ONSC's Cookin', Grillin', and Bacon thread (2 Viewers)

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Been grabbing pre made thin n crispy variety but have eyeballed the pre made dough balls. Need to give those a whirl one day.
 
Was in the mountains this week and smoked a pork butt…then used the ’leftovers’ to make Brunswick stew. Mountain aire i think makes the pork taste better.

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Stupid gps/cam/bigbrobeacon busted me for going up that road ;).

@fj40z there is your motivational post for the Brunswick stew.
Yep…Elk Knob road can be a stinker, I swear the folks there have a competition on who can own the most broke down cars, lol.
 
Overcooked some tuna last night while my coals were dying. The simple corn turned out good with bell peppers and tomatoes. Followed that with a coal refresh and some perfectly crisp-skinned chicken quarters. That seems to happen a lot when cooking chicken for the next freaking day. Argh.

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Tenderloin and butternut squash
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And a lil spicy fall flavored tincture
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Ribeye that turned out to be a lower grade than it was marked (very grainy, not much intramuscular marbling), and a blueberry spinach salad. And I'm tired of trying to get that fire pic to load in the correct orientation, so deal with it sideways...argh!

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I can go years without frying food, so I figured I’d use this guy (13lbs live) to work on a fish recipe from scratch instead of using store bought breader and fish that cost me money. Gotta say I’m getting tired of eating fried catfish after 3 days!
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So if you could only have one
Big Green Egg (or comparable unit) or a Trager
And why.
 
So if you could only have one
Big Green Egg (or comparable unit) or a Trager
And why.
I don’t know about the Trager, but you can do pizza on the egg. I finally broke down and got an egg this past summer. It’s been great so far. Totally subjective, but with it being almost all ceramic, I feel like the egg could last longer…really nothing to rust out or malfunction.
 
So if you could only have one
Big Green Egg (or comparable unit) or a Trager
And why.
It all depends.

Pellet grill for the convenience where you can let something smoke overnight and don’t have to babysit it as much.

The egg is one of the ultimate charcoal ceramic style grills. Lots of versatility but you have to tend it more until you find your groove.

If you love charcoal, get the egg. If you like charcoal and want to smoke brisket and pork butts…get the traeger and a Weber 22” performer charcoal kettle.
 
It all depends.

Pellet grill for the convenience where you can let something smoke overnight and don’t have to babysit it as much.

The egg is one of the ultimate charcoal ceramic style grills. Lots of versatility but you have to tend it more until you find your groove.

If you love charcoal, get the egg. If you like charcoal and want to smoke brisket and pork butts…get the traeger and a Weber 22” performer charcoal kettle.
Once I figured out the general position of the air flow gate for different temps, I’ve found there is little to no tending required. A couple weeks ago I did a brisket that went on at 10pm at 215 degrees and stayed on until 4pm the next day. I didn’t touch it once during that time. I just peeked at it every few hours (after waking up in the morning) to double check it was maintaining temp.
The only “downside” is the learning curve to get a feel for nailing the desired temps. My #1 deciding factor was the no rusting. I finally had it with throwing away charcoal grills and smokers that rusted out. My brother went with the pellet smoker and he loves it; it works great.
@lt1fire … I would consider the aesthetic you want too. A pellet smoker would be easier to neatly fit in a space on a backyard patio or store in a shed. The round shape of the egg might be too awkward depending on your layout.
 
I like my oval ceramic from Primo, as I can use full or half aluminum chaffing pans with them.

But they are all HEAVY - I have moved this thing SOOO many times


I did love my pellet smoker while I had it, too, though. But it was only a smoker, not a BBQ or oven.
 
If I was forced to chose one, I would definitely go with the egg or one of it's ceramic competitors. It can do it all (albeit with a learning curve) where like others have mentioned the pellet grills are mainly for your low and slow cooks.
 
@lt1fire You can research stuff here. Ratings And Reviews Of Hundreds Of Grills, Smokers, Hog Roasters, And More - https://amazingribs.com/ratings-reviews/grill-and-smoker-reviews/

I know nothing about pellet smokers/grills or whatever the current versions are called, but I hear there are indeed some versatile options that can smoke/grill/sear by installing or removing blocking plates. I'd be researching those if I were looking to replace my Egg.

The Egg, and other Komodos, is like others have mentioned - versatile. That said, I've rarely used it as a normal grill; it's almost always on smoker or indirect/oven duty. Stupidly simple to maintain temps once you figure it out, but if you'll have to wheel it around very much then you'll find that you'll need to open it up and reposition the firebox because it'll shift and can easily affect the airflow/burn. That drove me nuts for a few days once when I couldn't get past 200*F.

My biggest gripe is about smoke. I've often run out well before I should have, for various reasons, and the only way to feed it anything bigger than pellets or chips is to remove the food and the grate and the convector plate (which is hot as hell and problematic unless you have the special tongs to lift it while hot).

I've easily gotten 10 hour cooks on one load of coal. Very nice. Also, it seals up so nicely once you close the vents that the fire is extinguished pretty rapidly and you can reuse the coals for the next cook. Very little waste.

My only problems in about 12 years of ownership have been standard maintenance issues: replaced a broken firebox grate, replaced the felt rim gasket, broken slats on the wooden wing shelves. Oh, and the cover is finally stiff as a board and cracking/tearing ever time it gets rubbed on something. I need to realign the lid this winter, too, but it still seals pretty well.

I have a variety of other charcoal grills that I use for direct grilling because I feel that they're more controllable for that for me. And I also use them on occasion for long, indirect cooks just to keep my chops up. Got my first 22" Weber Kettle last year and really like it.

I've eyed @weejub 's Primo a few times over the years and think I'd really like having an oval Komodo instead of round since it seems like it would maximize space when cooking things like multiple butts or a brisket.
 

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