I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

[wroughtn_harv]

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Larry, I take it you don't know a lot about Texas, or you'd know about Aggies. I think the Aggies are the butt of most of the jokes in the state. )</font>

And justifiably so. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Monday after the funeral over dinner I was introduced to the world of cockerals and pullets by an enthusiastic Aggie, sophomore. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I have enough of a problem with having a son in law who thinks Texas Orange is the only true color while having a grandaughter a sophomore at OU. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Really glad I don't have a Baylor or Aggie in the fold yet.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Yep, Harv, the 1015Y is the only onion I wanted in my garden. However, in my travels, I found that the Vidalia and Walla Walla onions were at least almost as good. I eat quite a bit of onions, and my wife eats lots of onions, but our nearest neighbor on the farm has to be the all time record holder onion eater; he doesn't eat any meal of any kind; breakfast, lunch, or dinner, without having slices of onion to go with it.)</font>

We eat lots of onions around here.

Potatoes are always better when they're cooked with diced onions, chopped mushrooms, and cut up jalopenas. That goes thrice for eggs and about two thirds that for hamburgers.

Salads don't need near as much dressing if any at all when onions are added. A hamburger without a large slice of sweet onion is real close to being a veggie burger without the veggie. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( That's what I mean. You can't beat the gas for convenience on those tired nights, but when I've got the time I'd rather do it right with the smoker/cooker. I've seen some nice combo setups. There's a nice one at a nearby Bass-Pro shop that's mounted on a small utility trailer, but it goes for about $2600. It isn't stainless. I think I can put together a pretty nice system for a fair bit less than that.)</font>

I suspect my foot dragging has a lot to do with wanting to go stainless. For a couple of years I had severe lust for a ten foot piece of two foot pipe with a quarter inch wall that was stainless. I had hemmed, hawwed, and hammered, to where the price was a little over three hundred dollars. I was looking for a like minded bud that would buy the pipe if I picked up the rest of the stuff.

Then the other day I went to the steel yard and the pipe was gone along with every other piece of stainless scrap they could get their hands on. I happend to find a piece of two inch sold bar stainless scrap five foot long that missed the boat ride. Their rate was two dollars a pound for stainless scrap. Lawd help us all.

At these rates I figure I'll have eight hundred to a grand in the cooker if I go stainless. That ain't peanuts. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[OkeeDon]

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

<font color="blue"> When I'm done I want to have ALL the advantages of a traditional smoker--cooker. I also want to incorporate a propane system for those evenings when I come home tail tucked firmly between legs and my wife is too pooped to pop up supper.

So-o-o-o-o give me your best concept of what I should be looking to make.
</font>

Harv, haven't been ignoring you, but I'm out in Okeechobee for a couple of days, having the well put in, and I have a pretty primitive connection out here -- through my Nextel phone.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where the more you learn about something, the more you learn that the less you know. That's where I am when it comes to building a grill. I built the cabinets, but I've never built a grill -- I buy commercial built-in grills and install them in the cabinets.

It's a bit like saying you're going to build your own kitchen range. I could do it, but why? I doubt it would look as good or work as well as the ones I can buy.

Now, I say that, even while knowing your fabrication skills. The problem comes in with the design of the grill. Ever see someone build a chimney that won't draw? There's a right way and a wrong way. I know the right way for a fireplace chimney, but I don't know it for a grill. I don't have a clue how to get the heat to flow evenly. I suspect it's hit or miss. The same thing is true with propane -- they have hydrodynamic engineers who study things like the flow of gases, and even they can design a crummy propane burner.

Back to my original point. I know too much to try to build my own grill, because I know that I don't know enough to succeed. It's guys like you who follow your guts who have the best chance to build one.

 

[ljh2]

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

Nope, don't know too much about the great state of Texas. The extent of my actual firsthand experience consists of about an hour spent in the Houston airport during a layover. Did some work for a company based in Irving, but never actually visited their headquarters. Had a friend from there that was a Longhorn Alumni.

 

[ljh2]

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

Harv,

Sounds like you missed out on the perfect piece of steel for a cooker. For a 10 ft pipe @ $300, that would have made a couple of pretty nice grill boxes at a reasonable price. What are folks here in the US of A going to do when all of our steel and iron are over in Asia? /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

If you end up having to pay 800-1000 for materials alone, it kinda takes the fun out of the whole idea. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I guess most normal folks don't care if everything they buy is a one of a million piece of mediocrity, instead of a one in a million gem. They'd rather buy their 'Made in China' product for $129 at Walmart rather than have a custom unit, not that I've never done that, but it seems that most folks settle for 'good-enough' instead of 'great'.

Well, enough ranting for one day.

 

[pgk]

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

Hey Mark

We use a number of different grills, smokers, bbq pits when we cook in competition. At home I use a Weber Performer 90% of the time. Fantastic all around grill, you can bbq low and slow or sear at 600 degrees. The performer is a charcoal grill with a gas assist burner. Meaning the gas burner is used to start the charcoal only. You cook inderect or direct. If I had to pick one pit out of all the one I have used it would be the weber performer...

Pete

PS My team in 2003 "Swine Thyme BBQ" took 19th overall in the Kansas City Royal, over 400 teams from all over the country competed.

 

[28RedHorses]

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

Bird,

I got the exact same grill and it's great!

I like it so much the Wife's getting pancakes on it when the weather is nice enough!

I looked at I'd say 20 different models before I found "The Big Easy". I liked the three burner set up and the shelf burner for warming.

BBQ On!

28Red /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Bird]

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

We haven't used that griddle yet, but I think I've got it figured out about right for my BBQ brisket cookin' now, and we've done burgers a couple of times.

 

[imported_Charliechan]

Re: I am in a BBQ grill quandary !!!

For those of you that prefer the wood smoke affect over propane, consider one of the models that can do either propane or wood. I use the propane for quickies like hot dogs and burgers, but break out the wood for cookin brisquet and smokin turkeys.

Keep a grillin,

Charliechan

Gotta get to the farm and build me a cinder block pit.
Any ideas on that, please share.

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif