Welcome. Can't argue with buying a Weber grill, they are the Caddy of gas grills.
I'm a Pontiac guy, my gassers have been the Broilmate brand sold by Home Depot.
Well made competent grill that will get the job done for around $200.
Leaves you a buncha money to go in other directions with smokers.
I had not even heard of Babes. Must be Savannah's best kept BBQ secret. Haha. I'll have to check it out. My favorite BBQ restaurant in Savannah is Bowtie BBQ. Have you eaten there?
The Babes in Garden City is a lunch spot when at the airport. I have never been to Bowtie. We stay downtown and once the car is parked we just walk to where ever.. I'll check it out next visit.
Blowin Smoke BBQ? They have a dino beef rib. yum
> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> Grilla Grills Pellet Pizza Oven
> Pit Barrel Cooker (gone to a new home)
> WeberQ 2000 (on "loan" to a relative (I'll never see it again))
> Old Smokey Electric (for chickens mostly - when it's too nasty out
to fiddle with a more capable cooker)
> Luhr Jensen Little Chief Electric - Top Loader circa 1990 (smoked fish & jerky)
> Thermoworks Smoke
> 3 Thermoworks Chef Alarms
> Thermoworks Thermapen One
> Thermoworks Thermapen Classic
> Thermoworks Thermopop
> Thermoworks Square DOT
> Thermoworks IR-GUN-S
> Joule Turbo Sous Vide Circulator
> Searzall torch
> BBQ Guru Rib Ring
> WÜSTHOF, Dalstrong, and Buck knives
> Paprika App on Mac and iOS
I was thinkin along the kettle route via Weber or one of our members companys, The Slow N Sear kettle. The charcoal & the versatility will give you everything you need. Now, if you are really set on a gasser, I’d check Craig’s List. I live in a small town & there are always 3 to 5 available. You can spot em, then do due diligence on the manufacturer & product & get a good to great price on one .
Oh, almost forgot, welcome, eat good & have fun!
Last edited by FireMan; January 25, 2021, 12:19 PM.
Grill/Smoke/Roast = SnS Grills Kettle + SnS Deluxe Insert & Drip n' Griddle
Grill/Smoke/Roast = Hasty-Bake Gourmet Dual Finish with HB rotisserie and Grill Grates
Smoke = Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5"
Pizza = Blackstone Propane Pizza Oven (Stacy's, but she let's me use it sometimes)
Indoor Cooking = LG Studio 30" gas range
Camp Cooking = Coleman 2 burner white gas stove
Thermometer = FireBoard FBX2 with 2 ambient and 6 meat probes
Thermapen Mk IV = Light blue
Thermapen Mk IV = Black
PID Controller = Fireboard Drive + Auber 20 CFM Fan (FB gen 1 fan)
PID Controller = Fireboard Drive + Fireboard 20 CFM Fan (FB gen 2 fan)
Knives
Wusthof Classic Ikon set: 9" carving knive, 2X 8" Chef's Knife, 7" Santoku and three utility knives
Kamikoto Kuro set: 7" Santoku, 6.5" Nakiri, 5" Utility
Amazing Ribs Brazilian Steak knife set
Favorite wine = whatever is currently in the wine rack
Favorite beer = Sam Adams Boston Lager or Shiner Bock
Favorite whisky = Lagavulin Distiller's Edition 16 year old single malt
Best Cookbooks - Meathead's "The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling", Chris Lilly's "Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book", Aaron Franklin's "Franklin BBQ", Raichlen’s “Brisket Chronicles”
Current MCBS - Momofuku
Current fanboy cookbook - "Chasing Smoke: Cooking Over Fire Around the Levant"
Cuisinart's 3-in-1 Stainless 5 Burner Gas Grill is a pretty nice package deal for a pretty low price. It earns our Best Value Gold Medal.
Personally, though, I’d say that for less than $400 you can get the SnS Grills kettle with insert and griddle pans and all that good stuff. It’s easy to use and almost as quick to fire up as a gasser
At SnS Grills, we build high-performance charcoal grills and accessories designed to upgrade your Weber kettle. From our patented Slow ’N Sear® inserts to the MasterKettle and EasySpin™ cooking system, everything is engineered for true two-zone cooking, improved heat control, and serious versatility.
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.
Shem welcome to the Pit from Huntsville, Alabama, from a transplanted Georgia native. While I grew up in Marietta, tons of family down all over South Georgia - Waycross, Blackshear, Brunswick, then way over in Bainbridge and Donalsonville as well.
I am a big fan of Webers, and cooked for many many years on a Weber Genesis 2 burner, which was about 350 square inches of space, that someone gave me back around 2004, when it was 2 years old. That grill is still going strong.
While the Genesis II 3 and 4 burner grills are bigger, nothing wrong with the Weber Spirit 2 and 3 burner grills, and you can get either of those sizes for under your $500 budget. They will have a 10 year bumper to bumper warranty, and last much longer than that with care and replacement of burners and flavorizer bars - about the only thing I have had to replace on that 19 year old grill. A Weber Spirit II E-210 or E-310 can be had at about any Lowe's or Home Depot for within your budget.
When you decide you want to join the "smoking" party and do low-and-slow traditional BBQ, nothing beats a kettle style charcoal grill - especially when combined with the Slow 'N Sear line of accessories. SnSGrills.com sells these accessories, as well as their own line of charcoal grills.
Nothing beats charcoal when you have the extra time to fire it up, or want to smoke things. Nothing really beats gas if you just want to do a quick grilling session.
