The Grill Saga's happy conclusion, part two.

As mentioned in the previous post, we got a lovely new gas grill. Which worked perfectly. But I couldn't get the idea of charcoal out of my head, nor the idea of experimenting with barbecue - proper barbecue. And of course I was already watching various grills on eBay.

And, as before, I got a bit over-researched and then I just jumped.

Which is how we ended up with the classic (though in an odd color):


It turned out be not as a good a deal as I thought (it wasn't the model with the thermometer built into the lid, sadly). But it was brand new (ex-display model) and so a little bit cheaper than going out and buying it from a store.

We've taken it for a few spins, and are still working out the best way to use the chimney starter (newspaper donuts are next - I hear it helps), but I think it's great.

On Friday, we tried out some ribs, in a kind of indirect-cooking way. They turned out ok, but I wasn't watching them carefully enough and they got a bit overdone.

On Sunday, I decided to try brisket. I followed a recipe from epicurious, which was actually one of Steve Raichlen's.

It uses a dry rub, then indirect heat and mesquite wood chips.

Here's the BBQ all ready to go, with the charcoal in charcoal rails on the side, and my thermometer in the middle (I can't believe how well used the grill already looks!).


And here it is with the brisket (and some of the smoke, which you can see, if you squint). It took me a little while to get the heat at the right level, so it ended up cooking a bit quicker than it should have. And of course no real barbecuer in their right mind would keep the lid off as long as I did to take this picture, but that's ok.


Despite all that, it looked not so bad, and tasted pretty good, especially for a first try (Dickey's BBQ sauce helped, of course).



The main thing is that it wasn't an abject failure, so I'm all ready to try again. I think maybe ribs next. Or maybe brisket again while I can still remember what I did right and wrong.

But all I know is that there is most likely a Smokenator in my future. Hooray for Cue!