Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

A grinder with a cut off wheel will fix the square shape right quick

 

Not sure if anyone got a pic of the grill fully loaded with hamburgers before this (@Bigdaddy4760 you get any when it was full?), but I had one more hot dog to put on. Only need a partial grate for that one

 

What is the maximum capacity for hot dogs on that thing? Looks like 112 based on my calculations.

 

~37" Diameter => 1075 sq. in.
Hot dog (typical) 6"x1" = 6 sq. in.

~179 hot dogs

That's a lot of wieners!

 

No sir I did not

 

I just went back and looked around that date and didn't see any. darn. Guess we'll have to redo it

 

You need to bring that up when can for the mods.

 

Was just thinking about that. I found the quote to get the whole thing sand blasted and ceramic coated again. Mod first though!

 

You throw like a girl

 

I know you're not THAT girl though!

 

Hmmmmm....If I could do something like that to make a mini-pizza oven, then I'm in. I'm still tinkering with this Rocket Stove thing, though. I know it will make it less compact overall, but I think I'm going to look in to a 2 or 3 burner version. It might be little more than 3 of them packaged together in an efficient manner, but I want to be able to make bacon AND eggs in separate skillets at the same time.

I suppose I should have posted the stove in this thread, too. My idle hands were looking for a project while I wait for the next opportunity to work on the big smoker, so I picked up some steel and branched off of some basic plans to make a Rocket Stove*.

*I'm a big Dallas Mavericks fan, ergo, I very much dislike the Houston Rockets. As such, I will try to be referring to this as a Maverick Stove from here on out.

First cut. I started with 12' of 4" x 4" square tubing (1/8" thick).


Here is the wood chute and exhaust chamber cut:


Stella helped weld one of the seams. Those that follow my big smoker build thread (I'll probably put this in there, too) saw her get her first lessons in welding out at Maner's shop on my big pit. She had a friend over and couldn't abandon her for long, but she was able to come help a bit .



Here is the fuel chute added to the exhaust chute:


Intake added along with a piece of expanded to keep the sticks out of the way of the intake:



Added a guard to keep ash from falling on the ground out of the intake:



My welder SUCKS. I'm not great at welding, but I'm confident enough to say that I've outgrown my little turd Harbor Freight flux core welder. It was cheap and good for learning the basics, but I can't pull a decent pool of weld and it splatters like crazy. That said, with a little work, I'm pretty happy with the results. This is the corner where I welded the intake shield to the main unit.



Trivet added to hold the skillet above the heat and not choke out the flame. It is notched and sits in place. The idea is to make it modular so I can swap the trivet out for something like a wok holder. Base also added:



Door added to the wood chute:



Finished product. Little Pippa posing next to it for scale (she's little). This is about 20" tall, I think, and 14" wide at one point. About 11" across the other direction:



Get a little kindling going in the bottom, then drop some sticks down the wood chute and there you go:



Made breakfast on it the next morning (bacon, sausage, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, and a couple omelettes). I was definitely overextending its capabilities, but it was fun. Breakfast for one or two would be plenty easy.



Pretty cool. I bought $75 worth of steel and have enough to make 3 or 4 more of these things.

 

First.. that's a bad ass Maverick Stove™! Secondly.. I feel like you could definitely make a modular design to have all of the breakfasts going or just one for a snack.. lastly.. I feel if you made the other project with a door on the front.. it'd likely work for a pizza. It would probably work better as a "deep dish" style in a cast iron pan vs a thin crust type.. but what the hell do I know? And be proud of your welds and your daughter helping out! ( Stay away from the welding posts on IG though.. they'll just piss ya off) HAHA It looks great!

 

Forgot to say without rubbin’.

 

You should build your own flat top griddle like the blackstone.

 

Sweet! The James Harden Tribute Rocket Cooker is alive!



Phenomenal job! sign me up!

 

Dinner: Cast Iron on the 26" kettle over the vortex. Goat Cheese and Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Par Boiled Green Beans toss in the Pan Remnants (and extra butter)



















This has now become, according to the wife, the best chicken breast dish I've made. It was already demanded for a future dinner. The tart goat cheese in the crusty seared chicken was amazing together. Both of us actually finished the green beans first
No prep pics... I know I know! But, 1/3 of a log ish of goat cheese mixed with pan cooked bacon bits. Sliced. Stuffed. Into pan. Once the Chicken was around 155*, the wife had par boiled the green beans, we added the beans to the pan with a little more butter and tossed them around in all the pan goodness. Quick hit of fresh cracked black pepper (thanks again @wilcam47 !) and to the plates it went. Quick and simple enough, but oh so good.