This morning started out as a manic Monday, and this evening was no different. Without boring you with all the festivities at the job, I’ll stick to this evening’s topics as there is plenty to discuss. We got sauce reviews, Bubba Ho-Keg mods, and (of course) the latest meal cooked outdoors. Not necessarily in that order…

First off, the friendly neighborhood postal carrier was kind enough to deliver a large batch of Big Butz BBQ Sauce, this of the special No Butz variety. Now before I get into my (mostly) unbiased review, a little disclosure up front. I paid for this sauce, so anything I have to say about it is untainted by bribery, freebies, or other such things frowned upon by the FCC and other Big Brother agencies that seem to want to save us from ourselves.

The first thing you notice when you open the box is that whoever was writing the labels by hand had been in the sauce, and it was affecting their writing style.

This stuff is so new that Tom from Big Butz BBQ hasn’t had time to get labels printed yet. From what I can tell he is more interested in keeping up with the demand than fancy packaging. And for that we are grateful.

The other thing you should notice is the warning on the label. For those of you that don’t know what Bhut Jolokia is, I suggest you follow that link on over to Wikipedia and take a real close look at the end of that first sentence. The part about it being the hottest pepper in the world. Pay attention, this is important. This sauce is pretty spicy and should not be poured on things in large quantities like you might with ketchup and other wimpy sauces.

Understand that we like hot food in this house (cayenne pepper is a food group) and have a pretty high tolerance for spicy eats. Even so, we approached this sauce carefully. On opening the lid you get a whiff of aroma that is distinctly Big Butz. It’s sweet, smokey, and enticing. A quick dip of the finger into the sauce didn’t light my skin on fire, and a quick taste led me to believe I could get away with putting a fair amount on the main course for tonight, chicken burritos. Or soft tacos, as they get stuffed so full around here that you can’t always roll them.

As you can see from the picture, I was fairly generous with the No Butz sauce, yet restrained from going overboard. The verdict? No Butz was a huge hit as it is flavorful as well as spicy. The sweet and smoke flavor combine well with the bite from the pepper. This sauce is not for the faint of heart, but will likely become a staple around here. My wife liked it a lot, and suggested (rightfully so) that this would be an excellent sauce for pulled pork. I have some on the menu for the 4th of July, so you can bet some will make its way into the meal. At least ours, I don’t think most of the guests would be able to handle it based on previous celebrations. Bunch of wimps…

A little of this sauce will go a long way. And Liz, don’t try this at home; it will put Bob in his grave. This sauce is not for the faint of heart, but if you like spicy, you’ll want to get yourself some of this. And no, I don’t get commissions if you buy some. But tell Tom you saw the review here and had to try yourself some No Butz sauce. You have to ask for it special on his website; as of this writing he doesn’t have it listed yet. It will likely become an everyday staple around here.

Now on to other topics. Tonight was the second cook on Bubba Ho-Keg since modifying the lower vent. Since you already saw the end result of the main course, here it is cooking on the grill.

For those keeping track, those are grilled sweet white onions and jalapeno peppers in the grill basket. They were hidden under all that sauce and guacamole in the plated picture. The chicken breasts were dusted with some taco seasoning, red chili powder, and Cajun seasoning mix. I was going to add some cayenne, but figured I’d leave that out so as not to confuse the sauce tasting. And as long as we are on the topic of food from Bubba Ho-Keg tonight, grilled pineapple was for dessert. Served over vanilla ice cream, it was a welcome addition considering the heat from the main course. Other parts of my anatomy may thank me later…

I did mention a modification to Bubba Ho-Keg. I finally found a lower vent mod that was simple yet appears to be very effective at adjusting temps at the lower range of the spectrum. I took some foil duct tape (the kind recommended for HVAC applications, not the standard duct tape), cut it into triangular pieces, and applied it to the lower vent as you see in the picture below.

This is similar to those where people have cut pieces of aluminum and stuck them in the vents, but using the tape is not only easier but also seems to stick in the same place better. Although neither of the two cooks since applying were truly low-and-slow, I did notice a big difference in how the kettle responds based on vent openings. My belief is that this particular configuration will result in better low temperature control without sacrificing those extreme high temps we like so much for steaks and pizza. Time will tell…

I finally broke down and purchased a large BGE plate setter for Bubba Ho-Keg and it showed up on the day before the Superbowl. Since babyback ribs were already on the menu, I figured I might as well go ahead and put it to use since nothing else productive was going to be accomplished today.

