Mini BBQ Grill

Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods which use live fire and smoke to cook the food. The English word "barbecue" and its cognates in other languages come from the Spanish word barbacoa. Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science, and craft of using heat to prepare food for consumption.

The various regional variations of barbecue can be broadly categorized into those methods which use direct or indirect heating. Indirect barbecues are those, in which meat is heated by roasting or smoking over wood or charcoal. These methods of barbecue involve cooking using smoke at low temperatures and long cooking times (several hours).

Elsewhere, barbecuing more commonly refers to the more direct application of heat, grilling of food over hot coals or gas. This technique is usually done over direct, dry heat or a hot fire for a few minutes.

Barbecue varies by the type of meat, sauce or other flavorings used. The point in barbecuing at which they are added, the role smoke plays, the equipment and fuel used, cooking temperature, and cooking time.

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TECHNIQUES

Smoking :

Barbecuing encompasses multiple types of cooking techniques. The original technique is cooking using smoke at low temperatures—usually around 240–280 °F or 115–145 °C and significantly longer cooking times, known as smoking.

Smoking is the process of flavoring, browning, cooking or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. Meat and fish are the most common smoked foods, though cheeses, vegetables, nuts, and ingredients used to make beverages such as beer or smoked beer are also smoked.

Grilling :

Grilling is a form of cooking that involves a dry heat applied to the food, either from above or below. Grilling is an effective technique in order to cook meat or vegetables quickly.

Grilling is done over direct, dry heat, usually over a hot fire over 500 °F (260 °C) for a few minutes. Grilling may be done over wood, charcoal, gas, or electricity. There are many methods of grilling, which involve a type of braising or roasting.

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BBQ GRILL

A barbecue grill or barbeque grill (known as a barbecue or barbie in Australia) is a device that cooks food by applying heat from below.

There are several varieties of grills, with most falling into one of three categories: gas-fueled, charcoal, or electric. Grilling has existed in the Americas since pre-Colonial times. Some variety of grills are,

• Electric grill
• Gas grills
• Infrared grills
• Commercial grills
• Charcoal grills

Charcoal grills use either charcoal briquettes or natural lump charcoal as their fuel source. When burned, the charcoal will transform into embers radiating the heat necessary to cook food.

You can read more about BBQ and BBQ Grills from the wiki pages.

I tried to use almost any scrap and easily available materials as much as possible, so that anyone can find them in their local store and can build one too.

So below I listed some tools and materials that I used to make this product, such are

TOOLS :

• A metal Trash can
• Sandpaper
• File
• Hacksaw
• Hammer
• Plier
• Screwdriver
• Nut & Bolts (1/2 inch)
• Screw (1/2 inch, 1 inch)
• Nails (1.5 inch, 2 inch)
• Hinges (1.5 inch)
• Ruler and Marker
• Jigsaw
• Drill Machine for making Holes (optional)

MATERIALS :

• A metal Trash can (main Smoker)
• Aluminium L-brackets
• Plywood (for Base)
• Steel Net (as Grill)
• Aluminium wire
• Aluminium Pipe
• Piece of tin
• Wood piece (for Handle)
• Bamboo piece (for Handle)
• Wood glue (fevicol)
• Super glue (feviquick)
• M-seal

FINISHES :

• Metal color Primer (brown)
• Wood color Primer (white)
• Silver color
• Varnish
• Brushes (various sizes)
• Kerosene (for cleaning)

COOKING :

• Charcoal
• Fire
• Meat or Fish

In this instructable we are going to build a mini sized charcoal BBQ grill or a Smoker. Here I used an old Tin can, instead of it you can also use any food supply metal can according to your size.

As shown in pictures, I cut the drum in two pieces. the bottom part is larger, as it will hold everything like charcoal, grill, legs and the top part will act as a covering. We will also use it as a lid to open and close.

Our drum was very old and rusty, so I sanded it nicely to clean the rusts and then I used Kerosene oil to clean it further. Now our drum is ready for making the grill.

Hence our drum is ironic, we need to color it so that no further rusting may occur. In this case I used simple metal Primer color, which is brown. I applied several coats so that it does not need extra color and protection.

Leave it for drying the color now.

In the cooking time the grill will be covered by our top part of the drum, hence the chamber will be filled with extra smokes that needs to be clear out.

So, I added an exhaust pipe to the top of our drum. It will act as a chimney system for our grill and will let the extra smokes out through it.

