Looking forward to charcoal cooking again!


 

Cindy Kee

New member
Hi everyone!

I discovered this website several years ago when I had a Weber Master Touch Kettle and was looking for advice on the best ways to cook on it. This site was a great resource for me - between this and several YouTubers I was able to successfully use my kettle for both low-and-slow cooking and grilling for 3-4 years. I lived in Northern Nevada, and I struggled at times in the cold weather to get it to hold its temps, which made me wish for a kamado cooker for my low-and-slow cooking. But I knew we would be moving in a couple years and decided it wasn't worth buying anything until after that. Then in 2020 as we were packing up to move to Florida (my original home and where my family lives), I sold off all my Weber kettle stuff knowing that we would be in an apartment for an indeterminate amount of time and would not be able to use it. I figured I would re-evaluate our needs when the time came.

Well, the time is coming soon! 😆 We live in West-Central Florida and have for 2 years, and decided we really like the area we are in. When our lease renewal came around again, our rent when up another 20%, so we decided that if we are going to spend that much money for housing, we should buy a house after all! We are on contract for a new house to be built, breaking ground this month and be ready for move-in around June 1st next year.

After researching our needs and desires for outdoor cooking, I have decided that the :summite6kamado: Weber Summit Kamado E6 is going to be what we are going to buy! I had thought about a Traeger because it is perfect for the lazy BBQ'er, but really don't like that I can't easily sear steaks and such on it. And I don't want to buy 2 different cookers. So, I am back to being a Weber-gal! I am so excited about the possibilities of the WSK and the fact that I already have some experience with the kettle side of cooking should mean a little less learning curve. The WSK seems to have the best of both worlds - kettle-style grilling and Kamado-style slow cooking. And even though I am no longer in a cold, snowy winter location, I love the potential of the insulated walls to really add temperature stability to all the cooking modes! It seems like the perfect and natural upgrade to the kettle I used before!

I have already been reading some of the forum posts tagged with wsk and can't wait for next summer! I am so happy to be here!
 
CINDY, HI AND WELCOME AGAIN NEIGHBOR ;)

Oh I hope you will keep us posted and show pictures of the progress on your home. I am very happy for you!!!!

Do you have a favorite food you like to grill? If you have done any searching here, you will find out I like recipes.:giggle:
 
Welcome Cindy!
There’s no reason to wait, I use my kettles and WSM year round! Even when it’s like this…7EA0FC95-152E-48E3-8EA8-174DAF01BFAC.jpeg
YES, the log is crawling toward the fireplace!
 
Welcome Cindy!
There’s no reason to wait, I use my kettles and WSM year round! Even when it’s like this…View attachment 62293
YES, the log is crawling toward the fireplace!
The reason I have to wait to start using the WSK is because I am in an apartment complex and I am not allowed to have any grills/open fire anywhere here. I have to use the provided gas grills located in the pool/outdoor kitchen area, of which there are only 2.
 
CINDY, HI AND WELCOME AGAIN NEIGHBOR ;)

Oh I hope you will keep us posted and show pictures of the progress on your home. I am very happy for you!!!!

Do you have a favorite food you like to grill? If you have done any searching here, you will find out I like recipes.:giggle:
In Nevada, we really liked doing tri-tip - reverse seared. And I did a low-and-slow with the snake-charcoal method in the kettle a couple of times to cook a pork shoulder - that really impressed the family!

Being in Florida, I'd like to get good at seafood on the grill. And with the upgrade to a wsk, I'd love to make my pork shoulder even better! Tri-tip is hard to find here in the east, but I suppose I could learn to cook a brisket flat (not sure we could eat enough to warrant buying a regular size brisket!)

They are supposed to break ground on our house on Nov 17th, so I'll share pictures then.
 
Hi Cindy and welcome back to the Forum. There are several active members here that use the WSK and really love it. It is a really versatile cooker, I've had mine for about a year and I've just about got the hang of it. I'm sure you've noticed this but the charcoal great on the WSK has an upper and a lower position. The upper position is best used for high-heat grilling.... two zone cooking is a little tricky though because the "cool side" will still be 450 or so with the lid closed!

This is a recent cook I did with the charcoal grate in the upper position using lump charcoal... I actually used my CI pan to sort of hide the pork chop from the direct heat. https://tvwbb.com/threads/friday-night-pork-chops-pan-roasted-veggies.93229/ I have also grilled over direct heat with the charcoal on the bottom section which works really nice on skin on chicken and pork steaks. There are some really nice posts here on the WSK... Brett-EDH has a bunch of good ones.
 
You will notice that cooking between a kettle and Summit, while similar are different. For instance, the top vent doesn’t need to be opened much at all, and you may find when you think it’s not open enough it’s exactly where it needs to be. They hold temp magnificently (I use mine year round) and will sear better than anything I’ve used. Lift the lid and in about a minute flames are tickling the meat…yum.

I think you made a solid choice. I love my kettles and Smokefire but if I could only keep one, it would be the Summit.
 

 

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