German Grill B1 Assembly, Use And Care Manual

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Assembly, Use and Maintenance

DO NOT OPERATE YOUR GRILL UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS GUIDE

505-00200 Rev A

B1 Charcoal Grill

2009-02

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Copyrights and Disclaimer

Information in this document is provided in connection with German Grill LLC (German Grill) products as a service to our customers and may be used for information purposes only. German Grill assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in these materials. German Grill may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. German Grill makes no commitment to update the information and shall have no responsibility whatsoever for conflicts or incompatibilities arising from future changes to its specifications and product descriptions.

No license, express or implied, by estoppels or otherwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document. Except as provided in German Grill’s Terms and Conditions of Sale for such products, German Grill assumes no liability whatsoever.

THESE MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, RELATING TO SALE AND/OR USE OF GERMAN GRILL PRODUCTS INCLUDING LIABILITY OR WARRANTIES RELATING TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT. GERMAN GRILL FURTHER DOES NOT WARRANT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION, TEXT, GRAPHICS OR OTHER ITEMS CONTAINED WITHIN THESE MATERIALS. GERMAN GRILL SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST REVENUES OR LOST PROFITS, WHICH MAY RESULT FROM THE USE OF THESE MATERIALS.

German Grill products are not intended for use in medical, lifesaving or life sustaining applications. German Grill customers using or selling German Grill products for use in such applications do so at their own risk and agree to fully indemnify German Grill for any damages resulting from such improper use or sale.

German Grill is a trademark of German Grill LLC.

Product names or services listed in this publication are for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of third parties. Third-party brands and names are the property of their respective owners.

German Grill believes the printed matter contained herein to be accurate from date of publication and reserves the right to make changes as necessary without notice

Reader Response: German Grill strives to produce quality documentation and welcomes

your feedback. Please send comments and suggestions to [email protected] technical questions, visit our website or call us toll free at (888) 261-5740.

. For

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Table of Contents

1. SAFETY & GENERAL INFORMATION .................................................. III

1.1. Table of Precautions ........................................................................ iii

1.2. Table of Warnings ........................................................................... iv

1.3. Table of Dangers .............................................................................. v

1.4. Warranty ....................................................................................... vi

1.5. Patents and Trademarks .................................................................. vi

2. OVERVIEW ......................................................................................... 2

2.1. The grilling system .......................................................................... 2

3. THE MECHANICAL COMPONENTS ........................................................ 3

3.1. Cover ............................................................................................ 3

3.2. Cooking grate ................................................................................. 3

3.3. Coal basket .................................................................................... 4

3.4. Front access door ............................................................................ 4

3.5. Vents ............................................................................................ 5

3.6. Ash Pan ......................................................................................... 5

3.7. Paper door, grate, and starter chimney .............................................. 6

3.8. Lift arm and handle ......................................................................... 6

3.9. Firebox .......................................................................................... 6

4. OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS ............................................................... 8

4.1. Theory of the grill ........................................................................... 8

4.2. Lighting the charcoal ....................................................................... 9

4.3. Controlling the heat ........................................................................ 11

4.4. Two-zone grilling ........................................................................... 12

4.5. Grilling for a crowd. ........................................................................ 13

4.6. "Barbecuing" ................................................................................. 14

4.7. Grilling, Barbecuing, Smoking, and Broiling: ...................................... 14

5. MAINTENANCE ................................................................................. 16

5.1. Cleanup ........................................................................................ 16

5.2. Major overhaul .............................................................................. 16

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FligħtTransport Installation Guide

Safety & General Information

Contacting German Grill

Offices

Sales/Service: 5833 Ewing Ave S, Edina, MN 55410 Shop: 1511 Marshall St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413

Customer Support

Toll Free US: .......................... (888) 261-5740

International: ................... +1 (952) 920-9965

Fax: ................................ +1 (952) 513-4675

Website: ............................... www.GermanGrill.com

Email: ................................... [email protected]

1. Safety & General Information

The following symbols are used in this manual to indicate instructions that require special attention:

Exercise caution when you see this symbol. It indicates actions that could be harmful to the user or to the equipment.

Caution

Warning

Danger

Observe Standard Precautions

All persons having access to this equipment must observe all standard precautions as defined in national statutory health and safety legislation.

