BBQ Smoker Site » BBQ Product Reviews

Popular BBQ Smokers and Gear

BBQ Smoker — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:06:54 +0000

Here we are again with our quarterly update on what readers of the BBQ Smoker Site find most useful in terms of BBQ Smokers, BBQ Books, BBQ Videos, and BBQ Gear! For those of you not familiar with this series of posts, I take an inventory of the BBQ Smokers, BBQ Gear, and BBQ Accessories our readers here at the BBQ Smoker Site find most useful over a given quarter.

The number and types of BBQ Smokers and related BBQ tools available out there today is stunning if not all out overwhelming! I field questions all the time about what BBQ smokers, grills, books on BBQ, and BBQ accessories are best. Well, aside from the reviews you read online, it’s helpful to see what folks who share your common interests think of these items.

Obviously, I do make a little bit of money for referring folks to Amazon, which helps with hosting costs, travel a little gas money to cover trips to different BBQ judging events, etc. If you find items you feel you might want to check out, I do ask that you consider buying them via links from this blog.

Thanks so much for your readership, and I hope you come back to these pages for information often! The following is a collection of the most purchased BBQ smokers and gear purchased by our readers on Amazon for July through September, 2011. Keep in mind as you look through these lists of BBQ smokers, tools, and accessories that Christmas is just around the corner!

Popular BBQ Items Archive

Popular BBQ Smokers and Gear - June 2011
Popular BBQ Smokers and Gear - March 2011

Popular BBQ Smokers and Gear Q3 2011

Popular BBQ Books

Once again, Myron Mixon’s Recipes Made Simple took the top spot this quarter, with farm more sales than any of the other BBQ Books my readers bought this time around. We posted about this book here, and it’s no surprise that Myron is leading the pack, given that he as hall but become the face of American BBQ today. Chef Paul Kirk’s Championship Barbecue Sauces took a distant second place in purchases this quarter, with several titles going out to those who clearly know his honored place in American BBQ lore.

I love that a few of my readers picked up some sausage meat smoking books this time around – namely Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages, and The Art of Making Fermented Sausages. If you have the time and inclination to begin making your own sausage at home, these two books provide a good foundation for getting up and running with it. Of course, if you’re in the Central Florida area, and have some wild game or livestock to process, Baxter Troutman’s Chop-N-Block meat processing shop can fix you right up with some excellent sausages! Heck, they’ll even pick up your kill or slaughtered animal for free if it’s within a 10 mile radius of Winter Haven, FL!

Popular BBQ DVDs

This is a short category, but one that bears mention. This quarter, readers of the BBQ Smoker Site enjoyed the following BBQ DVDs:

Popular BBQ Smokers

A bit of a short list for BBQ Smokers this go ’round, but as usual the Weber Smokey Mountain Cookers and Bradley Electric Smokers made the list. Bradley holds its place as my readers’ favorite electric smokers – and who can argue with the WSMs as a purchase? I see them at KCBS and FBA competitions all the time. In fact, with fuel prices up, some teams are starting to cook on them – leaving their bigger rigs at home!

Popular BBQ Accessories

This is always a fun category, as guys … and gals… love their BBQ related toys! I was pleased to see the Cast Iron Grate by 4GrillersJoy / Craycort make it in this quarter, as they get nothing but awesome reviews! I know several BBQ Bloggers (Chris at Nibble Me This and Robyn at Grill Grrrl) who use them consistently with excellent results! The Smokenator also made it in this time, and rightly so. If you have a Weber kettle grill and want to cook on it low and slow style, definitely check it out.

Hot Wachula’s Salsa Review on Hot Sauce Daily

BBQ Smoker — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:09:42 +0000

Hi folks, I wanted to be sure you knew to check out a review I just sent over to Brian and Marilyn over at HotSauceDaily.com featuring two salsa Matt Barber makes over at Hot Wachula’s: Peach Salsa and Black Bean and Corn Salsa.

Matt Barber – Hot Wachula’s BBQ
Grand Champion 2011

Photo Credit: Florida Bar-B-Que Association Website.

Click the image to Order Hot Wachula’s Salsas and Hot Sauces!

Not only is Matt a phenomenal person, his salsas and hot sauces are top notch. He uses all natural ingredients and takes a great amount care to be sure he puts out product that reflects the hard work he puts into it.

As many of you know, Matt is also a masterful BBQ Pro, currently ranking at the #5 spot for the 2011 Florida Bar-B-Que Association Team of the Year race.

Matt Barber – Florida Backwoods Smoker Distributor

Matt also just became the Florida distributor for Backwoods Smokers. If you’re looking to up your BBQ Smoker game, connect with Matt, and he’ll set you up with one of the better BBQ Smokers on the market. Head on over to his the Backwoods Smoker Facebook Page and show him some BBQ Love by clicking the “like” button!

Pirate Jonny’s Rubs and Seasonings

BBQ Smoker — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:44:33 +0000

I recently received a sample pack of spices from Terri Toner over at Pirate Jonny’s, a BBQ Rub company located in Tampa, FL. First, I love the opportunity to feature a local Florida company that offers great BBQ Rubs and BBQ Recipes. Florida is, after all, the BBQ Capital of the World… well, at least if you ask anyone who cooks on the Florida Bar-B-Que Association Circuit!

Pirate Jonny’s “Barr-B-Q” Rubs and Seasonings

Pirate Jonny’s Seasoning blends and BBQ rubs are derived from the geographical maritime region of the Caribbean basin. Utilizing indigenous and historic spices & fruits grown and traded within this region, combined to create a unique product line of BBQ rubs and seasonings.

I was immediately impressed with the low sodium aspect of Pirate Jonny’s products. So many commercial rubs and spice mixtures for grilling and BBQ feature salt as their primary ingredient, that it’s nice to keep track of the ones who put actual flavor first! I count Pirate Jonny’s among these, and boy do they offer a nice set of spice rubs designed to make your taste buds get down and shake their “Pirate Booties!” (Wah, wah, wah, wah… GONG!)

But seriously, these guys do a great job, as is evidenced by the fact that they received the 2011 NBBQ Association’s Second Place Award of Excellence!

Here are some of main key spice mixes:

Original BBQ Rub: Original Sweet BBQ rub – no need for sauce with this one. This is the fundamentally perfect rub for everything. Pirate Jonny’s Original Rub makes a sweet and flavorful addition to ribs, chicken, or roast, whether cooked in the oven, on the grill, or in the BBQ smoker. A classic well made, well balanced rub.

Caribbean Barrr-B-Q Rub: (2011 NBBQ Association’s Second Place winner in the Awards of Excellence!) If you like the vibrant flavors of Jamaican Jerk seasoning and want to have it for a BBQ Rub, try this. You will love it! It has the complexity of the tropical Jamaican classic, balanced into a BBQ rub. Works equally well on the smoker grill or oven. Also – now comes in HOT – for the heat lovers – you have been asking and now it’s available.

Caribbean Cowboy Steak Rub: Deep dark rich BBQ rub that creates BBQ flavor like you have never tasted. Makes for an amazing Steak rub, or Burgers, or try it on ribs and pork roast for a rich bold flavor. Made with blended chili-powders, garlic, salt and artisan roasted Buddy Brew coffee, roasted right here in Tampa. Your Burger never had it so good!

BBQ Curry: Amazing curry spice mix for that Caribbean Curry flavor! This flavorful seasoning combines our Original BBQ rub with real Curry spice blend, we put it together in a perfect combination for the BBQ lover as well as the Curry lover. Not an overpowering Curry and mild, not spicy BBQ. Our BBQ Curry is a great and unique combination, for sure.

Jamaican Jerk Seasonings: This is our real deal Pirate Jonny’s original Jamaican Jerk seasoning. A bottle full of flavor, just the right amount of heat for the average palette and tropical goodness. Mix it with some vinegar and a little soy sauce to make a marinade for chicken. While chicken is grilling, place the marinade into a sauce plan and reduce on the stove to make a fabulous glaze. Works equally well on the grill or the oven.

