Using wood in a weber BBQ

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Hi all,

Weird question, but I recently aquired a weber BBQ as in the pic below. The User manual says nothing about using wood in the drum, so I thought I’s ask my friends who may also have a weber. The manual only mentions using charcoal briquettes, but I dislike this. I prefer to use wood. My question is if I can? And if I do, any things I should know about?

TX

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I’m far from an experienced BBQ’er but I would have thought wood would smoke too much when burning – but maybe that is what you want? I also doubt if BBQ’s are designed to allow wood the burn the way you would want – air inlets etc – but I could be wrong.

Certainly, wood is available as a compliment to charcoal…

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Hey Rudi !!

I’ve been using a Weber kettle for over 35 years and my father had one back in the early 1960’s. I’ve made everything from baby back ribs to prime rib, salmon filets and a Thanksgiving turkey.

I personally have never used wood in my Weber. I’ve started using Natural Lump Charcoal in recent years as opposed to the “traditional” briquettes and like it better for it’s lower ash burning qualities, but still have to work at keeping my fires the right temperature.

This fellow uses a wood and charcoal mix and doesn’t say anything about problems with the wood. About the only thing I can think of to be concerned with is getting the chunks small enough to fit in the fire area for indirect cooking or adding chunks after the food is on the grill.

The best advice I can provide about barbque is to cook things low and slow. Enjoy your new toy !!!!

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Tx for your replies DocWatson and Leif.

I probably will try wood somewhere down the line in the Weber as I have always used wood on conventional concrete BBQ surfaces, and I prefer the smoky taste it gives to the food. I was just initially concerned that it ‘wood’ not be good for the drum?! The grill on which the charcoal brikettes lie on has fairly large spaces between the wrungs. Wood coals are smaller than the briquettes. so I will have to find a new surface to stack the wood on, else the coals will simple fall into the base of the drum.

I did do my first BBQ with the weber last night. Even with briquettes the chicken did taste good. However I made the mistake of putting too few briquettes on the grill. The coals died out too quickly and we had to microwave the chicken to finish cooking it. It was though… Next time I will put more briquettes on and I will have a real party. Of course you are all invited!!!

Cheers

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As I’m sure you will be using the Weber again before the end of the holiday (I know if Christmas came during the summer months here I’d certainly be grilling Christmas dinner) I’ll have to pass on the invitation. But for some tips on using your Weber kettle and getting the most enjoyment and best tasting food from it, take a look here and advice on how many briquettes to use here.

As for the coals falling through the grill, Weber used to make some niffty accessories to help contain the charcoal and the coals for indirect cooking, but I can’t find them on the website now. Try a layer of heavy duty foil and cut some slits in it for air circulation through the coals.

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I certainly will be using it. As a matter of fact, I will be BBQ’ing the extended families Xmas lunch on the grill . Thanks for all the advice and the links, it’s really appreciated Doc.
Cheers, and have a great Xmas day yourself!

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Hi Doc,

I have just finished using my Weber this evening again. (I am still licking my fingers after munching down a great T-bone!

Why I am following up on this thread is just to inform that I used wood as a starter and systematically started adding briquettes once the wood was in full flame. It worked brilliantly. I placed a layer of heavy duty foil on the bottom grid, sliced a couple of small air vents into it and then stacked a little cube of wood, layer by layer. One it was lit and aflame, I filled the cube with briquettes and let that burn for about 15 min. As the wood became coals, I added more briquettes to satisfy the quota needed to BBQ. Since the wood had made coals and the first lot of briquettes had turned grey/white, the second batch had no problems getting hot. I let it to burn another 20 odd minutes and then it was ready for the meat! Using this combo to get the coals ready works so well. I have never felt the briquettes hotter that todays, and I only used 1 piece of a fire starter we call “Blitz”. I think I have found the perfect formula for myself.

Needless to say, the T-bone was GREEAATTT and the aroma still lingers in the house!

Cheers

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Hey Rudi,

Glad to hear you’ve hit on a cooking formula that works for you so quickly !! Nothing quite like a nice piece of meat cooked outdoors on an open fire !!! Must be the caveman in us !!!

Is “Blitz” a man-made product or something natural ?? Here in the US we use a type of pine wood called Fatwood as a firestarter.

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Its a man made product. Starnge that I cannot find a picture of it on the net (now there is a genuine puzzle), but its a white slab of stuff that is soaked in some chemical. It burns for about 5-10min which helps to get the fire going.

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I came across this link to a Blitz Barbeque – looks a lot faster way to cook than your method

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What next!!!!!!

I fancy the Bouy-B-Q. After the heat we have had over the last couple of days it would be grreeaatt to BBQ in the pool!
Cheers

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I’ve got the same Weber kettle you’ve pictured, and love it. Just over 1 year of ownership on it.

I’ve not used wood chips (yet), but ya never know.

I’ve been using a chimney starter since day one, and it works well. I found this link with tips on the use of a chimney starter. I’ll have to try them!

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Thats an interesting link showing the chimney starter. In a way, I have been doing this with the wood that I mentioned I was using in a previous post. I still use briquettes, but to get them going I stack “fire starters” (which are thinner that the conventional wood logs), and I stack them into a ‘chimney’ formation, 2 parallel by 2 parallel. In the middle of this I throw the briquettes until it stackes up to about 30cm high. When I light the wood starters they burn for about 10 minutes, all the while heating up the briquettes too. Once the wood starters are all burned out I add a couple more briquettes to fill the quota for the required amount. These heat up quickly due to the coals already made.

Its a great formula that seems to work splendid for my needs.

Cheers

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