New Weber Performer grill

[Dotch]

Dotch, how's the Performer working out?

The Performer made its maiden voyage this evening and I was pleased. I did lamb burgers on it the first time out and while some may ask why something so simple, they're not as simple as hamburgers, especially when your feed bucket was a tad too large and they're not 90% lean. They have a tendency to flare up initially if you don't stay on top of your fire and can wind up down in the charcoal grates. My brother had two whole lambs turn into cinders after falling off the rotissarie when he was barbecueing them for a wedding. Somehow they lost track of the time. Suspect there may have been too much charcoal and way too much alcohol involved.

What can I say? This is basically a 22 1/2" Weber charcoal grill mounted in a frame with an attached table using a propane burner to ignite the coals. Everything worked well. Owning a 22 1/2" Weber over 30 years I knew what to expect & there were no surprises. Lighting the coals was easy and waiting for them to get ready gave me time to prepare the burgers and relax a few minutes, something I've done very little of this spring. The hummingbirds and orioles were much better than most of the garbage on TV anyway. Cooking went smoothly and I was able to control the flare up easily with the top vent. The prep work and cooking gave me time to consume 2 adult beverages so it was perfect in that regard. 8 - 10 minutes cooking & the burgers were as good as they get, with some slightly more done than others. This works well when someone other than me likes them more done. The charcoal baskets were probably the only thing I wasn't used to and I can see I was typically using a lot more charcoal than necessary in my old Weber. I was pleased with the grill and will be interesting to see how it holds up as it gets more use over the course of the summer. Tomorrow,we cook indirect method so will be curious to see how the charcoal baskets behave with some apple wood for added smoke flavor. Will be doing leg of lamb which is in the fridge marinating in red wine, soy, French dressing along with my 11 secret herbs and spices. Yum! Can't wait!

[Dotch]

Everything went as planned with the exception of the weather. Beautiful morning so we decided to mow lawn first, then make dinner. Dinner is the noon meal out here in the country, or it's supposed to be. We got rained out a little after 1 and waited until about 2:30 before the rain showers were out of the area. ~ a 4 - 5 lb. leg of lamb, marinated overnight as mentioned, cooked indirect method with apple wood pruned from the trees here to provide additional smokey flavoring. It was soaked for several days more by accident than design. The bucket it was in on the patio was about half full of rainwater from a few days ago. The grill performed flawlessly. Filling the charcoal baskets level full was about the right amount of charcoal to bring the leg to 150 degress in 1 1/2 hours. Pink in the middle and more done on the outside as per Mrs, Cheviot's liking. The only thing today that threw me a little was the thermometer in the cover as it was starting to go down from where it had been when the fire was at its peak. Didn't have such creature comforts on the old Weber but I imagine the same thing was happening, there was just no way to know how much.

How was the lamb? Absolutely fantastic. Tender, very juicy, took the wood smoke and marinade well, yet you knew it was lamb not beef. Cheviot is a very mellow, mild flavored lamb to begin with so there's no reason to try to kill or hide the flavor with something super spicy or heavy in the marinade. The addition of the apple or other wood only seem to enhance the flavor. That said, after putting the grill through its paces over the weekend, we're ready to entertain with it. We have several people on an invite list who have never had lamb before so it's fun to expose them to something that's just been part of our diet. I liked the work table on this grill, the charcoal storage bin feature is handy, it lights easily, the charcoal baskets make indirect cooking easy. When I was ready, the grill was ready and it wheels back to the corner of the patio when I'm through with it. It's definitely a step up from the 30 year old model I've been using. Even though that one's held together with band clamps and baling wire, I'm not throwing it away. It still funcitons. In case we have a large gathering, we can fire both of 'em up.

[reinhard1]

i looked the grll up. looks like a nice unit. i told my son-inlaw about this grill because he's thinking about getting a webber. he has propane now. good luck.