Cuban Mojo: We use fresh dehydrated real orange and lime juice, blended with garlic, oregano, cumin and black pepper to create the classic Cuban Mojo in a dry seasoning. Very classic Cuban flavors in a spice jar. Mojo (pronounced Mo-Ho) is typically a wet marinade, but we have worked it out to a dry seasoning, easy to store, adds flavor to everything you always wanted it on, but didn’t want to deal with a wet seasoning.

Tampa Bay Key Lime Chili: Imagine the tartness and mouth watering fresh flavor of Florida Key Lime , whithe the great bite of chili powder, blended with garlic and ginger and salt, to add some zest and spice to fish, chicken and tortilla chips! All natural ingredients -healthy cooking. Made with dehydrated Lime Juice, not flavorings.

Pirate Jonny’s Caribbean Spicy Shrimp Recipe

Here’s a great recipe to get familiar with the taste profile for Pirate Jonny’s Caribbean BBQ rub. Give it a go. I think you’ll enjoy it! It’s best to use fresh shrimp if you can get it. You could use frozen in a pinch, but why would you if you can get fresh? (Another blessing of living in FL!) Fire it up on your BBQ Grill or BBQ Smoker and enjoy! You can find more of Pirate Jonny’s recipes here.

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs. fresh shrimp

6 tablespoons light rum

2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice (or a blend if you like)

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil (we substitute coconut oil)

2 teaspoons of brown sugar

2 tablespoons Pirate Jonny’s Original Seasoning

Preparation

Peel and clean the shrimp, leaving the tails on. Your fish monger or grocer’s seafood folks can de-vein them for you and still keep the shell on if you like.

Create a marinade for the shrimp by combining 4 tablespoons of the rum with the lemon/lime juice, oil, and Pirate Jonny’s Seasoning.

Add the shrimp to the marinade and let soak for 30 minutes.

In a separate bowl, make a basting sauce by stirring together the remaining rum, the cider vinegar, and brown sugar.

After marinating, thread the shrimp onto skewers. If you use wood or bamboo skewers, soak them to reduce burning and splintering.

Grill shrimp over medium heat for 3 minutes per side, basting with the sauce you made during the cook.

Interested in more Pirate Jonny’s recipes? Contact them for a copy of their recipe book!

Cast Iron Skillet Meets Cast Iron Grate

BBQ Smoker — Mon, 16 May 2011 03:43:55 +0000

Cast Iron Grate: When Cast Iron Meets Iron Skillet

I wrote a blog post recently about how to pimp your grill with a cast iron grate. The fact that cast iron is a superior conductor of heat to most metals is without question. But what’s next, what can you do to get that flat across the steak crusty sear you see in some steak houses? How do they get it done?

Well, after I did some research, it seems that they use a flat grill surface. Thing is, I don’t have a flat grill surface, so how to I mirror the effect? Answer – well, maybe… combine a cast iron grate with a 12 inch cast iron skillet and let the across the side sear begin! Ok great. Now, which skillet to buy?

Buy the Lodge 12 inch cast iron skillet on Amazon today!

A quick trip down to my local outlet store found me looking at several cast iron skillets that might have done the trick, only I non of them were made in the US. Don’t get me wrong, I eat food from other countries, hell, I even drive a Honda. But when I can buy American, and know I am buying a good product, I try and do so.

Enter… the Lodge Cast Iron Cookware Company

Lodge was founded by Joseph Lodge in 1896 in the city of South Pittsburg, Tennessee and remains the oldest family-owned cookware foundry in America.

Their cast iron products are still made in the South Pittsburg foundry. Enameled cookware from Lodge comes out of China, so do know that. But hey – we’re talking cast iron here so for now, we can still put the CAN in AmeriCAN!

Pan Seared Steak on a Cast Iron Skillet

As a long time Good Eats fan, I remember when Alton Brown did an episode called “Steak Your Claim.” In this show he did a great pan seared steak on a cast iron skillet. (Video below).

