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[Cooking Thread] Burning questions and searing remarks

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Posts

  • destroyah87destroyah87 They/Them Preferred: She/Her - Please UseRegistered User regular
    edited April 2021
    Cherry and pecan? Good to know. Good to know.

    I’ve got some thin sirloin in the smoker with mesquite. Doing a side of bell peppers in there too because why not.

    Oh also. And a very experimental item in the fridge. Pickled bananas. Plan to have them as dessert with vanilla ice cream.

    Edit: the pickled bananas are a success. Would do them with primary balsamic vinegar for the brine next time. But are tasty with vanilla ice cream. They taste like a sour bananas foster on their own.

    destroyah87 on
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  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    I'm still experimenting with the right proportions but I saw someone add baking soda to a tomato sauce and I completely forgot it would work great as an acid neutralizer. I tried it in a chili to middling effect (I think I used too much).

    I, too, use sugar to help offset acidic taste, so the baking soda is another approach

  • Irond WillIrond Will WARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!! Cambridge. MAModerator mod
    The guy who runs milk street is the bow-tied food-nerd who used to run America's Test Kitchen, so there's the same sort of methodology and rigorous testing behind their recipes.

    just as an aside that guy - Chris Kimball - has turned out to be a noted hostile-workplace douche, which is really saying something for distinguishing yourself in the food industry in that way.

    still, he was editor of cooks illustrated and ATK always put out good recipes and food info/ ideas

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  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    Irond Will wrote: »
    The guy who runs milk street is the bow-tied food-nerd who used to run America's Test Kitchen, so there's the same sort of methodology and rigorous testing behind their recipes.

    just as an aside that guy - Chris Kimball - has turned out to be a noted hostile-workplace douche, which is really saying something for distinguishing yourself in the food industry in that way.

    still, he was editor of cooks illustrated and ATK always put out good recipes and food info/ ideas

    Milk Street? More like Milkshake Duck Street, amirite?

    I'll see myself out . . . because I'm sad this keeps happening.

    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

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  • KetarKetar Come on upstairs we're having a partyRegistered User regular
    That's disappointing to hear. Milk Street's recipes are far more interesting, and produce better results, than ATK's past or present. And I like ATK a lot - Milk Street's stuff has just been that much better.

  • Irond WillIrond Will WARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!! Cambridge. MAModerator mod
    Ketar wrote: »
    That's disappointing to hear. Milk Street's recipes are far more interesting, and produce better results, than ATK's past or present. And I like ATK a lot - Milk Street's stuff has just been that much better.

    i have some restaurant industry friends in boston who have worked around him, and tech industry ppl who worked at ATK, and everyone has nasty things to say about working with or for chris kimball. i have never heard anyone have a positive takeaway from him. it's all nasty rich-people stuff too, like paying shitty wages and treating employees like serfs and double-parking his maserati in the parking lot.

    still, i totally agree he's doing something right in terms of his output - ATK has good stuff and Cooks Illustrated is reliably good and apparently Milk Street also!

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  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    Irond Will wrote: »
    Ketar wrote: »
    That's disappointing to hear. Milk Street's recipes are far more interesting, and produce better results, than ATK's past or present. And I like ATK a lot - Milk Street's stuff has just been that much better.

    i have some restaurant industry friends in boston who have worked around him, and tech industry ppl who worked at ATK, and everyone has nasty things to say about working with or for chris kimball. i have never heard anyone have a positive takeaway from him. it's all nasty rich-people stuff too, like paying shitty wages and treating employees like serfs and double-parking his maserati in the parking lot.

    still, i totally agree he's doing something right in terms of his output - ATK has good stuff and Cooks Illustrated is reliably good and apparently Milk Street also!

    The culinary industry as a whole has issues given how common the "Head Chef is a Hollywood drill instructor" and "kitchen staff is a frat without boat shoes" culture has been. Even less traditional chefs have struggled to shake off that kind of molding from their line cook days.

