Lets see your grilling, smoking, cooking wares

Darren Wright

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Figured we have a shop tour thread, might as well have a grill tour thread too.

Mine is a Louisiana Grill - Country Smoker 450 pellet grill/smoker
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I had a friend that was selling them, this one retailed for $850, but did some bartering as an even trade for building and maintaining his website.

It's an analog controller and will go from 0* to 700* in about 15 minutes. Once I shut off the switch, it stays running for about 15 minutes. During that time the auger shuts down and the fan continues to run and burn up what pellets are left in the fire pot. At the end of a long smoke (12 hours or more) I typically only have about a handful of ashes in the bottom of the fire box.

Salmon was what was for dinner tonight, marinaded, then cooked at 250 for 20 minutes. Don't remember what the season/marinade packet was, but was for chicken or fish. Had a mix of cherry and apple pellets in the hopper, I usually use pecan or alder, but didn't have any on hand.
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I've got some upcoming updates to add a digital PID control to more closely maintain the temps. Also plan to add some data logging features to capture some of my cook statistics.
 
I see one of your cooking wares is cast iron. Say more about that. As in where do you get them? Also what else do you 'cook' in, in terms of pots, pans, etc. What you wear while cooing can be another thread! :rofl: What other must have cooking tools do you recommend? Re,em,ber I am a newbie at this and NO one would confuse me with a real cook.
 
I see one of your cooking wares is cast iron. Say more about that. As in where do you get them? Also what else do you 'cook' in, in terms of pots, pans, etc. What you wear while cooing can be another thread! :rofl: What other must have cooking tools do you recommend? Re,em,ber I am a newbie at this and NO one would confuse me with a real cook.

The pan is actually a powder coated steel stamped pizza pan for the grill I had bought years ago. I typically will use it for when I do sausage loaves (sausages without casings), fish, or for some vegetables. When I do fajitas I'll slice up my vadalia onions to about 3/8" thick rings and quarter my peppers and cook them on the pan while cooking my meat., I just spray the vegies and pan with a canola spray prior to cooking.

Outside of those pans, I've got a rib rack or two and an all metal pot that I'll use for holding my bastes/mop sauces and let them stay on the smoker to stay warm when I use them. Oh I do have some of those silicon brushes for basting. I'll usually get a replaceable mop if mopping the meat.

Edit: Looking at Mike's thread reminded me I have a beer can chicken rack too.
 
Well, here's my Q-station. I replaced my old gas grill last Fall, then updated my smoker early this year. And, there was a little woodworking involved. I needed a work table to keep stuff close and at a nice work height. The result is a table that is 36" high, with a top measuring 39" by 20".

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And, of course, results. This is from a July 4th run and includes 16 tilapia filets, two turkey breasts, and two slabs of pork ribs that I trimmed to St. Louis cuts before cooking.

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I've got a Weber Genesis 3-burner gas grill that I love. I also have a New Braunfels side-firebox smoker that I've modified to run on propane. Unfortunately, they don't get used much, being 800 miles west of me right now. :-|
 
I also have a Weber Genesis 3-burner propane grill with a side burner. Have had mine for ~10 years. Also have a 22" Weber charcoal Kettle grill & still have a little Weber 2-burner that was previously used on a boat. Kept it because it's sometimes a convenient size just for the two of us for a light meal.
 
Woo Hoo!!! Masterbuilt 30" will be here Tuesday. We went to Target.com, Stacey has a Red card...some kind of discount thing but not a credit card. $149 but shipping put it at $200. She used her card, shipping was free and got 5% off price! Ordered the A-maze-n 5x8 pellet smoker per Brent's suggestion and used a coupon code found on Google somewhere...be here Monday so a week from tomorrow we have pulled pork sandwiches...analog style! Pic's when they all show up. With only 5 days of work left, I gotta save bucks where I can!

Carol - for some hint of what to add to your arsenal, couple pair of really good tongs, Pampered Chef has a great set. Meat thermometer, good heavy oven mitts, aluminum drip pans, basting brushes, Mason jars for storing rubs...I think I have several extra. I use (sacrilegious screaming starts) an electric knife to slice/carve stuff up and you'll need a big 'ol cutting board. Others will add more that I have no clue about!
 
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Lets see your grilling, smoking, cooking wares

Here's my setup. We've had this baby for almost 25 years. My wife won it by selling a certain amount of merchandise at a Tupperware party.

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We use it almost exclusively for heating up Oscar Mayer cheese-filled hot dogs.

