Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Been Holdin' Out

I hope you all don't think I've been holding out on you. The reason you haven't seen much lately is that I have been growing increasingly impatient with the lack of fuel efficiency on my CG. I have been looking into Weber Smokey Mountains, Bubba Kegs, and Big Steel Kegs, and the first one of those I find discounted and close enough geographically to get will be featured on this blog.

Through all this I've been feeling pretty conflicted about rejecting my trusty CG, featured in a recent entry. As much as I feel like I'm betraying an old friend, I am tired of going through 10 pounds of charcoal for a 4 hour cook. We do need to save a few of the trees, don't we?

In any event, a recent backyard barbecue (ashamed to say just burgers and dogs, over some Stubb's natural briqs from Lowe's) gave me the opportunity to do a head to head comparison between my CG and the old gasser I got for free from my in-laws. The pics below will tell the story:


These burgers and dogs were all thrown down at the same time, with the CG open and the gasser closed. The burgers were juicy, nicely charred, had great charcoal flavor, but more importantly done in time that my guests didn't revolt on me and pack up for McDonald's. I love the iron grates What ever I get, the CG is probably the best thing I could ever get for direct grilling, and it will always have a place in my yard. 

By the way, the Stubb's briqs performed much like other natural or 'competition' briquettes, as in they burned very hot for a shorter period of time and with much ash, though they had a very nice flavor,.

6 comments:

Chilebrown said...

Get the WSM. Pay full price. You will not be sorry.

Rene said...

Thanks for the update Chile. Between now and Halloween I'm in 2 weddings, maybe after that I'll pick it up.
-Rene

Chris said...

I got a Big Green Egg 2 1/2 years ago, but I still use my Brinkman SnP sometimes just for fun. You'll be glad that you keep the CG.

Rene said...

Hi CHris-
Yeah that's what I've been thinking. Thanks for chiming in-
-Rene

Anonymous said...

I'd have a care about using half beer kegs. I friend was using one to boil crabs. Well it had a rim on the bottom, a closed rim and it seems the rim had some liquid in it. The thing exploded. If you use a half keg it might be a good idea to drill a hold into any rim. Exploding barbecue would be interesting but not exactly what you intended.
Busrider

Rene said...

Hi Anonymous/Busrider,

Thanks for commenting! When I mentioned the keg, I didn't mean an actual reconditioned keg, though if I did I would definately take your advice. Visit http://www.bubbakeg.com/Bubba_Keg_home.aspx or bigsteelkeg.com to see what I was talking about. In the end though I went in another direction with the Weber Smokey Mountain, info available at virtualweberbullet.com.

Thanks-
-Rene