The frequency of questions regarding the Weber Kettle has been increasing. Fortunately for those that have questions, Flave learned to cook all formerly living things on a Weber Kettle at a young age. And, he is willing to type out some helpful hints. These hints are not based on some butt-fugk looking for a new way to rake in some dough on his monetized videos. These are just simple ways to address the pros and cons of the system, and an advisement of what works and what is a waste of your time.

First and foremost, if you do not have a grill or BBQ, and you do not want to take the plunge on a quality steel charcoal/wood grill, or a full ceramic like the BGE, or Kamado, you cannot go wrong with a Weber Kettle. They are relatively inexpensive, easily transported and/or stored, and they afford you the opportunity to truly learn how to grill, smoke, and BBQ in general. You could also go with a pellet, gas, or electric type but then you'd be using an oven outside and that's not what we are here to discuss.

So, how do we cook with a Weber Kettle? Here you go:

First thing you'll need beside a Weber Kettle, is two big bags of Kingsford Charcoal, two charcoal chimneys, a bottle of lighter fluid, and a box of Tumbleweed (or similar) firestarters. No you do not need lump charcoal made from Amazonian Redwood that was aged in the cellar of an Italian winery. You just need some fugkin' Kingsford. No, lighter fluid will not make your food taste like lighter fluid. People that say this don't know WTF they're talking about.

If you have an old Weber Kettle, you need to install a thermometer. It should be centered and on the opposite side of the vent on your lid. If you are unsure of the placement, google the image of a newer style and use that as your guide. This will require about $20, and a drill. It's not optional. It's essential for using a Weber Kettle to its full potential.

The first type of cooking is very straight forward but will end up being your least commonly used. This method is for what I refer to as Nebraska Style cooking. You're going to fill one of your charcoal chimneys about 10% full and pour lighter fluid on them. Then fill your charcoal chimney. Light the bottom. When the entire thing is gray, orange, and terrifying, pour it into the Weber Kettle, spread them around evenly with the implement of your choice, add the cooking grate, and start burning your hot dogs or whatever bullschit your wife got you "cooking" for the special occasion nobody gives a schit about.

This is also a great way to cook a frozen pizza. Note dispersion of the charcoal. Simple.


Now for the method you're going to use on 90% of your Weber Kettle needs. Some people call this the "indirect" method but that is a misnomer. It should be called the "how to use your Weber Kettle because the way your dad did it was fugking stupid" method.

Grab two charcoal chimneys. Fill to roughly 10%. Douse with lighter fluid. Fill to the top with charcoal. Put two Tumbleweeds on the charcoal grate of your Weber. Light them. Place one charcoal chimney over one Tumbleweed.







Now, after approximately 10-15 minutes, that Tumbleweed will be the vanished remains of its former self, and those bottom few coals will be good and orange/grey. Pick up the charcoal chimneys and dump one on each side of the charcoal grate. One on the left, one on the right. Leave a gap between them:



Now, put the cooking grate on, and keep your lower vent to an open position. Give it air:



Keep your top vent barely open, give it little to no air:



Now, figure out what temp you want your Weber at. If we are smoking a bird, brisket, or ribs our target is going to be 250ish. The temp is going to quickly climb to 200. Now bump your top vent just a smidge and watch it. It shouldn't take too long to get to your target temperature. If it's climbing too fast, close the vents on the bottom, it's getting too much air. If your target temp is 350, simply give it more air and monitor until it plateaus on the temp you want. This is where the Weber Kettle gets a "finicky" reputation but it's largely unwarranted. It is a little less than ideal, but with a bit of time and effort you'll see that you can get it to the temp you want (and keep it there) quickly. Your Weber can and will get to 450 or higher in short order. You have to watch it and bump incrementally at this stage.