Knowing that once it was used it would never look as clean as the day it arrived, I figured I should take some pictures and talk about first impressions. The first thing I noticed was that it fit pretty well, but the legs stand up higher than the top grate setting and that there isn’t a lot of overlap where it sits on the lip of the fire bowl.

The next thing that occurred to me was that drippings from ribs and MOINK would mess this thing up pretty quickly. I thought about wrapping it with foil, but instead went with a metal pizza pan that was slightly bigger than the round part of the plate setter.

The grate went on next; as you can see from the picture, the grate is sitting just below the top of the base unit. Although there were no plans for using it, this would have cut down on the height of anything put on the upper grate.

Ribs and MOINK went on next. Both were liberally dusted with the standard rib rub. I wanted to compare results with babybacks from the WSM, so I stayed with basic recipes as much as possible today.

Everything went on the grill around 11:00, and grill left to cook at 250°F, slightly higher than I normally run the WSM for ribs. By 1:30 the MOINK was ready for glazing, and everything was pulled off the grill by about 1:45.

The MOINK was treated to a mango-peach pepper jelly; we’ve used this before and one of my worst fears is that when we run out we won’t be able to find this particular brand anymore. My wife had stocked up last Christmas when she saw them at Costco, and we haven’t seen them at any of the stores we frequent since. I’ve used a lot of other glazes for MOINK, but this one is my favorite by far.

The ribs were good, but a bit disappointing. They were done much faster than I thought they would be, and were a bit drier than usual. I like my babybacks dry, but these were better once they had a bit of sauce to dip them in. Clearly not one of my best efforts…

Looking back on it, although the results were good, I think I will go back to cooking the ribs at lower temperatures, and likely stick with the WSM. The cleanup is easier, and I can put a lot more food on the WSM. Having said that, if all I had was Bubba Ho-Keg I would feel confident in my ability to turn out a better product now that I’ve seen what happens at the higher temp.

As for cleanup, I’m really glad I put the pizza pan over the plate setter.

Another lesson learned here; next time I think I will foil the platesetter, or possibly use the pan and foil it. As it is, the plate setter has lost that “just out of the box” look…

I’m not sure how much of that will come off; I may have to get out the pressure washer or rent a steam cleaner. Good news? I am very happy with the ability to cook indirect on Bubba Ho-Keg; I would imagine that plate setter will be getting a lot of use in the future.

In spite of my desire to extend the running gag on this blog about the review that will be written “tomorrow”, I did promise a lot of folks that I would eventually get around to writing my impressions of the Bubba Keg Convection Grill (aka: BKCG or more commonly know as Bubba Ho-Keg around here). This post would be that review, and we’ll have to come up with some other topic for the post that will be written “tomorrow”.

In order to give a fair and (relatively) unbiased review, I will follow the time-honored tradition of exposing the good, the bad, and the ugly of Bubba Ho-Keg, while serving up memories of one of my favorite movies and bad movie poster mashups. Does anyone besides me look at this effort and start thinking about Luke and R2D2 from Star Wars?

But I digress… On with the review.

The Good

Bubba Ho-Keg has a more good things to talk about by far than Bad or Ugly. For starters, the thermal properties are outstanding. I’ve had the grill up in the 700-800°F range and still been able to touch the exterior of the cooker with bare skin and not having to treat for burns afterward. The fact the the thermometer even goes up that high is another point in its favor; this grill can really bring the heat for cooking steaks, pizza, or other high heat meals. Add to that the cast iron grill, and you have a real winner for getting those grill marks coveted by outdoor cooks everywhere.

In spite of the high temps available on Bubba Ho-Keg, it is still miserly when it comes to charcoal use. A bag of lump seems to last forever, and the ash removal is no longer a chore as the amounts are much less than when using standard charcoal briquettes, and easily done using the handy multi-tool and the bottom vent. Although the initial cost of purchase is more, and bags of lump charcoal are generally more expensive than standard charcoal, the overall cost of operation is less as it only takes a handful or so of lump per cook, and any leftover is easily saved by simply shutting down the vents and closing the lid. After a few cooks, the top vent and lid seal had both seasoned up nicely and created an air-tight seal that will put out the lump pretty quick, saving whatever charcoal might be left from the cook for the next meal.

