Charcoal and Solid Fuel Cookers - Weber and the rest

There are so many threads here about gas grills and honestly, they're of zero interest to me and many others. If I wanted to cook on gas, I'd cook inside.

When it comes to charcoal grills, the CW is that it pretty much comes down to Weber Kettles, then Weber Kettles, followed by Weber Kettles, and then after that, the rest of the field. And that's the main reason (I suppose) why there isn't a whole lot written about them. It's very cool that a locally made product has endured as the gold standard and remained fundamentally unchanged for decades. Yes, there have been tweaks, cabinet and size options added (and taken away), and other peripheral variations but the 22" round kettle itself just chugs along.

Of course, when it comes to solid fuel outdoor cooking, we have our own resident expert, G Wiv, who has authored (published) volumes on the subject and has been preaching the gospel since well before LTH even existed. And there are many others here who also have a wealth of experience in this area. For many of us devotees, the Weber is so durable and consistently reliable that when it comes to alternatives, or what's even new in the marketplace, we're somewhat in the dark.

Other than making a trip to a quality grill store, useful information on the current market can be hard to come by. Up and down the internet one can find all sorts of information from so-called experts who seem to know very little about the fundamentals of (outdoor) cooking. They have a lot of equipment, cool ball caps, all sorts of branded gear, and surprisingly little working knowledge on the subject at hand. It's a shame.

That said, I have managed to find one source of information that I think is very solid. His name is Dave Hunt and he has at least one video on a youtube channel called Hectors Smoke House, which I think is definitely worth a watch . . .


Which is the best BBQ Grill or Smoker to Choose and Buy - Charcoal, Briquettes, Wood, Barbecues

It's not perfect and I don't agree with everything he says but it's pretty clear that he has a lot of experience and that he knows what's out there. I thought this video conveyed a lot of useful information without being dated, overly biased or too misinformed.

I'm sure there are other reliable sources out there and if you know of any, it would be great if you could share them here. And even better would be sharing your personal experience. For those of us cooking on Weber kettles, the need to know what else is out there probably doesn't come up very often but when it does, we can't always rely on having Gary available to answer our questions. Hopefully, this thread can be a clearing house for this type of information.

=R=

I've been using a Hasty-Bake for the past five years. It's a variation of an Argentine grill but rather than raising/lowering the grill surface it raises/lowers the charcoal box:

https://www.hastybake.com/collections/c ... coal-grill

Great capacity for grilling and smoking.

Maybe there will be some grill gurus at the LTH picnic. The reason I ask is that when I bought the two flat in Berwyn the man I bought if from (now passed) pointed out a grill in the back yard he brought back from Japan or somewhere in the far East. Seems he was stationed there and became enamored of that kind of charcoal cooking. Its hugely heavy and I don't know if its made from pottery or metal. We have not done anything with it because we put a Weber there. I'll try to take a picture of it. I wonder if its worth trying to fire up.

toria wrote:Maybe there will be some grill gurus at the LTH picnic. The reason I ask is that when I bought the two flat in Berwyn the man I bought if from (now passed) pointed out a grill in the back yard he brought back from Japan or somewhere in the far East. Seems he was stationed there and became enamored of that kind of charcoal cooking. Its hugely heavy and I don't know if its made from pottery or metal. We have not done anything with it because we put a Weber there. I'll try to take a picture of it. I wonder if its worth trying to fire up.

Really curious about this. I do hope you can take a pic. I'd love to see it. In fact, if you can post it here, that would be great. If not, you can email or text it to me and I'll post it here.

Thanks!

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

toria wrote:Maybe there will be some grill gurus at the LTH picnic. The reason I ask is that when I bought the two flat in Berwyn the man I bought if from (now passed) pointed out a grill in the back yard he brought back from Japan or somewhere in the far East. Seems he was stationed there and became enamored of that kind of charcoal cooking. Its hugely heavy and I don't know if its made from pottery or metal. We have not done anything with it because we put a Weber there. I'll try to take a picture of it. I wonder if its worth trying to fire up.

Really curious about this. I do hope you can take a pic. I'd love to see it. In fact, if you can post it here, that would be great. If not, you can email or text it to me and I'll post it here.

Thanks!

=R=

A ceramic Komodo grill? The Green Egg is a brand of a Komodo grill.

Meathead Goldwyn is local and runs a great website full of information. They have reviews and ratings on all types of grills and equipment, as well as tested recipes and techniques.

https://amazingribs.com/

Lots of great stuff here.

spinynorman99 wrote:I've been using a Hasty-Bake for the past five years. It's a variation of an Argentine grill but rather than raising/lowering the grill surface it raises/lowers the charcoal box:

Hasty-Bake , nice piece of equipment! I had two knock-offs of the Hasty-Bake a company gave me a while ago for compensated input. A little rickety, airflow dynamics were not wonderful but I enjoyed using them, surprisingly versatile. I sold both for my usual fee, a 6-pack of diet coke, and the new owners were pleased.

toria wrote:Maybe there will be some grill gurus at the LTH picnic. The reason I ask is that when I bought the two flat in Berwyn the man I bought if from (now passed) pointed out a grill in the back yard he brought back from Japan or somewhere in the far East. Seems he was stationed there and became enamored of that kind of charcoal cooking. Its hugely heavy and I don't know if its made from pottery or metal. We have not done anything with it because we put a Weber there. I'll try to take a picture of it. I wonder if its worth trying to fire up.

