So I did a thing... Mak 2 Star

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I didn't feel an unboxing was necessary but I did want to point out how well the unit was packed. Not a single scratch on anything. All the hardware is in mini zip bags instead of the typical blister packs that I hate. Also there's only 2 screw sizes, smalls for the 3 small handles and all the rest hold the body and frame together with either lock washers and lock nuts or perfectly aligned prewelded nuts.

Another thing of note is not a single part has a sharp edge, I fully expected some of the nooks and crannies to have a sharp edge for me to cut myself on during assembly... Not so, all edges I came in contact with had a dulled edge resulting in 100% of my skin still attached post assembly.

[bten]

I always seem to leave a little skin on anything metal (and sometimes plastic things) that I have to put together. Good to hear that they pay attention to the little things.

[rwalters]

I didn't feel an unboxing was necessary but I did want to point out how well the unit was packed. Not a single scratch on anything. All the hardware is in mini zip bags instead of the typical blister packs that I hate. Also there's only 2 screw sizes, smalls for the 3 small handles and all the rest hold the body and frame together with either lock washers and lock nuts or perfectly aligned prewelded nuts.

Another thing of note is not a single part has a sharp edge, I fully expected some of the nooks and crannies to have a sharp edge for me to cut myself on during assembly... Not so, all edges I came in contact with had a dulled edge resulting in 100% of my skin still attached post assembly.

And even the supplied allen wrenches proudly display "Made in the USA" 🇺🇸 Quality through and through

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Steaks last night were great. Reverse sear then warmer box then full blast MAK flame
zone. I didn't get the marks I wanted, but I messed up... Despite having read the instructions... The gas griller in me kept the lid open during the first few minutes which killed the temp. Steaks still came out great since I cooked to temp, just couldn't leave them on long enough to sear both sides. I don't have the after shots because my phone died







This morning I started my pork for some hopefully lunch time goodness. If there's a long stall then dinner works just fine too. It was a discounted 9lb bone in butt, upon opening it I saw why. The thing is one of the worst butchered hunks of pork I've ever bought in this state. It's the first butt I've ever had to twine up as well due to so many loose pieces of meat like one of those hippy dresses with the flowing streamers off the sleeves. The good thing is I got rub into places I normally don't so we'll see what the flavor gods bring to the shredding table later.

[rwalters]

Steaks last night were great. Reverse sear then warmer box then full blast MAK flame zone. I didn't get the marks I wanted, but I messed up... Despite having read the instructions... The gas griller in me kept the lid open during the first few minutes which killed the temp. Steaks still came out great since I cooked to temp, just couldn't leave them on long enough to sear both sides. I don't have the after shots because my phone died


This morning I started my pork for some hopefully lunch time goodness. If there's a long stall then dinner works just fine too. It was a discounted 9lb bone in butt, upon opening it I saw why. The thing is one of the worst butchered hunks of pork I've ever bought in this state. It's the first butt I've ever had to twine up as well due to so many loose pieces of meat like one of those hippy dresses with the flowing streamers off the sleeves. The good thing is I got rub into places I normally don't so we'll see what the flavor gods bring to the shredding table later.

Off to a fantastic start! As much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE my MAK, I will be the first to say that it is not the ultimate steak searing machine. It grills/sears everything else to my liking, but imo, steaks require a harder blast of heat at the end. My preference for steaks is to do the low n slow portion on the MAK, and the final sear over a pile of screaming hot lump charcoal (or perhaps your gas grill). To me, it's quicker/easier/cheaper to use a secondary source for the final blast when cooking steaks.

With that said, I have seen plenty of tasty looking steaks come from MAK grills. To each their own

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I want to learn the grill first, but if I can't get a decent crust (not expecting perfect, just decent) from the stock grates, I'll try a cast iron pan first then resort to other options if need be. The Big Easy SRG can get decently hot so that's the last resort. Don't really want to buy sear grates as I don't have anywhere to store them, but I do have a bunch of points at Big Poppa Smokers now...

[rwalters]

Sounds like a good plan

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Well that was a weird butt for sure... Stalled at 151 then again at 180. The fat on the cuttingboard was all there was to discard, usually I get at least a hand full or more of discard.


IMO it's got better smoke flavor than the two most popular joints near me, still tender and not needing sauce other than to counteract the dryness of a bun. Of course I picked off so much I dontd have room for a sammy

[rwalters]

Maybe it’s mentioned somewhere in this thread, but what pellets are you burning?

