BBQ - A Tasty Topic

R

Rockenstein

New Member
Anyone do BBQ?

You know ... slowly and with the utmost care cooking stuff with fire and smoke :)

I've had gas grills and various charcoal grills throughout my lifetime plus the odd bullet smoker and DIY trash can smoker now and then. Recently tho I picked up a Char Griller Super Pro along with the optional side fire box ... yea friends ... I like it very much and it's the bomb! Certainly blows away anything else I've owned at twice the purchase price!!

Anyway I've done up a few tasty items on it as is out of the box and it all worked out good but I figure a little less fussing about with shuffling the goods from hot end to cold end during a large cook would be nice. As is, just lump charcoal for heat, with the addition of a cookie sheet at the firebox end I can keep the temp of my rig at 225 for 3/4 of it's 580 inches of cast iron grilling area easily .. but .. the temps drop off to 185 or so at the smokestack end which makes nearly 200 square inches of grill space useless! 200 less square inches is not a big deal if your doing a single rack or a couple beer can chickens but if you've got a dozen or so mouths to feed and a full grill happening it's a real big pain to stay on top of while socializing and sipping some Jim Beam :)

Possible solution ... A mod I found online.

It's pretty simple really ... you get some 3" aluminum dryer flex hose and extend the intake of the smoke stack down to grill level. The concept of this I guess is to keep more heat and smoke at grill level for the entire length of the grill area before it exits the stack. Makes sense to me but will it work?

I haven't cooked since adding the flex pipe but sometime later this morning I'm going to go out and fire it up, get it up to temp, check the end to end temps yadda yadda. I've got 2 racks of pork side ribs marinating in the fridge and a 6kg worth of 1/4 chickens that were on for a buck a pound to experiment with. Also I lucked into a trunk load of cherry wood and half a dozen splits of hickory on the weekend for free. Going to start the fire with a chimney full of lump charcoal and will maintain it with cherry splits. First time for me trying to cook with just log splits.

Good or bad I will post some pics of the end result of today's cook sometime this evening...

Cheers :)

.
 

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First real try at some BBQ with just the cherry wood worked out very well indeed. With the smoke stack extension and the cherry wood splits fueling the fire I can maintain 250-275 degrees from one end of the grill to the other with ease. Had so much smoke with each fresh split of wood I threw in I was sure a fire truck was going to show up!

So ribs, chicken quarters and taters the first day and today some drums to go with a basket of deep fried fresh cut french fries.

YUM!!
 

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Mr. Rockenstien,
At last a subject that we are both in complete agreement about. I'm not a BBQ'er but a lover of BBQ.

Where did you find that little marvel that you are cooking on? Just might be time to try my hand learning to use one. Funny how if your willing to do the cooking everyone is willing to do the eating.

When I lived in upstate N.Y. I worked for an auctioneer who had owned a bar in Pearland, Texas for 20 years and BBQ was a must have on the weekend so he hired a fella who came in and did the cooking.
Jack watched and was taught by the BBQ cook how and what to do and he did the cooking after a year or so. As you know from doing it yourself it leads you deeper into the how's and why's of the process.

The BBQ guy shows up at the bar one day and says why don't you enter a contest so Jack takes his BBQ rig to the cook off and wins and the hook is set. After a few more wins he's looking for a better BBQ rig and the old cook hears about it and shows up at the bar again and says I'm going to give you my old rig. It's outside so out they go and in the parking lot is a 40" mobile home frame with three house sized propane tanks mounted on it for cookers and another one cut in half around the middle and sitting on end for beans and chilli.
There was a wood rack on the front end. He was the all state champion one year with the award to prove it.

His absolute favorite wood was cherry and he said more than once that only the best BBQ cookers use it.

I had to smile when I saw you used it as well. The mark of a craftsman.
The food looks wonderful and I bet your guests left every plate clean.

Steve.
 
