Sear-ious topic: Looking for the perfect combination.

[pbft]

My 1995 Weber Genesis is on its last legs, and my cheap Masterbuilt smoker is dead. I just got a Trailblazer RT-340 to replace both of them. I'm totally happy with it as a smoker and a grill, but I'm looking for a better searing solution.

I like to cook several different ways:

• 'Low and slow' smoking
• Sous vide (to make cheap steaks awesome), with or without some smoking as a first step
• Traditional high-temp grilling - burgers, veggies, whatever

Both smoking and sous vide really need a finishing high-temp sear. I'd like a more aggressive high-temp sear than I can easily get from the Trailblazer, and I don't want to fire it up just to sear sous vide steaks.

I'm thinking of adding a Camp Chef Sear box or Sidekick to handle the searing. I'm also thinking it might be a good option if I just want to grill a single piece of salmon or something quick. Couple of questions:

• Any thoughts on whether this makes sense?
• Has anyone mounted one of these on a Rectec?
• Anyone have experience and feedback on either the Sear Box or the Sidekick?
• Will either of them fit on the right-hand end of the Trailblazer if I unbolt the handle? Metalwork doesn't bother me, but I don't want it to be a hack job.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

 

[Mike]

@pbft both the Camp Chef sear box and Sidekick are nice pieces. The Sidekick is going to give you more flexibility to do other cooks on but if you're just looking to sear then I would probably lean more towards the Sear box.

I personally own a set of Grill Grate searing grates and have been very happy going that route on my Rec Tec Bull.

 

[pbft]

Thanks - pretty much what I thought. I looked at the searing grates, and the Rec Tec definitely gets hot enough. I was able to crank the Trailblazer up to 450 to finish the chicken breasts, even without the searing grates.

Usually I'm just cooking for two, and if all I need is a quick sear (like when I'm finishing one little sous vide steak) then heating up the whole grill seems like a big production. I'm assuming that the sear box gets hot in much less time, but I've never seen one in action.

I'm thinking that the sear box would do what I need, and that the sidekick grill and other options aren't things I'd use much.

I'm hoping for some forum wisdom before I pull the trigger. Too many times I've gotten something that was *almost* the right solution.

 

[Uncle Bob]

I don't have experience with the CC sear box, but I do with a sear burner on my Summerset gas grille. It's 15k btu, so similar, it uses IR burner. There is some preheat time if you want the grill bars to be at a good sear temp, so keep that in mind. I also have the "grill grates" which are functional, but different than a dedicated sear box. With preheating they put on some nice marks, not quite as dark as the dedicated sear burner. The potential drawback to the dedicated sear burner, depending on your tastes/objectives is flair ups...………...big time. In the pics it appears the CC has a similar grid setup as the "grill grates" so it may be less of an issue for that one than the "normal" round rod style I have.

 

[pbft]

Thanks. Preheat time is a big question that I should have asked up front. I'm hoping it's at least quicker than my old Genesis or the Trailblazer, but I'd be really bummed if I got it and found out that it takes half an hour to get up to temp.

 

[TheJWhoa]

Dont they make grill grates for the 340?

 

[pbft]

Dont they make grill grates for the 340?

They do, but firing up the whole grill just to do a quick sear seems a waste.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Okay, since I brought up the notion of preheat in this thread it occurs to me that I should give some examples. First the dedicated sear unit; the Summerset one I referenced above only needs about 3-5 minutes with the 15k btu on high. My first motivation is to crisp up the leftover stuff on the grate to wipe off with the wire brush. Depending on what and how much of that stuff there is determines how much time it takes to "carbonize" it for quick scraping. By that time it's sear ready, a matter of usually less than 10 minutes total. Then, it depends on whether I sear first or reverse sear, what the thickness of the meat is, and what my food temp target is. Sometimes I'll do the whole cook on the sear (if it's thin or more rare is desired), sometimes I finish or start in the gas grill. I'll attach a pic of a tomahawk steak that I started in the grill and finished on the sear. Plenty of flair up on that baby.

On the RT with the grill grates it was a different matter. The gg's that came with the Stampede package deal take up half the real estate so I started the steaks on the "normal" grille side once the unit was up to temp, and then finished on the gg's which got the preheat from being in the unit for the heat cycle I would have done for cooking anyway. The part about no flair ups with the gg's is mostly true, though some of the fat drippings that stayed in the trough did ignite briefly, so maybe we call it a mini flair.

 

[pbft]

Good info - thanks. If the sear box reaches working temp in ten minutes, that's a win. I don't think I need the advertised 900 degree temp, but 600 with nice grill marks would be nice, and flare-ups should be manageable. The CC sear box has a double baffle / diffuser that looks like it should aslo reduce flare-ups, but I'd love to get a first-hand report.

 

[Uncle Bob]

I realize that this is your thread with the primary focus on a propane side burner/sear, but I just realized I was a bit incomplete with the "grill grates" discussion, so for clarity if someone else were to read this I'll add to it. When doing the steaks on the RT with grill grates, planning for a reverse sear, the steaks were cooked at 230 (which still preheated the grates), and once the meat got to within 10 degrees of my final target temp I pulled them off and cranked the RT up to 450 for the reverse sear. Once it hit the 450 I put the steaks back on and they ended up marking nicely, though not as intensely as on the gas powered sear burner.

 

[pbft]

No problem - I don't see that as thread hijacking. Any information about searing options seems relevant. How long does it take your RT to get to 500 from a standing start? Looks like you have the Stampede. I have the Trailblazer, and it gets to 450 in between 15 and 20 minutes when it's 10 outside. Didn't try for 500 at that outdoor temp. Don't have many other data points yet :-(

 

[Uncle Bob]

I had to go back and read what I'd posted on other threads and corrected my temps, only went to 450 for the sear. To get from the 230 cook to 450 sear took just over 5 minutes. From zero to 500 with ambient temps in the 40s only took a bit over 15 minutes, but when I did that I was going for max temp to do a pizza (thread elsewhere here for that). It really got slow after 500 and only got to 546 tops. Once the lid was opened it dropped back down to the 510-520 range and just couldn't recover during the 18 minutes cook time on the pizza...…..though I lifted the lid 4 times in that period which was likely the biggest culprit.