re: Anyone cooked meat directly on charcoal before?

I just don't understand the point...

Do like the taste of ash and charcoal on your food?

Seems like it would be pretty nasty.

Please report back after you get back from Popeyes.

My dogs love this method. Just last week I had a renegade all beef weiner roll of the grill down into the coals. I let it rest a bit then gave it to the lab. He loved the shite out of it.

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I got the idea from watching Good Eats.

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I saw that episode but have not tried it. I did try the porterhouse under the charcoal chimney trick. Mixed results

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I saw him smoke salmon in a cardboard box with sawdust.

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I tried his clay pot ceramic smoker, they have plants in them now

I saw that episode. The idea is that heat requires air. If you put meat directly on coals it's actually cooler than if you put meat above the coals with a few inches of air.

As for residue, Alton just brushed it off for 10 seconds and it looked clean. Have not tried it myself.

Hmmm...I've gotta get some lump charcoal.

I'm probably gonna have to wait till tomorrow. The wife doesn't get off till 5:00 or 5:30 and she wants to go to a womens bible study tonight. I might just drop her off and go grab some stuff for gyros because I just made a good amount of cucumber sauce and have nothing to put it on.

Make sure you use natural chunk charcoal, not processed charcoal briquettes that have fillers in them.

And no, you're not crazy. One big thing is to get a hair dryer or a fan or something and blow as much of the soot off as you can. That's what will give it an ashy taste. Don't leave the meat on the fuel for very long and you should end up with a nice fajita.

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Blow off the coals before you put the meat on or blow off the meat after cooking?

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Blow off the coals IMMEDIATELY before you slap the meat down. Brush anything off the meat that wants to stick to it when you lift it off the coals. New ash shouldn't form between the meat and the ember. The meat is in contact with the glowing ember, so no air can get to it. If there's no air, there's no combustion. If there's no combustion, there's no ash. You're just cooking using the high starting temperature and the residual heat of the coal once you slap the meat down and smother the smoldering coal. Using the hair dryer on high on the coals for a few seconds before you lay the meat down blows off the ash layer and gives you a good surface to cook on. It also boosts the temperature of the coals by forcing more oxygen over the coals right before you put the meat down, just like a blacksmith would use a bellows to increase the heat of his coals.