<font color="red">"but charcoal that looks like big chunks of burnt logs." </font color>
90% of all charcoal is from maple.
I didn't know that until I started reading about cooking with fire.
You did get the same grill. HD is where we we bought it. Our HD and Lowe's are side-by-side and I always get them confused.
I've used ours twice and it is so easy to use!
Gary
Bluegrass Music ...
Finger-pickin' good!
Haven't used ours yet, Gary, but I just got through running a few little tests with my temperature probe to see if I thought I could get what I want and I think we'll like it. Before the week's over, I intend to try a brisket and think with it on the right side, and only the left burner on low, I think that'll work.
<font color="blue"> One thing I have noticed with this yrs model and that is they have gotten away from Lava rocks... but are designed with brass burners and heat deflectors.
Sorry, but I thought that the lava rocks helped with the flavor from previous meat drippings to add some flavor.. you might want to say were seasoned.
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Metal deflectors do the same thing as the lava rocks, but they do it better. One grill mfr. has a slogan, "If your grill still uses rocks, it was built in the stone age." The drippings are vaporized on the metal deflectors and give up their flavor just the same as they do on lava rocks or ceramic briquettes. The rocks allow the drippings to fall between the rocks and hit the open flame, which is what can cause the horrendous flare-ups that engulf your food in flames when you're cooking something fatty. The rocks do not form an even layer, and some areas are hotter than others. The rocks tend to absorb fatty drippings, and eventually have to be replaced. Most people put in too many rocks -- if you do use them, they should be in a single layer, carefully placed for size to get as even a layer as possible.
The metal plates are engineered to retain just enough of the drippings to vaporize, while channeling away the remainder to a grease catcher. They are also engineered so they cover the actual open flame, which channels the drippings away from the burner, helps prevent flareups, and protects the burner from clogging. The are of consistent thickness and shape, so the heat is more even over the surface of the grill. Many are engineered to direct heat to areas of the grill which might be cooler, such as over the venturi of the burner.
If you were to add a rack and rocks above the metal plates, you would be defeating the purposes of the metal plates, and would change the amount of heat which can reach the grilling surface.
All gas grills need a "flavor" layer between the burners and the cooking grates; it's what makes the grills so close to charcoal. In fact, in a properly designed grill, in blind taste tests, most people identify the food cooked on the gas grill as coming from charcoal. The vaporized drippings are what provide the flavor, and they don't care whether they are vaporized on charcoal, rocks or metal plates.
The most important thing you can do is cook slowly with the lid closed, so you don't lose the flavor of the vaporized drippings.
...Don
I think I've about got this new grill figured out for barbecuing briskets the way we like them. I did one a little over 13 lbs. yesterday. Others may prefer a different flavor, but here's how I did it with a whole brisket.
Rinse brisket, lightly sprinkle red pepper (cayenne) on both sides, followed by a light sprinkling of garlic salt, then a heavier sprinkling of lemon pepper. Put in a roaster pan with lid (open pan well sealed with aluminum foil will also work) and no more than a quarter inch of water. Put in 200 degree oven 6 to 8 hours (I put it in when I went to bed), remove from oven, and transfer to the grill.
I removed the "burner tents" (metal shields) from over all 3 burners. Then I set an old rectangular cake pan on the "tent frames" over the two right burners with the brisket on the grill above it and about a quarter inch of water in the pan. On the left burner tent frame, I set the cast iron smoker box filled with mesquite chips that had soaked in water overnight. Then I turned on the left burner only on medium, closed the lid, and left it for another 6 to 8 hours (7 hours yesterday).
Right tasty eating with a little KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce added at the table, along with Bush's Baked Beans, cole slaw, and hot buttered rolls. [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]
"If your grill still uses rocks, it was built in the stone age."
Thats my grill. A large flat rock with smaller rocks to hold up the grate. The base is shown in the attchment. The grate and support rocks come and go.
Egon
Egon, some of the most enjoyable eatin' I've had was cooked on that kind of grill. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] Did you ever cut round steak into strips about an inch wide, marinate in straight soy sauce, then cook on the grill? Once in a campground (state park) we had no grill, but they had a small concrete slab that you were allowed to build a fire on, and we found a large round grate for a grill that someone had thrown away, filled a bunch of empty beer and soda cans with water and set them in a circle, set the grate on that and I cooked up 10# of round steak like that. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
Haven't done round steak that way but have marinated the strips and then hot smoked in a brick smokehouse/barbaque back in Alberta. Made very good jerky. Used to smoke salmon in it too.
Egon
Bird, that sounds right tasty. I never tried a brisket before I got in the BBQ grill business, but I kept reading about Texan's favorite BBQ meat. Now, it's not something I do often (because it takes so much time), but I do enjoy it. One of the things I like best about it, is that in these times of high beef prices, it's still reasonably priced. Of course, the reason it takes so much time to cook properly, and is reasonably priced, is because it's an absolutely terrible cut of meat...one of those things where effort can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.
I have a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, which is a vertical water smoker, that uses charcoal. Aficionados call it the Black Bullet. It doesn't have enough diameter to do an entire 10# brisket at once, but it can handle a 5# half brisket nicely. You really have to be dedicated to feed it charcoal and wood chunks for 10 to 12 hours, but the brisket is delicious when done.
...Don
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I have a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, which is a vertical water smoker, that uses charcoal.
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I think that's similar to the Cookin' Cajun vertical water smoker I used for several years. It was great for brisket, as well as other meats, and especially for smoking fish. And I had better luck with it (charcoal) than I did with the electric model that was given to us later. The electric got too hot too fast.
Best looking grill I ever saw.
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