Ask Eileen Prager which of her two sons will inherit the family’s Weber grill and she laughs, clearly startled. “Will it outlive us?” replies the homemaker from Hillsborough, Calif. Though unexpected, the question is a fair one. After all, Elaine and her husband, Fred, inherited the “Westerner” grill as newlyweds in the 1970s. Her in-laws had bought the grill in 1958 when Fred was just 11 years old.
Friends in this tony San Francisco suburb have climbed upward grill-wise, adorning their homes with fancy gas rigs bedecked with costly frills. The Pragers have clung to their battered beige Weber bordered top and bottom in brown and bearing the distinctive silhouette of a long-horned steer head on the front.
Despite the comments from friends–“Why don’t you come into the modern era?” is fairly typical–the couple has never bought a new model.
“We say, ‘Gee, why? We’re so comfortable with this,'” Eileen Prager recalls. “It’s like part of the family.”
And, like family, Illinois-made Weber grills need little or no introduction to today’s consumers.
Indeed, for many Americans, the brand name is so synonymous with grills that “Weber” has taken on a stand-alone connotation usually reserved for life’s necessities–like Kleenex, Band-Aid or Tabasco.
“You have to have it,” insists Jane Stern, co-author with her husband, Michael, of numerous books and articles on American food culture. While the Sterns’ grill is used mostly as an impromptu snowfall gauge these days, she can’t imagine not having it in the yard of their home in Redding, Conn. For Stern, a Weber grill was and is a mark of “grownup-hood.”
That a Weber could become something more than a grill helps explain how Weber-Stephen Products Co. of Palatine has become one of the leading manufacturers of outdoor grills in the United States.
The family-owned company won’t talk about how much money it makes. However, Hoover’s Inc., the business research firm located in Austin, Texas, pegged Weber’s estimated worldwide sales at $160 million for 2001. The company’s reach extends to 34 countries on six continents.
In the United States, where grilling is a national pastime, Weber is considered “the grandfather of grilling culture,” according to Paul Kirk of Shawnee Mission, Kan., author of “Paul Kirk’s Championship Barbecue.”
For Kirk, who writes that he prefers a 26-inch Weber charcoal grill to the more standard 22-incher because “it’s much harder to fit three slabs of ribs over an indirect fire on a smaller grill,” the appeal of Weber grills is their versatility.
It is this idea of an “indirect fire” or “indirect cooking” that proved a “radical” milestone in the story of grilling, says Steven Raichlen, author of “The Barbecue Bible,” “How to Grill” and two dozen other books. His public television series, “Barbecue University with Steven Raichlen,” is partially sponsored by Weber.
“Theirs was the first grill that enabled you to smoke in the back yard without having a pit or a major smok-ing device,” the Miami resident says.
Chris Schlesinger, a grilling expert, author and restaurateur based in Cambridge, Mass., is famously opposed to Weber’s closed-cover dictum–he thinks grilling with the lid down imparts an off flavor in most instances–but he concedes that Weber’s simple, concise instructions have drawn countless people to grilling.
“Weber put out a well-made, well-thought-out, relatively inexpensive piece of equipment that coincided with a population with a steadily increasing taste for grilling,” he says. “To some people, grilling is daunting. To build a fire, place something on it, cover it and not worry about flames makes it seem more accessible.”
Everybody’s doing it
Today, 81 percent of families in the United States own an outdoor grill, according to the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association, an industry trade group based in Arlington, Va. The choice now is not whether to grill, but what to grill on.
First the would-be griller has to consider whether to go with gas–now the most popular option–or charcoal, or electric. Should the grill be portable or a built-in appliance in one’s “outdoor room”? Then he or she has to choose from among the competing brands, including Weber’s main rival, Char-Broil, which is the flagship unit in the W.C. Bradley Home Leisure Group, a family-owned company in Columbus, Ga.
In the Weber product line, choices range from a tiny 14.5-inch diameter Smokey Joe Silver-brand charcoal grill starting at $27 to a top-of-the-line, 56-inch Vieluxe gas grill with smoker, infrared rotisserie and two side burners costing upward of $8,000. The company is making a concerted pitch to younger consumers with its stylish Q and “Baby Q” portable gas grills, priced at $199 and $149, respectively. The Q’s curved lines harken to the classic kettle shape while managing to look high-tech at the same time.
