Second trip up- let's fire this baby up!

On second trip to Oklahoma, we added a door.  We also cut off the old single handle and welded 2 new "cool" handles that allow for easy lifting of the lid... And we added a counter balance weight to hold the lid open.  I didn't want the lid to go too far back making it difficult to close, but it had to stay open so I could work the smoker out too.  It was time to start a test fire to see how well it drafted and distributed heat.   I didn't want to go too far in building until we knew the fundamentals were right.  Most things went well except the door- and it warped when we were cutting it too size for the firebox.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Biscuit test

Image
So learning more about creating exceptional BBQ, I came across something called a "biscuit test".  In short, you can find the hot spots on your smoker by smoking uncooked biscuits and looking at the color variations.  Here is how mine performed: Loading them up: Notice the even color across the top- that is GREAT!!!!  Plus one point for the reverse flow!!! As I was taking them off, I noticed the bottom of the biscuits were significantly more browned than the tops . So I loaded a second round: Then I flipped them and this is what I had: Put closer together for easier color comparison: So my lessons learned: 1) I'm getting really consistent temperature coverage across the top- no real hot spots.  YAY! 2) It cooks hotter from the bottom than the top.  That means I need to cook my briskets fat side down. 3) It's hotter closer to the firebox as shown by the darker browning... not a lot different,...
Read more

I love the grill more than the smoker

Image
So the smoker was working nearly flawlessly now, but you don't often see smoked hamburgers- and it's even more uncommon to see smoked steak.  There are simply some things that must be grilled.  I knew I wanted the grill to be large.  One of my previous (retired) grills let me cook 32 burgers at a time and it was great!   I wanted the ability back to cook a LOT of burgers at once.  I also knew that controlling temp on a charcoal grill can be harder than a gas grill- but this rig is going to be "a naturale"... No gas here!  After hours and hours of research, the best design I could find was a Santa Maria style/Argentine style grill with some tiny modifications/enhancements.  This style of grills has a wheel that turns and lifts the grill surface away from the heat source if needed.   We planned for a drop front to allow easy access to coals too.  This lets me easily move coals from the firebox to the grill, or from the grill to the fi...
Read more