If you have questions about the use of your Weber Kettle, it's important to stop and understand what we are doing here. You now have a small quantity of lit/hot briquettes butted up against a large quantity of unlit briquettes. All you need to do from here is establish the proper amount of airflow. The briquettes will take care of themselves. Give it all the air you can, and it will go full throttle in short order and burn through what you have in the Weber. Give it very little throttle and your gas tank is going to last a lot longer than you thought it could. You do not need to perform any special arrangement of the charcoal or count the fugking briquettes. The air is going to allow them to catch and use the amount needed for the temp you're after. The thermometer is your speedometer and the vents are your brake/throttle. This system is no different than a big ceramic. I do not need to measure the amount of lump charcoal I'm putting in the bowels of my Big Green Egg. I fill it, light it, and monitor air flow. The rest takes care of itself. Your Weber will do the exact same thing albeit not as efficiently as a ceramic because it does not have the capacity or insulating properties a ceramic does. Again, it is important you understand this if you want to learn to grill/BBQ, and if you can grill BBQ on a Weber Kettle, you will be able to grill/BBQ on anything.

Here is one example of using this method as efficiently as possible. We have water soaked corn directly over the heat. Pork tenderloin "baking" and being seared on one side as they are rotated, bratwurst getting direct heat and being seared, while the bake potatoes bake. Temp is being maintained around 350 and the temp stays there. Lid is on at all times. No flare ups. Lid is only removed for turning meat or taking it off when it's done.



Here's another example:

Ribs staying in the middle and cooking at 300. Wings stay over the direct portion and will be done for halftime. Ribs and baked potatoes will be for the Sunday Night Game. Get the idea?





That's your primer and this will be the basis for all your cooks. I will get into specifics regarding legit BBQ (ribs, shoulders, and brisket) tomorrow.

How generous of you...you old [bleep]!

Hahahaha!

News paper works fine with chimneys. Weber also makes the best chimneys.

Flave is right however........fluid is fine.

I want pneumatic tires on my kettle.

Of all the kettles I own....the Jumbo Joe is probably the most useful.


You can cook dinner for 10 people on a thimble of charcoal.

This is what I use to light my charcoal, works good.

Just put your charcoal chimney on one of the burners of your gas stove. It'll light up pretty quick.

No gas stove? Get that fixed right away.

Thats a good deal Hank.

Nothing works faster than the method I described. None of this is open for debate. I am a better cook than any of you.

Ribs:

If you are doing two racks, get your Weber Kettle to 250. Keep the coals pushed back to allow for an empty space that can accommodate both slabs of ribs. You do not need to add wood here. The Kingsord briquettes have plenty. They will provide a good smoke ring. Do not add a pan filled with water. We are not putting moisture into this cook, we're getting moisture out of this cook. you're at 250, place both ribs face down and in the middle. Let them cook for two hours.



You should be walking out and checking temp every 30 minutes for the first hour, once it is set you can check temp every hour or 90 minutes.

At the 90 minute mark, rotate your ribs. This will help ensure an even cook if the coals are not perfectly distributed. And they probably aren't.

At the three hour mark, flip them meat side up and add sauce if you're adding sauce. Let them go for another hour. Our temp is staying at 250.

At the four hour mark, pull them off one at a time and wrap them in foil. Before wrapping they're going to look like this:



When they're wrapped, put them meat side up and back on the cooking grate.



As you can see in the above pic, there is plenty of hellfire left in the bottom of the Weber, and we are already in the final hour of the cook. Leave the wrapped ribs for another 45-60 minutes. Pull and let set for at least an hour.

These ribs will be falling the eff apart and have a perfect amount of black, sticky char to them.



If you only want to do one rack of ribs, you can follow an abbreviated form the above procedure and run the Weber @ 300 for the entire cook. The bones will come clean but will not fall apart like they will on a slower cook and many people prefer this. There will also be more of what many consider to be a "perfect" smoke ring formed around the edge of each rib. Either type is incredible and you won't be disappointed. But you need to try them both for a few different cooks before you decide which you prefer.

Looks good, I love a grilled rib, I did some awhile back, didn't wrap them, when they hit 160, I started basting them with Wickers, 170 squeeze butter, 180 more wickers, 190 more squeeze butter, finished them up with some sauce at the end around 195. I like a light char and dont like them too wet. I did buy the side charcoal holders for the webber to help keep the coals to the side. I find myself cooking on my weber way more than my bge.

