Local place has grassfed at around 80/20 and 85/15. 85/15 is just about perfect. Enough drips down to actually get a bit of a charbroiled flame going from the flavorizer bars in my Weber. Slice up some Dubliner and some bacon and you've got a great burger going.
I'm worried the 22.5" WSM would just take up too much space. The 18.5 seems plenty big enough have you guys that have the 18,5 actually felt the need for the extra space?
not really. it's just that if you are cooking for a bunch of people there isn't much room to spare. you can definitely manage it though. it's just somewhat of a pain. in particular for ribs where even with a rib rack the ends can get way overdone if you don't cut the suckers in half. if i have a lot of ribs i want to do I put a rib rack on both racks, cut them 2/3rds and 1/3rd and double up with the 1/3rd. fits 8 rib racks that way, but it's a tight tight fit. I've also heard the 22.5 uses a lot more charcoal too btw. so there is that.
There's a lot of variation on the quality. A lot of people just cashing in on word play. You can't just take any beef or grass and come up with a good product.
i'm about to try smoking bacon. going to do this recipe: http://letsmakesomethingawesome.com/2011/03/home-cured-bacon-without-nitrates/
i'm sure that's true. would like to buy 1/3 or half of a cow from a good place, but the prices are crazy to get it out here to california. any recommendations?
I would check out some local farmers there. Most doing it on the up and up have a pretty friendly open door policy. If you're buying by the half or 1/3 make sure you're clear on what you're getting. The money cuts are in the back and some times you'll get cheated on them.
Going to try to swing by Lowe's on the way home today to check some out in person. Then go from there.
I have the Large Big Green egg and has been an enormous success. The only drawback is i wish i went with the Extra large due to amount of cooking im doing. You can only do 3 butts at a time on the large big green egg.
FIL has an egg and a grill. He and BIL use the egg regularly for most everything but burgers and dogs. I'd look at Kimono Dragon or whatever that knock off one is. I hear it's literally no different than the egg. Also, it's hard to go wrong with any product that has the name Weber on it.
I do it exclusively for everything. I grill steaks and fish primarily when not smoking. I grill a lot of eggplant also. I simply close the vents and can re-use the lump charcoal again. sams sells a 20 lb bag for 10 bucks. It gets up to 500 degrees in a reasonable time for the steaks.
Gotcha. The vast, vast majority of my grilling is chicken/pork chops/burgers/veggies. I'll throw some tuna or salmon on occasionally, but that's it.
it's really a matter of cost/benefit analysis. I love my WSM, but I'd probably own a BGE if they were the same price.
