We were given this product to try by the same people who brought you Nature's Mesquite Lump Charcoal. One of the things they do with some of the mesquite that isn't used in their premium mesquite lump charcoal is to produce these disposable grills.
Mr. BBQuick Disposable Mesquite Grill in its retail packaging.
So, now you are wondering if The Naked Whiz has lost his mind? Using a disposable grill? With STARTER FLUID? Well, we haven't exactly combed the market looking at disposable grills and we don't exactly like or approve of starter fluid, but this was the first one we had seen that uses LUMP charcoal, so we thought readers would be interested. Here is what you get when you take off the outer wrapping. The grill is sealed with a second inner layer of plastic shrink wrap to keep the starter fluid from dissipating:
Mr. BBQuick Disposable Mesquite Grill with its wire stand.
Here is the grill sitting on the wire stand, all wrapping removed and ready to be lit:
Mr. BBQuick Disposable Mesquite Grill ready to be lit.
The charcoal is covered with a sheet of lighting paper which helps to ignite all of the starter fluid across the entire grill. The manufacturer recommends that you give the grill a shake before lighting in order to insure that the lump charcoal is evenly distributed across the grill. Then, all you do is take a single match and light the paper:
Starting the Mr. BBQuick Disposable Mesquite Grill with a single match.
The paper will ignite all the starter fluid-infused charcoal. It takes about 20 minutes for the starter fluid to completely burn off and the grill is ready to go.
Mr. BBQuick Disposable Mesquite Grill getting started.
We decided to give the grill a real test, nice thick ribeye steaks. Here they are after having just been placed on the grill.
Two thick ribeyes on the Mr. BBQuick Disposable Mesquite Grill.
Before we give you our impressions of this handy little grill, here is some information from the packaging:
"Product of Mexico"
"Net weight 32.3 ounces"
"Two Hours of Cook Time!"
"Cooks up to 5 lbs of Meat!"
"Lights With a Single Match!"
"Mesquite 100% Natural Wood Charcoal"
"Great for camping, picnics, hunting, tailgating and all outdoor activities"
"Portable, Clean and Easy To Use"
"Do not touch the grill once it is lit - danger of severe burns"
"Keep out of reach of children and pets"
"Never use lighter fluid or any other flammable liquids on the charcoal"
"Disposable grill - do not dissasemble (sic), refill or reuse in any way or form"
"Caution: This charcoal tens to throw off sparks. Use only in safe area"
And here are the instructions from the packaging:
"To ensure optimal performance, do not open the package until ready to light"
"1. Remove outer packaging
"2. Place stand on a firm, non flammable, heat resistant surface"
"3. Shake grill for better charcoal distribution. Insert grill into stand"
"4. Light one corner of the starter paper. Wait approximately 20 minutes before cooking"
"After use, fill with water, sand, or dirt to completely extinguish before disposing"
We started the grill according to the instructions. We think that the recommendation to wait 20 minutes could be extended to 30 or 40 minutes if you are going to cook big steaks like we did. The heat coming from the grill was certainly there, but it wasn't as evenly distributed as you would want because a few sections of the lump were fully burning yet. Also, we think the grill could benefit from about another 10% more lump. We should have taken a photo of the charcoal before we lit it, but we think the grill could also benefit from a more uniform distribution of sizes. There were 3 large pieces that didn't really fully ignite until well into the cook.
So, how did it cook? Well, it cooked those big steaks in about 25 minutes. The charcoal didn't really get hot enough to do a good job of searing, but the steaks were cooked fairly evenly and in a reasonable amount of time. None of the willing diners who ate the steaks complained!
A few other observations:
It doesn't get hot underneath the grill at all, so although you need to place on an appropriate surface as the instructions recommend, there's no need to worry about setting something on fire.
Be careful if you feel the need to blow on the coals. While they didn't spark or pop during normal burning, they did start popping and sparking if you blow on them.
The packaging says that you can cook for 2 hours. We found the heat to be uniform for about 2 hours and 54 minutes, so you can probably get more cooking that 2 hours.
To give you and idea of how hot the grill cooking temperature is, we could hold our hands about four inches above the grill for 4 seconds before we had to remove our hands.
So, in summary this is a handy little disposable grill for those times when it makes sense to use something disposable. While we think that cooking big steaks is pushing it for this grill, it is possible. We think, however, that it might be better suited to cooking hamburgers, hot dogs, kebabs, and smaller pieces of foods. The almost 3-hour burntime seems to be at the upper end of the range we found for other disposable grills, so you should get plenty of cooking time. While the starter fluid can be off-putting to many, the long burntime allows to you let the grill burn for a sufficiently long time to ensure the fluid completely burns off. Considering the intended use of this grill and the fact that it contains lump and not briquettes, we feel starter fluid is a necessary evil in this case.