Another positive is the ability to move the main grill to a different level, thus giving you the ability to get things closer to the flame, or just give yourself more room for chili pots or large cuts of meat that might need a bit more space between the grill and the lid. The stainless steel top rack is also handy, and allows you to load up the grill with sides, desserts, or even other entrees. The extra space it provides comes in handy when you cook entire meals on the cooker, something we do quite often. And speaking of extra space, the wing-like shelfs come in real handy to hold plates, sauces, or other useful items (live beverages) that always seem to find their way around the grill.

Last, some comment must be made on the quality of construction. Bubba Ho-Keg is well-made and appears to be sturdy enough to survive several years of weekly cooking, dragging around in the gravel, and hauling around attached to the rear of the truck. Assembly wasn’t traumatic, there were no parts left over (none missing either), and nothing had to be taken apart and put back together due to poor instructions. Although we haven’t taken it on a road trip yet, mounting it to the receiver hitch on the truck wasn’t difficult in spite of the recommendations that you should use two people to do this. I managed it by myself, but I wouldn’t recommend that to most folks as I am a tad larger than most people I know.

The Bad

No grill is perfect, and Bubba Ho-Keg isn’t without areas that could be improved. First is the stainless-steel top grill. Although it is very handy and swings out of the way nicely, it only sits above the main grill by about 6 inches, and isn’t the most stable of platforms due to the single-post stand. The grill has a tendency to sag toward the unsupported end (not surprising) and is limited to the amount of weight it will hold. I use enamel-on-steel pots and pans on the grill, and some of the larger ones really put a strain on this grill when they are full. I wouldn’t recommend putting cast iron pans or dutch ovens on it, although the cast iron main grill is more than strong enough if that’s all you have.

Another good idea gone very wrong is the tool holders that screw into the molded plastic side trays. These are basically three stainless steel prongs on each tray designed to poke you in delicate places and guaranteed to drop any tools hanging from them on your toes if you try to wheel Bubba Ho-Keg anywhere. These could be improved tremendously by turning them into hooks rather than slightly bent rods; one of these days I’ll make a trip to the hardware store and come up with something to replace them with.

The last item on the Bad list is the steep learning curve associated with temperature controls, especially at the low end. High heats are pretty easy, but it took quite awhile for me to figure out all the tricks in keeping the temps in the 200-225°F range without having to check the cooker every 5 or 10 minutes. Close it down too much and the fire goes out; open it up too much and low-and-slow turns into not-so-low-and-burnt if you aren’t careful.

The Ugly

The topic of temperature control leads directly into the ugly. My single biggest complaint about Bubba Ho-Keg is the lack of a diffuser and/or plate setter. This would greatly improve the ability to cook low-and-slow, should help in controlling lower temps, and provide the ability to cook indirectly as well as provide a place for a drip pan (or a pan of beans to catch all those wonderful juices dripping off the meat). You could also put a water pan on it if you wanted, although i do have to admit that I am doing this less and less, even on the WSM.

Now I know I could buy a ceramic plate setter from the BGE folks, but one would think that those folks at Bubba Keg would have been able to come up with a reasonable solution for this by now. That would have been a much better accessory than the cover they are offering now that they have changed the name to The Big Steel Keg and made the trailer hitch an added accessory rather than part of the main packaging. They have been promising one for months, their customers are begging for one, and yet they haven’t been able to come up with a solution. Looks like I will be contacting a BGE dealer one of these days real soon…

Random Musings

This quite possibly might be the longest post I’ve written since I started this blog. Hopefully it has been of use to those of you out there trying to decide if a BKCG is for you. Bubba Ho-Keg has displaced a Weber Performer as my primary grill and has served us well since its arrival. I do feel I am getting my money’s worth, and would recommend it to anyone out there considering a kamodo-style grill to add to their arsenal. It might not be the best grill for a rookie outdoor cook, as the learning curve is a bit steep. However, if one has the patience to master the temperatures and air flows, it will turn out some fantastic meals and is well worth the investment in time and money.

Now that this is done I need to figure out what to not write about tomorrow…

Back in October of 2009 we bought a Bubba Keg Convection Grill (BKCG, or more commonly known as Bubba Ho-Keg around here). As early as the second post about Bubba Ho-Keg we started getting questions about why we decided to buy one of these rather than a Big Green Egg (BGE) or other similar cooker. At the time I promised to do a post about it. For those of you still waiting, this would be that post.

