Recently bought a house that has a built in brick BBQ. What’s the best love with these? Do I build the fire on the middle brick layer or remove those bricks and build it on the wire rack? Want to use it for juicy steaks. Any advice appreciated
Amen brother!
Can't here to say that
You can see the full instructions of how to do it and the place place to place them here :https://dreamyhomestyle.com/how-many-bricks-do-i-need-to-build-a-bbq/
Trying not to be an asshole is hard for me, but really TF is the question here???
It's ok, I'll tell you. They want to know how to best use their awesome outdoor brick grill. I'm assuming like what kid of fuel, how to care for the brick...etc...
The question is right there:
Do I build the fire on the middle brick layer or remove those bricks and build it on the wire rack?
“Tell me you’re an asshole without tell-“ oh wait. You literally already told us.
Username checks out sir!
How does the username checkout?…
Yours doesn’t but does too
I mean I do my best
I mean you do your best but you don’t
good thing you don't gotta try
People on Reddit can’t stand it they do something without posting it. Even if it makes them appear to have zero intuition or knowledge of google.
This is screaming Santa Maria conversion.
Have a local fabricator make a height adjustable Santa Maria grill for your dimensions.
+1 on the Santa Maria conversion! I had one custom built by my bro-in-law and absolutely love grilling on it.
Links/photos or it didn't happen
Ok... I gotta figure how to post pics in a reply post though
You can upload pics to the Imgur app and it will give you a hyperlink to your photo or photo gallery that you can share in your Reddit comments. I haven't seen a subreddit yet that has issues with using Imgur. Be sure to set your gallery to private when uploading.
Not sure why this is the only Santa Maria comment. My first thought as well
But also for rotisserie
What is santa Maria conversion?
Here is a random YouTube vid on Santa Marias.
They’re recommending that OP buy an insert (or have one made) to convert the space into a Santa Maria, like this.
I was just thinking this thing needs a lift. It’s a lot like a basic public park outdoor grill. When I encounter those I use a chimney to get the coals going then distribute them so there’s a very hot side in back and a much cooler area up front. I once you get the hang of zoning it you can cook just about anything.
local fabricator
+1 for supporting the local community
I’m from Santa Maria and recently sent mine up (Portland, OR) best decision ever made except I can’t find Live Oak up here.
Ever thought about using pecan or even almond? To my knowledge almond wood is plentiful on the west coast and is a pretty mild flavor
This is the way
Looks sweet. A bit to $$$ for my budget though.
This is the way,
This is the only answer
That brick grill is gorgeous, congrats.
Yeah, build the fire on the middle brick layer and cook the food on the grate.
You can use charcoal, wood, or any combination of the two. Read up on direct and indirect zones. You can control temps with fire size/more or fewer coals, and zones.
That's nice, I wish I could cook on it.
build a fire on the floor, shovel coals up to center platform below grill, this allows for temper control. Fire on the center shelf will be too hot for meet. see other posts below. Thats how i would cook on it because of those reasons.
Get a chimney of coals, let them ash over, and that would be perfect for the brick shelf.
Furthermore, that area under the grill doesn't have any ventilation. It's for wood storage. If you burned logs there, you would have a fire burning at your feet between you and the grill.
Came to say this. Obviously these are not that common and all the "cool bros" are just guessing
This is the way
Only if you're using wood. Charcoal would be fine in the middle.
First answer to OPs question, hats off!
Nice setup! To add on to others advice, practice with cheap food to get the hang of it before moving up to expensive cuts.
To be clear, you're advising against grilling a brisket on Day 1?
Lol! I've been grilling on my homemade pit for years, I can't tell you how many racks of ribs I've ruined!
You ever seen anyone GRILL a brisket?
There's many things I've never seen
Haha. Touché. Well, most people smoke a brisket low and slow. Makes the otherwise tough cut a delicious, juicy, tender piece of heaven.
