Weber Jumbo Joe Charcoal Grill

Our brand new Weber Jumbo Joe Charcoal Grill (Amazon Affiliate Link) arrived at our campsite at John Prince Park on Friday and we couldn’t wait to use it!

When we first started our journey as full time RVers 3 years ago, we purchased a Camp Chef gas grill system. After less than a year there was so much rust that the company sent us new replacement parts. But we hardly used the grill.

The problem was that food did not taste that different cooked on the gas grill, than it did cooked on the stove in my cast iron pan. So if we weren’t going to create something that tasted different, why go to the trouble of bringing everything outside? And the grill we had didn’t hold up well and was a pain to set up because it was heavy.

We needed a new grill and decided to go old school. As far as I’m concerned, for old school Weber is the only way to go. First I looked at Weber’s Smokey Joe, but felt it was too small at only 14-inches in diameter. When I found the 18-inch Jumbo Joe I knew it would be the perfect size, not only for cooking but for storing in our “basement” as well.

I knew lots about grilling because in our sticks and bricks we had an assortment of grills that were part of our outdoor kitchen. But now Steve wanted to learn more than just when to flip the food or take it off the grill. At last he has taken an interest in cooking.

Is it difficult to cook over charcoal? Not at all. Once you get those coals coated with white ash, it’s as easy as a gas grill. It just takes a little bit of planning ahead because you need about 20-30 minutes before you can cook. But even a gas grill needs time to heat to temperature.

Here’s all you need to know:

First remove the lid, the cooking grate and the charcoal grate from your charcoal grill. Open the bottom vent all the way. Put the charcoal grate in place and build a pyramid of charcoal using lump hardwood charcoal or charcoal briquettes. We prefer the lump charcoal (Amazon Affiliate Link).

Next place a fire starter in the center of the pyramid and 3 more fire starters in a triangle around the outer edges. Light the fire starters. Put the lid on the grill making sure that the top vent is completely open. After 10-15 minutes the coals should be covered with white ash. At that point carefully spread the coals and place the cooking grate in its slot. After another 10 minutes you are ready to cook.

Now here’s the cool part. If you are cooking everything, like hot dogs and hamburgers, quickly, you can spread those coals evenly from the center out to create a hot cooking surface for most of you grill. Only the perimeter would have a cooler or indirect space. But, if you need to cook steaks or chicken for example, keep the coals off center allowing half the grill grate to be over direct heat from the coals and the other half over no coals.

With a two zone coal set up you can sear your steak or chicken over the coals and then move them to the indirect heat to finish cooking. And if you’re cooking low and slow, you adjust the temperature inside your grill by closing the top vent slightly until you have the temperature that your are shooting for.

This is how our first experience with our Weber Jumbo Joe Charcoal Grill went and what we learned. Our first attempt to get the fire started didn’t go so well. We hadn’t placed enough charcoal in our pyramid. At first it looked like we had a roaring fire going, but it fizzled!

After adding coals and lighting more fire starters we had perfection. But we decided that we didn’t care for the fire starters we had bought. Plus we also opted to get a Weber Compact Charcoal Chimney and Weber Lighter Cubes (Amazon Affiliate Links) to make starting our fire even easier!

Our first meal cooked over charcoal was a classic one. Cheeseburgers! I formed formed four 1-inch thick burgers from 1 1/2 pounds of Organic Ground Beef from Costco and made a dent with my thumb in the center of one side. Next I seasoned them very liberally on both sides with Diamond Crystal kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper. That’s it!

Steve grilled the burgers over direct heat with the lid on, for 3 minutes. At that point they flipped easily, so he turned them over. Food will tell you it’s ready to flip if it isn’t stick to the grates or your pan when cooking indoors. The burgers cooked on the second side for about 3 more minutes. Then he moved the burgers to indirect heat and topped them with two slices of Provolone. At the same time he place the buttered sides of our Brioche buns on the grill and closed the lid for a minutes or two.

Meanwhile, on the stove inside, I sautéed sliced cremini mushrooms in olive oil with dried minced onion and garlic, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. When Steve brought our cooked cheeseburgers in we assembled them with the mushrooms on top of the melted cheese.

We sat down for dinner and took the first bite. OMG!!! We looked at each other and at the same time blurted out that they were the best burgers we ever ate. There was something about the flavor that that only cooking over charcoal could impart.

Cooking open fire is very satisfying. Ask any caveman. Or ask Steve, now that he has cooked his first meal on our new Weber Jumbo Joe Charcoal Grill.

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