We've now had the Lone Star Grillz Adjustable Charcoal Grill & Smoker for 6 months. I've cooked on it every night except for maybe 5 or 6 times when my wife made Thai food or we ordered in pizza.
So - is the bloom off the rose now that this pit is not a new toy anymore?
No. In fact, the more I cook on it the more I appreciate it. (Dare I say "love"). It's so reliable and repeatable, it's kind of like a faithful old dog who knows what you want and is ready to do it eagerly. All it takes is feeding it and cleaning up after it. In the 6 months, we've smoked 3 briskets, 4 pork butts, 18-20 racks of ribs, and well over 100 everday type grillings. It's a natural 2-zone cooker and offset smoker, and with the adjustable charcoal grate, it sears like you wouln't believe. The pit is almost as efficient as a Kamado, and there's plenty of lump left over after a cook to use for the next day's BBQ with the addition of about a PBC chimney's worth of fresh charcoal. We go through a bag of Fogo Premium every 6 days or so. For the longer cooks, I've found that Fogo Super Premium or Kamado Joe Big Lump work better.
There's a daily routine in place. In the morning, after breakfast, I open up the pit, move the cooking grill over the charcoal grate to the other side, knock off what little ash there is with a rake and pour in a bit of fresh charcoal. Then I raise the charcoal grate all the way up, open the left-side firebox door and remove the ash pan. The ash pan is larger than the charcoal grate and it catches everything (It weighs about 10 lbs). I dump the ash into an 8 gallon bucket and scrape and brush out any debris that's left in the pan. Put the ash pan back in the firebox, lower the charcoal grate back to the bottom and close up the pit. The whole procedure takes less than 5 minutes.
About 3:30 pm, I grab the clear plastic briefcase that contains a Fireboard 2, a Pit Bull fan, power cord and temp probes, get 1 Light-a-Fire lighter cup and head back out to the pit. With the Fireboard and fan all set up, I put the lighter cup down in the center of the coals, and go make myself a drink. It takes about 3 minutes to do all that.
When it's time to cook I use a JJ George torch attached to a 1 lb. propane bottle to light the starter cup and any additional charcoal depending on what the target temp is, that takes less than 2 minutes. In the Fireboard app I've set the target pit temp and fan to Auto, so the fan is running during the light-off portion of the cook. That's not how Fireboard recommends doing it, but I've found that the bellows effect of the fan running gets the pit up to temp in no more than 25 minutes when, without the fan it would be more like 45 minutes. This setup is by no means necessary to run this pit, but, because I'm doing this every day, I prefer to run at an accelerated pace, and can knock out meals in 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes depending on what's being cooked.
When the meat gets within 3° of target temp, I pull the temp probes, shut down the Fireboard, remove the fan and put the silicon port cover in, and put everything back in the plastic suitcase, and then shut all the vents. That takes about 3 minutes. Then the meat comes off and it's time to eat. And we're done - until tomorrow.
If you happened to read what I wrote when we first got this pit, "Our New Pride & Joy", then you know that prior to buying, I was agonizing over whether to get this or the LSG Mini Vertical Smoker (I was caught up in the romance of smoking.). I can tell you now with absolute certainty, that getting the Adjustable was the right choice for us. I'd recommend this pit, without reservation, to anyone in the market for new BBQ.
So - is the bloom off the rose now that this pit is not a new toy anymore?
No. In fact, the more I cook on it the more I appreciate it. (Dare I say "love"). It's so reliable and repeatable, it's kind of like a faithful old dog who knows what you want and is ready to do it eagerly. All it takes is feeding it and cleaning up after it. In the 6 months, we've smoked 3 briskets, 4 pork butts, 18-20 racks of ribs, and well over 100 everday type grillings. It's a natural 2-zone cooker and offset smoker, and with the adjustable charcoal grate, it sears like you wouln't believe. The pit is almost as efficient as a Kamado, and there's plenty of lump left over after a cook to use for the next day's BBQ with the addition of about a PBC chimney's worth of fresh charcoal. We go through a bag of Fogo Premium every 6 days or so. For the longer cooks, I've found that Fogo Super Premium or Kamado Joe Big Lump work better.
There's a daily routine in place. In the morning, after breakfast, I open up the pit, move the cooking grill over the charcoal grate to the other side, knock off what little ash there is with a rake and pour in a bit of fresh charcoal. Then I raise the charcoal grate all the way up, open the left-side firebox door and remove the ash pan. The ash pan is larger than the charcoal grate and it catches everything (It weighs about 10 lbs). I dump the ash into an 8 gallon bucket and scrape and brush out any debris that's left in the pan. Put the ash pan back in the firebox, lower the charcoal grate back to the bottom and close up the pit. The whole procedure takes less than 5 minutes.
About 3:30 pm, I grab the clear plastic briefcase that contains a Fireboard 2, a Pit Bull fan, power cord and temp probes, get 1 Light-a-Fire lighter cup and head back out to the pit. With the Fireboard and fan all set up, I put the lighter cup down in the center of the coals, and go make myself a drink. It takes about 3 minutes to do all that.
When it's time to cook I use a JJ George torch attached to a 1 lb. propane bottle to light the starter cup and any additional charcoal depending on what the target temp is, that takes less than 2 minutes. In the Fireboard app I've set the target pit temp and fan to Auto, so the fan is running during the light-off portion of the cook. That's not how Fireboard recommends doing it, but I've found that the bellows effect of the fan running gets the pit up to temp in no more than 25 minutes when, without the fan it would be more like 45 minutes. This setup is by no means necessary to run this pit, but, because I'm doing this every day, I prefer to run at an accelerated pace, and can knock out meals in 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes depending on what's being cooked.
When the meat gets within 3° of target temp, I pull the temp probes, shut down the Fireboard, remove the fan and put the silicon port cover in, and put everything back in the plastic suitcase, and then shut all the vents. That takes about 3 minutes. Then the meat comes off and it's time to eat. And we're done - until tomorrow.
If you happened to read what I wrote when we first got this pit, "Our New Pride & Joy", then you know that prior to buying, I was agonizing over whether to get this or the LSG Mini Vertical Smoker (I was caught up in the romance of smoking.). I can tell you now with absolute certainty, that getting the Adjustable was the right choice for us. I'd recommend this pit, without reservation, to anyone in the market for new BBQ.
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