1.1. Table of Precautions

Caution

Exercise extreme caution when you see this symbol. It indicates safety tips, general cautions and actions that can cause injury or damage.

Follow the instructions carefully. If you do not follow danger warnings you will expose yourself and others to serious injury or you may cause damage to property.

Be sure the ash pan is in place when using the grill. The pan

! !

will seal the grill properly to control airflow, and will prevent hot coals and ash from falling through.

Don’t use sharp objects, power tools or metal cleaning abrasives to clean the grates, the outside of the grill, or to scrape the insides clean. This will scratch the surface and may cause it to rust over time.

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Get someone else to help you when you assemble or move

Caution

the grill. Some of the components are heavy and awkward for one person to handle. We don’t want you to hurt yourself or damage the equipment.

Open the cover when you light the charcoal. The cover should be open and the cooking grate should be flipped up or completely removed while the charcoal is lighting.

Burn one large load of charcoal in your new grill before you attempt to cook any food. The ceramic coating will outgas as it heats up the first time, and will impart a bad taste to food.

1.2. Table of Warnings

To control a flare up (grease fire) place the lid on the grill.

Warning

Do not attempt to pour water on the fire. A squirt bottle will usually work for very small fires, but the easiest method is simply to close off the oxygen supply by closing both air vents and lowering the lid.

Always put the charcoal in the coal basket and do not place it directly in contact with the bottom of the grill. The charcoal will not burn properly unless there is airspace under it, and the intense heat may corrode the grill and shorten its life.

Warning

Never touch the grill to test if it is hot. Assume that the entire grill is hot whenever it is in use.

Never place combustible materials (for example, paper plates, oven mittens, plastic bottles) on the cover of the grill or near the firebox when the grill is lit.

Use long handled tools to tend the grill. You may get burned if you use standard kitchen utensils. Grills generate much more heat than conventional stoves.

Protect your hands with oven mitts or heat resistant gloves to be safe. Welder’s gloves are inexpensive and work great!

Use reasonable precautions at all times when cooking or cleaning your grill. There should always be someone in attendance while the grill is lit.

Watch children and pets so they do not burn themselves as they move or play near the grill. Place the grill in an area where people will not be forced to walk around it.

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FligħtTransport Installation Guide

1.3. Table of Dangers

Danger

Safety & General Information

Never, ever, (EVER!) use a charcoal grill indoors or in any enclosed space. The fumes from the burning charcoal can make you very ill or even kill you if they build up to high levels. Do not use the grill indoors for cooking or heating.

Do not use gasoline, alcohol, paint thinner or any flammable liquid to start the charcoal. Keep flammable liquids 20 feet away from the grill with the cap tightly in place in case they are accidentally tipped over.

Do not add starter fluid or any flammable liquid to a fire that is already lit. Do not add charcoal that has been soaked in lighter fluid to a lit fire. If you need more charcoal, simply add the briquettes on the lit fire and they will light quickly.

Do not use or attempt to light the grill in extremely strong winds. Find a sheltered spot in the lee of a building or other structure. Hot ashes and live sparks can blow out of the grill in extreme winds.

Do not move the grill while it is hot—it may tip and spill hot coals, and you may burn yourself or others. If the grill is hot, leave it where it is until it is cold. Let the grill cool completely before you put the vinyl cover on.

Do not use the grill within three feet (one meter) of combustible materials such as a wood, paper, cloth or plastic. Do not bring combustible materials within three feet of the grill.

Do not remove the spent ashes until they are completely stone cold and out. It may take several hours for all of the charcoal to burn out. When in doubt, clean the grill the following day.

Do not use the grill in extremely high winds. Live coals or sparks could blow out of the grill and cause fire or other damage.

Never dump hot coals where they may be a fire hazard or where someone might step on them.

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1.4. Warranty

German Grill warrants this product against faulty materials or workmanship for two years under the terms of our current Standard Warranty and Support Agreement provided that the product was purchased directly from us or from one of our authorized resellers. Please contact German Grill Customer Service or go to our website www.germangrill.com/support/downloads for additional information or to obtain a copy of the Warranty Agreement.

1.5. Patents and Trademarks

German Grill is a registered trademark. Patents are pending on all technologies used in this grill.

