Thread: Kettle grill BBQ's

Ok bought one of these things from the warehouse seeing it is cheaper to run charcoal than gas plus it tastes heaps better too, anyone got any tips to cooking with them in regards to roasting meat etc as I have only ever cooked on gas BBQ's

Used to have one years ago.

They are good in that you can actually get them hot enough to cook a decent steak and that smokey flavor:thumbup:

downside is not much room for cooking for a tribe.

experiment, you will get it sused.

Never tried a roast in my old one but i would all but fill it with coals let half it burn then put meat in and lid on and have a quick peak in an hour to see how its goin.

If you can, buy a chimney to get the coals started. Buy the briquettes rather than the other as they are more consistent and don't flake away (and fall down the cracks). Put the coals either side ( the Weber brand has dividers) and there is usually enough heat for a pudding pie after you have done the meat? I'll often make an apple pie for desert. They can be slow to cook on and a meat thermometer is good thing to own.

Yeah mate, I live and die by my weber! I don't have a gas bbq anymore!

Don't kid yourself, briquettes are far more expensive than gas!

Which one did you get? I use a 58cm (I think!) weber, get yourself a meat thermometer, it will be your best friend!

Briquettes work best, I like the charka ones the warehouse had and the South African shops have them (Also cheaper from there), they are more consistent than the ones from the supermarket.

To start use the seperator on the briquette grid as you don't want direct heat on the meat, put a foil roasting tray between, if you don't have the seperators just put them on the side of the tray. The tray will catch the juice to make gravy with later or you can chop up veggies (potatos, pumpkin, carrots, onions etc) and chuck them in the tray. You can still use the juice to make gravy!

Get the coals going well, put the top grid in and put your meat in the centre of it and place the thermometer in the thickest part, trick is to position so you can see it through the vent hole so you don't lose heat checking it. Baste the meat with some oil, I use olive but any is fine and whatever herbs and spices you want, I put whole stalks of rosemary on lamb.

Close it up and check occasionally until it reaches temp, make some grave and get stuck in!

For a bbq remove the separators and fill the bottom with coals, you will be surprised how many you can cook for, get some long tongs though!

I have one of these and use lump charcoal. I put tinfoil underneath the coals to restrict air flow and stop the small coals fall through the cracks as well as use the dampners to keep temps down. also i use the pizza stone as a heat sheld so there is no direct heat too the meat. it keeps an even ambient temp. I can keep mine ticking over at 100C. Low and slow makes an awesome roast. You just have to have a play and figure it out for yourself. Have fun!


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far canal that's a heap flasher than the old Shiiter I had!

Its effen awesome. its insulated, an inch thick. picked it up from mitre 10 for $100 coz it had a 1/4 of the grill broken off. Bargain


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mine was two pressings and a wire grill
I never actually tried charcoal used to just fill it up with dry manuka and when it had burnt down enough to fit the grill in it was good to go for steak

Originally Posted by Spudattack

Yeah mate, I live and die by my weber! I don't have a gas bbq anymore!

Don't kid yourself, briquettes are far more expensive than gas!

Which one did you get? I use a 58cm (I think!) weber, get yourself a meat thermometer, it will be your best friend!

Briquettes work best, I like the charka ones the warehouse had and the South African shops have them (Also cheaper from there), they are more consistent than the ones from the supermarket.

To start use the seperator on the briquette grid as you don't want direct heat on the meat, put a foil roasting tray between, if you don't have the seperators just put them on the side of the tray. The tray will catch the juice to make gravy with later or you can chop up veggies (potatos, pumpkin, carrots, onions etc) and chuck them in the tray. You can still use the juice to make gravy!

Get the coals going well, put the top grid in and put your meat in the centre of it and place the thermometer in the thickest part, trick is to position so you can see it through the vent hole so you don't lose heat checking it. Baste the meat with some oil, I use olive but any is fine and whatever herbs and spices you want, I put whole stalks of rosemary on lamb.

Close it up and check occasionally until it reaches temp, make some grave and get stuck in!

For a bbq remove the separators and fill the bottom with coals, you will be surprised how many you can cook for, get some long tongs though!

I have got the kiwi grill 22 inch kettle (58cm?) when I put it together the instructions said the bottom grill was the charcoal grill and the top one was the cooking grill so I used to light up the charcoal int he very bottom and use that bottom grill to cook on but then after researching more everyone else (weber owners) were using that bottom grill as the grate for the charcoal so I went to doing it like that. last nights experiment was with a $3 bit of meat (price of the half pigs head) and it went ok but yes I do need to get meat thermometer to be more precise. I have seen those charcoal baskets that webber make and could use those on my BBQ for indirect heat but just happy to stick coals either side of the grate for now. I have been using those $15 per 4kg bag from warehouse not the charka ones but also mixing it with that solid energy stuff from pak n save to make it last would love to get hold of some manuka charcoal for cooking with. As for long tongs yes I have some of those and use them all the time when BBQing. I do not worry about one of those chimney things for getting the charcoal going even though it would be less stuffing around getting the briquettes to go but tried some meths soaked into the pak n save charcoal then biffed a match at it and that got the sods going a lot better than those little lucifers I had been using.

The charka is african hardwood, burns long and hot so really good and is only $11 from the SA shop for 4kg!.
To get the manuka flavour use manuka sawdust, make little pockets of tinfoil and put the manuka in that, then just sit them in the coals when you put the meat on, yummy!

Oh, and definately put a tray between the coals, even if you don't do veggies it catches the oil and juice which evaporates in the heat and keeps rebasting the meat, and it stops a sticky mess in the bottom of the bbq.
And it makes awesome smokey gravy!

On the matter of temperature control of roasts in BBQ's and also in a conventional oven, I suggest you look at the Digital Meat Thermometer available from steelfern.co.nz.


Mitre 10 and other stores may also sell it


It is a metal probe with a metal cased wire which exits the BBQ or oven and plugs into an external wireless transmitter. This transmitter communicates your meat's temperature to a small wireless device you can carry up to 30 meters away


You can set the temperature you want the meat to reach. The remote unit shows the increasing temperature on your remote and when it reaches that which you set, an alert activates on your remote unit. I find it really useful to set the alert 10 degrees lower than what I finally require as with many meats, the temperature will continue to rise 10 degrees once removed from the heat source.


The only caution is to keep the metal cased wire clear of any flame.


I must state, that I have no connection with the company but find their device brilliant and reliable.

Mine came with two probes and i fried them both


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Whilst on the subject:



I personally don't condone the pricking of holes in the meat but hey... it's not my video.

Cooked up a couple of ham steaks plus some pork ribs I had kicking around in the freezer gave the ribs a sprinkle of salt a good grind of pepper then coated them in smoked hickory flavoured sauce then whacked it on the grill tasted bloody good too