If I didn't have a preference for humans that are female, I'd be all over you and your place.

small group of folks over Sunday for a bbq. ROlled out the 2 kettles and the WSM to get the job done.

WSM setup - Empty, foiled water pan, lump, alder, cherry.

I have pretty much given up on either using or filling the water pan on cooks. I will have to see how no water in the pan will work in the winter when a heat sink helps hold temp.



ribs - 3 different rubs Arthur Bryants, mine, mine #2:





some wings:



sweet late summer cook.

jimswside wrote: I will have to see how no water in the pan will work in the winter when a heat sink helps hold temp. .

Explain the heat sink, please. Also how you keep from burning your deck up. I'm out on the ground with my equipment cause I worry about burning the house down.

kenji wrote:Explain the heat sink, please. Also how you keep from burning your deck up. I'm out on the ground with my equipment cause I worry about burning the house down.

I have a large resistant grill mat I use most time, guess I forgot to lay it down Sunday.

The water in the bowl acts as a heat sink(holding temps down(or up in below freezing), some use sand, or other fillers. I have found with a bit of experimentation this summer to use the WSM with an empty bowl, or no water bowl at all. So far I prefer the cooks without water in the pan, or no pan at all.

jimswside wrote:

kenji wrote:Explain the heat sink, please. Also how you keep from burning your deck up. I'm out on the ground with my equipment cause I worry about burning the house down.

I have a large resistant grill mat I use most time, guess I forgot to lay it down Sunday.

The water in the bowl acts as a heat sink(holding temps down(or up in below freezing), some use sand, or other fillers. I have found with a bit of experimentation this summer to use the WSM with an empty bowl, or no water bowl at all. So far I prefer the cooks without water in the pan, or no pan at all.

I know about H2O as a heat sink, I meant I was wondering if you are going to use some different heat sink for the winter......

kenji wrote:I know about H2O as a heat sink, I meant I was wondering if you are going to use some different heat sink for the winter......

my bad,

I am not sure, I will keep going no water until I cant, then maybe Ill fill it with sand if the WSM is struggling or hard to control temps.

Is there a thread on LTH where folks discuss low and slow BBQ equipment and techniques and modifications?

More of a nuts and bolts kind of talk?

Loaded up the PrimoXL on Saturday... 2 slabs of baby backs, 2 fatties, 2 7lb shoulders... All went on at 3pm. Fatties came off at 6pm and were eaten at breakfast on Sunday. (Some with biscuits, cheese and eggs, some with biscuits butter and good maple syrup.) Ribs came off at 7pm and were eaten for dinner. Shoulders came off at 9am and will be enjoyed all week. I used Dizzy Pig, Dizzy Dust on all. (The ribs and shoulders also got coating of yellow mustard prior to the spice rub.)

FYI, I picked up the ribs and shoulders from a place called Jasper Meats in Bloomingdale. (http://www.jaspermeats.com) They are a wholesale outfit that is open to the public on Saturday mornings. I would highly recommend it for fresh pork and super good eggs (Amish from, Iowa...real tasty) Prices were excellent. (baby backs - $2.99/lb, shoulder $1.55/lb) The pork was as fresh as I have ever seen and the folks were super cool.

Here is a shot of the Primo loaded up:

No photo, but I have 7 pounds of marinated chicken thighs on the smoker as I type this. The fragrance of hickory smoke is drifting through the apartment, and I eagerly anticipate dining this evening on smoked chicken -- and putting some in the freezer, to remind me of summer once winter sets in.

I finally got around to smoking a turkey breast on Saturday. I brined it for about 8 hours with 3/4 cup of sea salt (didn't have kosher on hand) 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1 cup of maple syrup in a gallon and a half of water.

I patted it dry and dusted it with pepper, garlic pepper and paprika.

Put it in the Brinkman on the bottom shelf. I put 5 jerked chicken thighs on the shelf above it figuring the drippings would help baste the turkey for the first couple of hours. I put whole red potatoes on the top shelf and used maple wood chips for smoking.

The directions I've come across for turkey breast say to allow about an hour a pound. However, this 6&1/2 pound bird was done in 4 and 1/2 hours. It was actually a tad overdone at that point as I didn't expect it to finish that soon.

This came out really really good. The maple flavor really came through on the turkey and the potatoes. I still couldn't resist adding wasabi paste to the potatoes when I mashed them whole/unpeeled.

I've been eating bbq turkey sandwiches like crazy. I picked up a gallon of Blue Ribbon meat market's own bbq sauce a couple of weeks ago and that's perfect on this turkey between a wheat bread roll.