First of all, I have to admit that lack of a good outdoor cooker was not an issue; if anything I had more cookers than space to keep all of them. Most of them were Weber charcoal models of some sort, ranging in size from a Smokey Joe to a Ranch Kettle and pretty much everything in between. I’d recently acquired a brand new 22″ One-Touch Gold and a Performer for ridiculously low prices at a local sporting goods chain going-out-of-business sale, and had given away one of my older OTGs to Pigdog to replace an aging gasser that died on his patio. So none of the buying decision had anything to do with need, perceived or otherwise.

As much as I hate to admit it, the decision to get another cooker had a lot to do with pizza. Although I had successfully cooked pizza on the Webers, I wasn’t real satisfied with the process and degree of difficulty involved in turning out good pizza in a consistent fashion.

It also didn’t hurt that I’d been looking at pictures of BGE results on the BBQ Brethren forums and over at Nibble Me This. And since I had an unexpected bonus check from the day job arrive in late September, there was some discretionary income sitting in the bank account that pretty much determined that it was time to go spend some money on (yet another) new grill.

So what to buy? I wanted an insulated cooker that would cook at extremely high temps but also work for low-and-slow (if I wanted). Whatever I bought had to have enough grill space to cook entire meals all at once for a family of four that includes a couple of big appetites. And here is one of the most important items; it had to be portable, both from the ability to load it on the truck and haul it around as well as just rolling it around the yard. We don’t have a covered patio where the cooker can sit out all year, and most of our flat areas where I cook are covered with large gravel. I also wanted something that had a decent warranty and good quality construction. No one wants to spend a lot of money on a cooker only to have to replace it after a season or two (Note: BBQ season for us is from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 every year).

Ultimately it was a combination of the portability factor and price that caused Bubba Ho-Keg to come into our life. Although there is no question of quality construction, flexible cooking, and great warranty coverage when it comes to the BGE, you just can’t get around the weight and portability issues associated with ceramic cookers. Shipping alone would have cost a fortune, and I probably would have invested in a nest had I bought a BGE. By the time I was done, I likely would have spent over twice as much money and still had to worry about ceramic breakage if I ever wanted to take it anyplace. Not to mention the weight issues and degree of difficulty in loading it on the truck.

Any regrets? None worth talking about; Bubba Ho-Keg has become the primary grill at home and displaced the Weber Performer, causing it to be moved to the lake. But more on that tomorrow when I review life with Bubba Ho-Keg, and how it could improved.

The things you do on a Sunday when you’re alone… Get your mind out of the gutter, I modified one of my Weber Smokey Joe Platinum grills today and added a thermometer. Why do this to a portable grill, you might ask? So that I could experiment with smoking on a smaller scale and turn this portable grill into a truly all-around device.

The modification process used the same equipment and design philosophy as the WSM thermometer mod discussed previously. Here’s a picture of the unmodified kettle.

I thought about mounting the thermometer in the grate vent, but was concerned about the ability to do so and still be able to open and close the vent. I might give that a shot in the future, as one of the concerns I have about placement of the thermometer directly over the coals and getting a lot higher temperature reading than over where food will be cooking. I will likely have to get out the old candy thermometer and wine cork to see how much variation there is at the vent.

The first step in the mod was to put some painter’s tape on the kettle to keep the porcelain from chipping. A few taps on a center punch to score the metal, and it was time to drill.

As before, I pulled out the trusty Unibit and cordless drill and had at the lid of the kettle. And yes, I did wear my safety goggles.

I got better results with the hole this time, and there were no signs of damage to the porcelain finish (other than the hole I just drilled).

The thermometer was mounted, and as you can see from the picture the placement was just about right. Any further from the handle and there would be issues with the lid holder bracket on the back of the kettle.

Inside clearance was good too.

Here’s a shot of the finished product. Now it’s time to fire it up and see if the temps can be controlled enough to go low and slow.

UPDATE: This placement of the thermometer is not optimal. I tested temps coming from the vent and the installed thermometer is running about 100°F hotter than measured at the vent. Since the vent is directly over the food and not the coals, this is to be expected (yeah, I know, should have seen this coming) and I will have to try a different location. SmokinManBBQ suggested putting it in the side near the grill so as to get a good reading where the cooking is going on, but there are some barriers to doing this that will have to be overcome to pull that off. Worst case is that I drill out the vent rivet and put it over the vent. Stay tuned…

A friend of mine recently forwarded me an email with the following picture attached and suggested I add it to my BBQ “arsenal”.

