shaun341 wrote:Did an 8lb pork butt on it yesterday, came out pretty good. Enjoying the taste and fun of using charcoal. Did have me up all night cause I was worried about the temp on it but I figure once I get more in tune with charcoal the worry in me will fall off as well.
The first few cooks are always like that. After you get the hang of it, it's simple as long as the weather is cooperating and you have decent charcoal. There are a lot of crap and inconsistent brands out there that kind of fly under the radar because most of the time they are used for grilling where the inconsistencies and burn times don't get noticed.
You can also add a digital temp / draft controller if you want to take the guesswork out. There are a few out there, but DigiQ and Stoker are the two I see more often than not.
Second the amazingribs.com suggestion. The guy who operates the site is a bit of a blowhard, but he really knows his ****.
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/nwindex.htm has a bunch of good, albeit a bit dated, stuff on lump charcoal if you go that route.
illinichaser wrote:
I did buy a temp probe that Weber makes that connects Bluetooth to my phone. Set the desired range for the grill and go to sleep. The alarm will wake me if the temp needs attention.
I have the ThermoWorks Smoke w/ wi-fi gateway, so I can get the info anywhere I have cell data service and it even keeps temp graphs. Although, in retrospect, had I known that the Therma-Q WiFi model (also ThermoWorks) was just around the corner after the Smoke Gateway came out, I would have waited and gotten it instead.