kcdave: grills, smokers

[d-townmike]

Holy shit, what, do you own an all-inclusive resort or something? You going to be serving those steaks at the swim up pool bar?

Did you buy this from Zyclone?

[kcdave]

Wow, that place looks hella nice.
JSC, you mentioned something about avoiding propane,
and I believe I saw you mention something about getting burnt.
Did you have a grill explode or something?

There are a great deal of grills on the market that will be
of interest to you. The location you will be placing it is
always of utmost importance to know, so the pic you provided
is very helpful. The tropics, and within a stones throw of salt
water = any budget el cheapo box store grill you would buy will
will begin to rust before you even assemble it.
With that- what budget range do you have, and would you easily
be able to have electricity available at your placement area?

[Mikey]

Regarding the Oklahoma Joe's offset smoker, as I said in the other thread I purchased the Highland model back in May and it's a decent smoker but it requires some attention. I find that I have to check at least every 30 minutes to adjust dampers and/or add wood. If you're doing a brisket or a pork shoulder, that's a big commitment.

A few other observations:

I wouldn't plan on using it as a grill. Yes, you can grill on it but:

- The charcoal grate in the main barrel isn't all that accessible. You have to pull up one or more of the cooking grates to get to it.
- It's at the bottom of the barrel, so the charcoal area is significantly less than the cooking surface area which is in the middle, so your really direct heat is limited in space.
- There's no way to adjust the height of the charcoal grate, or the cooking surface, so you don't have a lot of control over the cooking intensity. My old Charbroil offset smoker had a pan attached to the fuel grate and you could raise it and lower it in three steps without removing anything. I used it quite a bit for grilling in spite of a similar reduced cooking area because it worked well. This also made it a lot easier to remove the spent fuel. I didn't realize that the Highland had this limitation.

These days I use my Weber Genesis gas grill exclusively for grilling. I may purchase a charcoal grill in the near future, though.

If you do get an Oklahoma Joe's smoker, I would advise you to get it delivered pre-assembled, if possible, where you'll be using it. I originally ordered mine to pick up at Home Depot (or Lowe's maybe? can't really remember). The fucking box was so heavy that I couldn't even slide it on the floor, much less imagine unloading it at home. It's pretty heavy duty construction, which is good, but not easy to move. So I cancelled that purchase and re-ordered for delivery assembled.

If you get this far, be sure to go over it closely when it's delivered. Some of the guys that they pay to do this are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. When I got it into my yard after delivery and was starting to season the inside with cooking oil I noticed that the bolt holding the bottom shelf to one of the wheeled legs was missing. This caused the legs to splay out and was a serious defect. They also cross-threaded one of the bolts holding the fire box to the main barrel. So, I had to call them and have them pick up the defective unit and deliver a new one. I was about two weeks late in being able to use it.

One last thing. If you do get one of these be sure to get the firebox basket that fits into the firebox. I makes managing the fuel a lot easier.



https://www.oklahomajoes.com/highland-firebox-basket

[Kierland]

I throw wood in metal box and add a grate. Works great everytime.

[Kierland]

I think I just said that is what you should do. Occam's razor.

[Meat Head]

I expect Jsc might spend a little time visiting the ladies privately.



Cooking lessons, nice one on one sessions. Good job. Jsc the Condo gigolo. You ought to get kcdave down there, you two could be Pimp assed, just your style. And the old ladies will smile.

[Screw_Michigan]

Live look at JSC in Mexico:

[kcdave]

Mexico is inexpensive, except when it is not. Many of the same products we have here are made there, and those are inexpensive. But if it is a product that is only made outside of Mexico and it has to be imported, then they tax the hell out of it.

This may well likely change what I recommend.
Are you saying you will have to buy it in Mexico and
will not be able to buy it at home and ship it there?

[mvscal]

Get a fucking Weber kettle for grilling and a decent offset stick box for smoking. Don't over think it. You've got plenty of space.

