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Opinion on grille selection

I've never done more than throw few hamburgers and occasionally steaks
on a charcoal Weber grille. I'm interested in smoking and more
advanced grilling. Anyway my old Weber is pretty beat up and I'm
going to replace it.

I thought I'd get pretty much the same thing a 22" platinum charcoal
Weber grille. It appears to have the accessories to help in smoking,
but I wonder if this is a practical approach. Can one of these
grilles really be used for indirect grilling?

I've got a small family of 3 and we don't do a lot of entertaining.

Thanks for any help.

Paratwa > wrote:
> I've never done more than throw few hamburgers and occasionally steaks
> on a charcoal Weber grille. I'm interested in smoking and more
> advanced grilling. Anyway my old Weber is pretty beat up and I'm
> going to replace it.
>
> I thought I'd get pretty much the same thing a 22" platinum charcoal
> Weber grille. It appears to have the accessories to help in smoking,
> but I wonder if this is a practical approach. Can one of these
> grilles really be used for indirect grilling?
>
> I've got a small family of 3 and we don't do a lot of entertaining.
>
> Thanks for any help.

I've got an NB offset, so I can't help ya about a Weber, BUT, you start
doin' some serious smokin' and yer gonna find yerself the most popular guy
in the neighborhood!

--
Nick. Christmas Day, the twenty-fifth Day of December, being established a
Federal holiday by an Act of Congress on June 28, 1870: Merry Christmas!

Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops! You are not forgotten. Thanks.

Paratwa wrote:

> I've never done more than throw few hamburgers and occasionally steaks
> on a charcoal Weber grille. I'm interested in smoking and more
> advanced grilling. Anyway my old Weber is pretty beat up and I'm
> going to replace it.
>
> I thought I'd get pretty much the same thing a 22" platinum charcoal
> Weber grille. It appears to have the accessories to help in smoking,
> but I wonder if this is a practical approach. Can one of these
> grilles really be used for indirect grilling?
>
> I've got a small family of 3 and we don't do a lot of entertaining.
>
> Thanks for any help.

This is pretty much a repeat to my reply of a post a few minutes
earlier. I think the response is just as appropriate.

I would suggest a WSM and a Kettle. Reason being, with the WSM you can
load it up with fuel and regulate the temperature much more easily than
you can trying to use a kettle as a smoker. Though it does depend on
how long of a cook you want too.

IME, the kettle simply does not let you maintain a temperature very
well. If Q'en something, I like to keep the temp around 300 or less.
Using the WSM, you can use the minion method to get long cook times.
Depending on weather, you can get as long as 10 hours or more before
refueling. The kettle, my guess would be about 3 hours.

For easy Q'en, the WSM is the ticket. I own both and think that any
serious Q'er/griller on a budget should have both. They're each
designed for different purposes and do them well.

Good Luck.

BBQ

bbq wrote:
> Paratwa wrote:
>
> > I've never done more than throw few hamburgers and occasionally
steaks
> > on a charcoal Weber grille. I'm interested in smoking and more
> > advanced grilling. Anyway my old Weber is pretty beat up and I'm
> > going to replace it.
> >
> > I thought I'd get pretty much the same thing a 22" platinum
charcoal
> > Weber grille. It appears to have the accessories to help in
smoking,
> > but I wonder if this is a practical approach. Can one of these
> > grilles really be used for indirect grilling?
> >
> > I've got a small family of 3 and we don't do a lot of entertaining.

> >
> > Thanks for any help.
>
>
> This is pretty much a repeat to my reply of a post a few minutes
> earlier. I think the response is just as appropriate.
>
> I would suggest a WSM and a Kettle. Reason being, with the WSM you
can
> load it up with fuel and regulate the temperature much more easily
than
> you can trying to use a kettle as a smoker. Though it does depend on

> how long of a cook you want too.
>
> IME, the kettle simply does not let you maintain a temperature very
> well. If Q'en something, I like to keep the temp around 300 or less.
> Using the WSM, you can use the minion method to get long cook times.
> Depending on weather, you can get as long as 10 hours or more before
> refueling. The kettle, my guess would be about 3 hours.
>
> For easy Q'en, the WSM is the ticket. I own both and think that any
> serious Q'er/griller on a budget should have both. They're each
> designed for different purposes and do them well.
>
> Good Luck.
>
> BBQ

Greetings,

I use a weber 22.5 inch one touch for grilling and smoking. I
have had 10 lb packer cut briskets fit (just barely!) with fire on both
sides of the grill. Using about 30 lit coals, 20 unlit coals and
pre-blackened hardwood I can keep 230 -250 for 3 hours without having
to open the rig. This is with a 40 degree F outdoor temp and no wind.
I have had great success with pork shoulders and brisket, however I
usually pull the brisket after 2 sets of coal and finish in the oven.

A few things I have noticed with the "gold" version. It has an ash
bucket attached under the kettle and it is kind of a pain to put that
on and off. I actually bought a galvanized steel bucket to put under
there to catch ashes. I get three hours of cook time from the coals,
but I am adjusting the vents every 1/2 hour or so.

I have actually spent hours recording temps as a function of time and
vent position (yeah, I am a science geek-I made spreadsheets and graphs
and everything) and I have actually been able to do good bbq here in
Buffalo, NY. The kettle is not adequate for entertaining BBQ, as you
can't put a lot of meat on there. 10 lbs sounds like a lot, but that
is in six hours. I can do 10 lbs of burgers and dogs in about 45
minutes, and 10 lbs of steaks in a little over an hour.

If anyone wants those spreadsheets, I will happily send them to you.
Post an email addy and I'll forward them along.

"Paratwa" > wrote in message
...
> I've never done more than throw few hamburgers and occasionally steaks
> on a charcoal Weber grille. I'm interested in smoking and more
> advanced grilling. Anyway my old Weber is pretty beat up and I'm
> going to replace it.
>
> I thought I'd get pretty much the same thing a 22" platinum charcoal
> Weber grille. It appears to have the accessories to help in smoking,
> but I wonder if this is a practical approach. Can one of these
> grilles really be used for indirect grilling?
>
> I've got a small family of 3 and we don't do a lot of entertaining.

Depends what you want. I have a weber 22.5" kettle, and found its great for
grilling, direct or indirect. I've put in those charcoal divider thingies on
both sides of the charcoal grill, and just put the coals on the inside for
direct, and the outside for indirect. Its also excellent for "hot-smoking"
(cooking at 350-odd with smoke) and I've done turkey, chicken, fish, pork
chops, etc with excellent results. Just set it up for indirect and chuck in
some lumps of smoking wood. But I have difficulty getting and keeping the
temperature below 300, so if you want low-and-slow smoking, something that
can hold 225 degrees for a long time without too much work, you're probably
better off getting a proper smoker, and the WSM is probably top of the line.
I have a cheap charbroil electric, which isn't great, but does the job on
the odd occasions I want to slow smoke something. Its really easy, you just
set the thermostat and put in a fresh chunk of wood every now and then.

Another consideration is that you can buy a kettle *and* a charbroil smoker
(charcoal or electric) for less than the price of a WSM...

/M