Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I figured it was something since it was marked so nicely.

The one I restored was specifically for a recipe I want to make on the grill so it's totally worth a little elbow grease to me!! I know you understand that!

 

Yes sir, but I would save the Gris for stovetop cooking

 

Yea.. I used what I had on hand... Plus the whole potato and salt trick was pretty F ing cool! Haha

I seasoned it with bacon grease that I saved from my air fryer bacon cooking!

Sounds like a good plan to me... It's the worst of the 3 on the inside but with the success I had on the first one, I have no doubt I can save that one too.

 

I have a large logo Gris I picked up at a hunting cabin I stayed in a couple of years ago for $20. Actually picked up 2 for $40 but let my friend have the other one even though it was a smaller and more valuable #6. I have nothing against generic no names either though as long as they are no wobble\not warped. But yeah those collectors go nuts over Griswold either small or large labels.

 

What makes it a large or small label?

 

The size of the logo, around 1940 or so they started to make the logo smaller. Yours is a small logo. The really old ones the name Griswold is slanted like italics but those pans usually have heat rings to sit on wood stoves. They are all good IMO and a lot lighter than the new lodge pans. Once you get degenerative arthritis in your wrists and hands that becomes important.

 

I have an 8 inch that doesn't do well with the palm sander but I have just used elbow grease and gotten it down. Worth the effort, but I use the 8 and the 10 1/4 lodge pans basically daily.

I waste enough time here on this site between this thread and the stocks trading thread Don't give me another one to waste my time on during work.

......Subscribing to this thread now.

The No 3 is a Griswold as well. There's a following of vintage pans like that, especially as long as they are not warped! Both are good pans. To the point that some of those pans will go for 75$ +. To me, it's not worth it. A 10$ lodge with 10 minutes with a palm sander and it's the same thing, these things are hunks of metal, nothing fancy that the new pans or old pans did better. The old pans have a surfacing operation after casting, that modern pans got rid of. Lodge says it's so that the rougher pan holds the seasoning better. I call shenanigaaaaaannnnnnnnss that Lodge gave it to their marketing team. I don't think they are wrong but I disagree. I surfaced my pans with a 300 grit and what a difference that made on the cooking surface!

DON'T put them in the fire like some people think is the right thing to do. It warps them. You do not want warp - warp is caused by the same stresses that cause cracking, which you really don't want. Especially not on the vintage pans like that.

The Taiwan pan is fantastic for doing potatoes in a camp fire because it's worth less than the potatoes that it will hold. I have a walmart taiwan level 12" pan that I can chuck in the fire and not give a rip about. Love it. my workhorses are a lodge 10 1/4" pan (10 1/2?? can't remember but I've had a few drinks this evening........) and a lodge 8". Those two pans do 99% of my cooking, and I have a lodge 12" that I use enough to justify having it. Plus the junker 12" that goes in the fire - oak fire roaster potatoes done once will prove that purchase worth it to anybody. Walmart, camping aisle - check it out

....did I mention that, what some of y'all have for smoking, I miiiiight have for cast irons? I know more and care more about cast irons than I'm willing to make public knowledge.......

That's agressive

I use a stripping pad first then use a 300 grit pad on my palm sander when I strip and surface my pans. I have wire wheels but I haven't used them. That might be a lie I may have used them for the groove in the bottom of the pan last time, but I don't remember. I focus my efforts on the cooking surface and just blast the outside and handle and don't really focus efforts there.

