Grilled

I like grilled food and enjoy grilling food as well.  I am by no means a grill master but just simple meats done simply; I am however, as it seems to be, a grill snob.

What that means is that I enjoy charcoal grills and grilling, I am not a big fan of propane or propane accessories.  I've also grown up around Weber grills and enjoy them very much and that is where things get dicey.  See, recently I purchased a grill for my girlfriends place since we both enjoy grilled foods.  The grill I purchased was not a Weber but some cheap knock off Backyard Grill that was purchased for 42 bucks at the local Wal-mart.  This decision was a financial one at that time seeing as I didn't have the money to plop down on the Weber of similar size; this decision was quickly realized a mistake.  Upon getting the grill home and starting assembly, it was easy but was held together by several screws and bolts and washers whereas a Weber is just pushed together with minimal tools and or screws and bolts and washers.

The assembly did not deter me or shake my belief that this knock-off Weber would be just as good as the original but I would be proven wrong.

The beauty of a Weber is in the design that allows you to close off the air flow through tightly fitted vents on the top and the bottom which allow you to control the heat of the fire and to help conserve your coals once the grilling is done by shutting off the air flow.  The Backyard Grill has loose vents on the ash catcher on the bottom and a vent on top but the bottom ones are much too loose to stop all the air flow.  This is also compounded by the top warming rack that is connected through the hinged lid, again loosely, which allows more air into the grill with the lid down.  With all this air flowing into the grill causes it to burn hot and you cannot just let the meat cook slowly but must be fretted over like a over protective parent towards a sheltered child.

Why is this an issue to me?  Because a large bag of coal was purchased at the same time of the grill and was used for a total of three to maybe four times grilling.  A similar bag on a similar sized Weber (22.5") would last easily twice that for the amount of grilling that was done with the Backyard Grill.  That grilling was for two people cooking two pieces of meat and once some baked potatoes as well.

Next time I get some extra money, I will be getting a Weber and more coal.

And if someone has a Weber they want to trade even up for a low hour grill, have I got a deal for you.