Weber’s market research indicates customers are split fairly equally by gender, with men edging out women slightly in terms of who picks out the grill. Historically, though, grilling has been considered a “guy thing.” And, as Schlesinger notes wryly, once “guys are involved, you’ve got to get geared up.”
At Weber, the gear is dear, a vital product segment that Michael Kempster Sr., Weber’s executive vice president, says makes up nearly 20 percent of the company’s business dollar-wise. Accessories number in the hundreds and range from an extra-wide spatula designed to help turn fish, to racks for holding ribs, potatoes or corn on the cob, to a very space-age canister that can substitute for a beer can in the cavity of an up-right chicken.
Getting out the message on grilling has long been a Weber signature, from the earliest days of sidewalk and park demos to today’s “Grill 101” lesson on the company’s Web site and its line of cookbooks.
Marsha Capen, Weber’s director of editorial development, says that the recipes are subjected to rigorous testing. All recipes have to work and all directions have to be clear.
“Dishes are rated on taste from A to F,” she adds. “If the dish doesn’t rank an A, we will go back and tweak it until the score is raised.”
Weber has become an iconic brand, an enviable situation that can, at times, feel like “a set of diamond-studded handcuffs,” Kempster says.
“We’re custodians of the brand,” he explains. “It keeps us resisting the demands of retailers who would like to see the Weber name on virtually everything.”
While Weber has branched out into other product lines, including three Chicago-area Weber Grill restaurants, the basic charcoal kettle has remained remarkably the same. Although the kettle itself has been set into patio tables, barrel containers and even a faux wishing well, the basic black, three-legged Weber charcoal grill is as timeless and instantly recognizable as a VW beetle, a Radio Flyer wagon or a bottle of Chanel No. 5. The grill elicits similarly strong reactions from fans.
“Weberheads” is what Jamie Purviance of St. Helena, Calif., affectionately calls these people.
“There is this almost cult mentality,” says Purviance, recipe developer and author of Weber’s cookbooks. “They need to air it out. They need to share their stories with you.”
One of the family
Jack Perrin of Homer Glen will tell you about “Big Red” and “Bertha.” Both are members of the retired pipe welder’s Weber “family,” a collection of grills and grilling equipment he just can’t live without.
Perrin was just 21 years old when he bought his We-ber “Aristocrat” grill and nicknamed it “Big Red” for its bold, distinctive coloring. Now 61, and with his family grown, Perrin is still firing it up.
“Let’s put it this way, I started out with them,” Perrin says of his decades-old attachment to Weber.
As his life changed, so did his grills. “Bertha” showed up later in the 1960s; Perrin needed the huge Ranch kettle to feed nine hungry guys who had vacationed together on a houseboat. The day he cooked a 50-pound roast on “Bertha” is an occasion he will always remember. In the 1970s, he bought a smaller, black 18-incher for family vacations, adapting the grill’s legs so the Weber could be folded up to fit inside his pop-up trailer. He invested in a Weber Summit gas grill a few years ago because his wife likes cooking with gas. Most times, though, it is Perrin standing at the grill–and the kitchen stove.
“I didn’t like her cooking,” he says, explaining why he started grilling in the first place. “It was plain Jane and burnt to high heaven.”
Hot mama
For Brian McCutcheon, a Philadelphia sculptor, nothing but a Weber would do for a piece called “Trailer Queen.”
The work, shown at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago last year, features a Weber decked out with chrome tail pipes, carburetors and white and gold flame detailing. (A “trailer queen” is slang for a car that’s displayed but not driven; this is a grill not used for grilling.)
For McCutcheon, who says he was “toying with hot-rod imagery along with the masculine in American iconography,” the Weber kettle was an obvious choice. He says of all his works on display in Chicago, “Trailer Queen” garnered the “most instantaneous recognition” from visitors.
–B.D.
Getting grilled is just part of the job
Janet Olsen of Palatine has heard more than her share of Weber stories but that’s her job. She works at Weber’s customer service center, which functions 24 hours a day, seven days a week in a Schaumburg office park.
Olsen’s knowledge of Weber and its products is almost encyclopedic after seven years on the job. Give her the first few letters of a serial number and she’ll gently interrupt with the model name. Olsen even can determine from a very sketchy description that Mike from Hous-ton thinks he has a Genesis I gas grill but really owns a Genesis II. She firmly advises an Illinois caller hankering for a blackened steak to leave more fat on the meat rather than tinker with his gas grill’s air-flow. Uneven heating could result, she warns.
