What Was Your First Outdoor Cooker[s]……That You Started Out With?

[RonB]

I built my first grill when I was 13. It was just a large metal can like Charles Chips come in. It might have been 3 or 4 gal. I found something I could use for a grate and away I went. All I grilled was hot dogs, (it was the summer of hot dogs for me - ate 'em almost every day). My mother was happy with that 'cause I was a very picky eater and she didn't have to try and find something I would eat.

In the late '70s I won a hibachi at a company picnic. I was managing Jack In The Box restaurants and the hibachi came in a heatproof bag with the company logo on it. I used it a few times, but the apartment complex we lived in at the time frowned on any grills. I've still got it.

When we built our first house in '83, I bought a Weber Kettle and have had one ever since except for a brief fling with a gasser. SWMBO worked with a lady whose husband sold gassers to retailers and I bought his sample at the end of the season for cheap. I used it a time or two and went back to the Kettle. I've had one ever since.

I learned how to use it and became competent. The Pit has taken my cooking to a new level.

[Rod]

Started off with a Weber 18" kettle after going to a work thing where they did some bratz on a kettle 30+ years ago. They were so good I thought, "That looks easy. I can do this."


Turns out I couldn't. Bratz got shriveled, steaks ended up better suited as door stops and burgers could have been used as replacement wheels for Tonka trucks. However, with enough cheap BBQ sauce and positive thinking, "it wasn't so bad".

Then I moved to a Weber spirit gasser with the two burners running horizontal. Same results with an occasional inexplicable success with kebabs. That "success" was with London broil and top sirloin, cause fat was bad for you, right?

I ultimately ended up just doing hot dogs and cheap burgers on the spirit every once in a while as anything else was just too much work for subpar results and an aching jaw. Besides, as you get older and make more money, you're able to go and buy good BBQ from places like Applebee's! (Insert gag here)

In 2014 we were at Costco and on a whim bought a traeger. I struggled with it's "set and forget" abilities (especially here in the extreme desert temps).

Then, I found The Pit...and this eventually happened:

[Panhead John]

Great post, I love it! 👍👍

[Rod]

Panhead John Great topic and I tried to structure my post with you in mind in terms of repaying the chuckles you provide.

[Alan Brice]

That is funny?!? I resemble this post, completely.

[bardsleyque]

I've always cooked, from about 8 yeas old. My dad taught me how to scramble and poach eggs.
My grilling started in my early 20's, I had a webber 18 or 22. Just grilling steaks, chicken, burgers.
At one point I had a 55 gal. drum cut in half mounted on a shopping cart chassis with the basket cut up for the grates.
(someone liked my handy work and rolled it on down the road)
I then had a webber smokey joe in Brooklyn, again mostly grilling. Moved to the Philly area and was gifted a webber 26. again used for grilling.
In 1990 moved to Portland Or.When Mrs. Bardsleyque and I got our first house, our 1st neighbor (living in a trailer) was invited for ribs, his reaction "Bardsley,Bardsley,Bardsley" (I had grilled the ribs) got me to thinking I must not have done this right.
I worked for a guy that did an annual pig roast, I shared my story with the pitmaster, He asked what I was cooking on (the 26).
He said to put the coals on one side, the ribs on the other, the results were really good!
Started me down this path...

[Panhead John]

Great story!

[barelfly]

A Charbroil gasser, three burner. It actually lasted a long time! It went to the lake house after I got my second gasser, a Weber Genesis back in 2005. The Charbroil probably stuck around for a good 15-17 years before it got replaced again by the Weber when that became the lake house gasser.

also, still have the Weber Smokey Mountain style smoker (I think it’s a Coleman?) that my dad gave me when we got him a smaller stick burner. It put out some decent bbq the times I used it back in the day.

[bbqLuv]

Back in 1974 it was a Hibachi

[Draznnl]

First marriage, my sister & BIL gave us a Weber kettle as a wedding present.

[Jfrosty27]

We were given a Weber Kettle knock off as a wedding gift from my FIL. Used it quite a lot but we were so broke it was just burgers, brats, & hot dogs. Chicken was a big treat. Steaks? Nope. No money for those. It rusted out after only a few years and things had improved for us financially so we stepped up to the bigs and got a genuine Weber 22” standard kettle. WooHoo!!!

[Alan Brice]

A 16 X 14 X 30 electric “Smoke Hollow” cause I had a jones for some briskie! Only took 40 hours to get that meat close to 200 degrees. Man times have changed!

[Smoker_Boy]

A cheap hibachi.

[Troutman]

I too had an hibachi in college followed closely by Dad’s old original Weber kettle. That said, does cooking this way as a kid while camping count?

[Panhead John]

Yep, cooking over an open fire in Boy Scouts, good memories indeed.

[Alan Brice]

Yep, just wrap your vittles in foil n toss them in the fire. Some of the best times ever!

[smokenoob]

yup! That was my first one too!

[theroc]

The first grill we ever paid for was a Weber Smokey Joe.

[Duanessmokedmeats]

Weber Kettle

[RichieB]

I don't remember. It could have been a hibachi

[Oak Smoke]

Dad had a cheap square charcoal grill in the back yard. I still remember the first thing I grilled. I came home from fishing with three big bull frogs I had gotten to eat a piece of rubber worm. It wasn’t enough to feed the family so I grilled them with a bit of butter and S&P. They were so good! Several years later I bought an 18 inch Weber Kettle.

[Beefchop]

Panhead John the Old Smokey was my first grill as an adult as well! I was living in Baltimore at the time but ordered one online. Got the 18" model.

[Panhead John]

I was wondering if anyone else used one! I don’t remember the diameter, but I mainly used the medium sized one. I bought their smallest size once, hated it. The food grate was basically sitting on top of the coals.

[Beefchop]

Panhead John Now that I live in south Louisiana, I see them everywhere! Good deals on them at Academy as well. I think the medium was the one I owned as well.