Grilling season is back!

[LoneWolf2554]

Friends, I humbly kneel before you all, tis true that grilling season never ends. We just ran out of room for a little while and the grill parking was sacrificed for other (I won't say more important things because after all not much is more important) things. I plan on doing plenty of penance to make up for this dip in my grilling activities, just as soon as I get this beer open.

Cheers and enjoy the drinks a bbq

 

[Lumpy76]

Just started smoking and found an awesome forum. bbq-brethren.com. Check it out, learned a lot.

 

[sbsg2005]

Just started smoking and found an awesome forum. bbq-brethren.com. Check it out, learned a lot.

Give The Smoke Ring a try also. Lots of good info to be shared there. By the way its 9:30 am and the sweet blue already rolling on some pork butts and a brisket, with ribs to go on at noon, mac and cheese and baked beans at 3. Dinners at five got about 25 coming over for friends birthday party.

 

[jetmechG550]

I'm an Egghead.

 

[theweakerbrother]

I bought some delicious prime rib steaks at Kroger and promptly overcooked mine as I was inside and left the grill unattended a bit longer than I meant to. The steaks were still delicious but they weren't medium rare.

 

[femurphy77]

I bought some delicious prime rib steaks at Kroger and promptly overcooked mine as I was inside and left the grill unattended a bit longer than I meant to. The steaks were still delicious but they weren't medium rare.

Blasphemy!

 

[ddavidson]

Nice grill. I have the same grill except mine came with the firebox. The handle is on the end of it. You should be able to relocate the handle if you want but it doesn't appear that you need to anymore. Nice wheel mods.

I have found that both sides work very well but you're going to want to make a few more mods to that thing in order for it to do a decent job smoking food. The temps across the entire grate will not be very consistent otherwise. If you're interested, I can post some pics for you.

 

[churchmouse]

Yeah, I know a lot of us never stop but my grills' been buried in the barn for several months awaiting an upgrade. We have the Chargiller duo but didn't buy the smoke box for the side until we stole one at a garage sale last year NIB for $10.

The chargriller duo is a great grill for us but wasn't really designed to be moved around with the smallish wheels and the poorly located handle. With the addition of the smoke box the handle goes away so it essentially becomes a stationary grill.

I built the stand out of 2x2 square tubing, added some 16" lawnmower wheels on one end and a couple of 6" swivel casters on the other end so now it pushes with ease! I'll be putting a sturdy handle on the caster end this weekend now that the smoke box is in place and I can place it so that it doesn't get to hot to handle during use in case it's necessarry to move it.

I think it turned out pretty nice.

There has to be some rule in the grillers master hand book against showing off some gear of this caliber and not feeding the group. I am reporting you to the grilling authority's ASAP...........As soon as I figure out who and where they are.


Very nice rig. We do the multiple Webbers.

 

[femurphy77]

Nice grill. I have the same grill except mine came with the firebox. The handle is on the end of it. You should be able to relocate the handle if you want but it doesn't appear that you need to anymore. Nice wheel mods.

I have found that both sides work very well but you're going to want to make a few more mods to that thing in order for it to do a decent job smoking food. The temps across the entire grate will not be very consistent otherwise. If you're interested, I can post some pics for you.

Bring on the pics Double D, very interested in hearing from somebody that's modded the same rig to work more efficiently.

 

[ddavidson]

Get a couple of cheap thermometers and install them on either side of the handle. You'll use these to tune the smoker by getting the temps as equal as possible. Before installing them permanently, check them in a pan of boiling water to see what they read. Some can be calibrated, mine weren't. Just be aware of this although they're usually very close.

When smoking, turn over that tray in the bottom. It covers the inlet on the right and spreads the heat and smoke around. I used part of a break to hold it in place. Cheap and easy and the temps are with in 5* on the added therms. When you grill on that side, turn the tray back up to hold the charcoal.

Installing a dryer exhaust duct with the opening down near the grate will allow the smoke to move across the grate evenly. Otherwise, it'll just rise up near the normal opening. I used a stainless screw to hold it in place. It does not interfere when I just grill on that side. I used those clamps to hold everything together. Those, with the screw holding make it virtually part of the lid.