You're right, I was just making a joke
I think literally EVERYONE who has ever successfully cooked a brisket would advise against “grilling a brisket”. This isn’t a smoker or an oven.
Congratulations. You got the joke!
I would build a fire on one side, and move coals to the empty side and spread them out and cook over those. You can move more coals from the hot side to regulate the temp.
Put an iron grate on the floor of your fire box so air can get under your wood fuel. Best thing is to add a door with an adjustable vent in it so you can control your flame above. As is, it will do ok for stuff like hamburgers, hotdogs and steaks. Not so good for big cuts of meat like briskets and pork shoulders.
This!!!
I would build the fire in the bottom. And use a shovel to move hot coal up to the middle. That was you have a hot even layer of heat to cook on. Enjoy
That's the way my grandpa did it. He built his own hand-laid pit in their tiny backyard in Hammond IN. His was a bit larger than this.
There was a vented heavy steel door across the lower chamber, which also had small vents built into the brick at the bottom and the top of the chamber. And he had a fabricated lid for the top portion which had to be lifted on/off, but I never saw him use it.
He'd get a good fire going in the lower chamber, and kept feeding it til he had a big coal bed. The bricks between got super hot, and that was definitely the source of heat above, but he'd grab coals and burning wood from below with a small shovel and lay them on the bricks above also.
He was from Arkansas, and soul food was his thing. BBQ is still soul food to me.
Pretty sure that's how bbq was invented. The cheap cuts went to the slaves and such, who invented the slow smoking method.
In fact, most foods that are cherished today were the foods of the lower class in it's infancy. Pizza is another great example. It was considered peasant food for a long time
Oh, I know. I'm old enough to remember when brisket was legitimately cheap.
I'm also Polish on the other side of my family. 99% of authentic Polish food is elevated poverty cooking, like most eastern Euro cooking. Once, not even a hundred years ago, WASPs used to think calling us "garlic eaters" was an insult...
I dated a girl from an area with a large population of people of polish descent and she made home made polish food. Wow, what great drinking food that stuff is
Its true! Good cold beer really does go best with sauerkraut, polish sausage, pierogi, stuffed cabbage...
Goddammit. I'm on a diet.
Bbq in the Americas is derived from the cooking style of native Americans, it mixed with European influences with the imported pigs which were not previously found in North America and then melded with sauces and spices from immigrant and enslaved alike.
You mean like on the floor? That’s where you store your firewood. All that smoke will just go into your face and you end up smelling like a hobo. If Reddit wasn’t such crap platform I’d post some photos of how a builtin grill ought to used.
This!
This is the correct way
that’s what i thought- wood fire directly beneath the grate would be too much heat and would catch oil from a marinade on fire. fire below and shovel coals up.
Add sandbags, mount a .50cal machine gun, you have a nice perimeter defense installation
In addition, if that is close enough to an electric outlet, get a rotisserie.
That's the add on I use the most in my Weber kettle.
What do you make on your rotisserie besides the obvious, chicken?
Hams, Gyro Meat, pork loin, tacos al pastor . . .
Leg of lamb is pricey, but once in awhile.
I also have a basket for the skewer so I can do shrimp and loose chicken wings.
Those are fun, but with some effort you can convert it to something perhaps more useful than just brick grill. (You're always going to use a lot of fuel, produce lots of ash, kind of limited to certain foods.) Light the fire in the middle and move around the coals to get the heat you want. If you plan on cooking a lot of burgers or steaks and filling up the rack, you are going to use a decent amount of charcoal. Wood is nice, but at that distance you need to build the fire and let it burn down to embers. It's not a quick "you are cooking in 15 minutes" set up.
A Santa María conversion is awesome. I've seen some people convert them to a pizza oven (brick oven), and install another type of grill/smoker (insert or a Big Green Egg/Kamado Joe style unit.
Personally just use it for a while, and see if you like it. If you aren't cooking once a week, maybe you can upgrade to something more useful.