For this I used a small piece of aluminium tube and fixed it to the top using M-seal.

In this part I used some Aluminium L-brackets in the edges of both the top and bottom drum parts. It will stabilize our drum and sit perfectly above one another.

So, mark the points and shapes of every side and cut accordingly. Also, mark holes for fitting the nut & bolts on every L-brackets and to the drum edges too.

Lastly fit all the brackets tightly with our nuts.

Here we will use a couple of Hinges to join both the drum parts. I used small hinges (1.5 inch) to fit at the back.

As like pictures place both the top and bottom drum parts and fix the hinges above the L-brackets and screw them tightly.

Next we will make a Handle for our grill. In cooking time the grill will become very hot and we will be unable to touch by naked hand. Hence we will used a wooden handle here so that we can easily open our grill and turn or rotate our recipe.

Here, I used a thin tree branch and thin bamboo sticks for making our handle. As you can see in the pictures how I cut the pieces and joined them with super glue. I also used some wood dust at the bottom so that it gets tightly fixed.

Then I sanded the handle and applied a coat of Varnish for the finishing. At the end I make threads for inserting the screws. hence fix the handle with half inch screws.

Generally, grills sit on metal legs but in this case we used plywood base for the sitting. As indirect heat wont affect our ply. I also used a metal strip between the base and the drum.

So, cut the ply as shown in pictures and joined them using wood glue and some nails (here I used 1.5 inch and 2 inch nails). I made two threaded holes in the middle for fixing our drum. So later I used some wood Primer to the base and applied Silver color as a finishing. Hence our base is ready.

I made two holes inside the grill for attaching screws. So I fixed my drum to the base, using two half inch screws. And this way our grill is almost ready and we can move all the parts, we can easily open and close our lid too.

A grill burner is the central source of heat for cooking food. Here we need a Burning grill to hold the charcoal that will be used for our cooking.

So, we will use a base plate inside our chamber, for holding our charcoal that will going to burn. For this I used, a few metal rods and some aluminium wires and made a plate like pattern.

Above it I used steel net or mesh and bind the net to the plate using my wires. Now the plate very tight and hard.

So, now put the burning grill inside the drum and place charcoals above it and burn them easily. hence, it will work.

Lastly we need a cooking grill for our recipes to place on. Cooking grates also known as cooking grids, are the surface on which the food is cooked in a grill. They are typically made of,

• Stainless steel
• Porcelain-coated cast iron
• Porcelain-coated steel
• Cast iron
• Chrome-plated steel

In our case, I used a steel net as a grill and an aluminium rod to hold it. I flatted both the ends of the aluminium rod and bind the steel net tightly through the middle. It will act as a cooking grate now and do the job.

Now, place it above the grill and keep all your cooking stuffs here, like fish, meat or veggies and enjoy the meal.

All is set up now. Here is our finally completed product as you can see.

It it very small in size, you can easily carry it with you to wherever you want. Also, you can easily carry it in your car for outside Camping or picnics. It is suitable for small group, home or single users.

Its pretty much handy and portable.

Next, I used some homemade charcoals for the testing. You can buy professional BBQ charcoals from market as well. But it did the job.

I took some paper and made a donut shape. Then, I placed a piece of coal onto it and spray some cooking oil. then simply burnt it.

When the charcoal starts getting red hot, I took a clay bowl and place more charcoals around it and blew air continuously, then I added more charcoals onto it. This way all the charcoals got lighten up.

Remember, when they become red hot, after that the outer shell becomes whitish in color, that's the time you need to stop blowing air. At this stage all the charcoal has absorbed enough heat and they will carry it till our meat is Roasted.

Now pour all the Hot charcoals into the BBQ.

After we've added hot charcoals, I Marinate some meat pieces and kept them already and then I placed them all over the Cooking Grit.

Then close the lid and leave it to cook for around 30 to 45 minutes.

After that, you will get some tremendous pieces of meats to Enjoy !

So, the journey to making and cooking meats in a small homemade BBQ is ending here. Hope all of you have enjoyed the making process and learnt something at the same time.

I would very much wish that someone please try to make this at home and share with me, how it works for you.

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Hope this instructable will let you learn something interesting facts about BBQ. If so please don't forget to to Follow us. Also leave a like if you likes this project and share with your friends who are also crazy about BBQ or travelling like you.

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