Hahaa ... yea isn't it great Steve we can legally BBQ in Canada with wood from genuine Canadian cherry trees ... it's was so tasty man ... I'm sure one day it'll either be taxed or outlawed! You can bet I'll be first in line to protest and argue against that :)

Seriously tho I do like to eat tasty grub and that smoke flavor you get from BBQ in it's true form is my fav. Like I said I've had gas grills, trash can smokers etc etc but none of the food I've pulled from the aforementioned have compared to what I got out of this bad boy I picked up. I don't really know where you can buy one like I have new as I bought this one at an estate sale up in Balm Beach. A cottager up there passed and this was in the shed still packed in it's boxes. It was cool to read cherry is a preferred wood of a pro, I just lucked into the load of cherry I got and really I had no idea what I was after other than hardwood with the best wood being something that bore a fruit. I've used apple wood chips before and oak from well used Jack Daniels aging barrels with a charcoal fire but yea that stuff was crap compared to using just cherry wood for smoke and heat. If you can find a Q like this do have your credit card ready and buy it! Although since you can weld Steve maybe a couple steel drums that had food grade contents before hand might be the ticket. For a guy with a welding rig I'm sure you could fab up something similar in a day or two. Also really once you build the first seasoning fire and just stand back and watch how the smoke and heat flows from one end of your rig to the other pulling off some BBQ that has to die for flavor is a breeze. My next kick at the can is going to be some brisket, put an order in at the local butcher shop yesterday. Speaking of butchers ... there's a dying trade. Sadly most meats we buy these days at the grocery store comes out of mass kill plants that cover 2-3 football fields as opposed to how it used to be when the field fed cow, or pig, went from barn to table in fairly short order. BTW when is deer season in Ontario ... thoughts of some fresh bow kill BBQ venison is making me hungry!


Cheers :)
 
Works great. All ceramic, holds heat like nothing else.

You can low and slow or open it up to a thousand degrees and do some steaks in 4 minutes.
 
I had one of those exact barbeques, Rockenstein. I got it for free, barely used. All I had to do was replace the wooden handle parts and wooden end table that had been weather worn.
I gave that rig away, I have no idea how to barbecue.
 
GearNut said:
I had one of those exact barbeques, Rockenstein. I got it for free, barely used. All I had to do was replace the wooden handle parts and wooden end table that had been weather worn.
I gave that rig away, I have no idea how to barbecue.
Click to expand...

Good BBQ is easy once you figure out the heat bud. I mean ok a chimney starter load of lump hardwood charcoal will give you 250-300 degrees worth of indirect heat for about an hour depending on your grill's square inches. On a typical Weber kettle or a Q like I have, and cooking indirect, that translates into you having to have a chimney or so worth of hot coal ready to dump every hour. For an inch thick T bone steak, which would use direct heat and need 6-8 mins per side for well done, 1 load of coals is peachy. 4-5 lb beer can chickens on the other hand would require about 3-4 loads of coal and about 4 hours to complete with the indirect heat method. For me that translates into about half a 26 of Jim Beam before the munchies sets in :)

Does that make any sense?
 
Not sure when bow season is in Ontario anymore but you would love hunting in Tenessee
where my friends live. Last years bag limit was only 129. As they said all you have to do is shoot them.
The deer saw things in a different light of course. :)

I did weld a smoker up when I was in Minnesota visiting Silverbear last year. Stiil in the trailer were I put it when I brought it home but now you have my foot tapping and visions of BBQ dancing across my plate so if we don't get any rain tomorrow I'll dig it out and look at it again.

I took a large household water system tank and pulled the air/water bladder out and welded a propane tank that Silverbear gave me under it with the top cut out of it and mounted it on angle iron legs so it's about eye level. Looks some what like yours but on end. I had planned to lay it on it's side so it was like the one you have but then I got thinking that since heat rises I'd put the fire underneath it.

The whole thing was built out of parts that we got at his town dumps metal pile.
If it doesn't work I'll cut the legs off and turn it sideways like yours.

I worked for Dominion stores as a butcher in the mid 60's after I finished my chef training apprenticeship. Did you ever hear of the Granite Club in Toronto? Very exclusive private club. That's where I did my apprenticeship.
You should have seen the meat that went through there. Seven rib, prime rib roasts that were hung for 21 days in our own meat locker. Yipes, it was so tender that you could cut it with a fork and not have to push down on it hard.