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2. Overview

2.1. The grilling system

The grill is designed to solve the three biggest issues most people have with using charcoal for grilling: lighting, adjusting the heat, and cleaning up.

Lighting the charcoal. You light the charcoal (or wood) with no smelly starter fluid, no red hot

chimneys, or any other crude methods. You light the fire with a few sheets of newspaper. The hardware and the process are designed into the grill. Your charcoal lights faster than with chimneys or starter fluids. You can light a 100 briquette load in about 15 minutes—and 100 briquettes is a VERY hot, longlasting fire! (By comparison, a kettle grill typically holds less than half that amount of charcoal.) But you don't have to use a large load—and less charcoal lights even faster. So your live fire is ready in about the same time it takes to heat up a gas grill. If you're in a hurry, add more loads of newspaper and give it another boost of heat. As you stuff in more paper, it lights itself from the hot coals above and you are ready even sooner.

You control the heat and the fire. Once you've got heat, you can instantly raise and lower the charcoal

fire from extreme sear to slow-cook. You adjust a live charcoal flame with a simple handle just like you adjust a gas flame with a knob. The variable heat gives you more options for different foods and different techniques. The live fire, smoke, and coals give you intense flavors.

Cleanup. The grill has a lot of moving parts, but you don't have to touch anything dirty or greasy. So

you stay clean while cooking. The functions from lighting through cleanup have been thought through to keep you from getting dirty as you use the grill. Grill cleanup is easy. All ash, coals and general messiness falls into a removable pan at the bottom. All internal surfaces are flat so they are easy to scrape clean. And we include a custom tool designed to work with the grate and the firebox for cleanup.

It's all about the process. From lighting—to grilling—to cleanup: Process will set you free!

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3. The mechanical components

Your grill is an engineered system of components. Here are diagrams of these components with their functions explained:

Figure 3-1: Major components of the grill

3.1. Cover

The cover is hand-finished stainless steel with a large vent to control airflow while barbecuing. The professional quality 750° F cooking thermometer is inserted into a collet in the top of the cover and the stem extends into the cooking chamber to give an accurate temperature reading. The thermometer should be removed during periods of long storage to extend its useful life.

3.2. Cooking grate

The cooking grate is hand-welded stainless. It has two hinge pins on the rear that drop into the slotted brackets and pins on the front that support it in use. It’s easiest to open the front access door before you lower the cooking grate into position. This will prevent pinching your fingers.

Figure 3-2: Open the front door before you lower the cooking grate.

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Warning

3.3. Coal basket

The coal basket holds the live charcoal fire and can be raised and lowered. It also insulates the coals from direct contact with the firebox. The chamber formed at the left side of the ash pan is engineered to light the charcoal quickly by funneling all of the heat energy from the burning paper in the starter chimney directly through the charcoal. Push the lift arm all the way down when you light the charcoal. It will light most efficiently if the coal basket is solidly down on the bottom of the firebox.

The two coal grates are replaceable parts and are not painted or finished because there is no finish that will stand up to the heat. The grates are made of thick steel and will last for many years. If yours should rust through, just contact us and we’ll send you a new one at no charge.

Never drop the cooking grate from its upright position. Lower

it slowly. The grate is heavy. If you drop it on your fingers you can hurt yourself.

Remember to lower the cooking grate into position before you try to close the grill cover. It makes a terrible noise if you do it the other way.

Figure 3-3: Coal basket with removable grates

3.4. Front access door

You can open the front access door at any time—even while you are barbecuing. The door has a friction fit latch that does not require any adjustment.

TIP: You can look up through the access door to see the bottom of the food on the grill to check that it’s ready to turn.

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3.5. Vents

The lower vent controls the convective heat transfer and airflow past the food. The top vent has much less affect on this than the lower vent. It is more effective to control the incoming supply of air, not the rate that it exhausts through the top. Close both vents to extinguish the charcoal for reuse. Close both vents to prevent water from entering the grill. (We highly recommend that you purchase a vinyl cover to extend the life of your grill, especially if you live in a coastal area.) The top vent is large enough to get a look at the food in the grill without opening the cover.

