Woo Hoo! I just ordered the Weber Summit Charcoal Grilling Center

[billg71]

Well, I got home from Lowes, screwed on the propane bottle, checked for leaks, and then wiped down the entire inside of the grill and grates with soap and water then rinsed and wiped dry.

Then I put 42* coals for good karma ( JPP are you reading this?) onto the charcoal grate, fired up the Snap Jet ignition and lit the pile of coals. After 10 min I turned the burner off, spread the coals, and tossed on 8 oz of pecan wood. With both dampers wide open, it took 30 min to reach the max temp of 390, cooler than I thought it would be.

After another 30 minutes, I figured all the gunk had burned away, so I tossed on a pan of thick sliced bacon. I usually cook bacon on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil with a separate piece of crumpled-then-roughly smoothed aluminum foil on top. The bacon goes on top of the crumpled foil. The whole shebang goes in my gasser at about 325 for 40 mintutes. So when I saw the Weber stable at 390, I decided to cook the bacon in it.

The minute I lifted the lid, the temp dropped 100 degrees but slowly climbed back up to 305 where it's holding steady. I figure the bacon will be nicely cooked in about an hour.

This is the bacon I smoked in my PBC last weekend. I had a hard time getting thin and uniform slices. Some are really thick at about 1/8 inch or maybe a little more. That's why I'm figuring it may take longer. I wish the Weber had a window and an interior light like my oven so I could see what's going on. Now why didn't they think of that!

So it looks like it will be bacon cheeseburgers for supper with fresh corn on the cob, potato salad and fresh veggie salad. I plan on pouring a chimney of lit KBB on the coals to grill the burgers.

Pretty simple stuff. Tomorrow, hopefully, will be Last Meal Ribs. I may have to get more corn for that feast.

I'm having a great time!

Kathryn

*The number 42 is, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, "The answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything"

fzxdoc, since you're planning on cooking ribs, here's what I've learned about smoking on my SCGC:

I get my best low-temp results with a modified Soo's donut(I use a coffee can in the center) with a full chimney(or maybe 1-1/2 for long cooks like brisket or a big butt) and about 14-16 briquettes fully lit dumped in. I start with the bottom vent on smoke and the top vent full open, top closed to about 1/4" when the grate temp hits 175. I tried lighting just part of the pile with the Snapjet but that doesn't give you any control of how big a fire you start with, I didn't get good results the one time I tried it.

If I use more briquettes to light or let the temp get over 175 before closing down the top it'll go past 225 and never look back. And it'll take a while to come back down. I tried starting with 20 briquettes but that seemed to be too many, temps shot up quickly and I had to close both vents down to get back to 225-250. 20 would be about right for a 325 cook, I think.

I leave the bottom vent on smoke throughout the cook and it seems to work well that way. Just like any other cooker, it takes some learning but it holds temps well with only occasional adjustments to the top vent.

If you notice you're having to open the top vent to maintain temp when you get well into the cook(say 4-6 hrs), tap down the ashes and run the sweeper back and forth a few times to clear the bottom. Don't forget to put it back in the smoke position and watch temps closely for the next 30 minutes, you'll probably have to close the top vent down again.

Another tip: When you're finished, close the top vent and spray in the holes with a little PAM. Then run it back and forth a few times and wipe out the gunk as best as you can with a paper towel. Mine froze solid after the first 2-3 cooks and it's the devil to get it loose once it does. Tolerances are tight on that vent and it seems to gunk up easily.

Enjoy the Last Meal Ribs, that was my first cook on the SCGC as well! Cheers!

Best,
Bill

[fzxdoc]

Bill, thank you soooo much for taking the time to write this informative post. We decided to smoke the LMR today for Father's Day, so it was written just in the nick of time. You have inched me a bit more up that learning curve with your tips. Thanks again.

[Breadhead]

fzxdoc ... I really like women! We all know the Venus & Mars story. We all know women think differentlythan men.

Smart men find GREAT value in that glorious difference. Some nurture it, encourage it, and learn from it. Others... Fight it, are confused/threaten by it and simply don't get it.😡 The saying... "Behind every great man, is a strong woman", became a cliche, for one reason... It's unquestionably true!

In 1992 I hired a single mother, from a temp service, that had 3 teenage kids at home. Freshly divorced, no money, no job and overwhelmed by the situation she found herself in.😡 She worked in my personal office in my home, my personal assistant, you might say.
As we got to know each other I found out that she had worked for the Arizona Republic newspaper company in the customer service department. Then she went to work for A telephone company, also in customer service. Those 2 industries spend more money in customer service training than any other industries.