Block pity is ready hog tomorrow morning--bbq for supper--more pics from Micanopy tomorrow--so if you are in the neighborbood!!!

phatphingers like tapppytalk

Whole hog cooking in florida
First pic is pig just on pit, 2nd pic is hog done waiting to be flipped for skin crisping and the last is before the picking started
It was a feral mix hog about 75lbs--according to those from NC a perfect bbq size

phatphingers like tapppytalk

I have been practicing the Low and Slow method, that I've learned the past year+ reading Gary's book for smaller cooks and just family meals. I felt I finally had the skillz to be able to cook for larger group. Wife's workplace is having a potluck lunch today and I volunteered to make rib tips for 15 people.

Here's what I gathered previous to cooking:

apple wood from neighbor's felled tree
Cowboy lump charcoal
Stubb's natural briquettes

30lb box of Amity Pork Brisket Bones, http://www.amitypacking.com/brisket-bones-pages-54.php

Thanks to Gary, I could use three different pieces of equipment, all at the same time and easily control temperature, all without using a thermometer.

Gramps even gave me a nice compliment:

"Your backyard looks like Lake St. and Oakley in 1979, and this stuff tastes just like it too!"

Here's some images:

Any Christmas smoke outs this year?

For Wigilia, I made three whole smoked fishes:

whitefish
salmon
mackerel

Wasn't sure where to ask this and figured some people in here may have some ideas about it;

Is anyone familiar with the Char Griller Duo 5050?



My gas grill is about shot so I need a new grill this summer. I prefer gas just because it's easy/no mess. But, I do want to start messing with charcoal a bit more and I know the purists on this thread swear by that over gas. (Even my smoker is a propane Brinkman.)

This Char Griller is around $300 at Lowe's and has great reveiws. A guy on another site recommended it saying he's had one for 3 years and it works great for him.



On a side note, I smoked 2 ducks last Sunday. Stuffed them with onions, lemon and orange slices and smoked over an applewood and hickory mix. Finished them on high heat on the gas grill to crisp up the skin. Came out really good.

My experience with CharGriller is that they suck. I have a wood-burning offset that's basically a joke. The metal's too thin, so it doesn't retain heat and there are so many holes and gaps that it's nearly impossible to control the temperature. It burns hot and fast and there's no good way to remedy that. You get what you pay for. I don't need to imagine how crappy this unit must be to be priced at $300. Based on my experience, I'd avoid it.

As for gas vs. charcoal, I'd opt for the latter but that's an entirely separate conversation.

=R=

Here is a link to what Derrick Riches wrote about it: http://bbq.about.com/od/gascharcoalgril ... 50109a.htm
His views are similar to, though perhaps more positive than, Ronnie's.

My recommendation would be to get a simple 22.5" Weber kettle and a separate, inexpensive gas grill. I think you'll find that separate grills each do a better job than an all-in-one and you'll end up spending about the same amount of money.

A new Weber can be had for about $100, maybe less. You should be able to find used ones very cheap (and note that virtually every part on a Weber can be replaced). It will last a lifetime and is a very serviceable smoker (and Gary describes very well how to use it as a smoker in Low and Slow).

You can get a decent, inexpensive gas grill for under $250 easily. Here is a link of candidates: http://bbq.about.com/od/gasgrills/tp/aatp062109a.htm
I have a BBQ Grillware, which was a Lowe's brand a few years ago. They don't sell it anymore, but it's a tank and works well.

Here is a somewhat dated thread on shopping for a gas grill: viewtopic.php?t=7915

I agree that you want separate gas and charcoal grills. For charcoal, the 22.5" Weber works great. I recommend the One Touch Gold for $150. For gas, Weber habitually finishes at or near the top of the rankings by Consumer Reports and Cooks Illustrated. Get a 3 burner model. The Weber Spirit 310 is $500, the Weber Genesis 310 is $700. Weber grills are well made, have great performance, and last a long, long time. As previously mentioned, parts for a Weber are easy to get. Both of my Weber grills are over 15 years old and work great. The charcoal grill is all original. I've replaced some basic parts on the gas grill. Buying a "cheap" grill does not really save you any money and it is an exercise in frustration trying to cook on it. You would be better off buying a used Weber than the new grill you are considering.

Don't buy new - you can usually find nice Webers on craigslist for a song. Like this listing:

http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/app/2914833607.html

If you are willing to fix them up, oftentimes you can get a very nice grill for under $100. I got a nice Stainless Steel Genesis Platinum for $150 and bought stainless steel flavorizer bars off of ebay for $40.00. A great grill for less than a typical char broiler POS.

