This beast has everything I have been looking for. Good Texas company, and apparently a nice piece of hardware. I'll still need a propane grill for burning hotdogs and burgers, but for the stuff I really love to cook (ribs, briskets, steaks, pork butts) I think this is my density.
What say ye BBQ cooks? Thoughts, advice, insults welcome.
I can only speak for my one and only the Big Green Egg. I built a website in 2000 for a retailer in exchange for a large egg, table and all the accessories. It’s still going strong and we love it. No one turns down my smoked turkey dinner invitations! You can’t go wrong with it!!!
I would get the smoker and grill as different units. A couple of times when we were with a larger group it would have been nice to have a little more working room.
Granted, I've cooked on everything from an open stone fireplace (made my own firedogs and gantry with an anvil and hammer) to the latest and greatest restaurant gear (I hate convection ovens and induction 'burners')... but I'm ok with $20 bucks worth of expanded metal over a pit fire and put a #2 tub over it if you want reflected heat.
Take a deep breath, and think about what $2KUSD will buy. And if you can afford it? Yay for you. Go for it.
Your mileage may vary. I have a live in chef. And I live alone.
/johnny
How on Earth did you ever wear out an Oklahoma Joe’s smoker? The one we have is built like a Sherman tank. We have replaced the cooking surface grate, but I can’t imagine how you’d wear out the iron body!!!!
My cousin builds some rather nice smokers. Lotsa room, and the method of building allows for maximum effectiveness. Even puts em on trailers. I think I got a couple pics somewhere.
I’m always impressed with these but my $300 Weber Smokey Mountain smoker is about all I need. It holds temp for over 14 hours on one load of fuel and can hold four pork butts. Now if I was cooking for a big crowd...
Great meat forum. Must bookmark for Freeper Grillers.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/
As once who consumes smoked prime rib, ribs, and turkey on a regular basis, you most definitely want a Smoker, and that looks like a good’un. But I’m a noob too, so for the real advice go sign up for the Yahoo Group:
smokeymountain@yahoogroups.com
And you’ll get over 2500 opinions on just about anything related to proper preparation of meat for human consumption.
And it gets better gas mileage than a Chevy Volt ...
Join the cooking cult: buy a Green Egg. Brag about it until all your friends and relatives want to kill you.
Never heard of them.
I’d save the cash and get a WSM 22” with all the fun stuff.