    Steel Angel on
    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

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  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    Irond Will wrote: »
    The guy who runs milk street is the bow-tied food-nerd who used to run America's Test Kitchen, so there's the same sort of methodology and rigorous testing behind their recipes.

    just as an aside that guy - Chris Kimball - has turned out to be a noted hostile-workplace douche, which is really saying something for distinguishing yourself in the food industry in that way.

    Is anyone who was a viewer of ATK actually surprised, though? Unhappy to find out, sure. But surprised? I'm not sure I ever saw that guy laugh even once.

  • RedTideRedTide Registered User regular
    Anyone have any recommendations for a saute pan?

    Looking at something like 5qts, stainless (we're moving away from coatings) and 12 inches wide or so.

    I know that's really specific and I've read a bunch of reviews, but the internet is a snake pit full of compensated snakes and I'm hoping for some actual opinions here

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  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    RedTide wrote: »
    Anyone have any recommendations for a saute pan?

    Looking at something like 5qts, stainless (we're moving away from coatings) and 12 inches wide or so.

    I know that's really specific and I've read a bunch of reviews, but the internet is a snake pit full of compensated snakes and I'm hoping for some actual opinions here

    I have two like 14" or something identical SS saute pans. I bought one at WalMart like a decade and change ago and it worked great so I got a second one. I think I maybe paid $15 for each? Certainly not more than $20. They have convinced me that if it's just a stainless steel pan, anything will work so long as the bottom is reasonably thick and the handle is solidly attached to the body. Like, what is there to go wrong? There's no coatings to wear off or get damaged, there's no fancy alloys there to heat up unevenly. It's just a big hunk of a relatively straight-forward metal.

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  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    RedTide wrote: »
    Anyone have any recommendations for a saute pan?

    Looking at something like 5qts, stainless (we're moving away from coatings) and 12 inches wide or so.

    I know that's really specific and I've read a bunch of reviews, but the internet is a snake pit full of compensated snakes and I'm hoping for some actual opinions here

    I've had good luck lately with the Cuisinart SS pans. Here's one like you're talking about:
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008CM6B/

    That's $60, not $20 like CptHamilton quoted. Of course, with Walmart the "exact same" pan you bought a year (a week?) ago might be totally different than the one they have today. They're always in a race to the bottom. But the Cuisinart ones seem pretty reliable, and compare extremely favorably to my All Clad pans that cost thrice the price.
    Like, what is there to go wrong? There's no coatings to wear off or get damaged, there's no fancy alloys there to heat up unevenly. It's just a big hunk of a relatively straight-forward metal.

    Stainless steel is actually somewhat of a "fancy alloy", in that varying amounts of chromium and nickel in it give it different properties. In addition to that, there's carbon, nitrogen, aluminium, silicon, sulfur, titanium, nickel, copper, selenium, niobium, and molybdenum. On top of that, SS pans aren't just a "big hunk" of metal. This is because SS doesn't conduct heat well, and tends to "heat up unevenly" on its own. That's why these pans sandwich other metals (copper and aluminum) inside of the SS. Hence the "clad" part of "All Clad". And the composition of the SS also affects how well it works with induction, as they require a magnetic grade of SS to work.

    So really, not that simple. :)

    dennis on
  • Irond WillIrond Will WARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!! Cambridge. MAModerator mod
    Yeah cuisinart tri-ply or whatever they’re now calling their all-clad competitors are considered a really good value in cookware.

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  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    Also, let me just bemoan having missed great grilling weather over the three day weekend I had. On Saturday, one kid went over to grandma's (yay!) Then Sunday was easter and I made french toast brunch (I highly recommend the St. Pierre Brioche Loaf you can get at Target for this) and we were all too stuffed to be having burgers and hot dogs. Then Monday night the other kid spent the night at grandma's (we're about to go into a mini-quarantine because my daughter just started going back to in-person school and grandma has another week for her post-second-dose period). Tuesday, the thunderstorms rolled in and have just sat here. And it doesn't look like they're leaving until the weekend.