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Whatever hickory ones came with it and two more of the same bag from BPS. I mixed in a half bag of Louisanna competition blend that i had open in the garage that I used to use with my BESRG and A-Maz-N tray after the first cook. Grill gets to, and holds temps like a champ. Maybe 5 degrees +/- according to the pellet boss which averages 1 time per minute so not as accurate as a logging thermometer

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Still learning the grill and today is bringing not 1 but 2 adventures. I asked the wife to grab me any beef roast and a small pack of wings. I ended up with a rump roast and a large pack of full size drums. I was thinking she'd grab a chuck and well wings. There I go thinking

So the point of the wings was supposed to be for me to learn how to get not only crispy skin, but to make them to where my wife would actually eat them. She gets 'em double fried at B Dubs and often they are still "too soggy" for her. Obviously that test will have to wait until later.

So I rubbed the drums in salt, a dash of brown sugar, cayenne, black pepper, and garlic. Then I placed them in the cold smoke side for about 20 min. Then cranked the MAK up to grill.



I played around with placement, and only 1 half of the flame zone opened up. I think when I go for wings I'll do similar with mine on the top rack and hers living on the bottom. Obviously I'll have to skip the sugar in the rub and work it into a sauce instead.



The more charred ones lived on the bottom rack the full time. Oddly the ones on top blew past my pull temp of 165 and were at 172 when I pulled them. The bottom guys were at 168. Let them rest and then figured I'd be grubbing on some over cooked drums.

WRONG again, thankfully. The skin wasn't as crispy as I like but most bites still had more crunch than chew. Every bite was tender and perfect. Next time I think I'll skip the pre-smoke and go the whole time at 400 with a bump to grill towards the end. The best thing so far about the pellet grill is that I don't have to guess what I did wrong AND figure out what the grill was doing. I know what the MAK was set at and don't have to fiddle around with temps. I can just work on me and the food.

I'll​​​ be doing the roast later tonight and attempting to make some yorkshire puddings as well.

​​​​​

[rwalters]

Yep, I agree with your assessment. Skip the low n slow when cooking chicken. 400-425° the entire cook. Perfect every time

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Dinner came out fantastic. Rump and portobello went on first at 225, roughly 2 hours until IT of 130. The rump was rubbed with salt last night and garlic powder right before going on. Not sure if I should have pulled it at 125, the resting temp went to 142 for about a minute. Still medium rare but I think I would have got a few more perfect slices out of it. The mushrooms were perfect.



Rump went to a tented rest and set the grill to 425. Put the muffin tin in with about 1tsp oil per cup. Popped the yorkshire pudding mix in and let go for 23 minutes. 10 minutes in I threw the asparagus on.



Finally, sliced up the rump doing super thin slices for roast beef sandwiches until I got to the perfect cuts. Sliced the wife and I up some dinner, made a quick board sauce with rosemary, parsley, and just a minor splash of olive oil (not pictured as the wife didn't want any "blood" sauce on hers).



Traditional UK sunday roast would have had potatoes and gravy, but this combo worked well enough for us. And, the most important thing is I showed the wife that I can make a complete meal and not just smoked or grilled things. She's warming up to the purchase, but still thinks it looks boring

[rwalters]

Dinner came out fantastic. Rump and portobello went on first at 225, roughly 2 hours until IT of 130. The rump as rubbed with salt last night and garlic powder right before going on. Not sure if I should have pulled it at 125, the resting temp went to 142 for about a minute. Still medium rare but I think I would have got a few more perfect slices out of it. The mushrooms were perfect.



Rump went to a tented rest and set the grill to 425. Put the muffin tin in with about 1tsp oil per cup. Popped the yorkshire yorkshire pudding mix in and let go for 23 minutes. 10 minutes in I threw the asparagus on.



Finally, sliced up the rump doing super thin slices for roast beef sandwiches until I got to the perfect cuts. Sliced the wife and I up some dinner, made a quick board sauce with rosemary, parsley, and just a minor splash of olive oil (not pictured as the wife didn't want any "blood" sauce on hers).



Traditional UK sunday roast would have had potatoes and gravy, but this combo worked well enough for us. And, the most important thing is I showed the wife that I can make a complete meal and not just smoked or grilled things. She's warming up to the purchase, but still thinks it looks boring

Really sorry to see that you are not enjoying your new MAK

Seriously, you are hitting these cooks out of the park! Appears this ain’t your first rodeo

Half the enjoyment of pellet cooking is the aroma of the burning pellets. Not only is the food fantastic, but the smells are highly therapeutic

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

My parents always encouraged us kids to cook for ourselves. So I guess I'm really lucky, since I know plenty of folks we get in the military have literally zero clue how to cook anything more complex than ramen. I'm far from great, but I have learned a ton from this site and others. I'm always experimenting and now I have to cook great food until I get the "ok honey it was worth the cost"

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

And I'm definitely enjoying the MAK. The whole idea of a pellet cooker opens up a lot of new things to an average home cook that weren't possible. No way I could tend a fire to create a perfect baking atmosphere. Definitely couldn't have done yorkies on my gas grill. They're hard enough to get right in the oven. Gonna shoot for jerky and maybe bread or biscuits next.

