It's funny you should menthion that, Tip. I actually was thinking about ordering an extra cooking grate for my kettle so I can do cut-outs with coals on the sides for indirect cooking, then use a non-medded grate for cold smoke & sear. Then I started thinking about getting an extra 3 racks (just in case of a UDS project). I just don't have alot of ambition for it right now...too many other unfinished projects.
Then, there's the growing equipment list, and shrinking space in my kitchen...heh-heh, my wife already started to frown when I mentioned ordering another charcoal kettle to avaid what happened tonight (ran out of grate space for cold-smoked Ribeyes...oh well she'll get over it, and learn to appreciate it next time we do a big burn, or a summer bash.
I also thought about taking a cheapo 20# propane tank that has a faulty OPD valve (it was never filled), and using it to make a SFB for my Smoke Vault 24...now, that would be COOL!!!! I've got a couple other tanks I could use as well for other SFB jobs (one is well-purged).
Thanks, Tip!
Burn barrels won't fly around here...neighbors are too close and we're in town, too. Hardwood isn't even touchable around here anyway...I'd have to find a shipper from back east someplace (spendy).
I think I can live with the briquettes for now. I get a $150.00 gift card every 3 months from work, and that's what I've been purchasing my cooking accessories with...I have most everything I need for now, so I can buy lots of briq and some lump with that...$600.00/year should do the job. That's about 3/4 ton of briquettes, or 9-21.6lb double-bags of (GULP) blue-bag Kingsford @ Sam's (regular price including tax).
Let's see here...that's just over 388 lbs of briq, for 90 days...4.31 lbs/day...that comes out @ 13 smokes totaling 29.8 lbs of briq...I won't burn that much doing 8-10 hour smokes...more like 16 lbs, so 24 smokes in 13 weeks...works for me!
Maybe if I hunt around alittle back in my home state (ND) for a source, I could get some Ash, Birch or White Oak, and haul it back myself after a home-town visit (that's about all I can remember growing there for hardwoods when i was a kid).
It'll all work out. I've just let myself get into a slump and needed a way to recover from it...the gas smokers are nice, just too easy after awhile...and the charcoal flavor is just too good to not go after it when you can.
Thanks, Jerry!
Eric