I'll also toss this out to consider. A *LOT* of folks are jumping on the outdoor griddle bandwagon - I am sure you have seen Blackstone griddles for sale in a Walmart, Home Depot, etc. I was gifted a Camp Chef FTG series flat top grill last summer, and use it for ALMOST all my outdoor propane powered cooking. Pretty much anything other than bone-in chicken goes on the flat top now. A flat top combined with a charcoal kettle would be a really nice outdoor kitchen setup. The only downside to the outdoor griddles is that they do require you to maintain the rolled steel cooktop - keep it seasoned and oiled, and covered when not in use, to avoid rust. It's like having a giant cast iron skillet, and letting it live outside.
Hi Shem. Not at all. A chimneys worth or so of charcoal should be enough to use for the griddle, on a kettle grill. The SNS Grills company makes a full featured kettle grill, which you can buy with or without the Slow n Sear insert. But everyone here would recommend getting the one with the insert, as that will allow you do long smoke cooks in the kettle. www.SnSgrills.com
Last edited by Panhead John; January 25, 2021, 02:26 PM.
Shem if we are talking the Drip 'N Griddle, over a Slow 'N Sear, we are talking half a chimney - maybe 3-4 pounds - of charcoal. If you are talking about their "Plancha" that gives you the full kettle as a griddle surface, I imagine a full chimney (6-7 pounds) of charcoal would do the trick.
A 18-20 pound bag of charcoal usually lasts me 4-5 cooks on the kettle, at least. If I had to guess, if you buy the charcoal for $8-12 per bag, like I do, cost per cook is about the same as propane.
Last edited by jfmorris; January 25, 2021, 03:05 PM.
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.
Shem it sounds like you are starting to think about a kettle. Kettles are so flexible, *IF* you have the extra 20-30 minutes to get your charcoal lit at the beginning of the cook. If you don't, there is probably still a place for a gas grill or griddle in your backyard.
I have a Weber Performer Deluxe, which has a big side table, charcoal storage bin, a shelf underneath, and propane ignition. SnSGrills.com sells a nice kettle that has a side table on one side, and can come in a bundle with all their toys. I like its 4-legged construction better than the 3-legged Weber kettles, but do really like the side table and features of my Weber Performer.
The nice thing about a charcoal grill like these is that they seal up pretty tight, and can be used for both grilling AND smoking. And there are a LOT of accessories. I have the various SnSGrills.com stuff - Slow 'N Sear original, Drip 'N Griddle, and I replaced my Weber grate with the Easy Spin grate once the Weber one started rusting. I also have a full set of Grillgrates, and a Weber rotisserie. Rotisserie cooking a 19 pound turkey for thanksgiving this past November was the bomb! I wasted money on a rotisserie for the Weber Genesis II, and its too low to the grates and flavorizer bars - I had to remove the grates to use it, and could barely spin a 5 pound chicken, much less a turkey. If you do get a Weber gas grill, do NOT waste money on a rotisserie for it - at least for the Spirit or Genesis.
I've found myself using a propane powered griddle more than a regular gas grill, and my Weber kettle. I won the monthly raffle this month however (a great perk you get for joining the Pitmaster Club), and just received a week ago a brand spanking new Slow 'N Sear Deluxe Kamado. I've done one cook on it, and its a really great piece of equipment, and looks good out by my pool!
I've got a 2 year old Weber Genesis II E-410, and I've fired it up about 4 times since getting the Camp Chef griddle last June. I really like griddle cooking, and that plancha from SNS would be the bomb on a charcoal grill, if I didn't already have the Camp Chef.
If you don't usually need a ton of space, an option for quick griddle cooks might even be something like the smaller 22" griddles that Blackstone sells. If you want griddle cooking AND flexibility - look at the Camp Chef 16" stove systems. They have 3 burners, and tons of accessories, including griddles up to 600 square inches.
Didn't mean to get so wordy, but I will say, that if I could only have TWO cookers, or were designing a nice outdoor kitchen with stuff built in, I would have:
22" Kettle or Kamado with accessories
Flat Top (Griddle)
That would give you a lot of flexibility. I barely touch my gas grill or offset smoker anymore...
Last edited by jfmorris; January 25, 2021, 03:17 PM.
Shem I gotta second everything Jim is saying. I don’t have a kettle of any sort. But I do have a Weber Smokey Mountain, probably the greatest smoker ever made under $500. If I didn’t have a really expensive charcoal grill (Hasty-Bake), I would immediately go buy the SNS Grills kettle with all the extras. For under $400, you get a monster grilling and smoking machine.
I'm interested in purchasing the Slow 'n Sear grill & I see that they are on sale right now (10% off). Does anyone know if they usually have a better sale close to summer (Memorial Day), or is this a good deal?
Should I wait, or strike while the [kettle] is hot?
This is a great deal. They didn’t even have a kettle last March when I was buying a kettle for my daughter. If they had, I would have paid full price. Their full price deal is better than if you bought the equivalent Weber and the SNS gear separately.
They don't tend to have many sales, and I can't say I've seen more than 10% off myself. If you want to save cash, get the kettle with the regular/original SNS instead of the Deluxe. The main difference is a grid in the bottom of the deluxe SNS, and a removable water resevoir. I have the original style in my kettle, my kamado has the deluxe.
Welcome from Wisconsin. Glad you could join us!
I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and agree that a kettle/SnS combo is a killer system for the money. Heck, it's a great system period. But since you are coming from a gasser be aware that things will be different with a kettle. The learning curve is not huge, but it does exist.
For reference, I had a 22" Kettle/SnS that I gave to my son when I got my pellet pooper. I missed it a lot until I added the 22" WSM, and the 24" Blackstone griddle. Now, I'm in good shape for cooking almost anything. However, put a gun to my head and force me to pick only one rig, I'd likely take the kettle/SnS over anything else. Unless of course someone else is paying, then LSG 48" adjustable grill would likely be the winner.
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