John from Holbrook, Mass., calls for parts but asks about the “little cookbooks.” She promises to put him on the mailing list for the company’s “Grill Out Times,” a twice-yearly periodical sent to customers.
Olsen and her fellow service reps do more than take orders for parts and troubleshoot balky grills. They also staff Weber’s Grill Line (800-474-5568), a one-season service that became a year-round, 24-hour operation in April.
Pam Key, Weber’s customer ser-vice manager, says that offering the grill hot line all year makes sense.
“After all, we’re advocating grill-ing year-round,” she says. Industry figures say 53 percent of grillers in the U.S. do just that.
Yet, nearly 50 years after the phrase “indirect grilling” entered the American lexicon, Key said Weber’s call-center staffers spend a lot of time de-fining it.
“It’s the biggest question,” she says. (Indirect cooking means the food isn’t grilled directly over the coals. Coals are pushed to the sides, creating more gentle heat.)
Key said that the hot line is starting to get more questions about cooking seafood on the grill. At least once or twice a summer, someone will call in about grilling a whole pig.
Mondays are the busiest days, Key said. Some people are reliving the problems of the past weekend, others are looking forward to the weekend ahead. The quietest time is the midnight shift, but that’s when staffers tackle Weber’s e-mail. One of the more vivid e-mails said simply: “My wife is jealous because I declare my love for my Gold series charcoal kettle in public. Is this wrong?”
To answer the telephone at Weber’s customer service center, you must be a “certified barbecue expert.” To become certified, you must pass a 78-question test that can take 90 minutes to complete. The test includes such questions as, “What is ‘trussing?’ Why do you do it? How do you do it? (Explain the 4-step process)” and “What is the most important grilling rule?” (The answer to that last question is vintage Weber: “Don’t peek–keep the lid closed!”) The test has to be taken yearly.
Pinned to the bulletin board outside of Key’s office are thank-you notes from satisfied Weber customers, as well as recipes and photographs of cherished Weber grills.
“It’s a family thing, they feel a real connection,” Key said.
–Bill Daley
A grill’s life
1952
George Stephen Sr. begins selling “George’s Barbecue Kettle” for $29.95. Stephen, a resident of Mt. Prospect, had developed the grill a year before. An employee of Weber Brothers Metal Works in Chicago, and a frustrated griller, he saw the metal buoy he was working on had potential beyond being just a flotation device. He drilled some vent holes in the top, added supports for cooking grates and built a three-legged frame to hold the contraption.
1958
By the time “The Westerner” grill had come along, Stephen’s line of barbecue kettles had become so popular he was able to buy Weber Brothers, creating the Weber- Stephen Products Co. Although Stephen died in 1993, the company remains family-owned today.
1966
Although most popular in basic black, the Weber kettle grill found itself dressed up in all sorts of ways over the years. This “Wishing Well” model was introduced in 1966. Other styles sunk Weber grills into wrought-iron patio furniture, a barrelshaped bar and a wooden cart. One grill was even outfitted with wheelbarrow-like handles.
1985
Weber introduces its Genesis line of gas grills, replacing a kettle-shaped, gasfueled kettle grill introduced in 1971. The squarish Genesis models aren’t as eyecatching but the shape works for consumers. Genesis grills have become Weber’s most popular line.
2003
Enter the Q, Weber’s line of portable grills–small in size but with plenty of cool. Designed for a younger generation of consumers, the Q’s curved lines harken to the classic Weber kettle while still managing to look space-age modern.
Chef loves the grate outdoors
Thank goodness Jamie Purviance is a guy who likes to grill outdoors. As recipe-meister for Weber-Stephen Products Co., he’s responsible for developing dishes that go into books, pamphlets, newsletters and online.
Grilling “puts me in a totally different frame of mind than cooking inside,” he explains. “As a trained chef, I actually enjoy cooking but I still consider it something of a chore. There’s a certain amount of stress . . . I step outside, and I feel it’s recreation. The rules are relaxed.”
Purviance has six grills, two charcoal and four gas, in the yard of his home in St. Helena, Calif. In developing recipes, he looks to the world for inspiration.
“Barbecue is, perhaps, [American] cooking but grilling is everywhere,” he says. Asian flavorings, cilantro and cumin are among his favorite ingredients.