[evollbrecht]

I own a MAK 2 Star as well and love it. It quickly became my go to grill from nearly everything I cook. If you ever have a question about anything give them a call, a real person answers the phone within a ring or two and talks to you like a friend. I work in manufacturing and it was important for me to support American made products and it doesn't get more American made than a MAK! Congratulations.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Doing a little experiment today... Had a fantastic roast beef sammy for lunch but didn't really fancy having the same dinner 3 nights in a row. The non-shaved slices were about 1/4" and had marinated more or less in their board sauce, so...

I figured might as well see what happens following a jerkey recipe. Added a splash of soy and let sit in the fridge 30ish minutes after slicing and threw them on the MAK. Not sure how this is going to turn out considering the rump had been salted for 24 hours and cooked already. But, this is for science

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Well, I know where all future roast left overs are going! I was worried the edges would be overly dry since it had been fully pre-cooked. The thicker pieces are still tender for jerky and no "rip your teeth out" bites. Excellent smoke flavor while still being able to taste the beef.

It was hard to leave a few for the wife.

[bten]

Interesting, I am going to have to try this!

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Had to experiment today for some sear action. Considering it's 30ish degrees out I think it went well. Two cast iron pans with a dash of oil, one with baby Portobello and the other empty.



Went to 110, steak to the warming box and MAK cranked to grill. Went inside and trimmed up some asparagus and chucked them on top of the shrooms while the grill warmed up. At about 400 I moved the steaks on the empty pan. I was going for just over medium rare and pulled at 135. Asparagus went in the steak pan for a few minutes then everything inside.



Mushrooms were perfect, as was the majority of the asparagus. Steak was good, maybe one or two degrees too far past where I wanted them. I prefer close to rare the wife likes medium. She was happy. Only change I would make is to put the asparagus in the empty pan for warm-up to get more oil then move on top of the shrooms while the steak goes.

[panteracfh3]

Those mushrooms look fantastic! Steak looks delicious as well!

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I really would have liked to do things the way I normally do and getting my steak more medium rare and the wifes perfect, but I had too many things going on that were new for the first time so I focused on getting everything right for the wife and will get mine right next time now that I know the cast iron will sear on the MAK

[rwalters]

Nice cook

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Finally got my hands on a pork belly, who knew it would be so hard to find in swine land USA... The thing was 11ish lbs and I cut around 2lbs of skin off. Felt bad, but I had to waste it as there was no room in fridge or freeze to save it. Anyway cut the thing into 3 equal parts by eyeball weight and used meatheads recipe. 1 is plain, 1 has rosemary and some other spices, and the last one has lemon pepper... Because why not. We're experimenting here after all.



They brined for a touch over 72 hours, getting mixed 2x a day. The wife was not happy with how much room in the fridge I took up. I had 3 test batches of jerky marinating too as well as a large butt for later in the week. PS, buffalo sauce jerky doesn't quite work lol. But that's a story for another post.



So today we smoked to 150, the dogs dug a giant hole in the yard and once again the wife wasn't happy



I silced up the plain bacon and saved a few chunks for immediate cooking. The other two went outside to cool quick before going in the freezer and the sliced batch was bagged and plopped in the fridge.



The plain bacon flavor is ok, but I expected it to be much more salty. It's also a little chewy, I suspect this is because I may have cut not perfectly across the grain. I'm thinking the thicker slices will benefit from a 20+ minute cook on the MAK vs the quick pan fry I did for the taste test.

The wife likes her bacon on the edge of shattering so I'm hoping the thinnest slices I made will crisp nice in a pan or on the grill. I'm thinking the sugar content is going to require me to alter my cooking method regardless.

Overall I'm super happy. I don't care if this didn't turn out perfect. Even with ingredients I'm way ahead on costs by weight compared to even the cheapest supermarket bacon. Plus I got more time to learn my MAK and tried a,few new things. Can't wait to try cooking this bacon up in multiple ways this weekemd to dial it in.

Oh and there's room in the fridge again, so the wife is happy

[JGo37]

Reading this thread I remembered I have a bag of jerky at my desk, basically hiding it from my wife.

I also know now that no matter how deeply my dog is snoring, that silent little swish of a zip lock bag being opened wakes him up immediately.

[MBMorgan]

Hmmm ... I’ve got a cat that does exactly the same thing. Maybe they’re not so different after all ...

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I think when it comes to food... we're all the same lol. Most of the dogs aren't too bad unless you're using the ice machine or open a processed cheese slice. Try to only give them human food away from the kitchen but we don't always follow our own rules