Hello, my name is Bob, and I’m a gizmo-holic.
Earlier today our new friend on here, David in Las Vegas, enthused about how much he’s enjoying his new Stampede and how much he has planned to do with it this weekend. That got me to thinking, do some of us (guilty!) get a little carried away with outdoor cooking devices and accessories. The old saying is “ confession is good for the soul” so I’ll start out by saying I like tools/devices/toys of all kind. I even have a small sign over the door of my shop/garage/out building to declare such.
As for outdoor cooking I probably have too many devices as there is some overlap among them, but when bought, the way they operated I found intriguing so thought, “why not…….”. Others are a product of evolution, learning that some tools are better at doing some things than others that we’ve been “getting bye” on. So here’s my list;
Earlier today our new friend on here, David in Las Vegas, enthused about how much he’s enjoying his new Stampede and how much he has planned to do with it this weekend. That got me to thinking, do some of us (guilty!) get a little carried away with outdoor cooking devices and accessories. The old saying is “ confession is good for the soul” so I’ll start out by saying I like tools/devices/toys of all kind. I even have a small sign over the door of my shop/garage/out building to declare such.
As for outdoor cooking I probably have too many devices as there is some overlap among them, but when bought, the way they operated I found intriguing so thought, “why not…….”. Others are a product of evolution, learning that some tools are better at doing some things than others that we’ve been “getting bye” on. So here’s my list;
- One of the first things we added to this house when we moved here was an outdoor kitchen. So along with a set of cabinets and countertops complete with sink, we added a gas grill tied into the whole house propane plumbing. I expected we’d be doing some entertaining so went larger than two people really need. I got a Summerset TRL 44, A very nice gasser with high btu burners, rotisserie, and I added an infrared sear burner. It does a nice job for strictly grilling things, though I’ve also used the cast iron griddle from the inside stove to do griddle things, albeit it’s a tad smallish.
- When we moved we brought a Kamado Joe 18” kamodo with us, they are now referred to as a Classic Joe since they’ve broadened their line of offerings. It’s been a solid unit and functioned as our first form of smoking experience along with its grilling capabilities. It’s a bit fiddly to build a steady temp fire, but I bought a DiGi Q controller and pit viper fan that makes it much easier. After some experimenting with the RT on pizza, I still prefer the KJ as it more closely emulates a wood fired pizza oven.
- A couple years ago I became more intrigued with smoking (probably a Texas thing) and dipped my toe in with an electric box smoker from Smoke Hollow. It had wifi capability which I thought was a neat tool. It worked fairly well for about a year, produced some good ribs and a few briskets, but eventually fell to the bugs that infest electronic gear. It must have proven to be a real blivet as Smoke Hollow doesn’t offer it anymore and doesn’t support it. Maybe I”ll use it as a cold smoke box.
- Then I was visiting my sister for Thanksgiving and she’s really into smoking.....really. She has a modest Camp Chef unit but gets some very good results from it. We did three turkeys that year; a traditional stuffed one in the inside oven, a deep fried one (a huge favorite in our family), and a smoked one. I enjoyed the smoked one and watched the process she went through to prepare and cook. I’d been aware of pellet smokers, but hadn’t focused much on the category until then. Well, the outcome of that exposure/experience was researching and ending up buying the Stampede smoker/grill. The PID controls and the build quality for the price have been a joy. It is a wonderfully predictable and reliable cooker with quite a bit of versatility.
- On a whim I got interested in barrel smokers, and there is a loyal contingent at Amazing Ribs that almost seem cult like in their devotion to them. They tend to favor the Pit Barrel Smoker (PBS), but they also had a number of discussions about modifications/kludges/wishes they had for the unit and I discovered that the Barrel House Smoker cured a number of those issues. I had the opportunity to buy one at a significant discount from someone who never opened the box of the one they’d gotten so took a shot. Did I mention I’m a gizmo-holic? Anyway, I’ve only done ribs with it so far, the idea of hanging and not wrapping while operating at a higher temperature I found interesting. So far it’s turned out some decent ribs, but not what I’d consider outstanding.
- Recently I came across an outdoor stove from Camp Chef, the Somerset IV. Typically the kind of stoves that are of this design are the portable camp stove variety (I have one of those too that we’ve used for deep frying so as to keep the smell outside the house). This stove is different in that it is dressier, sits at a 34” operating height at the grate, and has four burners rated at 30k btu per. The unit is 48” long so the burners are well spaced for pots of larger capacity. I had gotten a large 32 x 17 griddle for the other camp stove and it fits fine over three of the burners. We’ve used the griddle a couple times, once was to convert left over pulled pork into carnitas for tacos. But it’s been very handy for deep frying as it keeps the smell outside, has terrific temperature recovery with those large output burners, and have done some wok cooking which was terrific because, again the smell is outdoors, and the cook time is very short/quick. In some ways this has become the most versatile piece of equipment we have on the patio.
