Favorite grill besides a kettle?


 
Chris - for capacity, I saw a 26" Weber Kettle at my local hardware store earlier this week. It is BIG! I would love to have one for our place on the lake where we seem to always be cooking for an army. While the larger kettle is expensive, it's a lot less than the Klose.

Pat
 
If I was adding another grill (non-smoker capabilities) I'd be purchasing a Bar-B-Chef. I've cooked on them a couple of times (Ed C. has one) and I love it, 770 square inches total cooking area, cast iron grates, excellent sears etc.
 
Hasty Bake or Primo would be my choice should I ever decide to replace the Performer. Tough split, I waver between the two.
 
I own a Hasty Bake Legacy and though it was expensive, I love it, love it, love it. It's by far the best grill I've ever used (and I've had plenty, including ceramics, kettles, and gassers), and it's a fine smoker too.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Scott Barentsen:
I own a Hasty Bake Legacy and though it was expensive, I love it, love it, love it. It's by far the best grill I've ever used (and I've had plenty, including ceramics, kettles, and gassers), and it's a fine smoker too. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Scott,
The Hasty Bake seems like it is like the Bar-B-Chef, just nicer.
 
The couple of times I've grilled on my 22" Weber, I've needed to make half direct heat, another half indirect, and juggle four whole corn on the cob and a couple pieces of meat. When I got it, I wondered if the 22" was too much for just me and my wife (and now my son.) But lately, I've been wishing for more space. And I think that round is not the most efficient use of space. And I wish I could change the height of the cooking grate. And wish I had a second level for keeping things warm like most gassers seem to have. I wondered if there were a charcoal grill like that. I was looking at the Hasty Bakes on-line today, and they seem to fit that bill. Much more than a 26" Weber kettle, though, but from the design, it seems like they'd make a pretty good smoker as well, and it seems that usually you can have a good grill, or a good smoker, but rarely both in the same unit. So I was thinking for the price of a 26" One Touch Gold and a 22" Smokey Mountain, I'm close to the price of a basic Hasty Bake.
 
I have buddies from college who can EAT! So I figured in addition to my 22" kettle I'd just get another one from CL. So now I just have two going and that seems to feed the masses. I do chicken on one, steaks on the other and sausage, beef links on the Smokey Joe.....
 
I occasionally like to "rough-it", by using a tripod-rig, with the grate suspended by an adjustable-height chain, over an open camp-fire.

The trick is to start a big-whopping "log-cabin" fire - which burns-down to a nice bed of prime cooking coals in relatively short order.

In a pinch - "primitive" works really well too. Once, we cooked some fresh-caught trout by gutting & gilling them, and then hanging them over the fire on some green Y-shaped sticks.
 
The Char-Griller I have from Lowes, with side by side charcoal and gas, has the things John mentioned: can lower/raise the coals, grate up top for warming. And it's a rectangle.

So, it seems to have the things you're talking about. Construction isn't that great though, and there are parts rusting already after less than a year. Not sure how normal that is b/c I don't have much to compare it to.
 
For something larger, I love my Bar-B-Chef. And for something smaller I enjoy firing up my Lodge Sportsman cast iron hibachi.
 
My favorite grill besides a kettle would be either of my old offsets.

Though ineffecient for non-large smokes, they made excellent 4' grills, especially if you needed varying heat zones.
 
I've got the Hasty-Bake Continental. (found on Craig's list cheap) and I rarely use my kettle anymore. I still prefer the WSM for smoking but can do shorter cooks in the grill easily. I did some kebabs the other day and cranking the coals up to within two inches of the grate gave some serious heat then I cranked it down to finish cooking. A really nice feature. I don't have anything bad to say about it. But I couldn't afford a new one right now.
 
Have you considered the Big Steel Keg?

I owned a Performer for a year, sold it after buying a Big Steel Keg. I also gave away my four burner gasser with rotis and infrared ceramic burner. I still own a 18.5" WSM, but it's been in the shed, I've not used it since March. I also have a spare kettle in the shed for capacity when I need it.

I can be cooking in the keg as quick as 10 minutes depending on the lump. It's crazy fuel efficient, I grilled 6 times off a heaping gallon ice cream pail of lump. It holds heat even better than Big Green Eggs. It will cut your charcoal bill to something like 1/5 of using a steel kettle.

It comes with a fantastic cast iron grill. They have a diffuser out for it now or one can use a Big Green Egg Platesetter, or a WSM grate and the older (1gal) water pan as a diffuser for low 'n slow.

For me, I simply didn't like the flavor or the performance of the gasser any more. yeah, smoker box with chips/pellets helps a lot but it's also kind of a PITA.

BSK all the way for me. Did I mention the trailer hitch adapter or twin bottle openers, cover, ash tool, stand side shelves for something like 1/2 the price of a comparably equipped large egg? 10 year warranty now too.
 
I got a big whoppen Kingsford grill a while back nice heavy CI grates lots a room ! Has a warming shelf and the charcoal grat raises and lowers like a draw bridge kina crak thing !

I like cooken on it a LOT specialy when I do a big offset cook !Its a couple yrs old holding up real well seems built well ! Better than the ones there selling now like it are cheapened up with junk grates ! Best $149.00 grill I ever got . I say got because it was a gift .

My 2 kettles get a lot a work but so does this K thing
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Besides my Performer which I love using most of the time (except for the quick nightly cooks I use my Q220) I have a Traeger woodpellet smoker which gives a nice subtle, non- overpowering natural smoke to every meal. It's not the best as a High heat grill which average top temp is about 420F but it will sit on 220 all night with little worries about peaks or troughs in temps while in smoke mode.I simply love the diversity of all my cookers and whilst I mainly have Webers including a 18.5 inch WSM,all of them have much different characteristics in the way they cook and the way they make food taste.I love my webers but I love the Traeger as well.

Cheers

Davo
 

 

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