Wind matters more than cold
A still cold day is easy. A windy mild one is hard. Wind forces air through the vents regardless of your settings, spiking the temperature, and strips heat from the outside of the cooker. Position the grill so the bottom vent faces away from the wind, and use a wall or fence as a windbreak.
Cold-weather adjustments
- Use around a quarter more charcoal than in summer, more for a long cook.
- Allow longer to come up to temperature and longer for the food.
- Preheat the cooker for longer; cold steel absorbs a lot of heat before it radiates any back.
- Keep the lid closed. In the cold, every opening costs you more.
Rain is mostly fine
A lidded charcoal grill keeps the rain off the food perfectly well. The fire lives under the lid and does not care about a shower. Keep your fuel dry, cook under a solid open-sided shelter if you can, and do not let the chimney starter get rained into. A canopy or a gazebo makes wet-weather cooking genuinely pleasant.
Never bring a charcoal grill indoors, into a garage, a tent or a porch to escape the weather, however cold or wet it is. Charcoal produces carbon monoxide, which is odourless and kills people every winter. Outdoors and well ventilated, always, including while it cools.
Why bother
Cold air is dry air, which means better bark and crisper skin. Winter cuts are cheaper, there is no queue at the butcher, and standing by a fire on a cold evening is one of the quiet pleasures of cooking outdoors. Slow cooking suits winter in a way it never quite does in August.
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