Hi Toria -
Is it shaped like an egg standing up, an oval, sitting atop a kind of pedestal?
I'm curious too.
I'm local if you need any help with whatever. The quick description of "Japanese," "heavy," and "pottery or metal" kinda makes me think it's a Kamodo style egg smoker.
I have one in my backyard. Love it.

Duplicate post deleted

So, I have a Weber smoker and it of course does a fine job smoking BBQ, but when I light it up, 8 times out of 10 it's for grilling, not low and slow. You can grill on the bottom third by placing a grate directly on the inside curve of the bowl. This gives you a very large grill area, perfect for two-zone fires as well as three vents for fine air flow control. Here it is with beef and pork Korean BBQ:


Another trick is to use the chimney starter as a mini firebox for cold smoking. It's difficult to get the WSM low enough for true cold smoking temps, but lighting 1-2 coals in the chimney and then placing the chimney on the bottom far away from the food will get you to a comfortable 90F. hat's how I did a recent batch of beef jerky:

eating while walking wrote:Another trick is to use the chimney starter as a mini firebox for cold smoking.

I've used the chimney starter as grill countless times, configured the WSM every which way but Sunday from ice in the waterpan for cold smoking to making paella over a fire on the lower grate but this is a new one on me.

This old dog learned a new trick.

The Komodo Kamado Big Bad 32" is basically a yacht, relative to the dinghies and motor boats that are most home cookers. Of course, weighing in at over 900 pounds, you'd better have a good place for it, and you'd better not plan on moving it often, or ever.

Dave at the Hector's Smoke House youtube channel has a pretty comprehensive primer video about the unit . . .


Komodo Kamado Big Bad 32 - Review | Best BBQ In The World??

They appear to start at a whopping $5,900.00, fob California, and that's without many of the accessories that one would probably want. When I looked up the price, I noticed that KK also makes a 42" unit -- the 42" Serious Big Bad -- that weighs just under 1,700 pounds and is priced at ~$9,500.00, fob CA. Very cool in many ways but absolute insanity in many more. Both models are so expensive, if I owned one, I'd be scared to use it. Still, when you're talking about the very top end of solid fuel cookers, the KKs are absolutely in the discussion.

=R=

I would want to check the delivery from California to Illinois.

You may have someone who drop it off at the curb, but won't roll it to where you want it.

Just so many expenses on top of expenses.

Regards,
Cathy2

For cold smoking I've developed a really effective but also really PITA system. I've got a Texas two barrel smoker. In the fire box I lay out a 'fuse train' of briquettes back to back, with a 3" log of apple on the top of the train. Then I light one end of the train and let the briquettes 'chain smoke' from one end to another. Works well, but takes a very very dedicated amount of supervision to keep things either 1) lit; or 2) not flaming.

Then I discovered the pellet tube smoker. I love it. Light it and forget it for 4 hours. Temp never goes above 90°F and I don't have to supervise at all.

I suspect that there are some--perhaps many--purist objections to this scheme. I don't care, I'll worship this new idol happily!

Geo

I have been saving up for a pellet grill/smoker (more for grilling than for smoking), but I hadn't ever heard before of a pellet tube smoker, so I had to look it up. Interesting! Learned something new today. Thanks, Geo!

Sure, Katie! I love mine, it's changed my cold smoking life. Salmon, whoo-hoo!

Geo

Geo wrote:I'll worship this new idol happily!

Don't laugh Gary, but my friends in the wine biz tell me that Sweet Red Wine is now most certainly A Thing. Quelle horreur, but there you have it.

Of course Red Mountain Burgundy got me through college–I'm so old that it was 99¢/gallon at our Safeway in Santa Clara! : )

Geo

Geo wrote:Don't laugh Gary, but my friends in the wine biz tell me that Sweet Red Wine is now most certainly A Thing.

And McD sells a million burgers a minute.

Maybe MickeyD needs to start selling Sweet Red Wine with their burgers, Gary!

From an industry blog:

"Is it possible that sweet red wine sales totaled one-third of all the chardonnay sold in the U.S. over the past year? And did slightly better against cabernet sauvignon? Or that sweet red wine outsold syrah, zinfandel, and malbec over that time period, and almost overtook merlot?

Hard to believe, but apparently true. A leading wine industry analyst, working with proprietary data, has estimated sweet red wine sales in the 52 weeks ending April 25 were about $534 million. That means, besides outselling syrah, zinfandel, and malbec, sweet red also did better than moscato — the current next big thing — and missed sauvignon blanc by just a couple of percentage points."
–https://www.winecurmudgeon.com/has-sweet-red-wine-taken-over-the-u-s-wine-market/

Geo