Gravy's Cooking Thread

Lanx said:

the ash collector is the obvious thing you can see, but also the grill grates are the more advanced ones where they fold up so you can fill in charcoal w/o removing the grate.
oh also a basic thermometer on top

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The thermometer and being able to add charcoal without picking up the grate are both good QOL features, I think it was worth the extra $100. Also the being easier to empty out the ashes with no mess.

Lanx said:

yea, just time it, theres different times when coals become white coals and when wood just becomes ember

how long are we cooking for? like from meat on grill to meat off?

are you doing ripping hot then slow, or what?

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I usually get the coals glowing red and on fire, then dump them into the grill, spread them around, and add things.

Tried the wood chips again, this time soaked in water for 20 min as per the instructions, and in the smoker box. They never emitted any smoke. I think the coals were too dim by then, maybe I needed more heat. The food finished and the box was just sitting there.




Wait, when people say to put the wood right onto the hot charcoal, do they mean the metal box (or foil)? Cause all this time I assumed that meant just dump loose chips on them. When I do that all they do is burn up. The box might work better. Goal for tomorrow night is to get the box to heat up enough ugh to actually smoke the damn wood.

Gave up on the smoker box and brought it back to Home Depot to get my $50 back. Lawl. Tried a few methods for getting it to smoke wood, none worked. Whether the chips were wet or dry, didn't matter. The box would heat up and everything in it would just sit there.

What I do now is drop some wood chips on the side of the burning charcoal after I pour it into the grill. Putting it on top just causes all the wood to burn up right away. Putting it on the side causes the burning to get to it more slowly and "creep across" as it were, giving me some nice smoke circulation once the top is down. Haven't had a chance to try "smoking" any meat yet with this rudimentary method.

What's the best time to dump charcoal from a chimney starter? I get the mug to where it's got a nice fire going in it and the charcoal are all glowing orange, then I pour it in. Last few times, the embers died down a little too fast and the food took a while to cook. Not sure if I'm dumping the charcoal in too soon or too late. If I do it too soon, most of the charcoals are still unburnt, if I do it too late, the charcoal are all pretty much ashes. So I try to find a medium ground where it's like dumping a bunch of lava into the grill. Wondering if there's some visual "tell" of when to pour the starter in. I wait until the top charcoals are orange/on fire, and if the fire is still lower down, it's easy to tell because the top charcoals are all black shadows over the fire.