I wasn’t able to find the source of this picture, but in the process got me to wondering about what other selections might be available, so off to Google I went.  A bit of determined searching turned up some similar models.  This one is a bit smaller (perhaps a ladies model?), and might be a gag gun based on that red flag hanging out of the barrel.

For those looking for something a little larger, here is a Texas model that is 19 feet long and weighs over 750 pounds.  I wouldn’t want to be following that trailer on the freeway…

Here’s another offering from Texas; this one is apparently available for events.  Personally, I wouldn’t feel very comfortable towing this one behind me for the same reasons as I wouldn’t want to follow the previous one…

Here’s one that appears to be loaded.  It also came with information regarding the design; according to the BBQ Report:

Joe Wood of Weimar, Texas built this 6 foot-11 custom barbecue pit in his home metal shop. The barrel is 10 feet long and 8 inches in diameter, and the entire rig is over 15 feet long. The pistol’s grips, which cover the firebox, are made of red oak. When cooking, the barrel acts as the grill’s chimney. It took over two years and 1,100 hours to complete, and used more than two tons of red oak, stainless, and carbon steel.

There seems to be a Texas theme going on here.  Somehow I’m not surprised by that…

Last but not least, we have this offering spotted at a BBQ Cookoff in Terrell, Texas.  Apparently they are serious about their BBQ there…

All these custom pits, so little time.  Go ahead, make my day…

If you read the BBQ Rules post and listened to JB’s rant, you’ll remember that one of his major issues was around the use of lighter fluid or self-starting charcoal.  I happen to agree completely with him; the quickest way to ruin a meal is to have it smelling and/or tasting like petroleum products.  In my opinion, the best way to get your coals hot is with a charcoal chimney starter.  Now I’ve heard a lot of folks out there complain about mixed results with these, so I thought I would take this opportunity to provide a huge public service and post instructions on how to get great results consistently.  Not to mention save a bunch of money (that ought to get your attention) and improve the overall flavor of the food you cook on your grill or smoker.

Your first step is to get your hands on a good chimney starter.  My personal favorite is the Weber Rapidfire Chimney Starter.  I’ve got a couple of these, and as you can see from the picture below they get a lot of use.  This one is about 4 or 5 years old, and when you consider how much use they get, it was worth forking over an extra $10 for the quality of the product.

You’ll notice that the chimney is sitting on the table of my Weber Performer.  That’s right, the model with gas starter.  The gas starter I still haven’t used; in fact, I don’t even have a gas canister around to test it.  That alone should tell you how I feel about the chimneys.  Anyway, on with the instructions…

The next step is to put charcoal in the starter.  I do this first as I reuse charcoal from previous cooks, and this allows lose ashes and smaller bits to fall through the bottom and not clog up the airflow.  For this example I filled the chimney about half-full of fresh charcoal.  TIP: if you are reusing charcoal from a previous cook, put the fresh stuff in first as it improves airflow.  You’ll also notice I took it off the table of the Performer; no sense in getting it all dirty or being tempted to melt it down by doing something foolish like lighting the chimney on it…

You can see the leftover charcoal in the picture above.  You have two options at this point; put the used charcoal on top of the fresh charcoal in the chimney, or simply use a variation on the Minion Method by firing the chimney and then pouring the lit coals over the old charcoal.  If I was using one of the WSMs, I wouldn’t bother lighting any leftover charcoal in the starter.  It always works better with fresh charcoal by itself.  However, since I was grilling and wanted a hotter fire (not to mention I was hungry and impatient) I went ahead and used option 1.

Now it’s time for the all-important newspaper selection.  I used the funnies for this one, but you can use the section of your choice.  The key is to use two full sheets of newspaper, no more, and no less.  I kid you not.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  More is not better, but what you will use if you don’t follow instructions.  For those that aren’t sure what two full sheets of newspaper looks like (or get papers that resemble the National Enquirer) here’s a picture:

The next step is to LOOSELY roll up the newspaper.  You will be lighting it on fire soon, not whacking the dog with it.  The word is LOOSELY.  No extra points are awarded for style here.  A tight roll will not burn properly.

