Brick or steel?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

D.C

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
4
Location
Iowa
Hi everyone, I have a quick question. I am thinking of building a pit in my backyard and I was wondering which would be better for the material, either a pit built out of brick or a pit built out of steel.

thanks for the input
 
If you're intent is to make a permanent fixture, I'd go with brick or field stone, or similar. They'll last forever.
 
I fully agree with brick.

My father built a huge brick barbecue back in 1957 that's still going strong today!!! Started with a large thick concrete slab & then built an "L" or chair-shaped barbecue out of brick atop it. Back portion of the "L" was a wide "chimney", while the front was open & had slots for two levels of cast-iron grill racks. Since the brick walls were several brick-widths thick, the "arms" of the "chair" were more than wide enough to put platters, tools, etc.

You could either build a charcoal fire on the lower grate, or build a big wood fire right on the concrete-slab bottom (great for marshmallow roasting). It was terrific for parties, & my childhood & teenage years are peppered with many happy memories of lots & lots of wonderful summer parties.

And as far as esthetics go, brick is much nicer & more pleasing to the eye than steel any day, in my opinion.
 
thanks for the advice, now another question. will any type of brick do, or is there a special type of brick that needs to be used
 
I don't know if there have been any improvements since 1957, but my dad used regular red bricks & mortar to build his barbecue. In this day & age though, you might want to investigate further.
 
Hi D.C.,
I'm by no means an expert here, but I'm sure any non porous brick will work fine for the exterior features of your BBQ pit. But I think that the fire box of the pit should be constructed of fire brick.
 
Back
Top Bottom