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Weber-Stephen is one of the oldest and most respected manufacturers of BBQ equipment and related accessories in the world. Weber grills and smokerscook beautifully and have great features that are clever, effective and easy to use. Even in this crowded marketplace, many consumers are still willing to pay more for the Weber name and they weber genesis 2 are rarely disappointed. Their iconic black charcoal kettles are known throughout the world. Once the grills were sufficiently hot, we tested the high heat grilling capabilities by cooking lamb chops and marinated boneless, skinless chicken breasts. To test the indirect heat, we cooked raw beer brats and bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs.
Other grills we tested either ran hotter and overcooked the hamburgers, or they weren’t hot enough and barely seared or cooked the meat. The lack of a simple lid hook feels like a design oversight and removing and replacing the ash catcher isn’t as smooth as it should be because the damper handle gets caught on the legs. There’s no function for pushing the ashes into the catcher, either, so it has to be done manually with a grill brush or other tool. I also worry about longevity, mainly because the handles, ash catcher, and lid damper are identical to the same parts on the worst grill we tested. Starting a charcoal grill is definitely not as easy as starting a gas grill, so it’s important to understand how to do it correctly.
However, it takes longer to heat up and is a different cooking experience from traditional charcoal grills. During our tests, we were only able to get our hamburgers to cook to rare, and our chicken did not sear and crisp up as well as it did on all the other grills. Because of this, the Napoleon is definitely not a grill for charcoal beginners.
This model has a wide variety of useful features that any grill master would love, including things like a Touch-N-Go gas ignition system and work table for food prep. We rarely recommend products we haven’t tested and we never recommend products that we don’t love. Often, but not always, if you purchase a product after clicking a link on our site we get a finder’s fee. These fees do not add to the price of purchase but they do help keep this site alive. Built around SnS Grill’s patented Slow ‘N Sear charcoal kettle accessory, this 22-inch kamado is a premium ceramic grill that brings true 2-zone cooking to a kamado.
The Cuisinart Black Kettle Grill is one of the smallest we tested with its 18-inch kettle. It’s similar in size to the Weber Original Kettle Charcoal Grill, though unlike that grill, it comes with an ash pan and a thermometer. However, a major downside to this grill was that the built-in thermometer barely worked. The Cuisinart was also the only grill with which we experienced grease flare-ups when cooking.
Cooking a variety of meats allowed us to observe grill marks, crispiness, and doneness. After the grills had fully cooled, we cleaned each, following the manufacturer’s instructions as closely as we could. We assembled each grill according to the manufacturer’s instructions. I timed each build and noted any confusing directions or hard-to-finagle parts. Assembling each grill also allowed us to assess the quality of the materials.
The grill has two convenient folding side shelves and utensil hooks. In addition our Pitmaster Club is a huge thriving community of cooks who love to share. All text, recipes, photos, and computer code are owned by Meathead’s AmazingRibs.com and protected by US copyright law unless otherwise noted. It is a US federal crime to publish or distribute anything on this website without permission. The most exciting thing about this grill, however, is the crank handle that raises and lowers the charcoal tray.
There’s nothing quite like the smell and taste of a charcoal grill in the summer. Charcoal grilling takes a bit more time and attention to get things just right, so when you choose to use a charcoal grill for a barbecue, everyone knows you mean business. The oval shape of the grill made it easy to cook multiple types of food, from skewers to roasted corn.