CarterQ
Moderator
To pellet cooking that is.....
Spent a long weekend on the coast for a little R&R and the place we stayed at only had a 22" Weber for outdoor cooking.
Slumming it with the Weber I was reminded what a great cooker they are. It brought back memories of my first grill. It also got me thinking about the different grills I've had over the years and how I ended up with a pellet cooker.
Right out of college I picked up a Weber and it was the centerpiece of my apartment patio. I loved cooking on it and all my freeloader friends really loved eating off of it! I was cooking A LOT in those days and decided to figure out what charcoal was costing me each year. It came out somewhere north of a grand! Wow!
For me that was mucho, so I decided look into a cheaper method of outdoor cooking and I jumped on the Gasser bandwagon. Went all in with a New Weber Genesis. Back then I was mainly grilling, didn't mess with the low and slow at all. I started doing rotisserie chickens and larger cuts of meat on the grill and the flavor just wasn't there. Wanted more wood flavor so I bought the smoker box attachment, not bad but you really couldn't get good even smoke using chips. The more I learned, I found what I was really wanting was to cook was BBQ style foods and the gasser wasn't cutting it. I needed a smoker.
With so many options out there I dipped my big toe into the smoking waters and picked up an ECB (El Cheapo Brinkmann). This was definitely a learning experience! While not bad I couldn't cook consistently on it. Also it required way more attention during cooking than I wanted to give it. It was a pain and it became an occasional use item and the smoking thing went on the back burner.
Then it got interesting, I visited an old college buddy in the Bay Area and he showed me his new grill, it was called a Traeger. The food off it was amazing! I definitely was impressed. The gasser was getting on 10 years old and it was time for a new grill and I was determined that the next one would be Pellet fired. Jumped online and started researching and was going to pull the trigger on a Traeger Pro but they were now made in China. Didn't like the thought of this so I went back to the drawing board. Kept looking, and looking, and even got the wife to ask "Are you ever going to buy one?"
So finally after 6 months of searching I found the MAK, they had just come out but everything about them screamed quality and innovation. I was sold and decided to take the plunge. Greatest choice I could of made! I am doing things with outdoor cooking I never dreamed of and can't wait to see where it goes!
So how about you, what was your journey?
BTW, This is what I had to Endure all weekend......................
Spent a long weekend on the coast for a little R&R and the place we stayed at only had a 22" Weber for outdoor cooking.
Slumming it with the Weber I was reminded what a great cooker they are. It brought back memories of my first grill. It also got me thinking about the different grills I've had over the years and how I ended up with a pellet cooker.
Right out of college I picked up a Weber and it was the centerpiece of my apartment patio. I loved cooking on it and all my freeloader friends really loved eating off of it! I was cooking A LOT in those days and decided to figure out what charcoal was costing me each year. It came out somewhere north of a grand! Wow!
For me that was mucho, so I decided look into a cheaper method of outdoor cooking and I jumped on the Gasser bandwagon. Went all in with a New Weber Genesis. Back then I was mainly grilling, didn't mess with the low and slow at all. I started doing rotisserie chickens and larger cuts of meat on the grill and the flavor just wasn't there. Wanted more wood flavor so I bought the smoker box attachment, not bad but you really couldn't get good even smoke using chips. The more I learned, I found what I was really wanting was to cook was BBQ style foods and the gasser wasn't cutting it. I needed a smoker.
With so many options out there I dipped my big toe into the smoking waters and picked up an ECB (El Cheapo Brinkmann). This was definitely a learning experience! While not bad I couldn't cook consistently on it. Also it required way more attention during cooking than I wanted to give it. It was a pain and it became an occasional use item and the smoking thing went on the back burner.
Then it got interesting, I visited an old college buddy in the Bay Area and he showed me his new grill, it was called a Traeger. The food off it was amazing! I definitely was impressed. The gasser was getting on 10 years old and it was time for a new grill and I was determined that the next one would be Pellet fired. Jumped online and started researching and was going to pull the trigger on a Traeger Pro but they were now made in China. Didn't like the thought of this so I went back to the drawing board. Kept looking, and looking, and even got the wife to ask "Are you ever going to buy one?"
So finally after 6 months of searching I found the MAK, they had just come out but everything about them screamed quality and innovation. I was sold and decided to take the plunge. Greatest choice I could of made! I am doing things with outdoor cooking I never dreamed of and can't wait to see where it goes!
So how about you, what was your journey?
BTW, This is what I had to Endure all weekend......................
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