Happy New 2 Star Owner (1325)

M

MAKinTexas

New member
Hi all,

Proud new owner of 2 Star # 1325. Want to thank everyone here. Been considering a pellet grill for awhile. Did a lot of research and looking around. This forum was really helpful in making my final decision and in determining the toys to get with it. Spoke to Big Poppa awhile ago and that helped too.

Ended up getting MAK Pak, 2 half upper grill racks, extra temperature probe, griddle, and frogmats (of course the searing grates that came with it) - all from Big Poppa Smokers. Was impatient - so did 4 cooks in the first week :D. Dialing it in - but very happy with it so far. Having trouble loading photos - but will try to figure that out (it
was really pretty before first cook).

One quick question - should it have come with a blank grease pan, or just the flame zone with covers?

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CDN Smoker

CDN Smoker

New member
Congrats MAKinTexas, great looking smoker but I don't know enough to properly answer your question.

Well I know I will be higher than 1325
 
scooter

scooter

Moderator
With #28 it was Flamezone with cover. Only half the the drip pan was the flame zone. The new ones have Flamzone covers making the whole drip pan a Flamezone!

Welcome to PS.com !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk while driving one handed!
 
scooter

scooter

Moderator
FYI, Greased Lightning to take the smoke stains off, Weimans SS wipes to keep it looking like new. Assuming that's what you want to do. I see the water on the ground so I assume you washed it before taking pics. The 2012 models are a thing of beauty!
 
M

MAKinTexas

New member
So first two cooks were the day I set it up and the next day. I put it together Saturday AM - wanted to cook something - but my daughter had a basketball game and I had a soccer game. So went to store, got one rack of spare ribs and a small pork butt. Usually I do a lot more planning and prep for my cooks, but as I mentioned, was pretty excited to try the MAK out.

Sat. immediately after putting the MAK together, seasoned the grill and rubbed the ribs. Followed approach on BPS video. Set to 275, put them on - went to daughters game, got back right at 2 hours, put them in foil with brown sugar, honey, and butter. Went to my game, got back 2 hours later. Ribs were a bit overcooked - but pretty good. Definitely fall off the bone. Had that for dinner.

Then injected and rubbed pork butt. Put in fridge overnight. Next AM, started the approach in BPS video. 275 for 3 hours on upper rack, foil with apple juice until around 203 and FTC for about 2 hours. Had Maverick on as well and it seemed upper was running hot. 300 vs. the 275 that the pellet boss was reading. The butt came out ok too. Not quite as good (bark particularly) as I have been doing on WSM, but it was super moist and certainly tasted ok - and it was ready in 6 hours. Next time, I will do at lower temps for longer and see how they compare. Nice to know I can make decent food and only set aside around 3-4 hours for ribs vs. my usual 5 and 6 hours for pulled pork vs. 12-16. That said, next big cooks will be lower and slower.

I am loving how easy and fast to get this going. With WSM, was always about an hour before I had temp stable - and I'd still have to periodically adjust vents. Found I no longer did small cooks (chicken, fish, etc.), because the setup time was too great. Plus my wife got annoyed with me smelling like smoke. Not an issue with the MAK.

So here are the first results ...
 
M

MAKinTexas

New member
scooter said:
FYI, Greased Lightning to take the smoke stains off, Weimans SS wipes to keep it looking like new. Assuming that's what you want to do. I see the water on the ground so I assume you washed it before taking pics. The 2012 models are a thing of beauty!
Click to expand...

Good to know - I already have Greased Lightning - did not know I could use it on the MAK.
 
MAK DADDY

MAK DADDY

Moderator
Congrats on your new MAK Grill and welcome to the MAK family!

The configuration you have on the grease pan is standard, you can order a full blank pan too if you would like.
 
S

So Cal Smoker

New member
Welcome to the forum and MAK family. Take good care of your MAK and you'll be eating some of the best Q around for a long long time. Good luck and good smoking.
 
hank858SD

hank858SD

New member
Thanks for sharing awesome pictures and information. I too hope to be sharing pictures of my new MAK by this weekend (praying it shows up).



How long did it take toy to assable and starrt your first cook ?
 
M

MAKinTexas

New member
hank858SD said:
Thanks for sharing awesome pictures and information. I too hope to be sharing pictures of my new MAK by this weekend (praying it shows up).



How long did it take toy to assable and starrt your first cook ?
Click to expand...

It didn't really take long. Didn't keep track exactly, but seems like around 30 minutes or so. Maybe slightly more - I was being so careful taking it out of the box - that almost took longer than assembly. It did take 2 people. In particular, had a hard time lining up the legs and being able to put in the nuts and bolts. Once I had my wife to put them through while I lined them up, it went pretty quickly. Then - it took probably 20-30 minutes to get the heat up for the seasoning. Did that for a bit over 30 minutes - then dropped the temp to 275 and did the ribs. It took awhile on heat to get the auger fed the first time. Now that it is primed, it does not take long to get to temp at all. I am loving how easy it is to cook on this.
 
M

MAKinTexas

New member
And some pics for the other use I am getting out of the MAK. I had a gasser that was about 15 years old that finally died. That was the impetus to get a new grill. Had been using it for grilling and Weber bullet for smoking. Decided to see if I could find something that does both and that is where the MAK came in. I like to smoke on weekends when have time, but grill during the week. Here are results of this weeks grilling sessions. The MAK does every bit as well as the gasser it replaced (actually better - more even, no flare ups, and easier to control) - and of course, that is only its secondary purpose.

As an aside - did the bite through chicken skin approach from one of Bib Poppa's posts. Best chicken I have ever had. Definitely check out the recipes and tips on tricks on this site.
 
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