Craig Busch wrote:
> It was suggested that I consider a WSM. Being new to this, I see
myself
> doing what is called grilling now. Eventually the idea of smoking
the
> occassional ham or turkey sounds good. I would appreciate any
comments
> here. From my perspecitive and limited knowledge on this, it seems
the
> WSR and Kettle Grill are two different things.
> Thank you


Craig,

My advice would be to start with the kettle. It sounds as though
grilling (burgers, dogs, steaks sausage etc.) is your prime focus, and
the kettle does a fantastic job in that regard. For about 10 months
out of the year, I cook on my kettle to the near exclusion of the
apparati in my kitchen. I also learned to Q on the kettle (admittedly
an ongoing process after about 1 year), and I found that I enjoyed it
enough to move to another piece more suited explicitly to Q. I opted
for a Char-Broil silver smoker, and I am going to do my first ribs in
it this afternoon. I guess what I am trying to say is the kettle will
do everything from burgers to brisket, and depending on your evolving
tastes, you cna stay with the kettle or branch out. I have never heard
of a kettle owner that was disappointed with it, or wanted to go back
to "spit spit" gas "spit blech..."

If you do get the kettle, get the hinged food grate so that you
can add fuel during longer cooks. I have been able to get 5 hours (at
a slow cook of about 230 deg F) out of a kettle w/o re-fueling but when
you need to, it's nice not to have to find a place for your nearly
finished treasure on the grate.

Best of luck, and if you pay attention to guys like Brick, Pawlowski,
Bugg, Demidavicus, Whitfurrows and many others here you'll find that
you can do great things with whatever you buy.

Scott