“Back in the days before Teflon and extruded anodized aluminum and surgical stainless steel this (Cast Iron) is what you cooked in. Three meals a day. It’s solid iron. It can go in the oven, on the stove, under a broiler, over a camp fire, over a jet engine, whatever.” - Alton Brown

I mean what’s not to love here? Notably, Alton does not use a grill in this video, opting instead for a gas stove top and oven set to 500 degrees F. I envision achieving similar results with my cast iron skillet on the gas grill, using a closed lid for the second portion of the cook with burners turned up on one side and the pan set to the other for indirect cooking. A cast iron grate and a cast iron skillet and you’re good to go for so many different, high quality grilling experiences.

Here’s his recipe for cast iron skilled seared Rib Eye steak taken from the Foodnetwork.com site:

Ingredients

1 boneless rib eye steak, 1 1/2-inch thick
Canola oil to coat
Kosher salt and ground black pepper

Directions

Place 10 to 12-inch cast iron skillet in oven and heat oven to 500 degrees. Bring steak(s) to room temperature.

When oven reaches temperature, remove pan and place on range over high heat. Coat steak lightly with oil and season both sides with a generous pinch of salt. Grind on black pepper to taste.

Immediately place steak in the middle of hot, dry pan. Cook 30 seconds without moving. Turn with tongs and cook another 30 seconds, then put the pan straight into the oven for 2 minutes. Flip steak and cook for another 2 minutes. (This time is for medium rare steaks. If you prefer medium, add a minute to both of the oven turns.)

Remove steak from pan, cover loosely with foil, and rest for 2 minutes. Serve whole or slice thin and fan onto plate.

Seasoned, ready to use. This 12 inch skillet is a kitchen's most essential item. The even heating of cast iron is necessary for golden, tender, perfectly pan-fried chicken. What other cookware can rival the heat retention, versatility, value and durability of cast iron.
As you can see, whether it’s to keep teenage sons from destroying their Mom’s expensive Teflon pans, or to serve as a go to skillet when older, more class recipes call for the even heating and retention of cast iron, the Lodge 12 inch cast iron skillet is what you need. Hey, when one reviewer reaches for their Lodge cast iron skillet before any one of her 20 plus pieces of Calphalon Hard Annodized Commercial cookware, you know there’s something to it.

Think cast iron is a one trick wonder? Think again. When you can go from making French fries, to eggs, to spaghetti sauce, to crepes… YES…. Crepes! - you know you have a winner.

Pimp Your Grill with a Cast Iron Grill Grate

BBQ Smoker — Sat, 07 May 2011 20:50:23 +0000

I’ve been seeing a great deal on the web of late about BBQ Grill users using cast iron grate sets on their grills, specifically Weber kettle grills. Having long been an owner of a Lodge cast iron skillet and indoor cast iron grate for our stove top, my interest in cast iron grates for the grill is beginning to grow more and more.

The history of cookware in this country can be summed up by two words: cast iron. With origins that date back to China around 513 B.C., our contemporary understanding of cast iron cooking as it exists today dates back to a more recent period closer to the turn on the century.

It was at this time that cast iron implements were coming into their own as key components for cooking, including stoves, pots, and pans. The key benefit to using cast iron is that it is such a great conductor and retainer of heat, which is a great quality whether you’re baking, deep frying, or searing. Since this is a site dedicated to all things BBQ, I want to share some of the cast iron cooking resources I’ve found to have the most to do with “heating the meat.”

My first experience with cast iron grates or cast iron grill grates, whatever you’re accustomed to calling them, was as a kid. My Dad used to cook burgers and steaks on a cast iron grate in the kitchen whenever the weather was not conducive to outdoor grilling, or when we ran out of propane for our gas grill. The thing I loved most about the taste our steaks and burgers had when cooked on our cast iron grill grate was the seared brown goodness the cast iron imparts. It actually got to where we all liked the steaks made on our indoor cast iron grate better than we did when they were cooked on the outdoor gas grill!

Caring for Your Cast Iron Grate

Cast iron grate sets are virtually indestructible. The key of course is to make sure they’re seasoned properly and remain so throughout their life. Consider the care and feeding of your cast iron grill grates a relationship based on give and take. You give them regular TLC with a brush up and oil down, they give you awesome seared BBQ grill goodness!