[Donnie Baker's Ghost]

Live look at JSC in Mexico:

"It's yer mother's fault. She told me I had to turn the gas on for five minutes to purge air out of the lines."

[Kierland]

Yeah all this waffling back and forth about whether or not to buy local. You really are an R in D clothing.

[Kierland]

I will kindly follow the rules, which I am. Will you kindly not lie to us. You just said it wasn’t a question of buying local and then in the post before that you are wondering if you should buy local. You can’t even keep your thoughts straight in a simple thread about BBQs. You’re a hot mess.

One more time slowly for the retards. Have the local guy make you a Q. See how easy that was?

[Donnie Baker's Ghost]

Kierland, can you please limit your political rantings to political threads? Hint: this is not a political thread. Thank you.

Yeah right.

Pedo, Pedo, Nazi, Nazi, pedonazi, nazinazi Pedo Nazi Pedo White Supremacistpedonazi!!

[Kierland]

I didn’t call him any of that, now you on the other hand are both a Nazi and a pedo. But you don’t care about that, you care about being called a Nazi and a pedo. I wonder why that is.

I actually don’t, I exactly why.


So to recap: nothing wrong with being a pedo or a Nazi, just something wrong with me pointing it out.

[Donnie Baker's Ghost]

I didn’t call him any of that,

You will.

[Kierland]

Nice backpedal pedo.

[Donnie Baker's Ghost]

Nice white flag, Nazi.

[kcdave]

Are you saying you will have to buy it in Mexico and will not be able to buy it at home and ship it there?

The top end Oklahoma Joe offset smoker is $800 here. If I would buy it here and ship it, there would be considerable shipping costs and then they would tax it heavily before I could actually get it at our villa. Just a wild guess, but the final total cost that way would probably be $2000+.

Home Depo and Academy exist in Mexico, and presumably the Oklahoma Joe smoker is available there. The big question is where the smoker is made. If in Mexico, then they might sell the same smoker for 10,000 pesos (about $500). But if it has to be imported, then it might be sold for 3x that amount. Other than the U.S. price, these are made up numbers, but that is the concept.

So I don't know what is available there, but that's not what I need help with. I need to figure out what will work best in that situation.

Get a fucking Weber kettle for grilling and a decent offset stick box for smoking. Don't over think it. You've got plenty of space.

And I don't have plenty of space. This will be stored outside in what is now a plant area on the side of the villa, and I might have to cut down a palm tree to do that.

So I want to identify a cooking device, and then I'll figure out whether it will be better to buy it there or get Richardo to make one.

You can't go wrong w/ a Weber Kettle as mvs suggested.
I don't squat about any grills or smokers that are actually produced in Mexico.
I think your best bet at this point is to check around when get down there
again and check out what they have to offer. Most of what Academy and HD
offer are entry level, cheapo grills and smokers. HD sells Weber and Academy
has Old Country and Pitts & Spitts but those both run north of $1k here, so it
may be more than you budgeted for. I would HIGHLY recommend checking
out what the locals are using and seek out a dedicated BBQ store that will
higher quality products than the box stores. I would also recommend searching
around what the local swap/shop pages like whatever is the Mexican equivalent
of Craigslist is, and save a helluva lot of $$.

[Kierland]

Nice white flag, Nazi.

This is the same shit fatmelty resorted to. Senseless drivel. Congratulations on being as stupid at the fatman.

[Donnie Baker's Ghost]

Nice white flag, Nazi.

Senseless drivel.

Oh? Do tell.

[Kierland]

You backpedaled, so it wasn’t a white flag. I’m sorry you don’t know how words work. Funny how you are both stupid and right wing. Why do those to always go together?

[Donnie Baker's Ghost]

Dayum. Stuff rots away that fast, eh? Remind me to never move closer to the coast.