The next step is to roll the LOOSELY wrapped newspaper into a doughnut shape.  This is not the shape you get into by eating them, but the actual shape of a doughnut.  Leave a small hole in the middle, this is important for airflow.

The next step is to stuff the LOOSELY-wrapped, doughnut-shaped paper into the bottom of the chimney.  IMPORTANT: make sure that the hole in the center of the “doughnut” is facing so that air can get up into the chimney.  This creates a nice place for the heat to rise and get those coals going; if you clog this off you may find yourself getting out more paper and cursing the process, when in fact you should be cursing your inability to follow directions.  Here’s a picture; the hole doesn’t show up very well, but believe me when I say it was there in the center someplace…

Next step is to light the paper on fire.  Hard to fark this part up; get yourself a lighter or a match and fire up some of that LOOSELY-wrapped paper.  You don’t need the towering inferno going, just get a little flame going on the newspaper and set the chimney down to do its thing.  IMPORTANT: Please make sure you set the chimney down on the grill or other non-flammable surface.  I probably don’t need to tell most of you that, but some folks out there just don’t seem to exhibit a lot of common sense…  It’s also a good idea to keep this out of the wind, as that will affect the rising of the heat, not to mention blowing bits of burning newspaper all over the place.

Now it is time to go away for awhile and finish any prep work you have for whatever it is you are cooking.  Depending on the amount of charcoal in the chimney, it can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes to get a nice flame going on your coals.  I always like to check it after 5 minutes; mostly this is habit gained from a time before I figured out the LOOSELY-wrapped doughnut-shaped technique.  Prior to this it wasn’t unusual for me to find out that the charcoal hadn’t started because not enough heat was generated by too little oxygen getting through the wads of newspaper stuffed up the arse end of the chimney.  But I digress…  When you have some nice flames going in the chimney and the charcoal is burning to your satisfaction, pour it into the grill/smoker and start cooking.  Here’s an attempt at a picture with the flames coming out; it was a bit too light to see them in the photo; perhaps one of these days I’ll get around to taking a picture after dark and replacing this one.

So there you have it.  If you follow these instructions, you can save money on lighter fluid and expensive soaked charcoal, both of which are guaranteed to impart nasty tastes to your food.  You can also assure yourself of a high percentage of charcoal starts on the first attempt.  I haven’t had a single failure since I started using this method, and I start a lot of coals, so I know it works.  Flame on…

After all these years of using a candy thermometer stuck through a cork and jammed in the top vent of my venerable pre-2009 18.5 WSM, I took the plunge today and performed elective surgery to add a “built-in” addition to the lid.  But before we see how that is done, there must be a “before” picture.  Here’s what I used to do; note the clogging of 1/3 of the top vent and the inability to gain any form of top vent control (short of cramming in more corks):

Out of respect for this thermometer which has served me well for years, here is an up-close and personal look at it in all its charred glory.  Note: this is not the original cork; they got replaced about every fifth or sixth cook depending on the degree of deterioration.  The one in this picture only has about three cooks worth of experience…

Ok, out with the old and in with the new.  I went to the local Home Depot and picked up a cheap Char-Broil Universal Fit Temperature Gauge, which the label says is designed to replace temperature gauges on most gas grills.  It claims to be accurate (we’ll see) and came with mounting hardware (aka, a wing-nut).  Now you might be asking yourself why I didn’t get something more accurate with more temperature divisions.  I’m cheap, and sometimes impatient.  This thing cost less than $10; if it doesn’t work it gets tossed, I already have the hole drilled, and I chalk it up to lessons learned (and later write a post about the experience).  Win-win.  Did I mention impatient as well?  I’m spending the day at one of the regional parks and cooking for about 50 people that are attending my daughter’s year-end SCIOLY party.  Since the WSM is going with me to help reserve the shelter and tables (and cook pulled chicken), I thought it needed some dressing up for the occasion.  Anyway, enough story, on with the modification.  Here’s a picture of the new temperature gauge:

Not very big, not very impressive, but it should be good enough for my purposes.  Next step was to cover the drilling area with some blue painter’s tape.  This helps keep the chipping and cracking down as well as the drill bit from sliding around.

As you can see from the picture I chose to put the gauge in the lid.  I know JB said to not do this, but I’ve had good luck with lid thermometers in the past, and for another $10 I can always add another down near the grates (and may, at some point in the future).  Next step is to use a center-punch to create a small crater that the drill bit can sit in.

