Recent content by Dwain Gleason

After doing some googling, it looks like Heat Beads are an Australian brand of briquette that - according to WikiAnswers - are made from actual coal. Their online "how to" video shows them starting up briquettes that look like they're being used in a Weber kettle, so I'm not sure why Weber...

You guys are right - I have awesome friends. On closer inspection today I don't think I'm as concerned with the fit of the middle section onto the bottom. I think I was just looking for things to be concerned about when assembling the unit, but I saw zero smoke leakage from around the...

The folks that I work with presented me with a new 22" WSM yesterday - you could have knocked me over with a feather! They just carted it into a meeting on a dolly, they'd found one over the weekend at a local KC place, Backyard Bash. Best Christmas present I've gotten from anyone in a very long...

This probably sounds silly, but I bought a couple of these a few years ago and they are, as the kids these days say, "the shizzle." They're the Brinkman Meatloaf Pan, which is essentially a meatloaf-pan shaped piece of wire mesh. I use these things all the time for sausage at BBQ contests, and...

Eric, I agree with you on the two KC choices. Now don't get me wrong, I really enjoy Jack Stack. They've got three locations with another opening on the Plaza soon (where the KC Masterpiece used to be), and one is just up the street from where I work in Overland Park. Everything they do is very...

If you leave the water pan empty - which I think is a good idea, personally - you might consider putting some foil in the pan and try to "stretch it tight" so that it doesn't come in contact with the bottom of the pan. I've managed to scorch some rendered fat in the bottom of pans before, but...

Kelley from Kingsford came to the Sugar Creek, MO BBQ contest last weekend and walked around and chatted with many of the teams there. He noticed our row of six WSMs and probably spent somewhere around 20 minutes chatting with us about their new product and our experiences with it. I think this...

If the Sam's plastic wrap is as thin as their so-called heavy duty foil, I'd avoid it.

I love using BBQ leftovers for chili. WHenever I cook whole briskets, I keep the point, re-smoke it for a while to get it just a little "drier" (get some more fat out of it), then freeze it. My favorite chilis have several different textures of meat - chopped brisket, shredded pork, ground beef...

When I'm preparing meat, I use a large food service box - you can get them in 2-packs from Sam's club - and do all the prep in those boxes. They're probably a good 2 feet wide or so and pretty deep - I've done a dozen racks of ribs in a couple of them, one for the de-skinning and one for the...

That is a beeee-yooo-tiful steak. Here's a thought - place a small drip pan under the steak(s) while smoking to catch the drippings and the butter that rolls off. Put it in a saucepan and reduce with some red wine, might make a fantastic sauce, especially if you sauteed some shallot and/or...

I'm a big fan of 2 parts oak to one part cherry. That's been my mixture this year, seems to work great. I will finish a brisket in the oven at home if I'm needing to leave the house or it's really inclement outside, but I don't think it makes a difference from a quality perspective. Treat the...

I like getting the ribs pretty much done, then throwing them on a semi-hot grill (2-3 seconds of being able to hold the hand over the coals before it gets to be too much) - it only takes a couple of minutes to get a nice dry exterior, maybe even just slightly crunchy. Add a glaze of sauce or...

HA! When I saw Jim on BBQ America on PBS a few weekends ago, I said to my wife, "hey, there's Jim Minion?" And she replied, "the guy with the method?" Sounds kinda dirty when you hear it said like that....

Unless the meat is really overloaded, touching, or you otherwise end up with one big mass instead of two separate ones, having 2 briskets (or shoulders, etc.) doesn't inherently take any longer than one, in my experience. Smoking is an inexact art anyway, so if it does take longer I probably...