That’s great! How was cleanup? The racks look like they could be an interesting challenge.
So, I was concerned about this as setup was a bit involved, although some of that was because it was my first run at it. But, for cleanup I pulled the racks and they went straight into the bottom rack on the dishwasher as they were. I was testing to see how they would come out without any pre-scrubbing or soaking.
Honestly, they came out as good or better than what I keep my normal grill grates. Just some of what I call ghosted stains but otherwise ready to roll again. If you are someone who keeps your grates completely spotless then just a little soaking and scrubbing would get these completely clean, but for me they are more than adequately clean and ready for the next cook and it was as simple as it gets to just throw them in the dishwasher. I left the end brackets on the spit so that these can be deployed more quickly on the next cook and I see myself using the Ribolater for the majority, if not pretty much all of my rotisserie cooks. The cook came out great and it was actually a lot of fun watching this thing roll around. Felt like some next level grilling ****. lol
BTW, I used the spit that came with the Weber kit as it's a smaller diameter spit and the larger spit that is actually for the Ribolater kept binding in the hole in the rotisserie ring that is near the motor. So, at some point I will get the drill out and expand that hole a little bit then I can use the intended spit for the Ribolater and keep the brackets on it and it'll keep the Weber spit available to use for larger single item rotisserie cooks like full chickens/turkeys, larger roasts, etc. Having the two spits available and ready to go without having to switch out brackets will be an important thing to me to keep these new toys in the rotation and easily ready to use.
Nice job on the cook. Nice trick to throw pellets on the coals instead of a wood chunk. Never thought of that. My wife is the same way....doesn't like the smoke flavor. Trying to keep her happy with my grilling.... almost at the point where she asks me to go out and grill up some food.
I'll have to pick up a bag of pellets. I've never used a pellet grill, so never purchased pellets....any suggestions or just grab any small bag at the store?
Yeah, my wife is finally actually requesting certain cooks, which is nice. So, I just somewhat recently started using the pellets and since I only use a handful per cook, I'm not burning through them very quickly. I'm still on the first third of my first full bag of pellets. This first bag was the Pit Boss brand from Walmart. I was looking for 5 or 8 pound bags but could only find full 20 pound bags when I was shopping for pellets. If you find a good place to get a 5 or 8 pound bag, let me know. I'm a mesquite only guy so I can't speak to the blends or other flavors, but no reason you couldn't buy several different ones and do some nice mixes for different cooks.
I keep 40 pounds of charcoal in the big gray bin and about half the pellets in the pellet bag fit in the smaller tub with the white lid. If I were someone who used wood mixes, I would have a plastic storage bin that was sectioned out or several that were together on a shelf or cabinet that I could make my own mixes for different cooks. Pork shoulder would be 1 part hickory, 1 part apple, 1/2 part mesquite.... something like that.
So far I really like the results I'm getting with the pellets. I just wait until the meat is on and then toss a handful of them on the coals. They give a good early plume of smoke but tend to burn out fairly quickly which is exactly what I'm looking for. With chunks I've noticed in the past when I knock the ash off the coals in the WSM or Kettle it'll find new wood to burn and starts billowing out more smoke and I'm really just looking for that kiss. lol