At the time I owned a startup reclining furniture factory, trying to steal business from Lazyboy, BarcaLounger and Lane Action recliner company. Finally I switched this lady from my personal assistant to running my administrative office of this factory. She took over control of that part of my business and kicked ass an took names.👍

We grew that company quickly and to keep from having to pay her what she was worth, an amount I couldn't afford at the time, I gave her 10% of my company.😎 You do that when your growing, to keep cash for growth.

A few years later I sold that company and retired👌

She got hired by a $40,000,000 upholstery manufacturing company that was NEEDING growth, as the VP of Sales. In the last 10 years she has taken them to $250,000,000 and is only limited by their manufacturing capability.

She is now... One of the most powerful people in the furniture industry, in America, a $50,000,000,000 industry, men or women, a male dominated industry and she's still my friend.

That person would be my friend, Scary Mary.😆 She has gone from ALMOST homeless to a millionaire.😎

[fzxdoc]

Wow, what a great story. You made such an impact on her life, not just by giving her the job initially, but by recognizing and encouraging her potential. I'm proud of both you and Mary.

Kathryn

[RonB]

A really good boss recognizes what his people can do, and is not afraid to move them around and turn them loose. You must have been a very good boss...

[Breadhead]

RonB ... My management style was learned from a great mentor. A guy by the name of Howard Behar. He is a short Jewish fella that was extremely effective in business management. He took Starbuck's from a company in Seattle to a highly successful international success story.

[fzxdoc]

The first real cook on the WSCGS was a success. Those Last Meal Ribs were pretty tasty. Not much of a smoke ring, though, which is a first in my smoking experience. I'm used to relatively deep smoke rings on ribs. This one was thin but intense. Not that it means anything, I just like seeing pretty smoke rings.

billg71 , I followed your instructions and am so grateful that you wrote them out for me. That fire wanted to take off at the slightest whiff of extra oxygen. I watched the temps pretty much the whole time, keeping them at about 250 degF average. I'm used to cooking in the 270-290 range on my PBC, so 250 didn't bother me a bit.

If I had followed the Weber instructions, the smoker would have been in the 400 degree range in a New York minute, I'll bet!

The ribs (babybacks) passed the bend test at 3.5 hours.




Next I'm going to do as Max Good did in his testing; put a load of charcoal in all by itself and try to learn some nuances in temperature control on this beast. But that will have to wait until we get back from our trip.

Thanks again, billg71, kingdarb and wbzipf for your tips on starting the fire and maintaining temperatures. You all made my first cook a success!

Kathryn

[JeffJ]

Those ribs look great!

[DWCowles]

They look great fzxdoc

[billg71]

Dat's some nice looking babies, fzxdoc! I'd post a pic of mine from Sunday but they didn't last long enough.

Glad I could help. Congrats!

[RonB]

Congrats on your success. I'm sure it was just the first of many great cooks.

[billg71]

The first real cook on the WSCGS was a success. Those Last Meal Ribs were pretty tasty. Not much of a smoke ring, though, which is a first in my smoking experience. I'm used to relatively deep smoke rings on ribs. This one was thin but intense. Not that it means anything, I just like seeing pretty smoke rings.

billg71 , I followed your instructions and am so grateful that you wrote them out for me. That fire wanted to take off at the slightest whiff of extra oxygen. I watched the temps pretty much the whole time, keeping them at about 250 degF average. I'm used to cooking in the 270-290 range on my PBC, so 250 didn't bother me a bit.

If I had followed the Weber instructions, the smoker would have been in the 400 degree range in a New York minute, I'll bet!

The ribs (babybacks) passed the bend test at 3.5 hours.
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Next I'm going to do as Max Good did in his testing; put a load of charcoal in all by itself and try to learn some nuances in temperature control on this beast. But that will have to wait until we get back from our trip.

Thanks again, billg71, kingdarb and wbzipf for your tips on starting the fire and maintaining temperatures. You all made my first cook a success!

Kathryn

Kathryn, you're more than welcome. There's a learning curve to the SCG, I'm glad I could help shorten yours. I've never cooked on a Kamodo but the SCG seems to be almost like one, it just cools down quicker if you overshoot temps.

I cooked two racks of baby backs yesterday along with a pair of 2-rib racks of chuck shorties on the extender, they all finished out great at 225+-. The cooker held temps well with no fiddling until the sun hit it and I had to choke back the top a bit. I put the meat on at 9:30, pulled the short ribs at 1:00 and the baby backs an hour later, opened the vents to get temps up and put them back on for 30 minutes to set the sauce. Like the BBQ Pit Boys say, "That's good!".

I really have enjoyed my SCGC, wish you the same with yours! Have fun!