1st was the Happy Cooker portable. Looked like this.
This is the first real grill. Members Mark - 48”, side sear, rotisserie, and built-in oven!
Under $1k and lasted about 10 years uncovered, outside.
That Members Mark was a freaking monster. I was unable to make a decision on a new gasser when we moved into the ‘big house’. Carol bought me that. I was disappointed at not totally overthinking it and agonizing for months. 😂
I just picked one of those up free. No hinges though. It is still in the back of my pickup. One of SWMBO tenants left it out back on the fire escape, two stories up. He prob didn't use it twice. A large trash bag is the perfect cover.
Started with a Char Broiler 2 burner gasser (Been gone close to 30 years now) and a 22" Weber Kettle. The Weber gave up the ghost about 20 years ago. But it still is in the yard and provides a good memory. It's a beautiful planter now. Thrown this pic a few times on this website.
Years ago, it started with a hibachi (which we now use every other year. Maybe.). Then, a portable propane grill in which everything tasted like gasoline. No, we don't still have it.
We read about pulled pork, went to a restaurant that claimed to have it. Thought, 'It's not supposed to be sliced, and it's not supposed to taste like only sugar.'
Then came the ECB. Yay, let's try a pork butt and make our own pulled pork!
We didn't season it first, or burn it off, or anything. The pork butt came out like smoky shoe leather and actually made us woozy. We still have that ECB. An early attempt to electrify it failed.
Now we have two propane grills, a NoNami and a Weber Mini. Coal? A Weber kettle, and a Kamander. Ribs, butt, bird, all come out okay. We must have learned SOMETHING along the way.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
My first personal grill, after graduating college and moving to another state, was an awesome Sunbeam "H" burner gas grill. Two burner controls, but an H shaped burner assembly, and lots of greasy lava rocks above the burner... I bought it at the K-Mart in front of the apartments I lived in.
This is an image of one I found online, pretty worn, and likely what mined looked like after several years...
I cooked lots of hamburgers, steaks, hot dogs and boneless skinless chicken breasts on that, on the patio of my first 3 apartments. Most of my cooking in fact, as the only thing I left home knowing how to make on the stove was chicken parmigiana, which I would make if I had a date over. I think it rusted out and burned out after about 3 years. It was gone before I moved back to Georgia in 1994. It had a companion for a few years in the form of a red Brinkman water smoker...
I’m pretty sure that’s the style I bought when I was in high school. That was 1988 or 1989. I actually sometimes miss cooking over lava rocks. After using them for a month or two they gave great flavor to your grilled food. After 3 months they had to be thrown away because of all the grease lodged in them.
ssandy_561 I moved to Alabama from Marietta Georgia not knowing a person in town in December 1988, at age 23, and started a new job on Jan 2, 1989. First purchase once I got settled in was the Sunbeam grill! So it would have been around the time you got yours.
Yeah, I don't really miss lava rocks.
Last edited by jfmorris; March 12, 2024, 07:54 AM.
John "JR"
Minnesota/ United States of America
******************************************** Grills/Smokers/Fryers Big Green Egg (Large) X3
Blackstone 36" Outdoor Griddle 4-Burner
Burch Barrel V-1 Karubeque C-60 Kamado Joe Jr. (Black) Lodge L410 Hibachi Pit Barrel Cooker Pit Barrel Cooker 2.0
Pit Barrel PBX
R&V Works FF2-R-ST 4-Gallon Fryer *******************************************. Thermometers
FireBoard (Base Package)
Thermoworks ThermaPen (Red)
Thermoworks MK4 (Orange)
********************************* Accessories Big Green Egg Plate Setter
Benzomatic TS800 High Temp Torch X 2 Bayou Classic 44 qt Stainless Stock Pot
Bayou Classic 35K BTU Burner Eggspander Kit X2 Finex Cat Iron Line FireBoard Drive Lots and Lots of Griswold Cast Iron Grill Grates Joule Water Circulator
KBQ Fire Grate Kick Ash Basket (KAB) X4 Lots of Lodge Cast Iron Husky 6 Drawer BBQ Equipment Cabinet Large Vortex Marlin 1894 .44 Magnum Marquette Castings No. 13 (First Run) Smithey No. 12 Smokeware Chimney Cap X 3 Stargazer No.10, 12 ******************************** Fuel FOGO Priemium Lump Charcoal Kingsford Blue and White B&B Charcoal Apple, Cherry & Oak Log splits for the C-60 ************************************************* Cutlery Buck 119 Special
Cuda 7' Fillet Knife Dexter 12" Brisket Sword Global Shun Wusthof ********** Next Major Purchase Lone Star Grillz 24 X 48 Offset
I started out with this hog. I cooked a lot of food on that baby. None of it very good. In fact, I cooked my first brisket on that baby. Smoked it to an internal temp of 135 F. Yeah, I knew exactly what I was doing. LOL. I would add charcoal and wood chunks to the coil to input some smoke.
I had a little dial meat thermometer too that I used for my first 15 years of smoking. I moved to a Thermoworks instant read around 2008, and that was a game changer.