I’m amazed how versatile a Weber kettle is. Most of my grilling is on a little jumbo Joe or 26” depending on how many are eating. I use the vortex cone for holding the charcoal now and just hit the charcoal in it with a propane weed burner. Pretty simple and fast. Hit it for 30 seconds or so with the weed burner and another 30 seconds with a leaf blower. Both things I keep setting by the grills anyway so it’s not going out of the way.

Seems pretty straight forward !

This is very thoughtful of you. Do you think Kenneth can comprende?

The kettle can make some good grub

Thank you for educating me. One question, though....does this work for meat that doesn't come from a pig?

3 bone beef plate ribs above…

I steal my neighbors' newspapers.

Nice meat.

Weber Kettles kick azz. The original 22” can get a bit tight on space though. Particularly when cooking indirect.

I want to put together an UDS.
Built a barrel cooker out of a wine barrel and it was pretty sweet. Drafty SOB, especially when it was dried out and had gaps in the staves. Was awesome for cool smoking with an Amzn pellet burner.

Tag.

No violations when cooked over Kingsford on a Weber Kettle. Dig in.

I’m just here for the brisket,

One would think.

You and your nose pose an excellent question. Let me help.

For a brisket you're going to do the exact same thing you did with the ribs. Lay the brisket down and note the time. You should get around six hours at 250 without much issue but you will likely get seven.

Space constraints were mentioned earlier and they can be a bit of an issue on the original sized Weber Kettle. Last weekend I picked up a nine pounder and that's about perfect.

The only thing we'll do different charcoal wise is place a good chunk O' wood of the chef's choice on one side of the coals. That's all the smoke you're going to need. Cook it fat side down at 250. Around the three hour mark, swap the point with the flat so everything is cooking evenly.

At the 6ish hour mark, go ahead and wrap it. Have the foil and some more charcoal ready to rock and roll. As soon as you lift the brisket off, get it wrapped and wrap it tight:



While it's off, dump a handful of briquettes onto each pile. If you have the modern style of cooking grate, great. If not, lift the fugking thing up and throw them on. This is not a big deal. You had to pull the brisket off anyway, go ahead and stoke your coals.

Put it back, fat side down. Lid back on. Back to cooking. After 90 minutes, swap the point and flat and put it fat side up. Another 90 minutes should have you in the ball park. I pulled my latest at the at the nine hour mark:


Now put it on a cookie sheet and place it in the oven fat side up. Leave the oven off. Yes you can put it in your cooler just like all the cool YetiTubers, but that oven in our kitchen is specifically designed to retain heat. So if it no ocupado, you may as well fugking use it. This brings me to another important point about backyard BBQ. Once you wrap the meat? You are using your Weber as an oven. So if you don't want to keep cooking outside, and the oven isn't in use, turn the fugking oven on, and finish your cook in the oven. It's really easy.

After about three hours (or tomorrow) unwrap and start slicing. My most recent ended up with less bark on the fat side than I prefer because I think I told my daughter to mark the wrong side when I was wrapping it. But who gives a fugk? This isn't a competition and your friends and family are still going to inhale this schit:





I like to brown tortillas and whip up a huge bowl of pico de gallo de FatCityO. Brisket tacos are about the best way to eat a brisket.

Oh, and if you're going to ask when it is finished, it should be topping out around 200-210. But I am not a fan of people using internal thermometers on BBQ. You should learn to do it by feel or fork. And if you use a remote thermometer, you're gay and I hope you fall face first into your pit.

I've noticed.

Flave, have you done a turkey breast on the Weber? Thanks.

Yes and they are amazing. Do the same as I posted for the ribs and brisket but place a pan between the coals on the bottom/charcoal grate. You can add four cups or so of water. Although not entirely necessary, water pans do tend to make better birds when it comes to charcoal cooking. This is a fun thing to play with as you can substitute a can of beer or some wine and some quartered onion in there as well. Season it the same as you would a Turkey in the oven.

