Reddit reviews Weber 7447 Compact Rapidfire Chimney Starter
We found 9 Reddit comments about Weber 7447 Compact Rapidfire Chimney Starter. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Lights coals in under 15 minutes. Dimensions : 8 H x 5.8 W x 10.4 D inchesPlace with coals on Weber Lighter Cubes or crumpled newspaper and lightCompact design makes it ideal for smaller grills or shorter grilling sessionsFits perfectly on Smokey Joe and Jumbo Joe charcoal grillsIndividual Carton Dimensions 8 H x 5.8 W x 10.4 D (Inches)
Or, get one of these. All you do is load the coals into the top and some crumpled up newspapers into the bottom then light the newspapers. they light the coals without using lighter fluid which can affect the taste of the meat.
Been grilling religiously for over a decade. The answer is use the right tool for the job. Here's everything you need to know about charcoal and why who uses what.
Kingsford Original:
This is far from the best charcoal on the planet, but it's the most commonly used for BBQ (slow and low) for one simple reason. Consistency. Kingsford is mass produced and every single bag is going to burn exactly like the bag you bought before it. That makes it easy to get the right heat on your grill as you're not going to be having wildly inconsistent heating results from bag to bag. It makes it easy to dial in your technique. Original is also good for grilling (direct heat). It burns quite hot for long enough for a decent cook. The best place to buy Original is at any major hardware store on any of the grilling holidays (like Memorial Day). It's basically half price. Stock up the garage like I do.
Kingsford Competition:
This is like Kingsford Original but more "pure". It will leave behind less ash after a very long cook. It doesn't have a lot of binders and additives in it. I prefer it just because it burns up more completely so there's less mess to clean up in the BBQ after it's finished. For grilling it burns hot but now quite as long as Original in my experience. The best place to buy Competition is Costco. They sell it in 2-packs for about $20 which is about the regular price of Original any place else.
Lump:
Burns extremely hot and very fast. May impart better smoke flavor depending on the brand and the type of wood. The problem with lump is the consistency. Each batch you burn will burn a little bit (or a lot) different. The uneven sized chunks will burn out at different times, sometimes leaving you with just one or two big lumps of coal near the end of your cook. Lump is great when you want a hot and fast sear on something with not too much surface area. Skirt steaks, kabobs, and veggies are good candidates for lump off the top of my head. Be careful with lump. It crackles and spits out sparks. It's easy to start a real fire with.
Wood:
This is popular among competition BBQers but not a lot of home cooks know how easy it can be. Get some good smoking wood (any fruit will do) and start it in your grill or BBQ just like a campfire. Let it burn down until you have coals. It takes a while, but it's not a lot of hands-on work. This gives you the best of both worlds of lump and briquettes. Very consistent and very very hot heat, and good smoke flavor. This is actually very economical if you have a good source of cheap wood. If you live in an area with a lot of fruit orchards, call around and see what you can get your hands on. Just make sure to season the wood first to avoid acrid flavors.
Other stuff in no particular order:
Don't buy the gimmicky briquettes with the "wood chips" inside them. Kingsford makes a popular mesquite briquette. They're bullshit. They just have some tiny slivers of wood on the outside of the briquettes for show that aren't going to give you any smoke flavor. They're just going to disintegrate with barely any smoke output. If you want smoke, use wood chunks.
Off-brand briquettes are completely hit or miss. Feel free to try whatever you see a good deal on, but don't be surprised if it burns up very quickly.
Get yourself a nice charcoal chimney and some lighter cubes if you haven't already. The lighter cubes might sound gimmicky when you've got scrap paper laying around, but the cubes will light your coals way faster than paper meaning more cook time out of them and they're cheap. You can make your own out of paraffin wax and either lamp oil or dryer lint. Just mix the ingredients together and let them cook, then break it up into chunks. I usually buy them for convenience but occasionally I make my own out of dryer lint and Golf Wax.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
I never knew there was such a thing as a charcoal fan. Do you have a huge grill, or just want the charcoal ready ASAP? I don't own a grill, but I've seen how well These work, and you could probably make one out of a coffee can.
Just don't call it bbq if you are grilling.
In all seriousness, though, if it is a gas grill, you can pretty much treat it like a gas stove + grill marks. If you are using charcoal, then there can be a trick to lighting it. Some charcoal "bricks" are pretreated to light quickly, but if you get natural lump charcoal, you either need lighter fluid (which can leave a taste), or be patient and use newspaper/paper bags to help light it. Having one of these helps immensely if you are going the non-lighter fluid route. And it is cheap.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B009IH0ICG/ref=s9_top_hm_bFhUJ_g86_i4
He has something like this but still took him forever.
Non-mobile: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009IH0ICG/ref=s9_top_hm_bFhUJ_g86_i4
^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?
I cook this every other week. Either shio koji or just shioyako style. I also have cooked it sous vide 3x in the last 2 months.
General Info
Sous Vide
I hadn't seen those temps before but I guesstimated using the Sansaire salmon sous vide times.
I cooked it for ~60 minutes @ 125 f then finished with my searzall. It was good but.... not worth the trouble for me since the clean-up, handling, and I prefer the smokey accent from cooking over coals.
You need these, because Batman things are awesome. I have several Batman things on my WL.
But the thing I am really needing is this. About to move to a new apt with a big deck, and I need to up my grill game.
You had Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast, otherwise deputydawg.
My winter temps are usually around 25-35F (-4 to +2C). Like you, I only cook outside on the warmer days during the Winter. I haven't tried keeping this setup going in the temperatures that you mentioned. I have seen a few winter cooking threads where people wrap the cookers in welding blankets to maintain temps and block winds, but I have not tried those options.
Here is a link to the small sized Weber chimney that I mentioned before: Link (Amazon.com). It holds about half of the amount of coals that the regular chimneys hold. It's a great size for small amounts of charcoal.
Also I wanted to mention that when I was first reading up on this smoker, most of the threads talked about using a clay heat diffuser above the coals. I never tried one of those because of the cost. I have never tried using a water tray either. I ended up just using a round disposable aluminum pizza pan from the dollar store, mainly as a drip pan. I quit using those after I had one catch on fire from the drippings on it - my fault for not throwing it out when it needed to be thrown out. Now I don't use any sort of drip pan/diffuser at all. Just coals in the bottom and the grate near the top. I mostly cook baby back pork ribs in mine and haven't had any problems using it like that.
The only other problem I had was one time when I was wearing baggy shorts, the bottom of my shorts got caught on the handle of the aluminum stock pot and pulled the whole grill over. All the coals went into the grass, the meat went top-side down onto the grass, the grill fell apart into three pieces, etc. A real mess. I got everything cleaned up (no fire) and the ribs tasted great.