Slide it to the Side Baby!

Barbeque?

Do you like to barbeque? Well I do too! The great American tradition! Relaxing in the backyard or the park, sipping cold beverages, beer and maybe some nice wine, listening to the Baseball game on the radio and charcoal grilling up some savory animal parts! Mmn! I can smell it now!

Under His Wing

I was fortunate enough to have a fantastic big brother who took me under his wing and schooled me on proper barbequing techniques, one thing he taught me was that when we are operating the Weber Kettle Grill, do not grab the lid and yank it straight up into the air. Because it creates suction and pulls air through the bottom vents and that air rushes over the coals and ashes and lifts ashes up onto your hopeful masterpiece of meat! Brother Alan flipped the lid over slightly and pointed to a small hook hidden inside. He then slowly demonstrated how to slide the lid to the side over the kettle and let the hook catch on the edge, and hang there suspended. Explaining how to never again have the problem of ashes being pulled up on your food accidentally, and also removing the possibility of needing to set the lid down on the ground.

Now for whatever reason, I thought that was the coolest thing ever and I told everyone else at subsequent barbeques about the hook trick and demonstrated it as if I had discovered the secret to the damn universe! “Never lift the lid up in the air! Don’t get ashes on the chicken wings man!” Sacrilege!

Secret Teaching

So over the years I have held on to this secret teaching and it has become a bit of a pet peeve, as for whatever reason, most other Weber-grill-masters don’t seem to know about this and even after I tell them it doesn’t seem to stick in their head very long. You can tell when the white chicken has black specs all over it, and it’s not pepper.

Here it is many years later, I am fifty-four years old now and of course I am still cooking everything I can on the Weber grill like it is my religion and smack. I love to watch YouTube videos and log on Facebook to all the different barbeque groups, Drinkin and Grillin, BBQ Pitmasters’ Secrets and all this stuff, and it is really great, because these guy are much better than I am and I can learn a few things and maybe just entertain myself by watching all these, you know, like a cooking show. But one of the things that grinds my gears is these guys who are the super-top number-one-YouTube million-viewed BBQ-experts, guess what they are doing?! That’s right! They are pulling the Weber Kettle lid straight up in the air!! HEY Pitmaster X? BBQ PIT BOYS? All you bozos, you know who you are! Now I have to admit I just watched BBQ PIT BOYS video about preparing the Dragon Egg Chicken Bacon wrap bomb and they did it right so bravo for getting it right there, maybe I wrote something in the comments when I saw them violate the lid law a while back and they saw it! Ha-ha!

        1955 or Something

Anyway, grill masters! Warriors of Weber! You get the message here, apparently it has been in the user’s guide, the owner’s manual since 1955 or something, explaining how to slide the lid to the side and it solves the issue of getting ashes on the dinner. So, guys do me a favor, if we are at the barbeque grill, I know we are having a few drinks and everything, 905 beer, fine Wine, Crack-n-Cokes, but-OH-and you know what happens? Fellow party goers will get drunk and they all want to pick up the lid and look at the food! “OH, what’s happening? Is it done? Let’s take a look!” and that is not good either, “if you’re lookin’ it’s not cookin!” Let’s not do that, and if you do look make sure you slide the lid to the side baby!
Peace and Barbeque Grease!

Even Alaska Granny Knows the Deal