    So now I have to ponder if I want to throw the whole mess of ground beef (four lbs, since it was on sale and I like to freeze extra grilled stuff) and buns (already been over a week since I bought them) into the freezer to await climate change. I would say "best laid plans...", but to be honest they were fairly shoddy to begin with.

    One nice thing these days is you can get ground beef in the vac-sealed packages that are good in the fridge way longer than otherwise. I might just ride it out.

    I'm also going to take another run at making my own breakfast sausage patties, since pork shoulder is half off right now. That's assuming there are still any left when I go to the grocery store. Do people have any go-to blends they'd recommend? I'm looking very much for a Standard Breakfast Sausage taste.

  • evilmrhenryevilmrhenry Registered User regular
    I wouldn't bother going for tri-ply construction, just the type with an extra disc of metal on the bottom. But then again, I don't see the point in getting tri-ply on anything that's not a frying pan.

    Other than that, the only thing to look for are: does it have a metal lid, not glass, and is the handle steel as well. That will let you use it in the oven if that's something you care about.

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    I wouldn't bother going for tri-ply construction, just the type with an extra disc of metal on the bottom. But then again, I don't see the point in getting tri-ply on anything that's not a frying pan.

    Other than that, the only thing to look for are: does it have a metal lid, not glass, and is the handle steel as well. That will let you use it in the oven if that's something you care about.

    I avoided the tacked on discs because it seemed a potential point of failure. But here's a good article that goes over the pros and cons of clad vs disc:
    https://www.centurylife.org/cladded-sidewalls-vs-disc-bottomed-cookware-which-is-better/

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    Irond Will wrote: »
    The guy who runs milk street is the bow-tied food-nerd who used to run America's Test Kitchen, so there's the same sort of methodology and rigorous testing behind their recipes.

    just as an aside that guy - Chris Kimball - has turned out to be a noted hostile-workplace douche, which is really saying something for distinguishing yourself in the food industry in that way.

    Is anyone who was a viewer of ATK actually surprised, though? Unhappy to find out, sure. But surprised? I'm not sure I ever saw that guy laugh even once.

    Yeah, Kimball being an asshole is the least surprising thing ever. I only started watching ATK a few years ago on youtube. I like a decent chunk of their stuff. Like all these kind of sites you have to get a feel for what their pitch is and just learn to accept it as part of the business model and not roll your eyes too hard sometimes. But anyway, the main thing is that by the time I started watching it was hosted by two ladies. They seem cool, I like them. Then you watch some older stuff and there's this other guy there like looming over the person doing the cooking the whole time and his entire demeanor and attitude just kinda screams "jerk boss". Makes the old videos hard to watch.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    I wouldn't bother going for tri-ply construction, just the type with an extra disc of metal on the bottom. But then again, I don't see the point in getting tri-ply on anything that's not a frying pan.

    Other than that, the only thing to look for are: does it have a metal lid, not glass, and is the handle steel as well. That will let you use it in the oven if that's something you care about.

    I avoided the tacked on discs because it seemed a potential point of failure. But here's a good article that goes over the pros and cons of clad vs disc:
    https://www.centurylife.org/cladded-sidewalls-vs-disc-bottomed-cookware-which-is-better/

    My experience having used both is that I really dislike the disk type. There's a very obvious discontinuity in the pan's cooking where the disk ends and depending on how much larger or smaller the pan and the disk are then the burner leads to wonky behaviour.

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    shryke wrote: »
    dennis wrote: »
    Irond Will wrote: »
    The guy who runs milk street is the bow-tied food-nerd who used to run America's Test Kitchen, so there's the same sort of methodology and rigorous testing behind their recipes.

    just as an aside that guy - Chris Kimball - has turned out to be a noted hostile-workplace douche, which is really saying something for distinguishing yourself in the food industry in that way.

    Is anyone who was a viewer of ATK actually surprised, though? Unhappy to find out, sure. But surprised? I'm not sure I ever saw that guy laugh even once.