No wood is necessary. I think Kingsford does a fine job on it’s own for most consumers and it will help prevent the black soot commonly associated with wood and charcoal Turkey cooks.

I keep it at 300. Figure 20-25 minutes per pound.

I eat them the next day.

Gracias. Smoked turkey is about the best schidt ever in my book. Now I'm hungry.

Thank you, Deacon. The brisket looks good enough to pay for.

You sure you’re Jewish?

They are very underrated in my opinion and far better than fried.

9.9 from the Aussie Canadian judge !

When I wanted to try my hand at smoking I picked up a Weber smokey mountain. I considered a kettle, it was just my understanding the WSM was a bit more foolproof for smoking. Do you still use your kettle now that you have a BGE?

That's for sure.


Brined or cured or just smoked is great.


Fried turkey makes for poor leftovers.

Great tutorial flave. Everything looks delicious

That brisket is mouth watering.

You need to take better pics with the knife Flave, otherwise good job.

I suspect that this is a question that will make no sense, but since I have never had pork ribs (or pork anything), but have had lots of brisket, how do the two compare when done on the Weber?

Ribs are like heaven w

The Weber Smokey is definitely more foolproof when it comes to all things smoking. That design is geared toward low and slow cooks, and it does them very well. Our local Lowes actually has one of the 18" for $188 right now and I'm tempted to grab it just because of the price. But I need another smoker like I need another handgun...

I do still use the BGE a lot and it is my go to for most anything BBQ. I'm going to cook for roughly 25 people on Halloween and I can tell you that I will not be fugking around with the Weber Kettle for that cook. Also, a BGE does things that the Weber Kettle simply cannot do in regards to maintaining high temps or setting and forgetting. If I do a 250-275 cook for 12 hours on my Egg I am literally setting temp, and walking away. I can get drunk, pass out, watch a movie, and hit a bucket at the driving range without ever even thinking about it. You're not going to do that on a Weber Kettle.

But I use my Weber Kettle a lot because they're a bit of challenge to do a range of cooks on and (to me) they're just fun. Or maybe it just makes me feel like Dennis Quaid in The Right Stuff. I don't know. I just like them.

That's very nice of you to say.

We should buy one another a drink some time.

It's made with real beef.

So you know it will be good.

That is a very cool old slicer.

I'll get better pics soon.

You are correct in assuming your question didn't make any sense, but I'll try to answer in my best Yiddish.

The taste difference between BBQ on a Weber Kettle vs. a traditional steel BBQ or ceramic is negligible. They're all equally delicious. And this is not just my opinion. I give plates of BBQ away often and they all receive the same amount of praise. And the consumer has no clue what I cooked them on.

If you're asking which of the two types of BBQ are better, I think most people agree that the brisket is the BBQ gold standard. If you put out ribs, a shoulder, chicken, and a properly done brisket, that brisket is going to be gone, gone, gone before the others.

Typically.

I agree with your technique, You stated it well and know what you are doing. In the part of the country I live in the butt ribs and chicken will all be eaten before the brisket.

Where is that, roughly?

Brined (wet or dry) and smoked is a winning combo.

A properly done brisket beats a lot of steaks too.

What are butt ribs?

Punctuation, is a thing !

It's pretty important.

You can help your Uncle Jack, off a horse

or....

You can help your Uncle jack off a horse.

Yep, Rooster understands !

Quote above cuts to the chase, especially about pellet, gas, and electric. This thread should be forum sticky. You can get a lot done with the simple kettle.

Never considered a frozen pizza before, but would be super convenient as a snack or appetizer prior to the main cooking session.

Great thread deflave. Thanks for taking the time.

After not using a Weber for decades, I got a Jumbo Joe for Christmas a few years ago. Love the thing.

I had forgotten how handy it is to rotate the grill grate, to move food closer or farther from the hot coals (offset).