Figure 3-4: Vents to control the heat

3.6. Ash Pan

The ash pan collects all spent ashes, burned bits and other crud from the grilling process. It is solid stainless steel and has a handle for easy dumping. The pan does not hold water. This is by design, so that you don’t get a pan full of water and mud in the event that rain gets into the grill.

ALWAYS make sure that there are no live coals or hot ashes in the pan before you dispose of the contents. Coals can stay hot for many hours if they are buried deeply and insulated by the dry ash in the pan. We have burned up several paper charcoal bags by dumping what we thought were spent coals into them. This can be a very hazardous situation. Be careful!

Danger

Figure 3-5: Removable ash pan with paper grate

Never dump hot coals where they may be a fire hazard or where someone might step on them. Do not use a paper bag to dispose of the ashes.

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3.7. Paper door, grate, and starter chimney

This is the key to lighting your charcoal inside the grill. After you lower the coal basket and add your charcoal, place crumpled newspaper into the lighting chimney through this door. Light the paper with a match or lighter and your charcoal will be hot in 15 or so minutes. If you are in a hurry, keep adding paper to supply another boost of heat to the charcoal.

3.8. Lift arm and handle

The lift arm is used to raise and lower the coal basket inside the grill. The lift arm has a custom spring that will offset most of the effort of raising and lowering. The lift handle can be adjusted to increase or decrease the friction against the plate. Most people prefer the tension adjusted so that the coal basket remains in position wherever you release the handle.

Figure 3-6: Lift handle raises and lowers the charcoal fire

3.9. Firebox

The firebox is the main assembly of the grill and all parts mount to it. It is coated with a high temperature ceramic based paint that heat cures and becomes very durable as the grill is fired up.

The coating on the firebox will smoke the first time the grill is lit. Do not cook food on the grill until you have fired up a full load of 100 coals at least once. The ceramic paint on the firebox must be heated to 600° F in order to bond to the metal and form a tough coating. There may also be a fine coating of oil and polishing compounds on some parts. This will also burn off with the first firing.

Though the firebox is not in direct contact with the coals, and does not become extremely hot, it is certainly hot enough to burn you if you touch it while the grill is in use. Be careful. Watch your children and pets while the grill is hot.

Figure 3-7: Front access door can be opened at any time

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Burn a full load of charcoal in your new grill before you cook

Caution

any food on it. This will set the ceramic coating and burn off any oil or residue from the manufacturing process.

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4. Operating Instructions

4.1. Theory of the grill

Grilling, at its most fundamental level, is simply trying to control the transfer of heat from charcoal to food. But this happens in a very complex way because of the interaction of fire, smoke, hot air and hot

metal. There are three types of heat transfer going on: radiant heat (hold your hand anywhere around the coals and feels the heat), convective heat (feel the hot air coming out of the vents) and conductive heat (the sizzle when a cold steak hits hot steel).

• You can vary the distance from the fire in real time. (RADIANT) The charcoal fire is in a

steel basket that can be raised and lowered—from slow-cook to intense-sear. You control the radiant heat using a simple lever. You don't have to move the food around, turn cranks, or move the grate to a different level.

• You have access to create any size or pattern of fire. (RADIANT + CONVECTIVE) The

front of the grill opens wide—like a wood stove—so you can arrange your fire any way you want. You can add (or subtract) coals, throw in wood chips, or move coals around to change both the radiant and convective heat flow. You have clear access to the firebox without touching your food or opening the top cover. (You can even look up through the bottom of the grate and see if the steaks are ready to turn.) And when the meal is done, and the evening is winding down, you can open it up and use the grill as a fireplace.

• You get oversize vents that are easy to operate. (CONVECTIVE) The vents control the

convective heat by changing the airflow past the food. Open for sear, closed for smoke. The vents are easy to see and easy to operate because they are located on the sides and on the front.

• The grate is a large thermal mass that holds real heat. (CONDUCTIVE) When the food

hits this grate you get smoke and sizzle—conductive heat. You get deep, dark char marks that are the signature of a fine cook using a fine tool.

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4.2. Lighting the charcoal

It is fast and easy to light the charcoal inside the grill. Follow these steps and you will be grilling in no time. There is a short video explaining the lighting process on our website www.germangrill.com

1 Open the front access door,

remove the cooking grate, and make sure the lift arm is completely lowered.