I knew this was the right place to ask. Thank you all for your help, I will be looking at seperate Weber's. Looks like G. Wiv will be selling another book pretty soon.

In a weak defense of a CharGriller, when I got into bbq I got one, a longer barrel smoker. A pain to assemble? Check. Ineffective offset smoker box? Check. Bad thermometer? Check. Plenty of leaks/bad seals? Check. crazily hard to clean? Check. However, after abandoning the offset box and making the fire off to the side of the barrel and indirectly smoking, I made some pretty darn good bbq. It really taught me a lot about controlling a fire and temperature, airflow and smoke, and getting an overall sense of the smoking process.

So now that I got a 22" Weber smoker, it is like child's play to use and needs so little maintanance during the cooking process. I am glad I got the pain-in-the-neck experience of "mastering" a shoddy smoker. So there's that I guess.

Also, I really like it for grilling. It has cast iron grates which are really good, and comes with a tool for manipulating them without getting soiled or burned. And you can also raise and lower the grilling surface very easily, which I also really like.

Anyway, I agree with the above posts completely, but for me the CharGriller is not totally without merit.

MKL wrote:In a weak defense of a CharGriller, when I got into bbq I got one, a longer barrel smoker. A pain to assemble? Check. Ineffective offset smoker box? Check. Bad thermometer? Check. Plenty of leaks/bad seals? Check. crazily hard to clean? Check. However, after abandoning the offset box and making the fire off to the side of the barrel and indirectly smoking, I made some pretty darn good bbq. It really taught me a lot about controlling a fire and temperature, airflow and smoke, and getting an overall sense of the smoking process.

So now that I got a 22" Weber smoker, it is like child's play to use and needs so little maintanance during the cooking process. I am glad I got the pain-in-the-neck experience of "mastering" a shoddy smoker. So there's that I guess.

Also, I really like it for grilling. It has cast iron grates which are really good, and comes with a tool for manipulating them without getting soiled or burned. And you can also raise and lower the grilling surface very easily, which I also really like.

Anyway, I agree with the above posts completely, but for me the CharGriller is not totally without merit.

I think you're right about the grilling aspect. With its large surface area, heavy duty cast iron grates and adjustable charcoal pan, it does make for good grilling. I'm just mostly negative on it because it doesn't come close performing all the tasks it's supposedly designed to do, especially the low & slow, offset functions. The firebox and chimney are almost useless. It'd be a better product if those elements were just omitted entirely and the price was dropped commensurately.

=R=

I wouldn't recommend getting the CharGriller. I've used one for several years and got to the point where I made ok, but certainly not great or consistent bbq on it. Having finally bought Low and Slow I tried my first cook on it yesterday. After following the directions for the offset smoker down to the letter the chicken was nowhere near being done after 1 1/2 hours and the temperature at the grate was hovering around 225. It ended up taking about 3 hours. In the first step Gary doesn't tell you to monitor temperature, but I would imagine that it should be over 300 as the vents are left open for this lesson.

I'm going to pick up my Weber Smokey Mountain today after work and will be starting over from the first lesson tomorrow

Today's cook. Mackeral and yellow croakers.

Today's cook. Mackeral and yellow croakers.

http://i.imgur.com/FKngQ.jpg

kenji wrote:Today's cook. Mackeral and yellow croakers.

http://i.imgur.com/FKngQ.jpg

These look great. How did you prepare them?

Thanks.

Stopped by:
JOONGBOO MARKET
http://www.joongboomarket.com/
3333 North Kimball Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618
(773) 478-5566

Bought the frozen Norway Mackeral, and the smaller yellow croakers in the box in their freezer. What you see is about 12 dollars worth of fish.

Thawed them, scaled them, gutted the fish. rinsed then dried thoroughly. In a baking pan used course sea salt and covered all of them with it. Placed in fridge for 1 hour. Rinsed them with running water to get salt chunks off, dunked them in cold water. Dried them thoroughly. Placed them on the rack, brought the rack outside. Let them sit in shade (it was 50 degrees out) for about 1/2 to form a pellicle.

Took the 22 inch Weber Kettle, used Royal Oak briquettes, placed a dozen hot coals with a chunk of cherry wood in, internal temp of weber up to 190F. Placed rack of fish opposite side of the coals. Probably opened the kettle 3 times in dduring the 3.5 hour cook. Internal temp of kettle at grate level fluctuated between 185 and 235. Added wood two times. Bottom air holes were wide open, top I opened full too. It wasn't real windy yesterday.

Internal temp of the fattest mackeral hit 172F.


Didn't use a drip pan and didn't use a pan of water over the coals either. Essentially dry heat and smoke.

Thanks!

Those look great! I love smoked fish!