No lid no bbq - that’s a grill
Countries outside of the USA exist, and they also possibly have their own definition of ‘BBQ’.
This is such a 'Merica comment I now have a headache.
I feel better already
I got something similar with I house I bought. Here’s a fun hack: get a cookie sheet or cake pan that’s big enough to sit on the bricks just above the grate. Drill a bunch of small holes in the pan and fill it with charcoal along with the bottom of the grill. Put a pizza stone or steel on the grate and you now have an outdoor pizza oven! It takes some practice to get the heat right, but it works.
Interesting! Sounds like you’d get a bit of ash…a lid that directs heat from the back onto the top would also work….
Are there more parts? It might be a pizza oven too with a lid if some sort.
Make it hot and keep flipping
There enough space for a piece of corrugated metal on top and fire in the bottom for a quasi block and grate bbq pit. That actually has two cooking levels if you remove the fire brick someone added. Multi purpose. Santa Maria one day, road side cooker the next.
Big ol wood fire, reduce to hot coals, best steaks you ever had
Run at it with a beach umbrella whilst screaming & trying to understand the French instructions after ruining the English side.
Le grill?!? What the hell is that??
LE GRILLE?!
Fuel, heat, oxygen 🔥
Get rid of the grills, and use it as a foot warmer. A nice little bench to keep your feet warm.
The best way is to use a lot of wood and charcoal to heat up the bricks, I would usually light a whole 15 pound bag and 4 good chunks of oak. Will allow you to grill at high temps for 3 hours. This is a grill you use for long cooks.
Step 1: add fire
Step 2: add meat
Very nice. You’ll get the hang of it.
Need better pictures can you take out grate and show back of the middle brick shelf? Or back of the entire Brick work?
I expect it can be used as a grill or smoker and fuel goes in the bottom, middle shelf for drip pans or pizzas/bread.
For it to work well as a bbq smoker wouldn’t it need need a gap in the bricks and something to cover it with? Either way it’s awesome!
If those aren’t fire bricks, you’re gonna have a very bad time. Like “bricks exploding in your face” kinda time.
light a fire and use it
Why are you over thinking this?
Multiple cooking zones, its perfect, is there good airflow from the bottom?
This BBQ reminds me of the brick BBQ my dad built when I was a lad. Enjoy grilling on it and thanks for the nostalgia 🥩
Been looking for an affordable Santa Maria and haven’t found it. This is a great simple version. Just make multiple clips to change the rack elevation from the coals and Bob’s your Uncle. I like the hand crank Santa Maria, but you’ll spend over $1k for the nice setups. You can find enough leftover bricks on Craigslist for cheap or free to build this. Sweet.
Isn’t it a brick grill?
We had one like this…we also made a lid out of some sheet metal…just some “black metal”…riveted it together and all, would open it by propping it up with a stick.lol worked well for 50 something years.lol
It's basically a grill as it stands right now. Build a fire on the middle layer of bricks, spread the hot coals, and cook burgers, hot dogs, steaks, chicken, etc.
If you want to smoke on it, you're going to have to fabricate some sort of metal enclosure, with doors to access the grill and fire box, and a chimney at the rear. Then I'd build a fire on the bottom, the smoke would rise up the front, and the draft from the rear chimney would draw the smoke over the meat.
Brick BBQ? Make brick chicken!
Buy some hard lump charcoal and use a bunch of that and very little wood.
Nice grill and rhododendron too! Thats about to be real pretty
Convert the top to Santa Maria like they told you. On the bottom instead of storage add a rack and metal doors and turn it into an oven heated from above.
Brick fire brick meat brick Q’n tools
It's more of a form decorative piece than a functional piece.
- Buy a Weber or a Bull insert, or
- take out all of the bricks, move the upper grates to where the bricks are, this is your new fire box.
- Buy a grate that will fit on those upper bricks, this will give you working space between the fuel and the cooking surface.
- Another option is a pizza oven conversion
- And still, another; find an insulated door or even a cast oven door for the front, install an adjustable vent in the lower rear of the back.