The most important mod of all. I really don't think this needs explaining.

A couple of pork butts just going on:

What's left of one of them:

 

[ddavidson]

Although to be perfectly honest, this grill is not a very good smoker. The lid is very leaky as well as the connection between the cooking chamber and firebox. I'm working on getting these issues fixed. I had to babysit it quite a bit to keep the grate temps at 230-240 using lump and apple wood. If you want to get serious about smoking food, you need to get a cooker.

 

[ddavidson]

It does a great job on other stuff though.

Asparagus tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper on the gas side. Boneless chicken thighs and chicken strips with a barbecue sauce that I'm working on the charcoal side.

 

[femurphy77]

Very inspiring pics Double D, simple but effective mods. I had wondered about the seal between the fire box and smoke box and had thought about some of that hi temp sealant like they use on fireplaces. They make a rope gasket for the doors on fireplace inserts that might just be the ticket to seal the gap between the lid and the grill itself. I'll have to look into it.

 

[Naptown]

Grilling season is never over...

 

[ddavidson]

I tried that rope stuff and I think it will work but forget trying to use that adhesive that came with it. When I get around to it, I'm going to try some rivets. The firebox itself has a couple openings too that need to be addressed. I'm looking for something for that too.

I honestly just thought about stuffing some foil in there to prevent the air flow. That's the biggest problem because you pretty much have no control over the temps. The damper is pretty much useless because of all the leaks. I find myself just adding small amounts of fuel constantly to keep the temps right and not get too high. It gets the job done but this is not how it needs to be done.

 

[jetmechG550]

Get ahold of the Big Green Egg high temp gasket and use 3M High Tack 76 or Super 77 to glue it on, just make sure the surface is relatively clean.

 

[femurphy77]

I felt compelled to dig this up again; we attempted our first smoking late last year. Time is always working against us it seems like lately, anyhow the results were less than superb; in the words of Crocodile Dundee "It tastes like but you can eat it". Several things went wrong, we lost our fire after a couple of hours, we were trying to smoke it according to a "formula" we found on the 'net, we had no idea how to prep the meat, etc.

We lost our fire after a couple of hours due to the buildup of ash in the ashpan with no way to clean it out without basically destroying the fire due to the design of the side box. We built the fire where it was designed to be but might have been better off building it on the cooking grill in the fire box.

The rest of the problems were things you learn with experience but given our problem of adequate time on the weekends and not wanting to waste potentially hundreds of dollars worth of meat on a slow learning curve we decided to cheat and enrolled in a barbecue boot camp.

We had read an article about the boot camp a couple of years ago but since they only offer it twice a year and our aforementioned lack of time we were unable to attend it until this spring. The camp in our opinion was money well spent and we learned a lot about meat selection, prep, types of charcoal, different types of smokers, etc. Oh and the best part is that we got to eat the lessons each day!!
The class was sponsored by Charcoal and More down in Sellersburg, Charcoal and More | Bringing an award winning BBQ experience to your backyard!!Charcoal and More | Bringing an award winning BBQ experience to your backyard!! and was directed by Chris Marks of the Three Little Pigs bbq team, Chris is a 9 time National Grand Champion and has been seen on the show "Pitmasters" on the tube.

We came home with our newfound knowledge and I modified the fire box so that it now has a seperate basket that hangs above the ash pan to allow easy dumping of the ash pan without disturbing the fire.

We prepped our meat, spareribs, built our fire and adjusted our temp and were off and running. About two hours into our second attempt our temperature started dropping at times dipping to 175 degrees. This is based on the 3 thermometers I installed in the hood at locations that would place them at cooking surface height with the lid closed.

We were using the 3,2,1 method, one of the methods taught in the bootcamp. This entails smoking the meat at ~245 degrees for 3 hours, removing it and slathering on a mixture of honey and your favorite bbq sauce, then wrapping it in aluminum foil and placing it back on the heat for 2 hours and then unwrapping it and placing it back in the smoker for 1 hour or until done whichever comes first.

