Hi, I've been using Amazing Ribs for (too) many years and the guilt of getting all this fabulous information free finally got me to fork over the $s to pay for this great site. My apologies to Meathead and crew, the former being someone my wife thinks I’m a a little bit too fond of. What does she know?
OK, I'm retired, always loved food and cooking (1st generation Italian with a Momma who could/would cook like nobody’s business). I have 2 Weber Kettles (18 & 22), Weber Smokey Mountain cooker (18), and my "love" – a 1964 Casa-Q by Sazco – their "giant" model which is all of 18 inches in diameter. She’s affectionately known as "the Saz", and it was my wife’s’ very "hip" California grandma who originally owned it. When she moved east in the mid-70s, she brought it with her, only to collect dust for 40 years in a barn. One day my brother-in-law said… "you have any interest in an old ceramic cooker?" 20 minutes later Saz was in my backyard. All the metal was severely rusted, so I hand stripped it, and a friend (NOTAVEGAN) had it nickel-plated. The firebox was gone, as they were not very robust, so I had to improvise. I cut the handle off a large cast iron fry pan, and made a small aluminum stand for it to sit on. I used this as a way to keep most of the heat away from walls/bottom. I bought a large kick-ash bucket, and it sits in the cast iron pan – and there be my firebox. It’s not perfect, but in warm weather I’ve made it just over 30 hours with 1 stuffed-to-the-max load of charcoal, at ~225 degrees. As part of the original design, about halfway down the lower half is a ridge on which a grate sits to hold the ceramic (?) fire ring. On top of this ring sits the cooking grate. Something I can also do (can’t take credit for it – just happened to notice this…), is put just the cast iron pan (no kick-ash bucket) directly on the grate that holds the fire ring – it just fits inside it, and this puts my coals 4-5 inches below the grate for grilling. Works great! (again, hadn’t thought about this when I came up with the firebox setup, just got lucky).
Saz doesn’t have nearly as thick walls as the modern cookers, so in winter she uses more fuel – but nowhere near as much as my Weber. I don’t do high-heat cooks, afraid I’ll kill her – but I’m perfectly satisfied with slow & low. I’ve brought up over 400, but decided…why chance it? She’s also has a hairline crack on the lower half, but the rings keeps it tight and there’s no leakage. The seals had to be replaced, and a little work on the lower vent. I contemplated various refractory cement repairs for the crack, but again decided – why risk it. The original ceramic cap was missing, so I bought a Rocky Mountain adjustable stainless steel cap, which I also had nickel-plated.
This year I plan to design/build an outdoor cook area (with Saz at the center!), but right now she’s on the deck.
OK, for anyone still awake I will now attempt to post pictures… the last pix is what it looked like new (found on interweb) - I also have base with wheels, but it was not finished when I took these pixs.
n
What they looked like new(ish):
OK, I'm retired, always loved food and cooking (1st generation Italian with a Momma who could/would cook like nobody’s business). I have 2 Weber Kettles (18 & 22), Weber Smokey Mountain cooker (18), and my "love" – a 1964 Casa-Q by Sazco – their "giant" model which is all of 18 inches in diameter. She’s affectionately known as "the Saz", and it was my wife’s’ very "hip" California grandma who originally owned it. When she moved east in the mid-70s, she brought it with her, only to collect dust for 40 years in a barn. One day my brother-in-law said… "you have any interest in an old ceramic cooker?" 20 minutes later Saz was in my backyard. All the metal was severely rusted, so I hand stripped it, and a friend (NOTAVEGAN) had it nickel-plated. The firebox was gone, as they were not very robust, so I had to improvise. I cut the handle off a large cast iron fry pan, and made a small aluminum stand for it to sit on. I used this as a way to keep most of the heat away from walls/bottom. I bought a large kick-ash bucket, and it sits in the cast iron pan – and there be my firebox. It’s not perfect, but in warm weather I’ve made it just over 30 hours with 1 stuffed-to-the-max load of charcoal, at ~225 degrees. As part of the original design, about halfway down the lower half is a ridge on which a grate sits to hold the ceramic (?) fire ring. On top of this ring sits the cooking grate. Something I can also do (can’t take credit for it – just happened to notice this…), is put just the cast iron pan (no kick-ash bucket) directly on the grate that holds the fire ring – it just fits inside it, and this puts my coals 4-5 inches below the grate for grilling. Works great! (again, hadn’t thought about this when I came up with the firebox setup, just got lucky).
Saz doesn’t have nearly as thick walls as the modern cookers, so in winter she uses more fuel – but nowhere near as much as my Weber. I don’t do high-heat cooks, afraid I’ll kill her – but I’m perfectly satisfied with slow & low. I’ve brought up over 400, but decided…why chance it? She’s also has a hairline crack on the lower half, but the rings keeps it tight and there’s no leakage. The seals had to be replaced, and a little work on the lower vent. I contemplated various refractory cement repairs for the crack, but again decided – why risk it. The original ceramic cap was missing, so I bought a Rocky Mountain adjustable stainless steel cap, which I also had nickel-plated.
This year I plan to design/build an outdoor cook area (with Saz at the center!), but right now she’s on the deck.
OK, for anyone still awake I will now attempt to post pictures… the last pix is what it looked like new (found on interweb) - I also have base with wheels, but it was not finished when I took these pixs.
n
What they looked like new(ish):
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