So I saw this baby (no picture) on Craigs and the guy was really cool and measured it and answered all of my questions. I had been looking for a 3 daisy wheel style kettle because I have been reading (lurker here
) that they are the best for smoking. I have the Mastertouch for doing the roadside chicken and such (I learned that from lurking here too LOL) and the 18.5 Silver for hot dogs and burgers and such. But I wanted a kettle for smoking up ribs and maybe a trimmed brisket someday.
Anyway, I made the deal with the guy and brought it home and started using a wire wheel for about 3 hours to save the cooking grate. Yes, $20 and a new hinged grate would have been easier but I really wanted to keep this thing as OG as possible. I finished with some 80 grit sandpaper and wiped down really good with vegetable oil and the grate turned out great albeit a little pitted in the spots where the rust was the heaviest, but that's fine with me.
Then I cleaned out the kettle and worked out some of the dents on the side of the lid where it looked like it was dropped pretty good a time or two. (probably when the previous owner was trying to use the hanger device that doesn't work all that well)
Next I sanded down the wood handle with 80 grit and got all of that nasty greyness off of it. Finished it with some spray varnish stuff my neighbor had sitting in his garage.
So I did a couple of racks of St. Louis cut spares and they came out FANTASTIC! As a matter of fact, they came out better than any ribs I've ever done before. I used to have an offset smoker barrel style smoker (one of the $150 cheap thin styles) and the ribs never came out right. Not this time, I used a loose version of the 3-2-1 method at about 275 cooking grate temp with a 300 lid temp. (only about 4 total hours cooking time instead of 6) One rack I rubbed with yellow mustard and the other one I didn't, the mustard one was better. I also used a premade Applewood rub (I know, blaspemy to use a premade rub but whatever, I don't care) and finished with a light coating of KC Masterpiece (more blaspemy to the purists) and they came out AWESOME!
My daughters Bday is on Memorial day so the Barbq Kettle will be stuffed with spares, the Mastertouch will be stuffed with Roadside chicken, and the Silver one touch will be stuffed with Nathan's hot dogs and Brats!
Thanks for check it out!
Anyway, I made the deal with the guy and brought it home and started using a wire wheel for about 3 hours to save the cooking grate. Yes, $20 and a new hinged grate would have been easier but I really wanted to keep this thing as OG as possible. I finished with some 80 grit sandpaper and wiped down really good with vegetable oil and the grate turned out great albeit a little pitted in the spots where the rust was the heaviest, but that's fine with me.
Then I cleaned out the kettle and worked out some of the dents on the side of the lid where it looked like it was dropped pretty good a time or two. (probably when the previous owner was trying to use the hanger device that doesn't work all that well)
Next I sanded down the wood handle with 80 grit and got all of that nasty greyness off of it. Finished it with some spray varnish stuff my neighbor had sitting in his garage.
So I did a couple of racks of St. Louis cut spares and they came out FANTASTIC! As a matter of fact, they came out better than any ribs I've ever done before. I used to have an offset smoker barrel style smoker (one of the $150 cheap thin styles) and the ribs never came out right. Not this time, I used a loose version of the 3-2-1 method at about 275 cooking grate temp with a 300 lid temp. (only about 4 total hours cooking time instead of 6) One rack I rubbed with yellow mustard and the other one I didn't, the mustard one was better. I also used a premade Applewood rub (I know, blaspemy to use a premade rub but whatever, I don't care) and finished with a light coating of KC Masterpiece (more blaspemy to the purists) and they came out AWESOME!
My daughters Bday is on Memorial day so the Barbq Kettle will be stuffed with spares, the Mastertouch will be stuffed with Roadside chicken, and the Silver one touch will be stuffed with Nathan's hot dogs and Brats!
Thanks for check it out!
