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3-2-1 ribs. We got a bunch of sweet baby rays samples from the food convention and tried out a few diff flavors. The red sweet chili was pretty baller.
Not that we had, but thinking about it now the golden mustard that they have could be cut with apple cider vinegar and taste pretty damn good imo. We plan to get a bottle of the golden mustard, so I’ll give it a go. I like the vinegar mustard flavors on my pork
Got round 1 of pimp my smoker complete, and got a spiffy case for my Thermo Pro thermometer
The first update was a stainless steel door, the door that comes with the smoker leaks a ton of smoke and air out the front, this one is laser cut and bent to fit much snugger and has a locking handle
Also, got a second charcoal grate, and tied them together with some steel braided thread to keep the smaller bits of lump charcoal from falling into the ash on the bottom, definitely a needed improvement.
And my third upgrade for round one is a larger high flow charcoal ring, maybe overkill but for smoking something large like a brisket this thing should be quite useful
And here's a size comparison of the original one inside the larger one, definitely an improvement.
I have another round ready to go, but I have to drill my brand new smoker, so didn't get around to that yet
Nice. Those tables are definitely nice. I want to pickup a MiniMax to go with my XL. Might try and do it next summer. I will need more table space by then.
Nice. Those tables are definitely nice. I want to pickup a MiniMax to go with my XL. Might try and do it next summer. I will need more table space by then.
I’d love a minimax. I had an opportunity at a brand new one at 350 and I passed. So much regret. Convinced the wife we need one after our beach trips this year, so next year at some point.
Do you find that you use a lot of coal just getting yours going? That’s the only thing that deterred me from an XL, I was told I’d spend twice as much on coal for the same cooks, but I’ve always felt a LG and XL are the perfect combo.
I’d love a minimax. I had an opportunity at a brand new one at 350 and I passed. So much regret. Convinced the wife we need one after our beach trips this year, so next year at some point.
Do you find that you use a lot of coal just getting yours going? That’s the only thing that deterred me from an XL, I was told I’d spend twice as much on coal for the same cooks, but I’ve always felt a LG and XL are the perfect combo.
Dang 350 would have been a heck of a deal. Hoping I can find one used or on a good sale at get out around $425-450 when I do since I think they normally go for like $600. Would be great to have for small weekly cooks and doing the reverse sear steaks.
I haven't honestly been paying attention to how much coal I am using. On long slow cooks I fill my XL all the way to just under the plate setter and after 18 hours or so it has only burned about half or a little more than half of what was in it. I did two hole chickens this weekend for an hour and 15min and only had about 3in of coal in the bottom and still had enough left the next night to move all the coal to one half of the fire box and cook me some burgers direct and some indirect sweet potatos off to the side for about 30min.
If I could all my cooks I have done this year I have done, 1 rib cook, 4 butts, a brisket, whole chickens 6 times, steaks twice, burgers twice, chicken drumsticks once. So I would say about 17 cooks so far and I have gone through 3-3.5 bags of Royal Oak lump. So I don't know if that is efficent or not but at Walmart those bags have been less than $10 each all summer so far so if it is fuel hungry the fuel really isn't that expensive in my opinion to matter. Even if the price goes up it can't be much more expensive than if I were cooking on my gas grill and honestly is probably cheaper cause I can't imagine how expensive it would be if I tried to do a long cook on my gas grill. To me the larger single cooking surface is worth any extra fuel it uses. I love to cook full meals at one time. Few weeks ago I did a large two person steak, 6 ears of corn, and four large onion slices on the single surface and had room for more.
A large and XL would be a great combo. My only draw towards the minimax is people say you can have it going and up to temp in 5min. That would be awesome to be able to do that to cook direct chicken, burgers, and steaks during the wheel. Can you get a large going that fast? I know I always fiddle with my XL for about 30min to get it going well enough to start cooking direct or if smoking sometimes longer to get a large enough bed of coals before I add the wood chunks. It could be though that I start mine using those all natural starter blocks rather than using a chimeny starter and dumping in already hot coals.
you guys keep eating like this regularly and everyone is gonna be a big cook!
You might think that but I think eating this way has actually been more healthy for me. At least in my mind. Whatever I am cooking is my source of protein and then I just eat some sort of veggie with it. Oh and portion controlling myself. Sadly not eating a full rack of ribs in one sitting although I would love to hammer a set down. Also other than ribs I am cooking pretty much everything with dry rubs with very little salt. I don't use any sauce especially when the stuff is fresh and even the reheated brisket reheated carefully in the oven hasn't needed sauce.
You need to get yourself one for the family and try it out
Nice, Im probably going to switch to royal oak and see how it is, Ive only used B&B and then the BGE brand lump. I see deals on Royal oak at Home depot all the time but never need any when I see it.
I will say this, I got big last year by making red meats by doing long cook on the weekend with pork butt or brisket and then eat during the week. I switched it up at beginning of the year and now cook chicken, turkey, or fish 3-4 times a week and then red meats like every other week or longer. I've lost 25lbs by making that change alone. I keep telling myself I'll start working out so that I can get back to the 180's, but I end up finding a beer and forget all about it.
Good feedback for sure, I'm getting ready to start dieting hardcore, but have already been eating a lot healthier overall. Definitely planning to do more chicken and fish more often. My goal is to smoke at least once a month and make enough food that we can have some throughout the week like we did last week as a protein
Chicken is definitely our go to. I love fish as well but the girlfriend is not really a fan. She does like shrimp though. Haven't done any of those on the egg yet. I alternate between red meat and pork and end up with one or the other about every 10 days.
You like a vinegary box? 