He also looks to what’s in his local supermarket to deter-mine what he’ll grill. “I gravitate toward what looks good to me and then imagine what I can do with it,” he says. “I may see a piece of fish and wonder what it might need. Is it calling out for a sauce or marinade or a salsa? Or, does the fish need to be cooked and flaked and put into a taco?”
Here are three recipes from “Weber’s Big Book of Grilling,” written by Purviance and Sandra S. McRae.
–B.D.
Chicken on a stick with an Asian dip
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Marinating time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 8 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
“The paste in this recipe does amazing things for chick-en, giving it complexity in a matter of minutes,” Jamie Purviance and Sandra S. McRae write in “Weber’s Big Book of Grilling.”
1 teaspoon each: granulated garlic, granulated onion, paprika
1/2 teaspoon each: cumin, dried lemon grass, dried basil, dried thyme, coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons each: fresh lemon juice, rice vinegar, water
1 tablespoon minced green onion
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1. For seasoning paste, combine the garlic, onion, paprika, cumin, lemon grass, basil, thyme, salt and peppers in a medium bowl. Whisk in oil. Add chicken; toss evenly to coat. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 30-60 minutes.
2. For the dipping sauce, whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, rice vinegar, water, green onion and red pepper flakes in a small bowl; pour into small serving bowls.
3. Prepare grill. Thread the chicken chunks onto skewers. (If using wooden skewers, soak them first in water 20 minutes.) Grill until the meat is firm and juices run clear, 8-10 minutes, turning once. Serve warm with dipping sauce.
Nutrition information per serving:
173 calories, 56% of calories from fat, 11 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 41 mg cholesterol, 2 g carbohydrates, 17 g protein, 1,159 mg sodium, 0.5 g fiber
Red snapper fajitas with black bean salsa
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Marinating time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 9 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
Adapted from “Weber’s Big Book of Grilling.”
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon each: ground cumin, coarse salt
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 skinless red snapper fillets, about 6 ounces each
Salsa:
1 pound plum tomatoes, cored, diced
1 medium avocado, finely diced
1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed, drained
1/4 cup each: finely diced red onion, chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon each: vegetable oil, minced jalapeno pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
Fajitas:
8 flour tortillas, 10 inches in diameter
1/2 head romaine lettuce, cut into thin crosswise slices
1. Whisk together lime juice, oil, garlic, cumin, salt and red pepper flakes in medium bowl. Place snapper fillets in a large food storage bag; add the marinade. Press the air out of the bag; seal tightly. Turn the bag to distribute the mari-nade; leave fish in marinade for no more than 30 minutes.
2. For the salsa, combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Season with more salt and lime juice, if desired.
3. Prepare grill. Remove the fillets from the bag; discard marinade. Lightly brush or spray both sides of fish with vegetable oil. Grill directly over the heating source until the fish begins to flake, 3-4 minutes, turning once. Remove from the grill. Separate into large flakes with two forks.
4. Heat the tortillas on the grill about 1 minute without turning. Wrap in a kitchen towel to keep warm. Pile the lettuce and fish on the warm tortillas; top with the salsa.
Nutrition information per serving:
412 calories, 28% of calories from fat, 13 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 30 mg cholesterol, 49 g carbohydrates, 25 g protein, 600 mg sodium, 6 g fiber
Baby back ribs with spiced apple-cider mop
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Adapted from “Weber’s Big Book of Grilling.”
2 cups apple cider
2 shallots, minced
1 small jalapeno, seeded, minced
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons each: white wine vinegar, tomato paste
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon each: coarse salt, freshly ground pepper
2 to 3 slabs baby back pork ribs, about 4 pounds, at room temperature
1. Heat cider, shallots and jalapeno to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until 1 cup of liquid remains, about 20 minutes. Add ketchup, white wine vinegar, tomato paste, brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Heat to a boil; remove from heat. (Sauce may be made ahead and refrigerated until ready to use.)
2. Prepare grill for indirect heating; season ribs with remaining 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and pepper. Grill, rib side down, over medium heat until the meat is very tender and has pulled back from the ends of the bones, about 2 hours. Baste the ribs often with the mop up to the last 10 minutes. Slice into individual ribs.
Nutrition information per serving:
940 calories, 62% of calories from fat, 64 g fat, 23 g saturated fat, 255 mg cholesterol, 25 g carbohydrates, 62 g protein, 734 mg sodium, 0.7 g fiber
