Your Grilling Weapon of Choice?

[Boone]

Awesome stuff Mark! Yeah, I didn't get into smoking foods until about a decade ago because I wanted to try my hand at pulled pork. I bought a Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker, which as you stated a lot of people call a 'bullet'. If there is anyone reading who wants to buy an incredibly affordable and versatile entry-level smoker, the Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker is absolutely awesome. Currently, I've got a Big Green Egg, a Weber Kettle, and my new RecTeq pellet smoker. I think I'm more or less done with gas grills as there wasn't anything I got out of that I can't do with the pellet grill.

I'm excited to have another BBQ guy in the fold Mark...

 

[Mark The Homer]

Yeah the WSM is a highly regarded Smoker. The 18" WSM got a five star review over at amazingribs.com. But so did my drum and I ended up with that. It's not easily transportable though - it weighs 140 lbs! You have a nice selection of cookers there, Boone!

 

[Boone]

Another cool tidbit on the Weber Bullets - there is a web forum focused completely on it, the Virtual Weber Bullet Bulletin Board (as well as a larger site with all kinds of great info and videos)

https://tvwbb.com (bulletin board/forum)
https://www.virtualweberbullet.com (general Weber Bullet site)

 

[Mark The Homer]

Yeah - I've been on there a couple years now! It's a pretty nice site. Not as nice as this one though ;-)

 

[Boone]

It's funny, when I first stumbled on that site probably 20 years ago, they were a vbulletin forum just like we were (and like the original ES was). When we moved to Xenforo, the next time I checked in, they'd moved to it as well.

 

[Ashburn Dave]

I bought an Assassin competition smoker so I'm set there. I've had several Weber gas grills and they are OK.

But if you ask me what I would like to add to my collection one day, here are a couple of future adds:

PK360 - the ultimate for searing and cooking steaks on

Gateway drum smoker - best for butts

Santa Maria - just to be cool

 

[Ashburn Dave]

I searched "smoker" for this thread and it had been mentioned 12 times. And 11 of those times, it was mentioned by Boone! Haha. I guess that makes sense when you figure where he lives.

Meanwhile, I'm up here in Montgomery County. Not a lot of smokers up here. Too deep into Yankee territory maybe. But that is slowly starting to change.

Naturally, I've had a Weber 22" kettle since the mid-80s.

Quick story - this was a few days before Christmas in 1988. My buddy, Schuyler, knocks on the door, and he hands me a paper plate with some sliced chicken on it. It was smoked chicken which he had done in his back yard. And it had some saran wrap over it. It was fanned out in an attractive manner. But nonetheless, it didn't look particularly appealing. But I appreciated the holiday gesture and thanked him. He left after a couple minutes. Very nice.

So I tried a slice of this chicken.

HOLY MACKERAL. It was simply the best chicken I had ever had in my life! It had flavor. It had tenderness. It had juiciness. It had everything. I couldn't believe it. I was blown away. And as I recall, it was breast meat! And I'm a dark meat guy!

I said to myself, "Man, if Schuyler can produce this in his backyard, so can I!"

And so that started me on my smoked poultry adventure.

Originally, I had and still have a standard 22" Weber. Here it is with a 24" griddle laid on top - 3/8 inch thick!

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The old modded Weber

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I bought one of these water smokers way back in the late 80s. I think it set me back fifty bucks. Sometimes, these are called bullet smokers.

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A buddy from the south suggested I try cooking a pork butt, so I did. And that opened a lot of doors.

Here's my SnS kettle - purchased amidst the Pandemic - in Oct 2020

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I bought the drum smoker at some point

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Next came the offset in 2021 - I modded it quite a bit

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Can't forget the camp stove - in case I want to make breakfast outside

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My weapon of choice? Depends on the cook!

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Small world. I worked in Montgomery County for 20 years over by the Montrose Rd. area. Great job but I had to drive it daily from Ashburn which is across the Legion Bridge. You are right about it not being BBQ country.

 

[Boone]

When I was in Argentina they would use those Santa Maria style grills for beef over wood fires and they do an amazing job. I had a Napoleon gas grill that was super nice, had an electric rotisserie and an infrared searing station. I’ve kind of moved on from gas grills but Napoleons are pretty great.

 

[Ashburn Dave]

My firepit came with a grilling grate but it doesn't move up or down. It just sits near the top of the pit. I've never cooked anything on it but I'm now thinking about trying some steaks on it.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

I'd like to post a public servie announcement. Do not use a wire brush to clean your grill. Pieces of wire can detach, stick to the grill and eventually on your food. It's rare but happens enough for there to be a name for this. I read an account of a guy who got a wire bristle stuck in his esophagus. You never want to be that guy.

I use a metal spatula that I have tethered to my grill with garden string, crumbled up foil works as well.

 

[RedWolf]

I'd like to post a public servie announcement. Do not use a wire brush to clean your grill. Pieces of wire can detach, stick to the grill and eventually on your food. It's rare but happens enough for there to be a name for this. I read an account of a guy who got a wire bristle stuck in his esophagus. You never want to be that guy.

I use a metal spatula that I have tethered to my grill with garden string, crumbled up foil works as well.

Tongs and a ball of aluminum foil
Or an onion

 

[RedWolf]

IDK?

 

[Mark The Homer]

Reminds me of my favorite Dave Barry published in June, 1995 - why not use liquid oxygen to light the grill? Save some time.

Dave Barry Official Website

 

[Boone]

I always loved the idea of a pellet grill. Seemed like the perfect morphing of convenience and smoking technology. I pulled the trigger 5 years or so ago on a Traeger. When it worked, it was fantastic. But as time went on I had frequent issues where temperature control was sketchy - it would heat up way beyond it's set temperature and I could never get the electronics to function consistently. I donated it to a Boy Scout Troop. On several friends recommendations, I replaced it with a Recteq. I went with the 'Backyard Beast' but that seems to have been a bad choice. I have had it for about a year and the issue with it so far is that the auger gets jammed up and stops working. The first time it happened, it was during bitterly cold weather, so I sort of felt that might be expected. A little bit of water or absorbed moisture caused the pellets to freeze around the auger requiring it to be opened up and 'unjammed'. Lately it has been happening with more frequency. I am using high quality Bear Mountain pellets and I keep a cover on it now when not in use so there is no reason it should be jamming up. I think that the auger motor on this model is just not strong enough to do the job - I can't think of any other reason I would be having so many problems (based on internet research it seems like a common problem).

It's sort of turned me off on pellet grills if I'm being honest. If I replace the Recteq I am going to really do my homework beforehand and try and find a brand/model that gets rave reviews for performance and durability.