3 Add the charcoal to the left

side of the coal basket.

The coal basket should be resting fully on the bottom of the grill in order to light the charcoal quickly. We remove the cooking grate simply because it is easier to pour in the charcoal. You can leave it in place and it won’t hurt anything.

How much do you need? 100+ chunks (left side full to

the top) to grill at high heat with a single layer.

40-50 chunks to barbecue (cover closed).

20-30 chunks to slow cook.

The most common mistake with this grill is lighting too much charcoal.

4 Add crumpled paper through

the door in the lighting chimney.

00:00 ●●● 00:15

Five or six sheets. Make sure that the paper is evenly distributed and loosely crumpled so it will burn hotter with less smoke. If the light is uneven, or you want to speed things up, simply add a few more sheets of paper.

The lighting time varies with humidity and temperature, but is usually 15 minutes or less.

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5 Once the coals are hot, you

can arrange them in any pattern that you choose.

Never light a charcoal grill in an enclosed area. The coals

Danger

give off invisible gases that are harmful. Do not use the charcoal grill to provide space heating for a house, trailer, tent or other enclosed area.

For example, you can spread the coals evenly across the coal basket to grill steaks or seafood. You can leave coals where they are and you will have a perfect two-level fire for classic barbecuing with the cover closed. Be sure to add a foil pan to catch dripping fat or juices.

Do not cook on the grill until it has been fired up with a

Caution

complete 100 briquette load of charcoal at least one time. The high temperature coating on the firebox will give off a nasty smell the first time it gets hot. After the firebox has been hot, the finish will change chemically, and it will be much more durable and will not smoke again.

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4.3. Controlling the heat

The charcoal fire is contained in a movable basket under the cooking grate. The entire bed of coals is raised and lowered with a lever on the side of the grill. You don't have to turn cranks, move the food or reset the grate to a different notch. The heat control motion is a simple lever that is smooth and instantaneous. You control the heat of a live charcoal fire across a complete range of heat settings—just like the temperature knob on a gas grill.

At the "hot" end of the spectrum the coals are up directly under the food grate to generate intense radiant heat. If you like your steaks "Black and blue" (sometimes called "Pittsburg Style" them prepared as if they came out of an 1800 degree steakhouse roaster, you can do it with the German Grill. Use the lever to "blast" foods for a few seconds: to add a final char to meats, toast bread, crisp a pizza, caramelize fruits, or sear vegetables.

At the "medium" range of the spectrum, the coals are centered in the firebox for familiar barbecue temperatures and cooking times. Use this setting and your usual kettle techniques with hamburgers, chicken, steaks and shrimp.

At the "cool" end of the spectrum move the lever down to provide constant low temperatures and indirect heat for ribs, brisket, and other slow cooking foods.

Radiant Heat and the Lift Arm. Radiant heat energy (infra-red) varies as the square of the distance from the source. This means that as you change the distance from fire to food, the change in heat energy is much faster than the change in distance. For example, if you raise the coals from 8 inches below the food to 4 inches below, you only halved the distance, but you get four times the radiant heat energy.

Your grill will allow you to vary the heat a multiple of roughly six times the heat energy from the bottom of the stroke to the top. This is what we mean when we say you can give your food a "blast" of radiant heat to brown, caramelize and generally take advantage of Maillard reactions.

) or want

Black and Blue = black and crusty on the outside, red and barely warm in the center.

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4.4. Two-zone grilling

The grill is designed to be versatile and can be configured for direct grilling, barbecuing, smoking and many other configurations. You can fire up as much charcoal as you need—up to 200 briquettes will fit in the coal basket—but watch it, that's a lot of heat!

Figure 4-1: Two-zone grilling setup

Classic two-zone grilling. This is the way we usually configure our grill. For a party of up to 10 people

or so, this is perfect.

Before you light the charcoal, put a drip pan or piece of foil under the right side of the cooking grate (it's a small step that you will appreciate at cleanup). Add your coals on the left, as usual. After you light the coals, leave them on the left side of the coal basket. You can spread them in any pattern you like and make the direct heat zone whatever size you need for the task at hand. Proceed as with any two zone fire - with the amazing flexibility of the heat control lever.

