There is natural large lump wood charcoal in the U.S. as well, it's not stocked everywhere like the brickettes.

Not sure about other areas but the local feed mills around here carry the 'lump charcoal' in 50 pound bags.

 

Not sure about other areas but the local feed mills around here carry the 'lump charcoal' in 50 pound bags.

50 pounds! The largest I can get down here is about 20 lbs

 

Ron, this summer(?) we need to swim to the grill. Don't be fooled by the gas grill thing, food doesn't have the same "grilled" taste off the gas grill.

Oh yeah, my charcoal will never go away, never. I may simply "add" gas. I actually go out of my way to find and buy the actual "lump" charcoal and when I find it I stock up. I prefer the lump to the briquets.

Ron

 

... I prefer the lump to the briquets.

Amen to that...

 

Grilled Caramel Coated Sugar Donuts​

What to do when all the food is gone, everyone's stuffed and the fire's died out? Dessert, of course!

This recipe is extremely easy to make, but it's also surprisingly delicious. The only ingredients you need are sugar donuts and caramel. My wife gets credit for inventing this delicious plate.​

• Place the donut directly on the grill, right above the white hot ashes.

• 

• Give it a few minutes (around 3 to 5, depending on the amount of heat) and allow the sugar on the donut to melt and char a little. But be very careful, because it's very easy to overdo it and burn the entire sugar coating and get a bitter-tasting donut.

• 

• Serve the donut on a plate, and slice it in four pieces.Then pour some caramel on top, and serve it while it's still warm!

• 

The donut will taste like freshly baked bread, and the sweetness from its sugar coating will be toned down a little due to its melting and charring, the caramel does a great job out at bringing the sweetness back up and adds it a very distinct flavor.

Variation: Slice it in 8 pieces instead of 4, and after adding the caramel, also add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, right in the center... it's guaranteed to satisfy the most demanding palates.

 

Everyone say's gas grill; but no-one?of course unless I missed it; has said Radiant. Mine is Radiant; I can put wood chips on the radiant barrier and smoke what ever I want. Mine is a cheaper version of the one I want; it's just metal barrier between the burners and the grill. I'm satisfied with the results over my old grill moist and tender.

I stopped using brickets 15 years ago.

kv

 

There are a couple that sell something similar at a local flea market. But instead of it being metal it is made from an unglazed ceramic material, the same color as a flower pot, and corrugated. People swear by them around here.

 

There are a couple that sell something similar at a local flea market. But instead of it being metal it is made from an unglazed ceramic material, the same color as a flower pot, and corrugated. People swear by them around here.

Ceramic grills are far more efficient than metallic ones, one requires less charcoal and they last far longer. Also, the heat is distributed more evenly inside.

 

You've just given me an awesome alternative to graham crackers in S'Mores. I usually omit the graham cracker and simply place the hot marshmallow between 2 Hershey bars carefully pre-warmed so they melt where they touch the marshmallow. I don't mind graham crackers, but to me they detract from the marshmallow and chocolate. Now, a grilled donut on the other hand..... mmmm....

 

You've just given me an awesome alternative to graham crackers in S'Mores. I usually omit the graham cracker and simply place the hot marshmallow between 2 Hershey bars carefully pre-warmed so they melt where they touch the marshmallow. I don't mind graham crackers, but to me they detract from the marshmallow and chocolate. Now, a grilled donut on the other hand..... mmmm....

Glad you liked it... I have several other recipes for grilled deserts, but I'll be posting them during the weekends now.
Hope you try the donut soon... don't forget to tell me how it went!

 

C
Your cooking and recipes are excellent. Thanks for starting this thread. I am a griller and a smoker. Here are a few photos of the smokers I have built (and a few chickens.)

I was teaching myself to weld and decided to build a big horizontal smoker for my first big project. It began its life as a 6 foot long propane tank. The photos are of me getting ready to smoke 24 chickens for a big office party.

Yup, there are 24 chickens in there.