Biggest fault with the Weber Kettle is the lower air vent/ash clean out slots.
They work great for sweeping ash from the bottom,but will close up (ash covered) when slightly opened for a long low and slow cook.
Using the snake method, I can maintain 250* (+/- 15*) for hours.
BUT, I have to sweep the lower lever to clear ash from covering and closing vents. ( every 3 hours) Temps will begin to fall, clean sweep and all is good.
They have addressed this in the newer grills with "P" shaped lower slots.
The SNS grill ( Weber clone) solved the problem with an adjustable vent hole higher up the lower kettle. They also put the thermometer in the right place.
Weber kettle is awesome grill, like the lump charcoal way better than briquettes.

Jack's for the win. My girls love them and you are exactly right. Perfect for throwing onto the counter to appease the masses while you get the other stuff going.

Ok, my final question on the topic, with a local twist. What effect does weather have on using a kettle? In particular, when it's winter in Montana, can you still use the Weber? Logically, I'd assume the answer is yes, since the conditions under the lid are what count, but I've heard some say that you can't keep the temp right inside the grill if it's below zero outside.

Good post Flave... Thanks

I throw a $20.00 welding blanket over my Traeger outdoor oven. That might work on your kettle if you cut out a spot for the vent and thermometer.

# 1

Those cold conditions will draw out a lot of heat and make things difficult.

Tom Kippur,


That’s mostly horse schit.

Thin walled smokers and grills like the Weber Kettle or Smokey Mountain don’t do as well as a ceramic or thick gauge steel pit, but they’ll do whatever needs doing in most cases. It may require a bit more time or coals or some simple work around like leaving your garage door cracked and getting it done that way. Also start with room temp charcoal, not some damp schit that’s been stored in the -40 tool shed the past 90 days.

And if it’s really cold, remember once you wrap what’s being cooked, you’re in oven mode. So if you on your 4th bag of Kingsford, go inside and turn the oven on. There’s no shame.

I bought a charcoal chimney thing and prouder than a two dick dog.

Kenneth couldn't figure out which end the charcoal goes into.

A good quality smoking jacket comes in handy.

Stole this from a local hobo on a morning walk thru the park.

Similar to the bags of Kingsford Charcoal,

Directions would make life easier.

You're too dumb to follow directions.

I'll crap all over the place and say,

When i worked third shift I used to buy spare ribs on the way home,
get the charcoal going while I cut the ribs, then grill them. Pretty much
cooked, going more for sear than cook. (Hot fire/close)
Bring them in, slather our sauce on them.
Into a glass baking dish and cover with foil.
All day at around 200F.
They were good from the oven.
Better under the broiler to finish.
Really good if I fired the grill up again and caramelized the sauce.

Not the ideal ribs, but damn good for a hours work, then letting the oven
work while I slept.

Weber Kettles are very versatile, about ten years ago I bought a 26 3/4" one, even though it was double a 22" on sale. It's amazing how much the extra 40% of surface area really helps on indirect cooking methods.

Smoked brats, yard bird, boneless chicken thighs, all work well with the fire one one side of the grill, the meat under the lid vents.

As far as starting a fire, I go with what didn't burn up from the last cook, add several pieces of wood, squirt a little lighter fluid on the wood, put you new briquets on the top grate, light what's underneath, heat goes up.
After it's going good dump them below and brush off the grate and commence.


https://photos.app.goo.gl/Dab1BomcSVURJc4E8

I love the Weber kettles. I even love my old Weber gas grill. At the present I have the Pit Barrel. Honestly, this is the best thread you've ever created with maybe an exception of the Ruger 44spl video . Delicious.

That's amazing.

Thanks for sharing.

Listen up losers,

Thanksgiving and the celebration of Christ is upon us. Give your kettle a go:

-10lb size is ideal.
-Truss your bird. If you don't know how to truss a bird, learn how to truss a bird.
-Place an 8"X8" pan under the turkey. You can add potatoes and carrots or even brussel sprouts but you shouldn't need any water. At all.
-Throw a small chunk of wood or a handful of chips on your coals but nothing more.
-Get temp to 350* and keep it there.

Check temp around the 2.25 hour mark. You should be real close. Once center of the breast hits 165 + , pull and tent with foil inside. Let it rest an hour, then carve.