Well after the unwrapping in prep for the final hour it was painfully obvious that the meat was quite done already in spite of the fact that the indicated temps were only in the ~185 degree range on average for the duration of the smoke. We elected to try it and see how it tasted and it had good flavor and there were even a few places that the meat was fairly tender, that is just below shoe leather toughness in this case.

After we ate the approximate 1 pound of edible meat out of the 15+ pounds we put on the grill I decided to try and troubleshoot both the heat loss and the overcooked meat.

I was obviously leery of the temp readings even though 3 thermometers were all within 5 degrees of each other so I got out my Fluke Meter with optional thermocouple setting and placed the probe in the middle of the cooking surface about 1 inch above the grilling surface. What I found was surprising but not unexpected given the overcooked meat. According to the Fluke meter the temp at the meat location was 375 degrees, almost 100 degrees higher than the thermometers mounted in the lid. The only thing I can figure is that there is air getting in thru the area between the lid and the grill just an inch or so below the thermometers thus giving me a false lower temperature.

I now own 2 remote temp sensors that I will play with this weekend while cooking some burgers and then maybe next weekend (time permitting as usual) attempt to have a successful smoking experience.

 

[jetmechG550]

Have you calibrated your thermometer? Dome temp is often a bit higher than at the grate. You may also want to try a small water pan off to the side depending on what type you are using. I do 3-2-1 all the temp, usually the last hour is more like 30-40 minutes.

 

[IndyBeerman]

Snip
We were using the 3,2,1 method, one of the methods taught in the bootcamp. This entails smoking the meat at ~245 degrees for 3 hours, removing it and slathering on a mixture of honey and your favorite bbq sauce, then wrapping it in aluminum foil and placing it back on the heat for 2 hours and then unwrapping it and placing it back in the smoker for 1 hour or until done whichever comes first.

Well after the unwrapping in prep for the final hour it was painfully obvious that the meat was quite done already in spite of the fact that the indicated temps were only in the ~185 degree range on average for the duration of the smoke. We elected to try it and see how it tasted and it had good flavor and there were even a few places that the meat was fairly tender, that is just below shoe leather toughness in this case.

After we ate the approximate 1 pound of edible meat out of the 15+ pounds we put on the grill I decided to try and troubleshoot both the heat loss and the overcooked meat.

I was obviously leery of the temp readings even though 3 thermometers were all within 5 degrees of each other so I got out my Fluke Meter with optional thermocouple setting and placed the probe in the middle of the cooking surface about 1 inch above the grilling surface. What I found was surprising but not unexpected given the overcooked meat. According to the Fluke meter the temp at the meat location was 375 degrees, almost 100 degrees higher than the thermometers mounted in the lid. The only thing I can figure is that there is air getting in thru the area between the lid and the grill just an inch or so below the thermometers thus giving me a false lower temperature.

I now own 2 remote temp sensors that I will play with this weekend while cooking some burgers and then maybe next weekend (time permitting as usual) attempt to have a successful smoking experience.

I use the 3-2-1 method on my Char-Broil Grill, but do not use the dome gauge, I use two dial gauges placed on the grill grate to get the temp at rib level.

I also cook @ 225-30 degrees and have found using the 321 that if you go above that temp your ribs will get over cooked. Cooking for that long you have to watch the temp closely.

Try 225-230 degrees for 1 rack and see how you like it.

 

[Hammerhead]

Reading through femurphy's post, I have a couple of questions.

What meat are you smoking?

How often are you opening your lid to check your meat?

Are you starting your fire in the firebox? Charcoal chimney?

Are you expecting just that fire to last the entire cook time?

What are you using as fire fuel (briquettes, wood, natural charcoal, etc.)?

How close are you putting your meat to the firebox?

While you are cooking, is there fire in the firebox, or just glowing coals?

The answers to these questions will help me understand your cooking method, and perhaps help provide some more advice. I use a smoker with an offset firebox, and have smoked pork loin, brisket, and pork shoulder all in the last two weeks. That doesn't include all the chicken, pork, steak, burgers, dogs, and other sausages that I've grilled during that time.

Low and slow is the key. This takes time. I've never used the 3-2-1 method, I'd never heard of it. Maybe I can provide some advice that you can use to bolster this method for you.