Smoker Mods

When I first got my grill, I wanted to be able to grill, but I also wanted to take up smoking. My first couple of smokes were a little difficult, but with trial and error, I made a few modifications.



I found that I had a big gap around the lip. This allowed the heat to go up and out the sides without staying in the cooking chamber. So I found some heat resistant furnace sealer at Lowes. It looks like nylon rope. It worked great, but eventually the glue got brittle, so I bent some nails to use as clamps until I can figure out something more permanent. It still works pretty good. (All that white stuff is glue drippings.)



I found that by lowering the smokestack to the level of the grill, the heat was forced to fill the entire chamber, instead of just sweeping across the meat closest to the fire, and then up and out. The problem I had was that I have a warming rack attached to the lid that got in the way of anything that would have prodruded from the stack. So, to improvise, I found a 4 inch diameter aluminum ducting that would attach to the bottom of the stack, and then snake around the heating rack, and lower to just above the grill.






Oops! Sorry, gratuitous pic of wife's awesome cinnamon rolls.



The other problem I was trying to solve was a more even distribution of heat. It didn't seem to want to go over to the far side. So I turned my charcoal pan over, drilled holes all along it, and then tilted it. That way, it captures some of the heat coming out of the fire box, and distributes across the cooking chamber. The only problem I have now is that the heat is a little too evenly distributed. This can be a problem when I am trying to cook beef along with pork. Beef needs to heat up to a lower temp, and then cook at that lower temp in order to stay moist. I may turn the charcoal pan over for my next cook (I'm fixing up some beef roast along with several cuts of pork, and some ribs). I want to get the beef just right before I try an expensive and time-consuming brisket.



While I'm doing show and tell, I might as well show you the charcoal chimney I made out of an old coffee can and some wire. It took a while, and hurt the finger pretty good, but it was fun and works great! I've the wire sitting around for a long time, and got the coffee can from work, so it didn't cost me a dime.




OK, one more shameless shot of some good samoked ribs! Mmmm..mmmm...mmmmm.

Astromoronics

I'd like to shake the hand of whoever designed the Chevy Astrovan... and then plant a good, firm foot in his backside. Don't let the "hood" fool ya. It's just there to laugh at the poor fool who has to try to fix the danged thing. It says, "Look, I'm a hood. You can't get to anything under here, but at least you can lift me up whenever it's time to work on me. People will look at you and think you are really doing something." Yeah, thanks for nuttin'.

No, to work on the van, you have to take off the INTERIOR HOOD.

OK, you think, where are the latches? Oh, but that would be too easy. No, you first have to remove the bolts.

OK, you think, I'll just remove the bolts. Still shouldn't be a problem.

Oh, but first you have to remove the console.

Oooooookay. Well, shouldn't be too hard. Let's see... a bolt here, a bolt there, and another one right about... here. Oh, and one more here. And one here. And... one more... here. OK. Now, pull it off. Uh, yeah, OK let's see... lift here, and tug here, and pull it out and up. No, up and out. And then up again. And now twist and lift. Whew!

Alrighty then. Now pull on the engine cover. Nothing. OK, ah, there's a bolt. And the other one... there. And then one there. And there. Oh, and there. OK. 3/8 for this one, 1/2 on this one, and let's see... 7/16? No, 5/8. Oh, you gotta be kidding me. Just how am I supposed to reach that one? I can barely see the danged thing.

Well, it's gotta come out. Hhhhhmmmkmkmkmhhhhhhh. Hukhmmmmmmmkmkmmkmmkmmkmkmkm. Dang it, dang it, dang it, dang it, dang it.

Hakhmhkmkhkmkhkmhumkhkmmhuummmkmkkmkkmkkhhkmkhmkkhhkmkhkm.

Whew! OK, now pull. Let's see, no, lift? No. Lift/pull? No. Pull/lift? Hey, it moved. Cool. Wiggle, wiggle. Lift, then pull, then tug, then lift again. I can see the engine now. A little more... now up and over the chai-... over the chai-.. OVER THE CHAI-.

You've gotta be freakin' kidding me! There is no getting this thing over these chairs. You can't twist it, turn it, bend it, lift it, warp it, break it, fold it, beg it, kick it, kick it, kick it, kick it... oh, hehe, sorry. Yeah, that's right. It is not going over the danged front chairs! Fine, I'll work around it.

Let's see now... spark plugs. Ah, there's the wires, let's see, they go down, down, down...

Oh, you have got to be freakin' kidding me! The spark plugs are below the floor board?! But they are also sitting over the stinkin' axle! There is no freakin' room to get your freakin' hand down to the freakin' spark plug! I'll have to get under the danged van, which means - oh, you have got to be freakin' kidding me. Where the @#%#^* is that *#@^# engineer. I've got one angry foot for his -

Oh, hi, dear... Yeah, it's going good. I'll have it fixed for you in no time...

Check out these cool pics!

My wife told me that if I want friends, I have to be a friend. So I went looking for blogger buddies, and came across these cool pictures. I think you'll like them.

Get out the napkin and wipe that saliva off your mouth!

Update (June 1, 2008): These were some of my early ribs. They were purchased from an IGA, where they were offering a great deal. They were cheap, which was great while I was experimenting, but is why there is very little meat left on the bone (there just wasn't much to begin to with).

Mmmmm....mmmmmmm.....mmmmmm

I just finished up another samokin' barbecue. I found an awesome deal on ribs, so I fixed up some ribs...lots and lots of ribs. Too many ribs (is there such a thing?). I had actually smoked some ribs last month, and man oh man, I had never had ribs like those! Excellent flavor, perfect smoke, good rub, and talk about tender. We didn't have to gnaw any of the meat off the bones. I thought I could do it again. Some turned out that tender, the others weren't bad. The flavor was AWESOME!

I've got pictures around here somewhere. I'll post some as soon as I can figure out how.

Anyway, I have been playing around with some other recipes. I made something today that the girls actually wanted seconds! Seconds, I say. When that happens, I know I've done something right. I usually get the "I don't like onions (or tomatoes, or meat, or frog tongues)." But today, I started making nachos, but then started playing around and wound up with something much better. Here goes...

Start with beef. Mix in some "Cheesy Nacho Mix" and a can of refried beans. Then crush corn chips all over the bottom of a small casserole dish. Spread shredded cheddar over the chips, then plop-spread half of the bean/meat mix around over the cheese. Drain a can of Mexican style stewed tomatoes, and spread half of it around. Then cut up half a block of cream cheese, and plop it all around over the mess. Throw in a few black olives if you want. Then crush some more chips, more cheese, more mix, more tomatoes, more olives, the rest of the cream cheese, and more cheddar. I didn't have any green chiles or I would have spread them over the top. Toss it in the oven on about 450 for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown. Serve it with salsa, maybe some chopped tomatoes and lettuce. Good stuff.