The above smoker was too big and inefficient so I sold it a year after I built it. Then I built the vertical smoker below. It has 1 inch of high temperature insulation in the walls and is very efficient.

 

I built the vertical smoker below. It has 1 inch of high temperature insulation in the walls and is very efficient.

Very, very nice!... I have a rather simple Brinkmann smoker, but I've already done some small miracles in the thing. It's amazing how many different things you can prepare with it. All the way from (of course) Pork Ribs down to Sweet Potatoes.
Although my line of work is designing and building machinery, I do not own welding equipment, but I can outsource that sort of jobs, and I know just the people that can help me build it, if I give them the drawings.
Ain't it surprising how chicken can be such a delicious, and at the same time, economical dish? You could've easily fed an army with that smoker of yours!

Thanks for sharing!

 

My favorite thing in a smoker is a turkey. If I smoke one for Thanksgiving, it gets eaten before the oven roasted one is even touched.

The hardest thing about smoking chicken or turkey is keeping them lit.

 

Ceramic grills are far more efficient than metallic ones, one requires less charcoal and they last far longer. Also, the heat is distributed more evenly inside.

These ceramic things rest on top of lava rocks and radiate the heat from them.

 

My favorite thing in a smoker is a turkey. If I smoke one for Thanksgiving, it gets eaten before the oven roasted one is even touch.

My father-in-law used to smoke a turkey for special occasions. We'd take shifts and keep it basted all night, applying a little dressing (oil and water, I think) every couple hours. Juicy and delicious beyond words. There was never enough of it.

 

My father-in-law used to smoke a turkey for special occasions. We'd take shifts and keep it basted all night, applying a little dressing (oil and water, I think) every couple hours. Juicy and delicious beyond words. There was never enough of it.

I have a friend in Brownsville that's become a master at smoking turkeys. I love the chocolate color that they acquire in the process. I'll post some pics, if I can find them.

 

I like turkeys, wings, chicken, pork loin, rabbit, salmon, oh hell, I like just about everything in the smoker. Looks like wings this week on the smoker and possibly pork loin Saturday.

At my last unit, two decades ago, I would bring my brinkman's smoker in, and smoke some rabbit for lunch. My crew loved workdays like that. In fact, one of my workers did the same thing recently for his staff. Only he had peach smoked pork loin. He said they loved it.

 

I intend this to be the last of the threads that I plan to maintain and keep alive in the off-topic section of this forum. Those who know me are already familiar with my other threads, which are Picture This, Glad I'm not a passenger, and The Pets of AAC.

Anyway, I thought that one important thing that was missing in this place was the one thing that separates us from all the rest of the creatures in this earth... that is, our primal love of fire and the way we've mastered it to suit our nutritional yearnings...

This thread is intended for mainly sharing our experiences regarding outdoors cooking (but feel free to post indoors cooking experiences too, if you like).

I'd like it to cover:

• Grilling tips and tricks
• Grilling pictures
• Grilling equipment
• Grilling (and cooking) recipes
• Grilling anecdotes and stories.
  
• And of course... Grilling electronic projects. There are many, many gadgets that I'd like to work on that could be useful for this purpose... For instance, I'd like to make multiple temperature and humidity measurements in my smoker and wirelessly transmit them to my pc and keep a log... just in case I've cooked something right!... I want to remember what I did... even if it wasn't on purpose!

If by chance, some good idea starts in this thread, we can always take it to the projects forum for completion and link it from here.

So, without much further ado, here go my first recipes.


Veggie casserole:

• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2 orange bell pepper
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper
• 1 Poblano pepper
• 2 Zucchini squash
• 1 red onion
• 1/3 butter stick

View attachment 88121


Dice all the veggies, except the poblano pepper, and place them along with the butter in a pan, letting them slowly warm a little away from the live fire. Season generously with salt and pepper, (I use Season All) and possibly a little celery salt, if you like the taste.