    Yeah, Kimball being an asshole is the least surprising thing ever. I only started watching ATK a few years ago on youtube. I like a decent chunk of their stuff. Like all these kind of sites you have to get a feel for what their pitch is and just learn to accept it as part of the business model and not roll your eyes too hard sometimes. But anyway, the main thing is that by the time I started watching it was hosted by two ladies. They seem cool, I like them. Then you watch some older stuff and there's this other guy there like looming over the person doing the cooking the whole time and his entire demeanor and attitude just kinda screams "jerk boss". Makes the old videos hard to watch.

    My experience is rooted in their early days, watching it on PBS in the early 2000s. So, yeah, their old videos. Plenty of looming.

    When Casual Eddy said, "there's the same sort of methodology and rigorous testing behind their recipes", there's a reason why that's true. He basically ripped off and undermined ATK (while still working and part owning ATK) and there was a big lawsuit about it that was eventually settled. And we didn't even touch on him divorcing his wife shortly before marrying his (25 years younger, when he was in his 60s) assistant who he promoted, then took with him to his new venture.

    But I digress. As for the show, I kind of had a love/hate thing with it (even outside of Kimball). Their recipes could something be a bit precious. Which is funny, because other times they simplify existing recipes. One of the recipes in the former camp is this garlic bread recipe:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppCUJMg0q_A

    I'm sure it tastes fantastic. Maybe I might have went to all this trouble some time during my single 20s. But I think I've moved past the stage in my life when I'd put this much effort and cleanup into making garlic bread. I'm much more likely to bake my own bread, smear some butter on it and maybe rub a clove across it.

    That said, I have picked up a few of their old ATK cookbooks at the half price bookstore. There's some good stuff in there, even if you just browse it and get ideas.

    dennis on
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    I tried that garlic bread and was underwhelmed.

    One of the interesting things about the whole Cook's Illustrated and Co setup was actually something I saw Kenji talking about. I think it was on the like interview/crossover thing he did with Adam Regusea. He talks about why he left ATK and says the reason was how limiting it was there. They apparently do extensive polling of their readers and run everything by those metrics. So a lot of recipes and cooking styles and such just get binned or abandoned because they don't appeal to what is in the end a fairly niche and not terribly diverse audience. Moving off to work for Serious Eats and do his own thing let him try a lot more different things.

  • Stabbity StyleStabbity Style He/Him | Warning: Mothership Reporting Kennewick, WARegistered User regular
    I just get a $2 garlic bread loaf from Safeway and call it good.

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  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    I just get a $2 garlic bread loaf from Safeway and call it good.

    Exactly. That's the weird thing about that one. Never have I had delicious garlic bread in a restaurant and thought "this would be better if it was homemade", or "if I was making it at home, I'd change it by making it like __________."

    There are many things that benefit from being homemade. Some simply because you get a superior result when you make it at home that you'd have to pay a premium or just can't find otherwise (cookies, pasta sauce, biscuits, gravy). And some because you want to have different flavor combinations than might appeal to a mass market (ice cream is my best example). And some because making it at home gives you both that flexibility and costs a whole lot less (pizza).

    And even if you do make garlic bread at home, it's not that hard to make a version that's really good even if it isn't The Best You've Ever Had.

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    I bought a host of Calphalon Tri-Ply about 3 years ago and I don't regret it. They've all aged very well and with a bit of focused effort during cleaning, they still look nearly new.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    The best garlic bread I've had was at a restaurant. But I'm eating at home a lot and sometimes I want some garlic bread and I am definitely interested in a better homemade garlic bread then what you can get premade. I just don't think that recipe really hit what I want though.

    Honestly, judging by the best ones I've had eating out, the real key is "more garlic butter".

  • VishNubVishNub Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    The best garlic bread I've had was at a restaurant. But I'm eating at home a lot and sometimes I want some garlic bread and I am definitely interested in a better homemade garlic bread then what you can get premade. I just don't think that recipe really hit what I want though.

    Honestly, judging by the best ones I've had eating out, the real key is "more garlic butter".

