Charcoal grill/smoker recommendations?

Costco Prime.

I know, I know............ Her bearing my child has made that shortcoming seem tolerable.....

 

E went for the New York.

 

I regularly get the prime sirloin there but figured I'd go for the good strip to christen the new grill....

No clue what/where they were fed but they tasted like it was good whatever it was....

They also have prime ribeyes and tri tip, and filets only occasionally.

 

Nice grill marks!

very precise turning

 

Lined them up through the beer cans......

 

So far I've done spare ribs, country style ribs, pork loin, chicken wings, and dog biscuits (yes, dog biscuits). When I made the wings, the dogs were literally sitting outside staring at the smoker with their noses going crazy refusing to come inside so I threw a couple of handfuls of biscuits on one of the racks after I took the wings off. I left them in the smoker for about 20-30 minutes until they heated through and smelled like smokey meat. The dogs were in heaven for the next week. I think I'm going to do a whole box next time I break it out.

Costco really does have good meat with a lot of flavor. Considerably better than any local grocery store I've been to. However, since moving here, I haven't found anything as good as the steaks I get from Maplewood Meats outside of Green Bay (http://maplewoodmeats.com/). All their cured meats, sausages, brats, etc. are all superb as well.

Mark

 

Costco meats, unless specifically noted, are grain fed and commercially bred. And while their quality is decent, it's nothing compared to a truly well-raised, grass-fed (perhaps grain-finished) piece of meat. The flavor is quite different and, once you start eating it, it's difficult to truly enjoy commercial meat again.

I source my meats from local farms who follow great raising practices.

 

Including the prime?

While I'm certain a specialized ranch would sell better meats, without going through too much trouble, the prime meats there are far > than the supermarket stuff when grilling on the fly.

The prime sirloin usually comes out better than the store bought filets.

 

Lawry's sells whole rib roasts, ready to cook at home.....

Just sayin'

 

The Weber is a charcoal smoker so it only needs fist sized wood chunks. I have been using either apple or mesquite or a combo of the two. I'm just playing around with tastes right now. I purchased both woods from Home Depot in 5lb bags.

I have also been looking for a good butcher around the south side. Ray's seems to be the place I am referred to as well so I guess the hunt continues. I have contemplated ordering a half cow from the butched I mentioned above and freezing a ton of meat. I'll have to check out Pacific Produce though, sounds good.

Mark


Edit: I also did a brisket I got from Costco for one of the Packer games when we had people over. It was an 11hr smoke; started it at 4am and it came out fork tender. The whole party was quite impressed and eat damn near every ounce. It should have been enough to feed twice as many people....fatasses.

 

How is the Smoke Hollow holding up for you ? I've been rolling it over getting one. Went out and looked at one at my local gander mtn. Trying to get some feedback. most complaints Im finding are the LP bracket is flimsy, smoker box leaky, and it scratches and rusts easy. Seems alot of people are fixing the leaks by pulling the rubber lid stoppers and sealing the firebox / charcoal box seam. Have you run into any of these problems ?

Thanks alot for the help.

 

Thanks for the input Kurt.
I pulled the trigger on it yesterday. Gander mtn. even price matched the sams club price which was awesome. Went together like a dream yesterday fit and finish was great. I didn't get a chance to fire it up and season it yet. I do see some mods I would like to do to tighten up some of the spot weld seams on the smoker side to help make it a little more air tight, maybe JB weld the seams. Don't know if that would cause a toxin problem. Have you done anything with yours, IE seals, baffle plates, or fire bricks ?

Thanks again

 

I just stopped at one of the local Amish stove shops and bought a tube of this stove cement.

http://www.rutland.com/productinfo/stove--gasket-cement.html

good up to 2000 F and gets hard as a rock. He also has a thin lid gasket for green eggs and said I should use if i still had problems. He said between the 2 it should be pretty tight. Hope to seal it tonight, been around 30 here in Lancaster. He said to experiment with ceramic tiles on the bottom if i wanted to help dist. heat across the box evenly. I did think about the lifting tray issue, probably won't mess with it till spring when i get into using the firebox more.
Gander had the smoke hollow cover for $49 so i picked it up.

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

Did another round of NY's tonight, along with some Portuguese Linguica as a kicker....

MMMMMMMMM

 

We are in the middle of moving and staying at a suites hotel with a couple of gas grills on the patio.

Like any good Q enthusiast, I went to the local grocery and picked up a couple of very large bone in chicken breasts for the weekend. Grilled them over direct heat to crisp the skin and moved them to indirect and went back to the room for a bit. When I went back to check them, the gas had run out with no backup tanks. I would guess they were about half cooked.

Anyway, I took them back to the room, put about a half cup of balsamic vinegar, a shot of spicy mustard and a shot of Sweet Baby Ray's in a saucepan and brought to a boil. I then turned it on low and added the chicken making sure to coat both sides. I covered the pot and braised the breasts for about an hour and fifteen minutes turning about every twenty minutes.

Best chicken ever! It has to be the most tender bird I've ever had! No pics, but thought I would share my accidental recipe.

 

I can do one better. I got fed up with the grills at the hotel and found a Weber Q on craigslist for a good price. Putting some sausage on in a bit.

 

The Pig is my hero. It would be an honor to cook with you one day.


Mark