Workflow in this configuration. There is a logical workflow from left to right as you are grilling. You

can move a lot of food across this grill in a short length of time. We have grilled hundreds of steaks at festivals and parties in just a few hours, and you will intuitively "get" how this works once you try it a few times. Here's a simplified explanation of how we use the grill for production:

Let's assume that you have a nice load of charcoal already lit in the two-zone configuration, direct heat on the left, with a drip pan on the right:

• Raise the handle for heat high so you have a nice hot cooking grate.

• Prep your foods in the kitchen on the cutting board. The cutting board drops into the side

worktable on the right side.

• Start the food on the left side of the grate for searing and crisping. Rotate it 90 degrees for

crosshatch char marks.

• Flip and repeat - still on the direct zone to the left.

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• Move it to the right side to rest and reabsorb juices. The drip pan under this side keeps things

clean. Keep flipping it as it rests.

• Then back to the cutting board for carving and service

• Meanwhile another cutting board of meat is on its way from the kitchen.

• Repeat until everybody is happy.

There are many variations on this flow. You can drop the lever, open the front and add more charcoal at any time. You can raise and lower the lever as the coals die. You can drop the coal basket to kill a flareup.

4.5. Grilling for a crowd.

If you are grilling up a storm, you can configure the entire 400 square inches of the grate for direct heat.

After you light the initial load of charcoal on the left side, spread the lit charcoal evenly across the coal basket. Add another layer of coals if you need a super hot, long lasting fire. The second layer will quickly light from the coals beneath. (Remember that you can raise the coal basket to optimize the heat of even a single layer of charcoal, so you may not need as much as you may think. Lighting too much charcoal is the number one issue with new users.) Now you have a continuous bed of coals under the entire cooking surface.

You have a lot of heat, and you have control, but be careful, our best advice for successful grilling is watch it like a hawk!

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Figure 4-2: Single zone high-heat grilling setup

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4.6. "Barbecuing"

If you're making beer can chicken, turkey, ribs, brisket, etc... You can use the grill to make slow cooked, smoky masterpieces. This is comparable to the type of cooking usually done on a kettle type grill.

Figure 4-3: Barbecuing inside the grill using the slow-cook rack

Remove the cooking grate. Add a small load of charcoal and light it as you normally would. (If you want a long slow burn, pour in the charcoal and stuff newspaper only in the front of the lighting chamber. It will light one end of the pile of charcoal and increase the interior temperature more gradually yielding a longer, lower burn). Place a drip pan and the slow cook rack in the right side of the coal basket. Place your food on the rack to the right of the coals. Close the cover and adjust the vents for whatever temperature you need.

4.7. Grilling, Barbecuing, Smoking, and Broiling:

Here's how the various cooking methods seem to relate to the German grill.

Grilling. Direct heat, expensive meat, constant attention. You should use a fairly large load of charcoal

(lighting chamber full to the top) and after the light, spread the coals evenly under the cooking grate. Your will probably have enough coals for a single layer across the entire grilling surface. If you need more energy, you can add another layer of charcoal on top of the bottom layer. It will quickly light, and by varying the control lever, you have an amazing amount of heat at your control.

Only grill tender meats such as steak, hamburger (pre-chewed steak), chops, shrimp and fish filets. You would also grill vegetables, mushrooms, and pizza.

Don't close the cover; grilling is a radiant heat process and convective heat is a minor factor. Most of these foods are fairly juicy and will dry out and be ruined if you cook them too slow. They are also fairly thin so that the inside can heat up before the outside turns to black crunch. Properly done, you

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heat the grate for deep char marks, raise the coals to brown, then lower to finish. The high heat sears the outside, gives great flavor and seals the juiciness inside. With this grill, you are controlling a lot of heat and the interior temperature of a steak can rise more than 10 degrees per minute. So the difference between a perfect, rare steak, and shoe leather, is less than three minutes.

Barbecuing. Indirect heat, thicker meat, less attention. To barbecue, you want medium-high heat, but

not directly under the food; and you want the cover closed to get smoky, convective cooking. Your grill is engineered for this. Use less charcoal than when you are grilling (lighting chamber roughly half full) or the temperature under the hood will shoot up to 700 degrees when you close the cover. After the light, you leave the coals stacked on the left. The grill automatically creates an indirect cooking zone on the right side. You should barbecue meats that have to cook longer because they are thicker such as chicken, sausage, filets, small turkeys and roasts. These cuts are also usually "messier" in that they drip fats down into the grill and make a mess inside. We always place an aluminum foil drip pan under the food. It fits nicely into the rear of the coal basket.