Some cast iron grill grate users state that they can get by with brushing down their grill grates with a brass brush (as brass won’t scratch up the surface of the cast iron) and then wiping them down with canola oil.

In any case, it’s a good idea to scrape your cast iron grill grates off with a wire brush of some kind after each cook and then coat the grates with some sort of oil. There are those who feel that liquid vegetable oils can leave a sticky residue, so they opt instead to use bacon grease or lard. Experiment to see which one you prefer. When you next fire up your grill, the cast iron grates will heat up and the oil will burn away in much the same way that occurs in a self-cleaning oven.

This process is similar to how I clean off my 12 inch Lodge cast iron skillet. I mix in some coarse kosher or sea salt with lard and get to scrubbing. I do find that vegetable oil can sometimes leave a sticky residue, so lard is often my choice. Darn. Have to make more pork or bacon.

If your cast iron grill grate set sits out in a moist or wet environment for long enough to gather rust, you’ll have to use a wire brush or fine grit sand paper to get the rust off. One cool trick from the Cast Iron Grate site for getting rust off of the area between the rods of your grill grate is to mix some pork fat (lard) with some salt and coat the grates with it. They then fire up the grill and the fat and salt mixture carries away much of the rust, dripping down into the grill. After the fat has been rendered off, brush the grates down with a wire brush. They do state that this little “trick” is a quick fix, and that it is best to not let your cast iron grates get rusty in the first place.

If you feel you need to re season your cast iron grill grates at any time, you can wash them up in warm soapy water and apply a wire brush to get the gunk off. Then, coat the grill grates in a layer of lard or vegetable oil, place on your grill over high heat, and let it cook for a few hours.

As always, keeping your grates brushed off and seasoned after each cook is the best way to keep them in good cooking order.

Video Resources for Learning More About Cast Iron Grates

Using a Cast Iron Grate set on a Weber Grill

If you own a Weber grill, this video will give you a great idea of how to put your new cast iron grate set to good use.

Review of the Craycort Cast Iron Grate For the Weber Little Smokey Grill

A great review of how to use the Craycort cast iron grate set on your Weber Smokey Joe Grill. T-Bones and some Belgian endive, to boot! Good stuff.

Where to Buy a Cast Iron Grate Set for Your Grill

As you can tell, I’m a big fan of Amazon for my personal shopping, and as a way to pay for the management of this blog. As it happens, Amazon does sell the cast iron grate products made by 4GrillersJoy for both 18.5″ and 22.5″ kettle grills. So, for those of you currently grilling on Weber grills, you might want to pop on over to Amazon and give one of these bad boys a try.

Cast Iron Grate, Pre Seasoned, Modular, Fits 18.5" Grills and Large Big Green Eggs
Average Rating:
3 total customer reviews...

As mentioned above, these are the cast iron grates made by the 4GrillersJoy folks. They’re great for true cast iron heat retention and users report that they sear and distribute heat like nothing they’ve ever tried. One bit of warning, you’ll have to work a little to maintain these as they will rust on you if left alone for too many days in a row. So, be sure to brush them off and give them a rub down with either lard or vegetable oil after each cook to keep them in tip top grilling condition.

Cast Iron Grate, Pre Seasoned, Non Stick Cooking Surface, Modular Fits 22.5" Grills
Average Rating:
15 total customer reviews...

Again, As mentioned above, this cast iron grate is made by the 4GrillersJoy folks. As mentioned above, always make sure that you brush them off and give them a rub down with either lard or vegetable oil after each cook to keep them in tip top grilling condition.

Weber 7526 Cooking Grate
Average Rating:
35 total customer reviews...

This Weber cast iron grate set measures 20.2 x 14.6 x 2 inches and will fit grills like the Weber Spirit E-310 or those of similar size. These cast iron grates differ from those made by 4GrillersJoy in that they are porcelain coated for easy clean up and maintenance. If you feel you might not be able or willing to maintain the uncoated cast iron grate sets, you might want to opt for these instead.