom of it. You know what I mean? To heat it up, we just turn this. This right here will be heated from the bottom. We can start searing, putting a little bit of that flavor on, you know, underneath or however, whatever type of protein that we working with, right? Then when it's getting too hot, or say you want to flip it, you can bring it over here like this. You guys get my drift, take your tongs and just turn it over, get everything set. Then everything can go all at one time. Instead of doing flip one by one, depends on how much, you know, protein you got on here. This could be ready before. I like to do it, have it all here, turn it around this way and boom, we just cook over that. All right, look, you remember this little gate right here? We talked about that. Let's just say we had to put some charcoal in here. You know what I mean? While we had that, that's already cooked, it's burning down and we want to just maintain that fire. Look, open that up, put it on that side, take your basket, or if you can put them in there, just throw them in there by your hand, put them on top of there and then you're done. Check it out. Super easy. That's why I say this right here was like somebody was really using their brain when they made it. Now I got to say this, when you buy a Weber kettle grill, I'm not sure if they updated how they sell them or whatever, but what you're seeing right here is what you call an aftermarket, you know, drawer. I mean, excuse me, shelf. This right here does not come with it, right? So we put this on the side that comes there. It's got hooks, you know, so you can use your utensils, you know, and all of that, right? So that's there, just the red was anniversary. You know, I like the fact that, you know, we can, you know, set our hood, you know, our top off to the side. Just the kettle design is great. Now going back to the kettle design, remember I told you guys that it pulls from the bottom, right? So we vent it like how we vent it, how we control our heat. I got a couple of things I want to show you. I'm going to leave this here so you guys can see we got direct heat over on this side, direct, non-direct, direct, non-direct. After this video, anybody should be able to make a, make anything on these kettle grills, right? So let me put this top on here. This is going to be key because I want to show it to you. Don't forget. Let me show you one more time. Direct heat is over here, right? Now, if I put this over here on the top, you see this? This is my thermometer, right? My temp gauge. This right here, it has a probe. Let's look at that. So look, I think once it's explained and you guys can see it, it makes so much sense. You see that right there? This is where we getting our reading from. We don't want to have this on top of that. Meaning if we put it over here like this, over the direct heat, the coals, how's that going to tell us where the chamber is in here? I see so many people doing it. The heat is over here. This saying it's 500 degrees or whatever it is. And people saying, I can't control it, A.V. You don't put the thermometer on top of the heat. You would take it and you would do just like this. I do this way. I always stay opposite way. Everybody does it. Once you guys know it, you know it, right? So now this is opposite. You got direct heat over here and over here, you got indirect. This is going to give us about a basic, you know, temp of what's in here. Little bit more than basic. Now, once you have your top, your dome, right? We got that off to this side on the indirect side, right? Now, if you swing around this way, I'm going to show you something right here. Now, this is our vent. Remember, I did say that it pulls from the bottom. We talking about airflow. Right? So if the charcoal is hot, you bring air. You remember when we was a kid, you had a fire outside or whatever and you, when you blowing it, it kind of like want to flame back up. You can see the orange and amber and all of that. Same principle. Air coming through the bottom. We control that with the vent on the bottom. It passes over the cold, right? And it'll stoke it and get the temperature going. And you want to maintain that, right? And this is how we're going to maintain it by both the bottom, but the top is going to be key too. Because listen, you slow it down. What you guys saw is just I understand where to do it. I'll just say, if you just keep it about three eighths of an inch open at the biggest area, that'll give you a good start. From there, the more and more you use it, you'll, you know, you'll tailor it your way. But that's a great base for especially anybody that's beginning. Right? And then up here at the top, I know if I want to maintain 350 degrees, I keep it like this and boom, that's my temp. That's from years of knowledge of me using, you know, kettle grills. Well, particularly this one here, I bought this one. This one right here is probably nine years old. Yeah, about nine years old. Before that, you know, I was using just regular kettle grills, right? So this right here and watching this right here, I try to get my temperature where I want it. And then I leave it just like this. I don't mess with it no more. You know, they got a sand, especially with this kettle grill. And when you're using a crock pot, if you look in, you're not cooking. So I really, truly stay on top of my temperature. That's going to be the main thing. And don't forget, every time you take this off here, you just let all the work and time that you built up to get your temperature right. You just let it go, right? So once we get it to 350, you know what I mean? Then we good. Then I bring my protein, bring it, put it on top of here and do what I got to do, right? Because I know that I got it set for this right here. And the amount of charcoal that you saw me putting there, that'll last me about 50 to, at the settings with my vent, it'll last me about 55 minutes to about an hour and 10. It kind of like varies, depends on the wind. A lot of people don't even think about that. Okay, so let's talk about keeping on fire. Like, listen, they got a few different options. Me, I like Kingsford, you know what I mean? I grew up with Kingsford. This is what I've been using. There are other brands out there, you know what I mean? That I really, really want to start using. I've used them at other places and I like them too. So really it's your preference, you know what I mean? But for today's video, this is what we got. We got the Kingsford original, right? So this right here is what you're going to need. Okay, let me take you guys back to this right here. Hey, how many of y'all remember, I'm going to tell my age. You remember when you used to go to a park, somebody was barbecuing and all that kind of stuff. They put the charcoal in there. Somebody had the charcoal lighter, lighter fluid, you know, you putting all that on there. Then you light it and then it kept going out because you never let it get lit fully. And then here's one for you to take you down. How many times when you thought when it was getting white, you was like, oh, it's burning out. You know what I'm saying? When they white, you see them edges like that and they start turning white. When they, that's when they putting out the best heat. But anyway, listen, I'm going to show you the right way to do it, right? This right here, this apparatus right here is called a chimney, right? All it is, is a round, you know, cylinder with a heat shield on the back to protect your hand. And look, the more it look like this, the more it tell me like, hey, you in the day, right? So listen, when you put your hand back here, see the little shield, it keeps all of the heat, you know, everything from this being super hot, you hold it like this and now you, you know, you're good, right? So you want to have one of these and then you just fill it up with your, you know, your charcoal, right? You're going to need some kind of way to start this. For me, I use these little wax cubes. You can order these on Amazon, get them at, oh, you know what? I forgot. They got them at Lowe's, Home Depot, anywhere that you guys go to. They got your barbecue supplies. They got these, you know what I mean? So listen, this is wax. It burns super easy. Look, I'm going to just take it like this and you're going to need some kind of way to start it. This is all we need. Take this, hit it like this. Look how easy to start. It's lit, folks. Now I take this, we put this over the top and we let that work. As you can see, if you look over the top, you see the smoke? That's all you need. That right there will do it. That will get everything going, get everything nice and hot on the bottom. It would, you know, catch. This process right here takes about, I don't know, about 12 minutes and you're good. Okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take this, move it out the way so you guys can see. I'm going to hold that down. Now this right here is working with our heat. We wouldn't have this charcoal in here. You guys can put that in here. You can put like a little small layer and pour this on top. This will ignite some of that, but this was just for visible purposes only, right? So this is where you want to be. Then from here, once I got everything settled, that's when I adjust from the bottom, adjust my top with my lid on, you know what I mean? And I start going to get my protein and waiting for everything to settle down, right? This is super easy. And again, the kettle grill, when you buy it, you know, there's a few accessories you can have that'll make your life easy. But if you guys look at the first grill that I showed you, everything was built right into that. Let me get them all arranged over here and I'm going to show you. All right, folks. So look, I got them all three lined up right here. And I know this is probably like a real cheap, you know what I mean? Because this is my kettle grill. This is my go-to. I take that everywhere I go, you know what I mean? Because it's easy. Just get a little power, turn it on, set my temperature and it works, right? But for us backyard enthusiasts, you know what I mean? Not saying that that's not, you know what I mean? We like to use the kettle grill. Super easy to use once we know the, you know, the mechanics and the science behind it, right? So just to give you guys a quick recap, remember the both of these at the bottom, it pulls through with just a vent so we can control the flow, right? Then we put our, you know, our charcoal on the top. That wherever we do it, we always keep a zone. You don't want to put it completely on the bottom. Then you, I call it a, you truly grilling them, you know what I mean? So I just always put everything off to one side and I leave a side. That's what I call my indirect side. That's how I finish my meat and I'm able to get my meat to get to the temperature that I'm looking for. That 165 is key, folks. If you put it on top of that direct heat, you're going to burn the outside trying to cook the inside of your meat, if that makes sense. Now, super easy. Two kettle grills. This one, you will probably buy some different accessories to make your life easier. This S&S grill right here, listen, it come with your table. It come with everything that you see right here built in, you know, for the hold your top. Let me just do it like this. You know what I mean? And then we bring you around this way. Even comes with a, this right here is key. I didn't get into this because listen, this is just learning how to, you know, work it. But this comes with it also. This right here is nice. You got a water trough, trough so when you're doing your long cooks, you can get some moisture in the inside. You put your charcoal over here. This is your direct zone. You put this on top. Everything that's over here on this side will be where you want to go ahead and put your, you know, your heat on, say we doing a steak. You put that steak on here, get this nice and hot, put it on top, flip it a couple of times, then we finish over here on non-direct. Super easy. You guys got any questions, just ask me down in the comment section below. And with that being said, if you've been watching any of my videos, you know what time it is. So check this out. If you're new to my channel, let me take this time to say, thank you for watching this video. Don't forget to like, smash that subscribe button and tell everybody out there. There's a channel out here that's simplifying these recipes and taking the mystery out of cooking and teaching you how to use these grills. I'm out folks. Peace.