    Also helps if you start with good bread.

  • Casual EddyCasual Eddy The Astral PlaneRegistered User regular
    Irond Will wrote: »
    The guy who runs milk street is the bow-tied food-nerd who used to run America's Test Kitchen, so there's the same sort of methodology and rigorous testing behind their recipes.

    just as an aside that guy - Chris Kimball - has turned out to be a noted hostile-workplace douche, which is really saying something for distinguishing yourself in the food industry in that way.

    still, he was editor of cooks illustrated and ATK always put out good recipes and food info/ ideas

    oof

    in retrospect, not terribly surprising, I think.

  • CorvusCorvus . VancouverRegistered User regular
    Tried the cast iron pan in and out of the oven method for steak last night, was very impressed with the results. It's basically heat up the pan under the broiler for 20 minutes, pull it out onto a hot burner, do the steak for 30 seconds a side, and then back under the broiler for 2 minutes a side.

    :so_raven:
  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    Are glass lids bad? I like glass lids so I can see what's going on in the pan. I don't think I could make eggs worth a damn without it.

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  • evilmrhenryevilmrhenry Registered User regular
    Are glass lids bad? I like glass lids so I can see what's going on in the pan. I don't think I could make eggs worth a damn without it.

    They're not safe for oven use. If you don't put the pan in the oven, then they're fine.

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Are glass lids bad? I like glass lids so I can see what's going on in the pan. I don't think I could make eggs worth a damn without it.

    They're not safe for oven use. If you don't put the pan in the oven, then they're fine.

    Also depends on how much covered cooking you do. If I do need to cover something, I'll just rip a bit of tinfoil. Most things I cook are uncovered though.

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  • notyanotya Registered User regular
    Corvus wrote: »
    Tried the cast iron pan in and out of the oven method for steak last night, was very impressed with the results. It's basically heat up the pan under the broiler for 20 minutes, pull it out onto a hot burner, do the steak for 30 seconds a side, and then back under the broiler for 2 minutes a side.

    Yep I used to do this a lot! It is the easiest way to cook a steak well. I think going a little slower though ends up working better in the end though.

  • tinwhiskerstinwhiskers Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    So someone on my neighborhood FB group was giving away a smoker. So after a mile walk each way, the return trip in pouring rain, I now have a smoker. Well really a charcoal grill with a smoker box attached to it. It's a shitty like $150 home depot product so I'm not expecting amazing things, but I've been looking at getting one for a while and my biggest hesitancy was my habit of spending $$$ on shit and then not really getting the use out of it to make it worth it.


    That said I'm off work tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be okay, and the pace of smoking meat and my previous plan of playing Cyberpunk most the day dovetail pretty nicely.

    tinwhiskers on
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  • ChanusChanus Harbinger of the Spicy Rooster Apocalypse The Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered User regular
    the thing about smokers is they are literally just charcoal grills with attached smoker boxes

    fundamentally

    you don't need a $500 smoker

    Allegedly a voice of reason.
  • destroyah87destroyah87 They/Them Preferred: She/Her - Please UseRegistered User regular
    Honestly, I love my smoker. It was a Christmas present last year. It's also electric, which I like.

    The bigger thing to get is a good wireless thermometer, I say. Wifi or Bluetooth, whatever you want to mess with. But having a device you can use to get instant temp reads without opening the door or cracking the cover is gonna do way more to elevate results, there's no guessing or opening it too often to check. You'll know when the food is at the right temp.

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  • AkimboEGAkimboEG Mr. Fancypants Wears very fine pants indeedRegistered User regular
    Are glass lids bad? I like glass lids so I can see what's going on in the pan. I don't think I could make eggs worth a damn without it.

    They're not safe for oven use. If you don't put the pan in the oven, then they're fine.

    That's not universally true. Some glass lids are oven-safe up to X degrees.

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  • BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    notya wrote: »
    Corvus wrote: »
    Tried the cast iron pan in and out of the oven method for steak last night, was very impressed with the results. It's basically heat up the pan under the broiler for 20 minutes, pull it out onto a hot burner, do the steak for 30 seconds a side, and then back under the broiler for 2 minutes a side.

