Recent content by MartinB

There was a small historic town 20,000 people or so I used to drive through and stop at a small barbecue joint there all the time when driving through there for work around mealtime. It had really good barbecue.... But the owner sold it.... And two women apparently bought it.... That...

I think you have to differentiate between small chains and national chains. There are small local / regional places with a few locations ...2-10 or so that are great .... Much harder to do on the national level with hundreds. But I can tell you this.... If they don't have a strong smoke smell...

Simplicity made difficult.

Friend's dad had one back in the 1970s..... I thought it was pretty dumb to have to crouch down to Cook your food

I have a controller and have no problems going down to under 150 even.... Doing bacon. You can get the temperature wherever you want by lighting the right amount of coals and having the vent settings right if you're too hot you're lighting too many coals

Much higer heat than wsm sees .burns off grease......will make plated grates fail, drastically shorten wsm life when compared to use as greasy low temp smoker. You can do it ...really not good idea. Kettles.are much cheaper than wsm...just buy one.

It's really wrapping ribs that is the worst.. for me... Particularly multiple racks of ribs. Lid is just open for a while removing them and putting them back in . They're hot... Not easy to handle arrange in the tiny area available.

I don't have any problems with temperature control.... Which is why I wouldn't spend money on cast iron plates. However 50 lb of old steel brake rotors are free..... People add a ceramic dish..... With sand rocks nothing or even a water pan... To help buffer temperature changes.. That said...

While changing brakes on my truck..... It occurred to me that the old brake rotors are perfect for adding quite a bit of mass to a WSM to help with temperatures stability after opening the lid, etc.... and free. I considered cast iron weight discs before... But they generally are a dollar a pound.

Pressure washer works as well....faster. bit messier though

You won't usually find them at your big grocery stores or such but standalone butcher shops etc often have them. I found one place near me that will have them.. and it's a place that sells their own meat from their own farm... Kind of boutique -ish. Grass-fed and pricey. It's prime rib on a on...

I think smoking your sides is too much smoked stuff. Smoke really doesn't go well with a lot of things either. There is no need to smoke any sides etc. I often cook corn on cob, but I wrap it in tin foil.

I didn't see a reason for the gasket at first either..... But once I put them on.... I wished I had done it sooner. First, that little smoke goes to none at all.. occasional air leaks when replacing the lid just don't happen anymore..Second the lid sits down on a nice soft surface..... And...

Out of all the accessories you listed for the WSM the only one you need is the gasket. Okay, you don't even need that but it is a really good thing The drum smoker is ridiculously overpriced by a factor of 2. If you want a drum smoker by the parts and build your own from a 55 gallon drum...

I think the raspberry pi became unavailable during COVID and kind of quenched a lot of the activity. Some better commercial units have come out as well. Although The heater meter with the blower / damper is still far superior