Have a funny/disastrous grilling story? Tell it

JRWhitee

YukonRon said:

bgebrent said:

@YukonRon, Hilarious!!  You know all us chemists are pyros!

whenever I grill, from that day until now, people ask me to define the potential blast zone.

The only thing missing from that story is Yukon Ron saying "Hey Guys Watch this!"

nolaegghead

"Hold my beer!"

nolaegghead

I was running late, and this was a long time ago, but I decided to use pure oxygen to start the fire.   I had a big tank, ran a hose and clamped it on the side of the (like a Weber or something) grill.  

Ain't nothin' start a fire like pure O2.  Fire was so intense, the O2 hose caught and it was like a cartoon fuse.  

Burned a hole through the bottom of the grill.  Good news, the fire started.

bgeaddikt

About 4 months ago i purchased a used Medium egg. So i thought at least. Found out when i got home after i picked it up 2 hours away that it was an older, actually a size Small not medium, hinges broken, dead animal smelling abused egg. The happiness of getting an egg overwhelmed me and i decided to throw on some St Louis style ribs. After watching youtube i decided to throw about a pound of Salt Lick rub(salt, pepper, cayenne, other spicy stuff). Did the 3-2-1 method and ribs looked great, except they smelled like lighter fluid and old wet charcoal and they were so damn spicy(pound of rub might have been the problem haha) that my girls and family had to make an effort to just take a few bites without their lips swelling up.

Also tried pizza on my new Large egg i just got and realized i didnt apply cornmeal on cutting board(also forgot to buy a pizza peel, who needs that?!? So i told myself laughing)and so the pizza ended up like a omelette taco. Lessons learned!

WeberWho

jeffwit

^^^ That's devastating.

nolaegghead

That ^^^ is DEVASTATING!

jeffwit

Ha, beat you Nola.

bgebrent

Where's that damned dog?

YukonRon

@WeberWho  Totally respect the story. FYI, Hemingway won a contest for a 6 word entry to determine the best short story;
Baby Shoes.
For Sale.
Never worn.
That was a tragic work of fiction. Your images are devastating.

jarc

 

DoubleEgger

bgebrent said:

Where's that damned dog?

Where are those Sugar Gliders? 

FarmerTom

And another story I posted in another thread a while back.
 I got a fish cooker a few years ago.  One of those sets from Bass Pro.  Burner, CI kettle, lid and strainer.  Set it up on the porch and fired it up to season it.  Son was supposed to be watching it while I got fish and potatoes ready.  Went out to check it, he was texting and flames were licking on the top of the oil.  Got some heavy pliers, grabbed the bail and carried it over to where I dump wood ashes to empty the kettle.  Some of the oil hit some grass.  I didn't think anything about it.  The whole shootin match went up in flames.  Scorched my whole right side, legs, arm, eyebrow and the hair on the right side of my head.  Not a hair left, though I wasn't really hurt.  Looked up at the porch and my son was dying laughing.  Thought the whole thing was hilarious.  Old dad in a ball of flames.  Wanted to kill him.  He said the fire ball went about 10 ft. up in the air.  I got a quick lesson on the dangers of hot oil.  Haven't forgot it either.  

bgebrent

DoubleEgger said:

bgebrent said:

Where's that damned dog?

Where are those Sugar Gliders? 

Sugar Gliders have F'd up so many of my cooks I've considered moving to the Hamptons.

xfire_ATX

During the midst of the Central Texas Drought ~2 yrs ago and after having been evacuated from my neighborhood..

We were grilling steaks on my mothers $99 gas grill.  Went inside for a bit to get something and flames were shooting out all directions of this thing.  Before I had a plan we have a grass fire starting.  After burning about 50 sf of my mothers backyard we were back to cooking.

Oh yes we ate those steaks and still laugh about it.

westernbbq

Tried to start dad's gas grill about 25 yrs ago.  Gasser, turned on gas, left lid xlosed like an idiot, thought it was lit.  Came back in a few mins to a cool to the touch dome so, what would any idiot do? Hit the ignite button.   Thankfully i was low to access the button and the lid went straight up in the air, probably 40 or so feet.   

Dad came out and didnt ask if i was ok but rather whether i thought the steaks were going to be able to still be grilled.   Glad the old man had his priorities straight!

matoch

You didn't restrict this to Eggs so I guess this story is ok. I had a bradley smoker a few years ago and decided to try smoking a duck. I kept the temperature to low to render out any of the fat so the skin was really rubbery. 

I looked online to see what others had done with duck and it seemed a common recommendation was to throw it on a gas grill at a higher temp to get the skin nice and crispy. 

I fired up the grill but the duck on and went inside for a few minutes. When I came outside and opened the grill the fat had dripped down and started a huge fire. 

I turned off the grill, pulled the duck off and set it aside and contemplated what to do as I haven't had to deal with too many grease fires. I figured I knew what I should do but wanted a second opinion so I headed into the house and casually asked my wife what I should do to handle a grease fire. She told me to put baking soda and then asked why. I simply replied "Oh no reason" and walked away to deal with the fire. 

