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Could you cook on a DIY BBQ made from Fire Bricks?

wulbert

wulbert

pfm Member
Bit of a long shot this. I fancy one of those Japanese "Kronos"/Hibachi" BBQ's that I've seen pros use on Master Chef. Their chief USP seems to be that the material they are made of (Diatomaceous earth) insulates the coals and concentrates heat. Coals burn for longer. I like the idea of cooking smaller portions of food and concentrating flavours with glazes/sauces.

Thing is, being Scottish, I don't want to pay £250 for one. Wondering if I could make one using Victas Fire Bricks but I don't know enough about chemistry to know if the material is food safe. Or even if it performs the same as diatomaceous earth. Any one have a clue?

I've seen people making BBQ's from simple monoblock paver bricks, but they don't seem like they would perform the same as refractory lining stuff.

Victas Refractory Fire Bricks
High Alumina Content: Each brick contains a minimum of 60% Alumina, ensuring superior heat resistance and durability.
Low Iron Content: Reduces oxidation and enhances thermal stability under high temperatures.
Low Alkali Content: Minimizes degradation, extending the lifespan of the bricks.
Thermal Shock Resistance: Capable of withstanding rapid temperature changes, making them ideal for high-temperature fluctuations.
Abrasion Resistance: Offers increased resistance to physical wear and tear, ensuring durability in harsh conditions.
High Density and Strength: Provides a robust construction for a long lifespan under extreme conditions.
 
I use Skamolex panels in our wood burning stove. This apparently is made from exfoliated Vermiculite - what ever that is. All I know is that it is heat resistant to over 1100 c and can be cut with a saw. Oh and the stove is a lot more efficient.

watching this project with interest.
 
Is the title a joke?

Barbecue is just going back to the very basics, cooking over an open fire, just cutting to embers very quickly, cutting out the crap coming off fuel as it burns at the start.

Get a gas barbie - the super-keen barbecue chefs that I have known - would even barbecue the Christmas dinner if allowed - have used gas. The taste of barbecued food is from the fat and other drippings onto the coals, whether the coials be cinders from charcoal or whatever, or pumice and the like in gas barbies.
 
wulbert said:
No. I want to know if fire bricks made from Alumina are safe to be used for cooking food.
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Yes they are.
Best regards, a food technologist and food safety expert.

by the way, you do realise that you are moving away from a bbq, which is an open grill over a fire, and into a wood fired or charcoal oven, don't you? Not that it matters, because a lidded bbq does the same, but ovens and grills are different.
 
wulbert said:
There are often 2-3 hrs in May (our driest month) when outdoor cooking is possible. Still need to be wrapped up well, because its freezing, and food consumed within 30 seconds of coming off grill before it goes cold.
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Kids' stuff. I remember camping in the Alps, the red wine was so cold we had to put it on the stove. We just blended the warm and freezing until it was about 20 de g C, job done.
 
Further firebrick tips - scout around for old storage heaters and dismantle these for the firebricks inside. I did this to build stuff for metal working years ago. We weren't sure that they were proper firebricks until we got an oxy acetylene flame into one to see if it could handle the heat. It did, well beyond red heat and up to the point where it started to vitrify. That'll do then. 1000 deg C is good enough.
 
stevec67 said:
Yes they are.
Best regards, a food technologist and food safety expert.

by the way, you do realise that you are moving away from a bbq, which is an open grill over a fire, and into a wood fired or charcoal oven, don't you? Not that it matters, because a lidded bbq does the same, but ovens and grills are different.
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I was thinking of just using the fire bricks to form the outside perimeter and base of the grill. It would still be open at the top. Basically just a lidless box made from fire-brick, full of charcoal, with a mesh grill on top.

I may well cough up for the real thing eventually, but I'd need to be sure I would enjoy using this type of grill. The fire-bricks are quite expensive too, so it could be false economy to build my own. It would only be a tiny thing, about 250mm wide x 500mm long.
 
wulbert said:
I was thinking of just using the fire bricks to form the outside perimeter and base of the grill. It would still be open at the top. Basically just a lidless box made from fire-brick, full of charcoal, with a mesh grill on top.

I may well cough up for the real thing eventually, but I'd need to be sure I would enjoy using this type of grill. The fire-bricks are quite expensive too, so it could be false economy to build my own. It would only be a tiny thing, about 250mm wide x 500mm long.
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No point in having fire bricks to the side only, you may as well just use a steel tray type bbq. The point of firebricks is that you make a closed box that then acts as an oven.
 
wulbert said:
I was thinking of just using the fire bricks to form the outside perimeter and base of the grill. It would still be open at the top. Basically just a lidless box made from fire-brick, full of charcoal, with a mesh grill on top.

I may well cough up for the real thing eventually, but I'd need to be sure I would enjoy using this type of grill. The fire-bricks are quite expensive too, so it could be false economy to build my own. It would only be a tiny thing, about 250mm wide x 500mm long.
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Take no notice of the nay sayers, fire bricks of any type will be safe. If in doubt, use refractory cement to line it.
The bricks used in night store heaters, have never killed anyone. Jeez, its anal sometimes.
What I mean is, I'm not dead yet, and have used firebricks in all sorts of situations
 
stevec67 said:
No point in having fire bricks to the side only, you may as well just use a steel tray type bbq. The point of firebricks is that you make a closed box that then acts as an oven.
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Something like this, so firebricks on all five faces of the box, except the top.


The "proper" Japanese version
 
Pravda said:
Take no notice of the nay sayers, fire bricks of any type will be safe. If in doubt, use refractory cement to line it.
The bricks used in night store heaters, have never killed anyone. Jeez, its anal sometimes.
What I mean is, I'm not dead yet, and have used firebricks in all sorts of situations
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You make a good point, anything that is super heat-resistant, like fire-brick, is probably not giving off "fumes" or reacting with anything else. Kind of what makes it fire-proof, I guess.
 
I once saw a video about how to make a carbon-foam refractory lining from toast, of all things.


 
wulbert said:
Something like this, so firebricks on all five faces of the box, except the top.


The "proper" Japanese version
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Yes, that's going to work. I can imagine that the difference is that you will be burning charcoal in it for a long time and the firebox itself is going to become very hot and radiate heat onto the grill to give a slightly more diffuse heat source than the traditional BBQ. Go for it, it looks like fun. I'll tell you what though, I'd be trying local Freecycle and Facebook etc for a discarded storage heater, then you can do it for next to nothing.
 
wulbert said:
I once saw a video about how to make a carbon-foam refractory lining from toast, of all things.


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When jewellers make small castings in gold they pour it into wooden moulds. It's the same principle, the wood burns and you get a carbon cup that the gold sits in. Unlike any metal mould, the carbon does not contaminate the gold. A big problem with gold is that because it has a very high melting point it melts other metals that touch it in its molten form. You then get a gold that is alloyed with unwanted metal from the mould, so (a) it doesn't have the properties you want and (b) it doesn't meet the legal standards for gold so you can't sell it.
 
stevec67 said:
Yes, that's going to work. I can imagine that the difference is that you will be burning charcoal in it for a long time and the firebox itself is going to become very hot and radiate heat onto the grill to give a slightly more diffuse heat source than the traditional BBQ. Go for it, it looks like fun. I'll tell you what though, I'd be trying local Freecycle and Facebook etc for a discarded storage heater, then you can do it for next to nothing.
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I think my brother may have some old storage heaters actually. he got solar/heat pump kit fitted recently. Cheers for the tip.
 
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