I tend to season with crisco first. I do like bacon, but not a big bacon guy..... I know, not a big red meat or bacon guy, WTF. Crisco does well. I can't remember the chemistry off the cuff right now because....I've had a few drinks, BUT Bacon does well and crisco does well because they're long string polymers (??????) so when they "cling" to the pan, they hold better than, say, olive oil. Wife is vegan - she has a 9 inch pan (also used for baking stuff, 9 inch is a common size) so that one doesn't get the Bacon treatment. I do have a jar of saved bacon grease in the fridge though. Actually just made sweet potato fries with some this evening

Everything can be used for the stovetop and the grill. Usually grills will "top out" around 500 to 550, which isn't really enough to destroy a cast iron. What really kills them is a thermal shock. If you take the pan out of the freezer with some frozen snausages and drop it on a preheated high heat 550 degree grill, that shock can either warp or crack the pan, it's the same stresses that cause both. If you "gently" get to 550 degrees and "gently" cool back down, you'll be fine to use it in the grill. The issues come in when you chuck it in the flames of a campfire, "because that's what grandma did". As mentioned I have a campfire pan, but it's a cheapo that I can guarantee you is now more warped than Phil Spector, but whatever, I chuck it in the fire (potatoes, steak, sometimes chicken.........pb&j......)

The 2 gris pans are good finds though.

 

i got some already made...

 

id buy at$400

 

Don't forget the bottle opener...

 

It’s certainly heating up in the Northeast but I think I’m suffering from what some people would call meat sweats

 

Kinda looking for an easy intro to longer cooks on the Weber. When we had a charcoal grill before, like over 15 years ago, one of the reasons we switched was that the meat was never done enough, that I either didn't leave things on enough or the fire never got hot enough. That was a similar situation with the london broil earlier this week, and why I had to cut it up and throw it back on.

I'm already committed to the idea that my first bag of coal and my first few cooks are going to be experimental. I also need to read up on some accessory gear. I have an instant read, but I need to look into wifi or BT-enabled thermos so I'm not opening the lid a lot and trust that things are going well.

 

On a Weber kettle you can do the snake method for long cooks.

 

A good meat thermometer is your best friend for steaks, or pretty much anything on the Weber.

I have one similar to this to monitor the temp inside the grill as well as 1 or more points in the meat throughout the cook for something that is going to take a while.

$53 Inkbird IBT-4XS Bluetooth Wireless Grill BBQ Thermometer for Grilling with 4 Probes, Timer, Alarm,150 ft Barbecue Cooking Kitchen Food Meat Thermometer for Smoker, Oven, Drum

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B076QDC5VL/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_SuJ9Eb08AQ5Y0

and a standalone one to spot check areas if I want or if I pull the probes out so I can flip the meat over hot coals on a reverse sear.

$24 Inkbird Instant Read Meat Thermometer IHT-1P, Digital Waterproof Rechargeable Food Thermometer with Calibration, Magnet, Backlight for Cooking, Grill, Smoker, Kitchen, Turkey

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07X9ZSCD8/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_0uJ9Eb89WG195

If I'm doing something that I expect to take a couple hours or longer on the Weber I will do the snake method but for most smaller/shorter cooks like tri-tip roast or pork tenderloin that take maybe an hour I usually use the minion method to make sure it has enough fuel for the cook.

 

@Misplaced Nebraskan @bvbull200

 

@Misplaced Nebraskan has some pics from times where he's done this, but the best way is to line up the charcoal in a ring around the outer edge of the bowl. Maybe 2-3 briquettes tall with some wood chunks mixed in there. Get some charcoal started in your chimney starter (maybe 10 pieces or so?) and once they're lit, add them to the starting edge of your snake. They'll eventually light the briquettes like a big, long, slow burning fuse. You can put a little foil pan of water in the middle of the charcoal grate, then put the meat off to the opposite side of the fire. You'll need/want to rotate your cooking grate during the cook to keep the meat opposite the fire, but it'll work. Ideally, you'll keep the exhaust fully open and adjust temps on the intake side, but I usually end up having to tap the exhaust shut a little to get temps down.

I've made great food going low 'n slow in the Weber kettle. If you want, put a short snake in there, light it up, then just play around with it as a test run. Throw some poppers in there to get something out of the heat .

 

Finally explains Crop Circles too.

 

It's just ET using the snake method to cook an intergalactic brisket.

 

Clear manipulation of gravity right there.

 

obviously ignore the Vortex in this pic. Just using it as a heat shield of sorts as I was fully loading the pit up.





But Bryan pretty much covered it all. Just a visual for ya.