I was lucky enough to pick up this grill as a birthday present, box delivery from Japan, that even included a Japanese newspaper in the box? Konro or Yakitori is common over there and used to cook smaller pieces of meat to perfection! Traditionally, the Konro grill would use a special kind of charcoal, ubame oak called Binchō-tan. The true form of this charcoal isn’t readily available in the UK, well at least not at a price I’m prepared to pay… I did, however, get a manufactured version designed for low smoke and indoor cooking called Ubame oak, Binchō-tan! Result…
Coals under my normal starting routine would get going under 5 mins, then left to burn naturally for 15 minutes before loading into the BBQ. This stuff took around 15 minutes to get going on the gas – BUT don’t let that put you off! LOOK how little the amount of coal being used is… I would normally fill this starter in preparation for the Cyprus Grill.
The coals were lit in the evening at 19:30 and used for cooking at 21:30.
The Konro Grill (New)
The starting process – Wok Burner!
Moved via Tongs into the grill…
The Konro Grill (Semi New!)
The grill is warming up nicely after an hour, the coals are now reading just shy of the 550 degrees c and the walls of the grill are heating up as you would expect – they are made of firebrick! I’m leaving these burn down for another hour to 21:30 before cooking… Give me some time to sort the chicken out!
The Konro Grill (Safe to touch?)
I had to give it a go, the Konro grill is running at over 500 degrees c inside so I thought id touch the side! Sensible? (Kids please don’t try this at home)… It was safe to touch from the outside and metal handles on either side were OK to handle. Good news if you need to carefully move around when the coals are still in full swing.
The Konro Grill (Used!)
Skewer time, the grill does come with some wire mesh that I’m sure will work perfectly well if you didn’t go for skewers. I didn’t have bamboo skewers available to me so opted for the Cyprus grill skewers instead. Garlic and Ginger marinated chicken thighs and a paint of peanut satay were about to go down… Minor flare up when the skewers were first put on the grill but that quickly died back.
The Konro Grill (Very Used!)
I kept a check on the heat of the coals in the Konro and at 22:30 (3 Hours burning), without any ash shaking going on we still had 500 degrees in the bowl!
I also took a reading at 08:30 the morning after, the coal was completely ‘ashed out’ but the heat on the walls and ash was still recording 130 degress c. In theory, I could have left something in here for low and slow overnight cooking. One for another day!
Overall
A slightly slower way of cooking and a notable difference in the level of smoke on the meat. A great grill, ideal for putting on a table for a relaxed way of cooking. This grill is not going to be easy to clean, but I think that’s the point! The firebricks in the bowl are not really designed for cleaning and not to be cleaned with water. Moisture on these bricks will likely cause cracking. I’m going to give this grill a few more goes with different coals, African Hardwood, Cuban Marabu to keep a check on the smoke levels being applied to the meat / veg (cant forget the veg!)… A * from me…
