Don't get me wrong, I agree that charcoal tastes better. However, I'm seriously amused by all the "I'd never use gas to grill" guys who also are more than happy to drink cheap beer or shitty whiskey with their fancy steaks.
Word. Gas bbq is still good. Just not charcoal good. And quick and easy dinners are very nice sometimes.
Bitter???? Stop using kingsford then!!
Briquettes are made of pressed GREEN lumber scraps/waste/sawdust. Green wood has CREOSOTE in it and thats where the bitter taste comes from. Just like using green wood in your smoker, it will make a nasty bitter film on the meat and the condensation of creosote wood moisture will be all over the insde of the smoker.
Get good hardwood charcoal or burn down some good dry/seasoned alder/maple until you have coals.
No more bitter bagged briquette badness.
Bitter? I think you missed a letter, he said "better". I only use Kingsford Charcoal, and it's never given me a bitter taste.
So your are saying it's made from green wood before it's burned into Charcoal? If it's burned/dried before pressing into briquettes, shouldn't the Creosote be burned off at that point?
This Video talks about the temps being used to dry the wood mix, Kingsford heats it to 760 degree's Celsius.
I would put some blame on wood and I'll tell you why. You can take this at face value...but having bbq'd for years with wood of my own, oak, plum, apple, chunks from the store and whatnot. Yes your taste of bitter will be from green wood, sometimes that coats the food like crazy and the taste is Ass-inine. Another factor is having your wood have a ridiculous amount of bark on it and smoking that food while that bark is directly on it can have this astringent taste to the food. Couple factors to this is unless you know about the history of the tree, consider that it's likely been sprayed, acid rain, piss, you name it could be on that bark so taking careful care of removing it is key to the best flavors along with making sure that wood is dry as well. Happy Grilling!
Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:17 pm
AR15L
Site Supporter
Location: Nampa, Idaho Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2011 Posts: 19386
Real Name: Rick
Its really a good idea to have a chimney in the middle of the kettle pumping out some serious heat, but yet its all indirect to all the food on the grate. From what I'm learning with the WSM, it also helps to minimize the amount of coal needed for each cook. I'm sure you could DIY your own from a 3-5# food can that would be just as good --- I actually made one out of a popcorn can for my WSM for running shorter cooks - I've only got one cook under my belt with it so far, but from the first use it looks like its a winner!
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I was happy to see on the first run that ~3# of coal ran a solid 4.5 hours with the ability to crank the heat up at the end - awesome! I'm actually thinking that it would somewhat economical to smoke up some legs or thighs on the WSM now and get some good crispy skin! Its going to have to be tried.... I'm just not a big fan of whole chickens - that the can would do well - its just too much work to break down a full chicken and deal with - I usually don't cook more than ~2.5# at a time, so 5-6# is way too much for me.
And just in case you have any questions.... https://tvwbb.com/ You can get lost on that site for many hours....
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_________________ Plan B is actually repeating Plan A.... it just involves much more alcohol.
Of the ten voices I hear in my head, only three keep telling me NOT to shoot.... Do I go with the majority or common sense?
Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:47 pm
olydemon
Site Moderator
Location: Olympia, Warshington. Joined: Fri May 27, 2011 Posts: 12506
Real Name: Oly Damon
Nice! I'm sure you will never look back and say you made a mistake.... That is the model I'd be happy with..... but I'm really coveting the Performa models that are built into a cart. I had a chance to snag a freebee last week, but it was way up north.... I'm kinda of the mindset that I don't 'need' to have two gassers, a WSM, AND a kettle.... not enough meat to spread around.
_________________ Plan B is actually repeating Plan A.... it just involves much more alcohol.
Of the ten voices I hear in my head, only three keep telling me NOT to shoot.... Do I go with the majority or common sense?
Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:38 am
JohnMBrowning
Location: Bothell Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2015 Posts: 4843
I started to get lost over on the VWBB..... but I did run across this -- look pretty intriguing and definitely priced to make it a viable option.... https://youtu.be/w92pLyewdG8 Dammit - can't get this vid to imbed.....
I can't wait to see some cooking vids of this thing in action to see if the 'SloRoller' actually does anything. Even still, its definitely an alternative to those heavy expensive ceramic cookers.
_________________ Plan B is actually repeating Plan A.... it just involves much more alcohol.
Of the ten voices I hear in my head, only three keep telling me NOT to shoot.... Do I go with the majority or common sense?
Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:22 am
olydemon
Site Moderator
Location: Olympia, Warshington. Joined: Fri May 27, 2011 Posts: 12506
Real Name: Oly Damon
I started to get lost over on the VWBB..... but I did run across this -- look pretty intriguing and definitely priced to make it a viable option.... https://youtu.be/w92pLyewdG8 Dammit - can't get this vid to imbed.....
I can't wait to see some cooking vids of this thing in action to see if the 'SloRoller' actually does anything. Even still, its definitely an alternative to those heavy expensive ceramic cookers.
To get the embed to work, just need to put " w92pLyewdG8 " from your link between the youtube2 brackets.
like this: [ youtube2 ] w92pLyewdG8 [ /youtube2 ]
I used to work with a guy years ago who had a big green egg and he used to swear by it. When I was shopping this time I looked at that style but couldn't justify the cost and they seemed to be a little advanced to be starting on on charcoal grilling.
It wouldn't surprise me if the charcoal grill is outlawed in the future, or regulated into obscurity like a wood burning fire place. Pretty sure people will make the justification that they are inefficient, produce smog, smoke, CO2 and cancer causing carcinogens. So I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:27 pm
olydemon
Site Moderator
Location: Olympia, Warshington. Joined: Fri May 27, 2011 Posts: 12506
Real Name: Oly Damon
Fired up the new grill today. Did the BOGO NY strip steaks with pretty OK results. Sort of stumbled a bit at the start. Since the grill was new I loaded up a full chimney of coals and once hot dumped into the 2 baskets. I also tossed in some chunks of mesquite just to get some smoke going on inside. Let that burn for about 30-40 minutes to get the factory gunk off it. I then transferred the coals that still seemed hot enough into one basket, but I should have put some more fresh ones on as they sort of died in temp. The grill wasn't quite hot enough to sear so I started another new batch in the chimney. Once those were dumped in everything was better. At the same time I also cooked 2 of the steaks on the IR grill to see the difference. After a bit I got the hang of it on the 5th/6th steak. I saved the rarest one for me, the rest of the family prefers more done meat anyways so they didn't mind. Also cooked up a batch of asparagus in a cooking tray on the kettle, as well as baked potatoes on the gas grill. Got lots to learn how to do this thing properly, maybe next time I shouldn't have so much going at once, lost track a few times. We ruined the roasted garlic and the shrimp was a bit tough...
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Ordered a Vortex to try the Ring of Wings... for the weekend.
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