For a lot of people, their barbecue doesn’t work properly, especially when it comes to controlling the temperature. You can either control it by the number of coals that you use or how you position the vents. This week we are going to be grilling some chicken drumsticks so, first of all, I am going to layout the coals at the base of the barbecue. The Weber chimney starter is a great way of measuring out your coals this full chimney starter here is ideal for a 57-centimetre barbecue when you’re grilling foods if you have a 47-centimetre barbecue then three-quarters should suffice to distribute your coals evenly over the cooking grate and this will help to create an even temperature whilst cooking if you have a collection of coals in one place just use some tongs to position them evenly across the barbecue.
cooking grate Don’t be tempted to put too many coals into your barbecue as this will create too much heat and therefore burn your food just one layer of coals will suffice once the coals were in place place the cooking grate on top of the coals and then add the food remember always to place the lid on top with the lid in place this will help to keep an urban environment and also will help to reduce flare-ups the vents are also key to controlling the temperature of your charcoal barbecue the vents are located at the bottom and at the top the vent should always be open during cooking to open the vent at the bottom just push the lever to the far side where you can see the vent symbol I’m also going to open the vent at the top this will allow the air to be drawn in through the bottom of our barbecue pass-through the coals I have a question about how to use an air freshener I would like to purchase.
A great tip for grilling your food in a barbecue or cooker is to circulate around the food first and then have it pushed out the top. It creates this oven environment that I mentioned earlier. This is only possible in a windy day as it helps to keep the food warm. You can also close the vents by 50%.