Not shown it the picture above is the hammer hitting my finger.  No pictures, didn’t happen.  Next step is to drill the hole.  I have a Unibit; if you don’t have one of these I highly recommend getting one.  They are a bit pricey, but great for drilling holes of increasing size in metal.  They don’t slip around a lot, and make the drilling process real simple.

Once the hole is drilled, remove the tape and inspect the damage.  In my case there is a bit of chipping in the porcelain finish, but once the thermometer is in place you not only don’t see it, but the chipped part was completely covered by the mounting bracket which should limit the exposure to moisture.

From there it was pretty simple to attach the gauge with the wing-nut.  Here’s a picture of the finished product:

Total modification time was about 10 minutes.  It took me longer to find my safety goggles (please wear them when drilling as even with the tape pieces of stuff goes flying everywhere) than it did to perform the surgery.  Now it’s time to load the WSM on the truck and head off to the park. I will be verifying the temperature independent of the gauge to see how accurate it really is, and report back later…

Some of us really have trouble passing up a good deal, especially when it involves BBQ equipment of any sort.  Given the state of affairs at our house, I would have to plead guilty to this one.

A local sporting goods/automotive supply chain is going out of business after several years of being a mainstay in the Pacific NorthWet.  Joe’s (formerly G.I. Joe’s) is closing up shop and selling everything from all of their stores right down to the fixtures.  As time goes by, the inventory grows smaller, and the prices get more inviting.  Two weeks ago, I picked off the last of the Weber OTGs in the Vancouver store (no pictures, still in the box) along with a pile of accessories and a replacement grill for my existing OTG.  I got about 20% off on all of that loot and thought I had done well.

Then on Saturday I took my daughter to a book signing by her favorite author(s), Erin Hunter (apparently there are four of them that write under the name, but only one goes to signings, and oddly enough, doesn’t like cats).  The book signing was at the Powells way over in Beaverton, which happened to be right next door to one of the larger Joe’s.  Naturally, I had to go in and see what they had left as the deals were getting even better.

As expected, the inventory (and choices) was diminishing, and nothing I really wanted was to be found back in the section where the BBQ equipment is normally kept.  As we were leaving the store, I noticed that they had a lot more BBQs set up near the cash registers, and spotted a Weber 22 1/2-Inch Performer Charcoal Grill.  I had already passed on picking one up in the Vancouver store, as the price wasn’t that good at the time.  This time, however, they had another Performer in an unopened box, and it was listed as 30% off.  This set off a flurry of phone calls to check prices (best friend, who recently bought one and knows what a good deal is all about) and get permission (my dear wife, who figures that BBQ keeps me out of other trouble) to bring home yet another BBQ.

As it turns out, the deal was good enough that my buddy was willing to buy it off me if SWMBO said no.  She was pleased that I asked, and said that my buddy deserved kudos for being such a good friend, and that I could bring home yet another toy.  Since I decided to keep this one, and now have a (brand new) spare OTG to boot, I called my buddy back and offered him Old Faithful (the OTG that has cooked many a meal shown on this site) for a price he couldn’t pass up (free).  I had ulterior motives for doing this; now I get to cook on his Performer when we are at his lake house, and still get meals off of Old Faithful when I go to his house for dinner.  Talk about win-win…

I was going to record the whole unboxing process, but got involved putting it together and forgot to take pictures once I had pieces of it scatter all over the driveway. So the best I can show at this point is the box arriving home, the freshly opened box, and a couple of views once assembled.  You’re just going to have to deal with the disappointment.  Totals assembly time was about 30 minutes, assisted only by my 6-year-old son.

Now if I can just get the rest of the leftovers from Sunday finished off, I’ll get a chance to cook on it…

Those nice folks from UPS delivered the long-awaited 22 1/2″ WSM on Thursday, and I finally got around to unboxing it today.  It came too late on Thursday to unpack, assemble, and still cook dinner, and Friday was pinochle night (nice pork chops Ron, even if they were done on a gas grill).  I have been chomping at the bit to put it together and see how much room there really is on it.  All I can say is that this thing will hold a LOT of food.

For your viewing pleasure, I’ve included some photos of the unboxing  and assembly process.  Come back again later as I will also be posting the inaugural cook results and some new recipes (assuming they’re worth writing about).