Anyone selling 1/4 or 1/2 beef and pork near you? Sometimes the small local custom meat cutters bring animals in to butcher as well as what comes in from the local farmers. Brisket, food of the Gods.

If my smoker doesn't work I think that they may have one like yours where Silverbear is. They have a really great chain of stores called L&M Fleet Supppy and I'm certain they had one there.

Jack and I did three antique shows in Florida over the winter and what was left over after the first two shows he stored and then after the third show what was left we loaded up and took to Texas and sold at an auction and then visited some of his family.
His youngest brother is a BBQ champ as well having been taken under the wing of an old BBQ cooker like Jack was.

We went to a big BBQ cook off that his brother was in and you would have gone as nuts there as I did. They had smokers there that looked like train engines. There were tractor trailers with special low bed trailers with 3 and 4 custom made stainless steel BBQ's on them and dually pick ups with matching trailers that were BBQ's.
The whole thing was like the Gray Cup and the prize money was Texas sized.

We have a regular charcoal grill here and my brother and I were saying the same thing you did. How long before the government know it all's try stopping anyone from having a BBQ in thier back yard. I'm sure David Suzuki will be leading the charge.

We'll have to scream loud and clear that it won't be happening. Hey, that will be something that you and I can stand shoulder to shoulder and fight. Just as soon as we wipe the BBQ sauce off our faces.

Steve.
 
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David Suzuki ... nice human being with good intentions ... but man ... well I'll just leave it at that ... lol


Hey next time your at the grocery store check out Miss Diana's honey garlic ... it's great stuff! Think we'd get busted if we squirted it at Mr Harper :)
 
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Rockenstein, yes it makes sense. The direct heat/ indirect heat/ time thing is the key.
Perhaps I should go to the book store and get a how to BBQ book. I still have a baby Weber grill collecting rust out on the patio.

The last time I tried to BBQ chicken I ended up with fresh charcoal shaped like chicken pieces. I am guessing too much heat and too long on the grill?
 
Mr Rockenstein,

Squirt??? I'll bring the 5 gallon pail of honey if you don't mind bringing the pail of ants. :)

He'll be busy enough then so he can't do any more damage. Wait a minute!!! That's two things we agree on. Is this getting to be a trend?

Steve.
 
Good to see there are others who cook on charcoal. My wife keeps wanting to buy me a new gas grill. I tell her if I want my steaks to taste like diesel fuel, I'll take my meat to a truck stop and cook them over a semi's stack.

Cherry wood is my favorite but also apple and mesquite. I soak the wood overnight in water then lay it on heavy after the coals are going good. My rubs are a secret blend or stuff I find in my wife's spice cabinet. Never the same twice.

Steak and chicken are easy, anyone can do it, it's when you start doing pork ribs that the real talent shows.

Incidently, if the Health Department ever saw my grill they'd red tag it or haul it away as a threat to public health. Never clean a bar-b-que grill.

Thanks for the thread Rock. We've always seen eye to eye on things :)


Tom
 
Here's my cooker I got rid of propane and use charcoal. I've smoked turkeys, pork loin, and brisket. I've cooked millions of burgers, steaks, Cornish game hens, brats, fajita meat. I have a big stainless skillet I use to sautee' veggies. I like to use hickory and mesquite for smoke. Wow, now I'm hungry...
 

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Well it's going to be as easy as I'd hoped but it never is. Was up till 3am this morning looking at how people made smokers. Yipes, some of them could process a whole cow.

Just a Mr. Rockenstein said the main problem seems to be getting heat across the smoker evenly. There were a dozen different solutions to doing that properly.
Mostly baffles on the fire box end to direct the heat and plates with various sized holes in them across the bottom of the smoker. Up to the steel supply on Wed. to get metal to put around the door to seal it and maybe by saturday I'll be able to season it.

Any ideas on the best way to do that?

Steve.
 
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