    Yep I used to do this a lot! It is the easiest way to cook a steak well. I think going a little slower though ends up working better in the end though.

    The reverse sear is just fucking so easy and fool proof, for me.

    Don't think I'll ever cook a steak a different way again.

  • VishNubVishNub Registered User regular
    Chanus wrote: »
    the thing about smokers is they are literally just charcoal grills with attached smoker boxes

    fundamentally

    you don't need a $500 smoker

    You do if you're going to keep up with the other neighborhood dads

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Chanus wrote: »
    the thing about smokers is they are literally just charcoal grills with attached smoker boxes

    fundamentally

    you don't need a $500 smoker

    That assumes you want to have to use charcoal.

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    Are glass lids bad? I like glass lids so I can see what's going on in the pan. I don't think I could make eggs worth a damn without it.

    They can also wind up shattering. I'm not saying it's super common (though as you'll see at that link, there have been specific products where it was super common). But it's just that it can happen in normal use, but can't happen with metal lids.

    Probably more likely if it's a cheapy.
    Chanus wrote: »
    the thing about smokers is they are literally just charcoal grills with attached smoker boxes

    fundamentally

    you don't need a $500 smoker

    Mine is an electric stove with a wood box attached. :D

    Seriously, though, my electric smoker is more than just a charcoal grill with an attached box. It's FAR more heat retaining than any grill I've ever owned. It can actually be a problem, in that you need to heating element to kick on to light the wood, which is harder because it's so dang good at keeping the heat in. It also has a great number of vertical racks and a fridge door design, none of which I've ever had on a grill.

    I don't think they're worth $500, but that's why I got mine on craigslist for $100.

    Now, you can get smokers that just look like grills with boxes attached. Don't think I'd be nearly as interested in those, though.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    Are glass lids bad? I like glass lids so I can see what's going on in the pan. I don't think I could make eggs worth a damn without it.

    They can also wind up shattering. I'm not saying it's super common (though as you'll see at that link, there have been specific products where it was super common). But it's just that it can happen in normal use, but can't happen with metal lids.

    Probably more likely if it's a cheapy.
    Chanus wrote: »
    the thing about smokers is they are literally just charcoal grills with attached smoker boxes

    fundamentally

    you don't need a $500 smoker

    Mine is an electric stove with a wood box attached. :D

    Seriously, though, my electric smoker is more than just a charcoal grill with an attached box. It's FAR more heat retaining than any grill I've ever owned. It can actually be a problem, in that you need to heating element to kick on to light the wood, which is harder because it's so dang good at keeping the heat in. It also has a great number of vertical racks and a fridge door design, none of which I've ever had on a grill.

    I don't think they're worth $500, but that's why I got mine on craigslist for $100.

    Now, you can get smokers that just look like grills with boxes attached. Don't think I'd be nearly as interested in those, though.

    The heat retention problem is why what you really want is the fire in a separate box that vents into the main cooking area. But that costs more.

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    Chanus wrote: »
    the thing about smokers is they are literally just charcoal grills with attached smoker boxes

    fundamentally

    you don't need a $500 smoker

    If you want to make anything more than a small bbq you do. Also the biggest problems with the cheap ones are they leak, and they use thin sheet metal. Leaking you can fix. Figure out where smoke is leaking out and use a high temperature sealant or fire cloth if its around the doors. Easy.

    You want thick metal to hold temperature better. Even my Drum that I love can fluctuate quite a lot if its a windy day, or a winter day and the sun sets. Thicker metal gives you MUCH better temperature control, but that costs money.

    That being said, those kind of smokers are if you want to get serious about it, especially brisket. With such a long smoke there is more chance for things going wrong. If all you're smoking is ribs and an occasion roast or brisket a cheaper one is fine.

    My next purchase for when fall and winter come around again is a welding blanket to wrap around my drum to help it hold a more even temperature.

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