Hey - you asked. :wave:
 
I loved my little gas canister grill. Mine was black, looked identical to that red one.
I was on vacation upstate, I left it there, never went back for it, we forgot it.
I must have cooked 100 meals on that thing over 2 summers.
 
I've cut down on my outdoor cooking units. I'm currently down to only 6.

This is my electric smoker. Small on capacity, big on convenience and quality of product.
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This is my gas BBQ. A costco purchase. A real workhorse.
It's got 3 regular burners, and infrared burner, an infrared rotisserie burner, and a side burner for a pot.
Had it for over 5 years and I can't complain.
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Sometimes you just need a charcoal grill to do things right.
To my mind, Weber just does it right. I've also got a little pid based fan control I can put on it to control the temperature to do low and slow smoking on it, but I've kind of switched to the electric for that.
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Ahhh, My New Braunfels "Guadalupe". I welded up an exterior fire box for her and added a chimney to turn her into a smoker. Put a bunch of bricks in there too for temperature ballast.
Only problem is it requires checking it just about every 1/2 hour to keep the fire burning to keep the temps right. Other than that no complaints.
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Gotta have a grill for the camper! One of those little sunbeam gas models. Quite Popular I hear.
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For the boat, we've got one of these little magma gas grills. Used it many times to cook up dinner out on the california delta.
Can't get to it right now, so here's a picture of what they look like.

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Ahhh, My New Braunfels "Guadalupe". I welded up an exterior fire box for her and added a chimney to turn her into a smoker. Put a bunch of bricks in there too for temperature ballast.
Only problem is it requires checking it just about every 1/2 hour to keep the fire burning to keep the temps right. Other than that no complaints.
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This one is the real butterfly of the bunch...it's going through metamorphosis right now and will emerge next spring as a full time planter box :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
No big guns here. A 4 year old propane Charmglow from Lowe's for normal everyday grilling. I had to replace the burners after two years, but the replacements I found on line were heavy duty and have held up well so far.
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The Masterbuilt Extra Wide propane smoker is a new addition.
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So far, I've done a big Boston Butt and a bunch of Atomic Buffalo Turds (ABT's). This is today's batch.
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I also tried out the A-Maze-N-Pellet-Smoker (AMNPS) and it is the bomb! Here it is just after I pulled it out of the smoker.
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Started this batch of ATB's with one row of the AMNPS filled with mesquite pellets, then the wife dragged me off to go shopping. When we got back, three hours later, it was still smoking nicely.....a lot better than having to check it every half hour to add more chips.
 
Well, time for an update on this thread. The smoker in the first post hasn't worked so well for the past couple of years. Its feed system used a rubber paddle/wheel to feed pellets into the pot. I had been having constant jams and overall the cooking experience was very frustrating on it. I attempted to replace the feeder with an auger from another stove and welding up a feed tube for it. Results were that the tube was too short and at certain points in the auger rotation, there was an opening for pellets to flow from the hopper, right into the pot. I may re-design it again, but its 15 years old and may not be worth the effort.

So I stopped by the BBQ store after getting an oil change this morning. I have been looking at a few different brands and models. In the end, accessories won me over. A Green Mountain Ledge smoker followed me home, along with the pizza oven attachment.
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Hoping to assemble it tonight. And need to find a keto pizza dough recipe to try...non-cauliflower!
 
my son has various bbqs, smokers, and I purchased him an attachment for pizza oven. my nephew loves to smoke pork in his smoker, ribs, brisket, and he makes some mean pulled pork.
no need for me to hassle, I just go when Im invited, best way to smoke meat, let someone else do it and then just eat. sounds lazy, but it isnt, its a strategy.
if my son lived closer to me, Id be there 6 days a week in his pool and hed love to bbq or smoke anything I want......its just long island summer traffic is approaching near impossible these days.
morning noon and night, traffic has b ecome a nightmare this year and last year as the pandemic let up.
and with gasoline around 3.80 a gallon, one would think it would slow down travellers.
well I drove home this morning from the conneticut rhode island border, going south and home was a bit of traffic, but going north, seemed bumper to bumper for 25 miles. construction and road repairs just horrible.
 
.... And need to find a keto pizza dough recipe to try...non-cauliflower!
Jealous of that pizza oven. I've been looking at the Blackstone and hoping to win the Megamillions. My favorite oven recipe is very similar to this one, based on almond flour, mozzarella and cream cheese. Honestly, once you get your body adjusted to burning fat, a cheat day with a real pizza, steaming hot from your own oven with all your favorite toppings is well worth it. Spent many years in Italy and nothing can beat a wood fired pizza oven.
 
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