I like to brine em first.

Going to cure one someday too.

Brining can be great for smoking turkeys but that’s not what we are doing here.

People have gotten out of control with the brining.

It must stop.

Well, I guess your wood chunks comment kinda threw me off. I should have noticed the high temps too. Apologies.



I will have to disagree on pulling it at 165 however. Thats too high. The carryover cooking will take it way too high.


I think thats why people brine before roasting. Over cooked.

What to do after you carve it??

Feed it to the hounds??

None of my guidance here is open for debate.

I’m the teacher.

You’re the students.

With the price of charcoal these days.....cooking your bird on the kettle is the fanciest way you can roast it.


Anything in the cavity before you truss Flave?

I pour a can of beer in the cavity then usually top it off once thru the cook

How does flave stuff his bird?

Kingsford prices have held mostly. I get 36lbs for just under $20 with tax. I use roughly 1/3 of a bag per cook which comes to about $3.30 in fuel. That particularly turkey came from Publix at $.49 per pound. So about $13.00 for a whole turkey. Not bad at all in today's market.

I think most recipes are really stupid. But to answer your question, I threw half an onion, half an orange, a bunch of ground pepper, salt, fresh parsley, handful of basil, and some thyme.

Two fists and a Hallmark card.

Same as your ass.


LOL

flave, buddy I highly doubt a limp wristed queer likes you could even make a fist. I believe the part about the greeting cards... Laffin

Hey GRIZZ,

Did you ever figure out how to prime a cartridge?

I mean, you’ve only been reloading for “30 years.”

LOL

Lying dumb fugk.

Nice...

Beer math is not good !!

Lets, just call it $7 !

Actually....the 36 pounder is two 18 pound bags.

So it would be a third of an 18, not a 36.

Ok, so it's beer communication, via the teaching master, that sux !

Yes, he did leave an important detail out.


Flave's bag contains 6/3rds.

Hey flave! LOL

Professor Flave,

I might add a cautionary note for those cooking pizza over charcoal. If you've smoked anything in your grill of choice prior to cooking the pizza, run a hot burn to get rid of the smoke residue before cooking your pie. If not, your pizza crust will taste like it's made from ground up charcoal briquettes. Frozen pizza might not be as bad, but fresh dough takes on smoke very easily.

Not a bad piece of advice but I don’t know that it’s as applicable in a Weber Kettle.

Fair point. My experience is limited to a BGE and fresh dough.

Hey Teach,

When does the class on smoked salmon begin? I'd like to see your syllabus on that one.

Frozen pizza on the Weber was a hit.

I've grilled fresh pizza dough on a gasser, but need to try it on the Weber.

I've been using a Weber for over 40 years, I've never had one with a thermometer. Just basically cook, steaks, chops, chicken and some fish. I plug in an electric starter, never lighter fluid. I've never tried a chimney. A Weber is all I've ever cooked with outside, I think it puts out great food. My wife says the best steakhouse in town is our house.

A quality stone and it should work fine.

For the holidays if you like Prime Rib:

Put a big glob of this in a bowl:


Add a tablespoon or two of water, and this:


Mix it into a paste and smear it all over like this:


Get your Kettle to this:


When the temp of your roast gets to 110 (check around the two hour mark) pull and get your coals up to turbo. This is accomplished by opening the lid with the bottom vent wide open and watching your coals go to turbo.

When you get around 500ish put it back on, cover and cook until 120.

Pull. Wrap. Let rise to 130-135.

Cut up. Eat.

Very nice.

None of those dumb garlic cloves stuck in it either.

She'll eat Trav !

What about smart garlic cloves?

I stick them in pot roasts, but not prime rib.

Weber kettles get a bit hot for smoked salmon. Hard to keep temps down low enough to not just cook the schit out of the fish. At least in my experience. I’ve done it in larger units(wine barrel) with some charcoal and one of these though.
https://www.amazon.com/Maze-Smoker-...let+smoker&qid=1671143884&sr=8-5



Kettle is great for grilling salmon.