View attachment 88123

In the meantime, place the poblano pepper atop the live fire, and let it burn for a while until the skin blackens and starts to peel.

View attachment 88124

After that happens, cut it in half, seed it, and remove the stalk. Then dice it and put it in the pan with all the other veggies.
Keep stirring the veggies every once in a while to make sure that the heat is evenly distributed and the veggies at the bottom don't burn and stick to the pan.

When the onion goes almost transparent, then it's time to move the pan away from the fire and place a few slices of gouda cheese on top.

View attachment 88128


Cover the pan and let it rest for a few minutes. Then stir the ingredients.

View attachment 88129

Serve it as a side dish, or better yet, fix yourself some tacos and enjoy.


Using proper racks for ribs and chicken legs saves a lot of space on the grill:

View attachment 88125

Also, I recommend cooking those two sorts of meats away from the fire... offset-y way. They will take much longer to cook (about 2-1/2 hrs), but it's worth it.
One easy way to know if the legs are done is by gently twisting the drumstick away from the thigh... if you feel that it has dislodged easily, then it's done and ready to serve.
Telling if the ribs are done is a lot easier... they're done after the meat has pulled away from the tip of the bone.

BTW... those are cactus leaves that I'm grilling... they release this not-so-nice-looking viscous fluid while they're being cooked (we say they drool), but after they're done (which is when they've blackened a little and release no more fluid) you only have to cut them in thin slices, and pour some salt and a generous amount of lemon (lime?) juice on them. They're very healthy and quite delicious.


If you're going to serve tacos... you gotta do it with style!:

View attachment 88126



Half bell peppers stuffed with goat cheese:

View attachment 88127

• Take a few bell peppers of all colors, cut them in half and seed them.
• Place them directly on the live fire, gently brushing them with olive oil.
• When they start to warm, take them off the fire and place them on a pan.
• Using a spoon, put some goat cheese in them. I like to use the type that comes already seasoned and with onion chives in it.
• Generously sprinkle soy sauce and english sauce on them.
• Add a little dry hot red pepper to them (the pizza type), if you'd like them spicy.
• Serve and enjoy.

Here's a list of some of my acquaintances that I think might like to have a look at this thread.

@MaxHeadRoom, @ronv, @#12, @djsfantasi, @Sinus23, @nerdegutta, @R!f@@, @GopherT, @WBahn, @atferrari, @Wendy, @strantor, @nsaspook, @killivolt, @shortbus, @JohnInTX, @RichardO, @jpanhalt, @OBW0549, @joeyd999, @MikeML, @wayneh

My apologies to those that did not find it interesting, and to those that may be interested but that I've forgotten to tag.

Are those ordinary prickly pear cactus. If so I will stop worring about being hungry in my old age.

Nice tacos!

 

Are those ordinary prickly pear cactus. If so I will stop worring about being hungry in my old age.

Nice tacos!

Yes, they are ordinary cactus leaves... but they are plucked when they're in a stage that we call "baby leaves". That is, they're cut from the plant when their thorns are still soft and moist (the thorns harden later by drying up). You could bite through one of its baby thorns and never know it.
Anyway, those proto-thorns are easily cut off using a very sharp knife, and what's left is a very tender leaf, which can later be diced and mixed with other ingredients such as eggs or pork casserole. And to tell you the truth... I DO NOT like it when they're prepared that way. The only way I like them is when they're cut in strips after they're properly grilled... even partially charred. Then you add lime juice and salt, and some freshly ground pepper. That's when you can serve them as snacks, or even as a side dish. They have a very high fiber content, and are among the healthiest veggies you can consume (@#12 might like to take notice of that)
You should try them, but make sure that you first try them grilled, as I'm suggesting... otherwise you run the risk of hating them for the rest of your life!
As for the tacos... glad you liked them... I have plenty of taco recipes coming up... so stay tuned!

 

I imagine those prickly pear leaves would taste like aloe vera, but I will try one if I happen to see one in Florida.