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The Silver Eagle and the Black Bomber

CaddmannQ

CaddmannQ

Will TIG for Food
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From the Way After Midnight BBQ Patrol . . .
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Well, the Silver Eagle has done yeoman's Duty as a propane grill, for 14 years, but I have wanted a smoker for some time, and so the Eagle now shares the back yard with the glossy new Black Bomber. :D

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This is the Shakedown Run for the Bomber. I brought it home and assembled it tonight, seasoned it with charcoal, & stoked it up with Hickory lumps. It's holding 250 degrees beautifully.

Tonight I'm just doing a few sausages and a half marinated pork shoulder I had in the fridge. The pork has been going about for four hours now, and the Sausages 3 and I'll give them a few more before I take them all off.

The Black Bomber is an 18 inch Weber Smokey Mountain Grill and I want to thank Nitesite for persuading me to look at one. This really is a very well made smoker, it's a good value at $300, & the quality of construction is better than average.

Part of that is of course is because it comes as a knock-down kit, & I did a first-class assembly job. ;) but the metal is heavy gauge and this thing is guaranteed to last for 10 years without burning thru.

My last Weber did, so I have no doubt.

I had just seasoned it with its first dose of charcoal, so this is the first actual meat to be cooked in it.

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The Silver Eagle (which is far from retiring) is really a Coleman cloned & sold as Kirkland's First Street brand, by Costco. It has been a really good grill.
 
The aftermath: Saturday morning coming down...
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You really gotta clean these things. Oh well I needed the exercise, so I polished up the ol' Silver Eagle too. . . (but not, however, before I took that photo.)

So anyhow I cleaned it, then charged 'er back up with 8 pounds briqs & then big clumps of Hickory. I put on a Santa maria-style tri-tip which has been marinating for a week in Mesquite dry rub.

I was going to inject it with some brine first, but I decided to do this first one without it. Barbecue is a very regional thing, and around here the Santa Maria tri-tip is Big Business.

Here she is after smoking for about 1 hour over Hickory and briquettes. I wanted to check it out, photo the meat (!) and layer it with a hand full of sliced garlic.
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I flipped it after about 4 hours & covered the other side with garlic. I basted it with hard apple cider, and covered it with a few paper towels soaked in hard apple cider. Normally I would use maybe bourbon but on that pork roast I did I used apple and grape juice to finish the smoked meat in a sealed baggie, and we really loved it.

After I'm done smoking this I will put it in a sealed baggie with a little more hard apple cider and let it rest.

While I'm waiting at think I'll whip up some skewered vegetables.

Here it is after smoking for nearly 7 hrs.
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By the way I cut the tip off of the tri-tip after 7 hrs, because it was perfectly done.

Very tasty!
 
I ended up smoking for 9 hrs, and the meat was perfectly tender, juicy inside, with substantial bark. I was going to go longer and was fortunate I didn't. This was my first time ever cooking with hickory and I overdid it somewhat.

There's no hickory or applewood hereabouts. Local BBQ is commonly grapewood (smallfry) or mesquite, and red oak (the big boys.)
 
I can send you some hickory if you cannot find any local source.

I only use baseball sized chunks in my 18" WSM, maybe no more than 3-4 for a 12-hour cook and they are all used up in the first few hours. After the cold meat reaches 165-degrees it takes on no more smoke taste and the pink smoke ring has formed all it is going to.

Check out all the FANTASTIC info at www.amazingribs.com
 
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One of my favorite smoking descriptions I ever laughed my ass off at was the universal way the professional BBQ smoke chefs described a "properly cooked Beef Brisket" would look like a meteorite.

The is funny shit right there!
 
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The Black Bomber is an 18 inch Weber Smokey Mountain Grill and I want to thank Nitesite for persuading me to look at one.
Click to expand...

I promise you will not regret buying one.

Any smoker can do something thin and small that takes just a few hours (ribs, sausages, chicken), but the WSM will hold its temp from nine at night to seven in the morning while you sleep without adding any more fuel during the night. And don't be hesitant to use blue bag Kingsford. Real lump CHARCOAL is great for seared steaks over white hot heat, and it does burn incredibly clean with most no ash residue, the the WSM was totally engineered and designed around using almost entire bags at one time of blue Kingsford to cook a couple nine pound pork butts and a brisket ALL NIGHT or ALL DAY and never peek or cheat for the first eight or more hours.