Smoking. Lowest heat, cheaper meats, low maintenance. You can "smoke" on the German grill. We use

a technique where we light one end of a chain of charcoal and it burns at a low smoky rate for up to three hours like a cigar. (For the light, only put paper in one end of the chimney. After a few coals are lit.) You can also use a modified Minion method that burns from the top of the stack down. (Light a small load, move it back, add fresh charcoal and rake the lit on top.) But either way, you have to add wood chips to generate the smoke, and more charcoal through the front access door to keep the heat going long enough. (Remember that you can do this without opening the cover and losing more heat.) You will generate a passable "smoke ring" on brisket, ribs and roasts, but you can't get the tenderness of a true smoker without one additional step. You must wrap the meats in aluminum foil for an hour or more with some liquid inside the package and put them in the oven or back on the grill. Do this in order to get the meat hot enough (for long enough) to get to the "melting" point of the collagens. This can only be done using moist heat. The melting point occurs around 170 degrees F and it has to stay there for an hour or more without drying out. Use a foil drip pan on the indirect side. Throw the meat over direct coals for a few minutes after it comes out of the foil to dry it out and char the crust again.

Broiling. Broiling is the same as grilling, except the fire is over the food instead of under it. Don't try to broil on the German grill ☺.

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5. Maintenance

5.1. Cleanup

Cooking grate. Do not use sharp objects or abrasives. Remember that the grate is a solid chunk of

stainless steel. It will not rust or corrode—no matter what it looks like. And when it's at 800 degrees while you are grilling, it's absolutely sterile. Wire brush the top, flip it up and scrape the crud off the bottom using the tool. If you want to take it out and wash the cooking grate, scrub it like any other cast iron pan. You don't even have to use soap as it removes the "seasoning" of oils that have seeped into the grate.

If you want to clean the cooking grate more thoroughly, scrape it with the cleaning tool then use an environmentally friendly oven cleaner. Take the grate out of the grill when you spray on the oven cleaner. All the different brands seem to work just fine, but they may damage the coatings on the firebox and internals. After about 15 minutes, scrub the grate with a mild abrasive pad. After you wash it, you can spray with PAM, or rub it down with olive oil.

Firebox. Don't worry too much about the firebox. It will get dirty, but it's easy to keep things under

control. Every time you grill, just tip up the grate, raise the basket and scrape the ashes and other crud down the chimney. Notice that all of the inner surfaces of the firebox are flat, and we have tried to minimize the hardware protruding inside. There are no curves or nooks and crannies. The design makes it easy to scrape the inside using your flat-bladed spatula and move everything down into the ash pan.

You shouldn't use abrasives or sharp tools on the firebox - the firebox is painted, not plated, and, while you can't damage anything, there is no need to clean it down to bare metal unless you plan to tear it down and repaint everything.

Cover. Use a specialty stainless or other household cleaner for minor wipe down. (Some of these

cleaners contain a wax that will smoke when you light up again.) Use oven cleaner and a rag to make it sparkle. Be gentle, we spent a lot of time putting that beautiful finish on the stainless steel.

Cart and Cabinet. Use a household cleaner. The cart and cabinets have two coats of very tough

powder paint and are easy to clean with common detergents and rags. The worktable cutting board can be removed from the cart or cabinet and brought inside to be cleaned. We recommend that you store the cutting board inside while the grill is not being used.

5.2. Major overhaul

The entire grill comes apart. You can lay out all 14 major pieces. 10 pieces can be cleaned, 4 pieces can be scraped and repainted. Clean or repaint each piece. Put it back together. This will take one Saturday morning—depending on how long you let the paint dry. Contact us if you need any replacement parts.

We can supply anything you may need including the original hardware, the paint we use at the factory, or other parts. If you do repaint, fire up the grill to 800 degrees with a full 100 lumps to cook off the paint fumes before you use it for food.

505-00100 Rev A