Looks good to me
I'd get a larger top grate for grilling. It looks like even a slight movement of it might cause it to fall.
Best way is to have one. So jealous
These bricks are ok for high heat? Like they won’t explode because air pockets or anything?
Put some hardwood charcoal and meat on it😎😁
It’s high enough for a rotisserie to be attached to both sides brick sides. I can envision a suckling pig cooking on that bbq.
Do yourself a favor and youtube “South African Braai”. That will give you plenty information! Enjoy 😉
Am I the only one that thinks that the grill grate needs to be rotated 90.
You're halfway to a great pit smoker already!
Build fire. Cook food.
Beautiful. But let's be real it looks like it was literally never used.
Go low and slow and do a long fire to dry everything out and make sure none of the bricks explode.
Very few of those bricks look fire rated and if they've never actually been heat cycled a few times you may be sitting on a time bomb.
I do not understand why no one else realizes this looks like an older installation but also looks like it's never actually been used.
Take your time and temper the bricks!
Oh man, I always wanted one of these symbols of 1950’s suburbia!! I had a cool uncle that would invite us to his lake house every summer and he would grill us hotdogs & hamburgers, looking like Don Draper. He was the epitome of cool.
I always remember the Ricardo’s & Mertz’s building one of these in Lucy & Desi’s backyard & Lucy lost her wedding ring in the process & they had to take it all apart.
I hope you are able to get some good results when using it!
In addition to many of the other recommendations, I would build a top for it out of wood that fits on that shoulder of brick at the sides of the grate.
Then you can put a pizza oven on it, or some other kind of cooking appliance you want to use outside, like a vertical-spit shawarma thing.
Not saying you should, but I would also get a metal fab shop to fab up two pieces of plate metal to act as a door and roof to allow for smoking also.
pizza oven
Light it on fire and grill some sausages
Scrolled a bit and didn't see your question answered. You would build on the lowest level and the mid level acts as a heat deflector. Not great for steaks, burgers and dogs
One redditor gave solid advice to build a moderate fire and test the grill. You want to make sure that's really fire brick and high heat mortar. Especially if you're talking about searing steaks.
Start a fire with your favorite combustible and see how it goes. Trial and error.
Whole pig. Invite everyone you know, even people you’re not sure you like
Remove the bricks. Eating bricks will break your teeth.
What I would give to have something like this in my backyard! Looks super fun to cook on
Extend your patio so you can BBQ in the rain.
Also you need either a new 50/50 plate/grill or a separate plate for one side.
Coals
However you decide to use this…know that I am jealous.
Just use it for grilling. Don't try and cook thing low and slow because you'll just waste fuel.
I would power wash that thing first. It looks filthy.
Carefully. The grate isn’t wide enough. If it shifts even 1/2” left or right it is taking a spill.
Here is a basic suggestion since you have already received so many hood suggestions. I would rotate the grate so the metal slats are front to back. Makes it easier when you are doing burgers while using a spatula. Be careful with it because you have a lot of wigge room on the fit of that grate and it could fall into the fire or coals. I inherited on at my last house that was not built properly so i could only use it as a burn pit! Enjoy!
With fire and meat.
It will give the ultimate outdoor experience with the grill
I see any type of grill and I want to cook on it .
Go find out about a south African braai. Jealous of this thing.
Lite fire , put things you want to cook over fire.
These work best when you get the whole thing nice and hot. I like to burn logs down to pre heat it. These are fun to cook on and I agree, the Santa Maria upgrade would be worth it.
Hope these are fire bricks.
Lucky to have this though. Enjoy! 😊
Me personally, I'd burn wood in it. Wood is cheaper than charcoal and this setup is perfect for building a fire and then letting it burn down and cooking over the coals.
The hardware for the santa maria conversion won't be cheap but definitely that commenter is spot on that this is absolutely perfect for it.
The best way to use a brick barbecue is daily.