[kcdave]

So kcdave, what are your thoughts on Kamado grills? I've read where they can get really hot, which hopefully would be good to put a sear on a sous vide steak. That version isn't one of the $2,000 ceramic ones, but from the reviews I've read it seems like it would be ok. For a few years, until it falls apart from being in the ocean air.

You would have a very hard time finding any grill that I would
give less of a recommendation for. I owned one of those
for about 7 mos. I bought it in the fall of 2019, and sold
in the spring of 2020. I bought if from Wallyworld. It had
been a floor model that in the garden center. Semi-covered
patio of theirs, that would get wet when it rained w/ a wind.
The floor was already starting to get surface rust. I talked
the manager down to $50 if I recall as I had my eye on it all
summer and really wanted to compare how it would do against
a Weber grill or smoker. If its rusting that quick here in Mo.
over the summer, I can't even imagine what it would
do down there.

I had 2 other major issues also.
1. It was VERY difficult to maintain temp. If you would only
be using it for grilling you would possibly have better results,
but I was using it for smoking and it LOVED to overheat and when
Kamados overheat, you are hours away from bringing the temp
back down. That is any Kamados biggest problem.
I even added a temp controller to it, and it still overheated.
I did learn that adding less and less charcoal helped, but
that seemed to greatly reduce your cook time.

2. The cooking grate broke when I went to lift it with the tool
they provided. I called their customer service and they flat
out refused to replace it, since I did not still have the receipt.
I sold it right after that and have bad mouthed them all over
the internet whenever I get a chance. Weber's customer
service is great, and Char-Grillers sucks.

For what you are looking to do, and it seems stay in lower $$
budget range..... Just buy a Weber kettle. They are porcelain
enamel and will NOT rust as long as you don't chip the enamel.
The cooking grate and charcoal grate will, but are easily and
cheaply replaceable. They will also last longer if you keep them
well oiled, or just bring them in when not in use.
A kettle will cook anything that the Kamado will as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Weber-Original-P ... r=8-2&th=1

[kcdave]

Any time.

Another option, a little pricier are the PK's.
All aluminum, EXCELLENT cookers. These grills
do well on the bbq circuit. The also damn near
own the Steak Cooker Association circuit.
However, I have no idea what the availability or
pricing would be in Mexico.

https://www.amazon.com/PK-Grills-99740- ... r=8-3&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/PK-Grills-PK360- ... 13370&th=1

[kcdave]

They are made with thick cast aluminum.
They will never rust, they hold heat very well and do
so with a smaller amount of charcoal than most
grills.

https://www.pkgrills.com/the-pk/

Because aluminum is inherently rustproof, this could be the last grill you ever buy. The PK is the smart choice for lake houses, camps, coastal applications and wet climates.

[mvscal]

And that is that, done. A Weber it is.

Thank you my friend.

You will not be sorry. Brilliant design. I learned to grill on my dad's kettle back in the 70s. There are also a lot of accessories that extend it's utility. I've been using the hell of the rotisserie.

Get a Weber Smokey Mountain cooker for smoking and you're set. Very small footprint and Weber quality. It also has a couple gadgets.

[Kierland]

A sausage party no doubt, there will also be smoked meats.

He probably burns them to make them more appealing to his tastes.

Speaking of taste, how does mvskkkal’s racist dick taste you nazi coddling fuckstamp?

[Screw_Michigan]

A sausage party no doubt

[mvscal]

Whoa. What's going on there? Definitely looks interesting.

That is wiejska in the smoker. It's a basic Polish country sausage. Garlic and marjoram are the main seasonings.

Now that we're in peak gumbo season, I'll be doing some andouille. Definitely need to make some more tasso as well. I usually keep some on hand along with home cured bacon.

[Kierland]

You Nazis should get together and discuss your different kinds of hate while you discuss your different kinds of meats.

[Donnie Baker's Ghost]

Every...

fukken...

thread...

Like an AI bot.

[Kierland]

Nazis I can handle, someone bringing it up triggers me.

Sin,
Donnie Dumb