The worst part of this is it was the last cook I did before winter and I forgot to clean up all of the fat. It was late spring before I was ready to BBQ again. When I opened up the lid we decided it was time for a new BBQ. 

kl8ton

It felt like a disaster at the time, but for one of my kids birthday parties, I was making some low and slow pulled pork (I knew nothing of the turbo method).  I misjudged timing by a few hours (our kids parties usually last 2 or 3 hours).  I ended up driving to Famous Dave's BBQ and buying 10 lbs of pulled pork ready to go.  On the plus side, I had a lot of extra meat.  On the downside, my wallet felt the pain of paying Famous Daves for lesser meat than what I was making. Also, as the "bbq guy" of the family, it was a "tail between my legs" moment.

YukonRon

JRWhitee said:

YukonRon said:

bgebrent said:

@YukonRon, Hilarious!!  You know all us chemists are pyros!

whenever I grill, from that day until now, people ask me to define the potential blast zone.

The only thing missing from that story is Yukon Ron saying "Hey Guys Watch this!"

Although, fitting right in to the parameters of the definition for idiot on this particular instance, I have, performed much more stupid activities, which required those famous "last words." I thank the lucky stars, this is not a home building, auto repair, painting, tree trimming, snow boarding, skiing, back packing/camping, fishing, hunting, dating, investing, pet owning, gun cleaning, etc. forum that asked for my "Hey everyone, watch this!" moment.
i would never stop with the stories.
@nolaegghead it may have been better to just have held on to that beer.

xfire_ATX

westernbbq said:

Tried to start dad's gas grill about 25 yrs ago.  Gasser, turned on gas, left lid xlosed like an idiot, thought it was lit.  Came back in a few mins to a cool to the touch dome so, what would any idiot do? Hit the ignite button.   Thankfully i was low to access the button and the lid went straight up in the air, probably 40 or so feet.   

Dad came out and didnt ask if i was ok but rather whether i thought the steaks were going to be able to still be grilled.   Glad the old man had his priorities straight!

I did the same thing when I was a teenager with my Dads built in Gas Grill.  The casting on the lids was super heavy and the fireball blew the lids off grill into the yard.

Bottomfeeder28

A few years ago before I acquired my kamado all I had was was a mid sized Weber charcoal. Had a friend living at my place while him and his wife were working things out. 

 Anyway,decided to grill up some steaks. Lit the coals and it started to drizzle. So I decided to move the Weber up next to house as the plan was to let the eave block the rain. 

 Then me and the GF decided to go up to the bedroom for some fun. During this fun I kept hearing noises outside and diesel engines,voices,lots of commotion. I certainly wasn't stopping. After the fun,GF says"I think something is going on". Ya think???

A quick run to the other room and a look out the window confirmed the fire department had been called. Hoses and fire trucks and firemen and all the neighbors were out side with what looked like a full blown 5 alarm fire. My buddy down stairs said firemen were hopping the fence with all their gear and what not. 

  Turns out another neighbor saw smoke billowing up from the house and called. 

So they all packed up and left. At that point the coals were beyond ready and the rain had quit. 3 minutes each side on a few new York strips and the day was saved. 

  I never get the grill anywhere near the  house now for that reason alone. True story.

 

Ozzie_Isaac

No directly a grill related story ....

I use a weedburner to start my Eggs. Well one day I decided to use it to kill the ants that were chomping on my smoke wood pile.

Things seemed to go well.  About an hour later I was chatting with my neighbor, when I noticed my wood pile burst into flames over her shoulder.  I startled her when I yelled fire and ran past her.

I guess I got a little to careless.  Luckily I had a hose nearby, but it was a pain to get the whole fire out.  Seasoned smokewood apparently can burn very fast.

nolaegghead

@Ozzie_Isaac  "hey ants...eating my smoke wood again?  Hey, I'll kill you with 200,000 BTU of fire!  What could possibly go wrong, right?" 

FarmerTom

Ozzie_Isaac opened the door.  This isn't grill related either, but is fire related.  I live in a very rural, farming area of Ky.  Went to school with some guys (well they sometimes went to school) who were notorious for stealing gas.  Probably carried a siphon hose on them most of the time.  I don't know that I actually ever saw them buy gas.  Before it was all unleaded, they swore they could taste/smell the difference.  Needing gas, they went to a barn on their landlords farm where a gas tractor was parked.  One of these geniuses pulls out his lighter to see how much gas is in it.  Woosh!!!!!!   Up goes the tractor and the barn.  And she let them continue to live on the farm.  

Jupiter Jim

WeberWho said:

That my friends is a real HORROR STORY!

Jupiter Jim

We decided that we needed to make a pulled pork BBQ pizza one evening, so I get the egg going and all set up for a pizza cook, build the pizza, get the pizza on the egg and it starts to lightly rain. Pizza is done and it's time to eat! NOT in my rush to get the pizza off the egg and in the house in the rain I tipped the pizza peel just enough for it to slide of and onto the ground! it landed perfectly upside down on the moldy concrete! We went out for dinner.

xfire_ATX

xfire_ATX said:

During the midst of the Central Texas Drought ~2 yrs ago and after having been evacuated from my neighborhood..

We were grilling steaks on my mothers $99 gas grill.  Went inside for a bit to get something and flames were shooting out all directions of this thing.  Before I had a plan we have a grass fire starting.  After burning about 50 sf of my mothers backyard we were back to cooking.

Oh yes we ate those steaks and still laugh about it.

Found a pic of the aftermath

bgeaddikt

@xfire_ATX Mannnn. Your lucky your tank didnt blow! That black spot would have been a crater