Yep, I would say that is the #1 thing that I did to improve my BBQ. Cook by temp and not time. That and having an instrument handy to track it. jfmorris
The first one I really remember was an old Kingsford oval charcoal grill maybe 16 or 17 years ago. I think it was this model but am not sure:
I think it was left by the previous tenants in the house I was renting at the time. I didn't use it a ton but did some steaks on it from time to time. Had a pretty decent capacity, I believe the grate was adjustable up and down, and overall it did a fine job for grilling.
The first time really smoking anything was on a Weber kettle about 9 years ago when I was living in Florida. Beef ribs were the first thing I smoked and they turned out great.
College: 18" Weber Kettle found in the trash at the dorm when classes ended for the summer. Missing one wheel which cost $3.00 at Lowe's.
Added an electric barrel smoker from a garage sale - $5.00. Both served me through college and in my early years here in Port Arthur.
Before that, though, I had a cheap Hibachi from Walmart. I built a wooden contraption that allowed me to slide it out of my dorm window and grill steaks. The dorms were masonry and brick but I'm sure I violated a few rules and laws. Never got caught even though one of the chicken sh$t officers from ROTC walked right under it as I was firing up the charcoal - he never looked up (I was in the cadet corps at Texas A&M)
18" kettle. I've mentioned before that I grew up around kettles, but I got my first one of my very own when I lived in Oakdale, outside of Pittsburgh. We lived in a townhouse and I did lots of grilling, even in the snow. Chops, steaks, burgers, dogs. We lived there for a couple of years - I did nuclear construction back then and we moved a lot. It was funny - at first I was the only one with a grill. Started feeding the neighbors, hanging out grilling and drinking Iron City beer. Before you know it all the neighbors had kettles. Too bad I didn't get commissions. Graduated to a Brinkman charcoal smoker, then to a WSM and learned how to smoke stuff. Then I ran into you mokes and now I got a deck full of appliances.
Funny thing is i never got the hang of grilling ribs on the kettle. My family made killer ribs on the kettle. I just burned a bunch of them up. I didn't make edible ribs until I got the Brinkman. Now the SNS makes it simple, though I don't smoke anything on the kettle anymore. Too many other choices.
Cooking gadgets
Weber Summit Charcoal Grill Center
Weber Summit Platinum D6
Blue Rhino Razor
Dyna-Glo XL Premium Dual Chamber
Camp Chef Somerset IV along with their Artisan Pizza Oven 90
Anova WiFi
Thermometers
Thermapen Mk4 - ThermaQ High Temp Kit - ThermaQ Meathead Kit - ThermaQ WiFi - ThermoWorks IR-GUN-S - ThermoWorks Signals & Billows - ThermoPop -ThermoWorks ProNeedle - ThermoWorks TimeStick Trio x2 - and a Christopher Kimball timer - NO, I do not work for ThermoWorks...I just like their products.
Other useful bits...
KitchenAid 7-qt Pro Line stand mixer
A Black & Decker food processor that I can't seem to murder
A couple of immersion blenders, one a "consumer" model & the other a "high end" Italian thing. Yes, the Italian one is a bit better, but only marginally
Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus 8-qt + accessories like egg-bite & egg holders
All-Clad pots & pans, along with some cast iron...everything from 7" Skookie pans to 8.5qt Dutch ovens
Weber GBS griddle, pizza stone, and wok
Knives range from Mercer to F. Dick to "You spent how much for one knife? One knife?!" LOL
My first was probably the craptastic Sears gasser that I actually used for quite a few years. LOL It was small, it was wonky, it was cheap…but I still managed to cook up some decent food. I kept it until I started to get serious about food.
SnS Kettle
Napoleon 500 Pro gasser grill
Weber Slate 30” griddle
Gozney Arc XL pizza oven
Instant Pot Duo Crisper 8 qt
Cuisinart food processor
Kitchenaid Stand Mixer
Breville Smart toaster oven
Anova Sous vide (Pro version and Standard Version)
Cabella 15” Vacuum Sealer
Combustion Inc Wireless Probes (Gen2 upgrades)
Fireboard v2
Fireboard Spark
Fireboard Pulse (3) probes and S1G antenna
ThermoWorks RFX gateway and 2 RFX meat probes
Thermoworks IR gun
Thermoworks MK4
Thermoworks Zero
Thermoworks Signals
7 Shun knives (paring to 12" slicer)
Misen Chef's knife
Dalstrong Phantom Series Boning Knife
8-9 other knives (enough to get an eye roll from wife!)
2 Mandolins, 1 veggie spiralizer
Work Sharp E5 sharpener
Chef's Choice sharpener
Hone Rolling Sharpener
No pics of this, but when I was a wee lad (1950's), we would take an empty #10 can, usually a Folgers or MJB coffee can my Mom was throwing away, plus a small tin can, usually an empty tuna can, and an empty milk carton (back in those days, milk cartons were made with some kind of wax coating). Use a can punch/opener to create 2-4 holes in the #10 can where the end has been removed, then cut the milk carton into a long strip, curl it into the tuna can. Light the waxy milk carton strip, place the #10 can over it - and VIOLA! A small hot dog grill! My brother and I would sneak out to nearby dry wash and play camping out. Plus we got to play with fire. Woo-Hoo!
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