Grillin'

Things are slowing down here at work. I have pretty much finished what I have to do at the moment and have finished proofing other peoples docs for the moment so I am back to blogging during the day.

Last night I installed the 2 new thermometers I ordered for my new grill I bought. I purchased a Char Broil Silver Smoker from Home Depot a few weeks ago.

I love it! I have grilled a few times on it so far. The first few were fairly successful. The last time I grilled on it I had installed the stock thermometer, which I had to order separately as it did not come with the grill from Home Depot, which is mounted on the upper portion of the lid. I also had a surface thermometer I ordered separately. I put the surface thermometer over the coals when I dumped them and it read 600 degrees! That was really hot. I let the fire die down a bit and seared my meat and then moved the meat to the other side of the grill, near the vent, and moved the thermometer with the meat. While the roof thermometer was reading about 450 degrees the surface thermometer in the middle of the meat was reading about 300 degrees. That is a fairly large temperature differential.

I was reading this great post on customizing a smoker grill. He recommends adding a few more thermometers. I order two new thermometers and added one to either side of the lid down at grill level so that I can monitor the temperature on the firebox side and on the vent side without having to open the grill. This is not so necessary for grilling, but given the temp diff noted above it couldn't hurt, but will be crucial (I think) for smoking. I mean, I bought a smoker, after all, I suppose I should learn how to use it, not just grill with it. So now I am setup and ready to learn. I think I may give it a shot this weekend. A coworker recently informed me of a butcher in town, not too far from my house, that is supposed to be THE place for meat, so I will have to check that out as well.

This weekend I need to do some work on my scooter, a lot of work actually, and my other goal for the weekend is to make a folding shelving system for my grill. It came with only an eight inch tray in the front which is hardly big enough to put a plate on, much less the large platters I work with when I grill. I will build another tray much like the one it came with and hinge it off the front of the existing tray so that it can fold down for storage. I will also build a side tray that has folding legs so that I can take the tray off and stow it underneath the grill. The reason for all this modularity is because I have just ordered a grill cover so that I can protect my new investment/toy/baby/grill/smoker/project from the elements and keep it looking good and functioning properly for years to come. It will all be a good time.