For real my friend.
 
CMQ.... when you start getting into heavy clods of beef and pork like wonderful Boston Butts, Briskets, etc please take time to study about "THE STALL" and how to deal with it. When my butts hit the stall I'm going inside with them wrapped in foil and power thru it in my oven. I ain't at the Jack Daniels World Championship of BBQ in Lynchburg for Chrissake. AND EVEN World Champion BBQ Winners power thru The Stall by doing the last few hours in an oven. The smoker has done its job at that point.
 
nitesite said:
I can send you some hickory if you cannot find any local source. . .
Click to expand...


Thank you so much. Normally I can get grapewood for free & Mesquite or Oak cheap here. You can buy any kind of BBQ wood lumps you want here in bags though.

While at Home Depot shopping for the WSM, I bought a 20 pound bag of real Weber brand charcoal briquettes for $20, and a 10 lb bag of hickory lumps for $10. That was rather extravagant of me but I was anxious to get going and I had never cooked with hickory wood before.

But I used way too much hickory and too little charcoal and the meat was somewhat over flavored.

Basically I did a seasoning burn with no meat. Just charcoal and one lump of Hickory. I put in enough to go for a couple hours and let the temp get up above 350 just to sanitize things.

I let it cool and then charged it up, and did the pork roast and sausages, which put a little fat on the inside to season it further.

Then I let it cool, charged it with the largest load yet, and did the tri-tip.

Those 3 firings took 24 hours all told, so I'd say it's completely seasoned now.

After all of that I have about two pounds of hickory & three pounds of charcoal left. What I should probably have left is about 7 pounds of hickory and no charcoal.

I would say that during the whole process I probably checked the smoker every 15 to 30 minutes. Also took me a little while to get going because I didn't have a charcoal chimney, and didn't take the time to manufacture one. Instead I just stuck a propane torch in to light it off. It works but I wasted a lot of propane and time, when i could have just punched up a coffee can with a beer opener and twisted a wire coat hanger on it for the perfect chimney. I'm sure I've made three or four of these in my lifetime.
 
Ok, this is my LONG, LONG critique, after 3 firings of the WSM 18" smoker.

First, the parts are well made, well finished with real porcelain (no flat black BBQ paint here!) It is easy to assemble, if you are wrench-friendly or have 3 hands. The hardest part is getting the first leg on, because you must hold the bowl, the leg, the wrench, screwdriver, two washers, bolt & nut at once. The way to do this is, sit down and put the bowl in your lap.

The rest of the assembly is trivial. A handful of bolts, nuts, washers, and 1 sheet metal screw. With barely a glance at the instructions, I was done.

Now I have assembled motors, engines, and computers. I taught production line people how to assemble various machines. So for me any barbecue is a trivial exercise.

But what about the average schnook who only owns two screwdrivers and hasn't read a real book since A Tale of Two Cities in highschool Lit? Folks I actually sat down and read them dang instructions after I had assembled the complete cooker.

Professionally, I have written many instructions, for many people, to do many things, over the years. The instruction manual for assembling a vending machine, for instance, comprises about 18 binders of instructions, tables, lists, drawings and data. Anyhow I take an interest in these things, so I read it (except for the legal disclaimers.)

The instructions come in various languages, and fortunately one of them is almost English. The composition and style of the manual was disjointed, as if it was written by 4 people as three different manuals, and then pieced together after the fact. This often happens when a product made in one country, later ends up being made in a different country, and sold in several different countries, and the manual has to be updated repeatedly. They really could have done a better job of it, and when you look at the manual there are actually way too many drawings, and far too much repetition, for a useful and concise manual. I could have done the whole thing (in English) on one sheet of paper, if the legalese was eliminated.

So how does it cook? . . . Great!

The WSM held a consistent temperature, once I set the fire up right. I experimented way too much with the vents and stuff since this was my first rodeo, & it will be easier the next time for sure. Also it was rather Breezy and that made things a little more difficult I'm sure. But I'm very impressed at the way this held temperature even in spite of wind.

A big part of this is not just heavy-gauge steel construction, but the fact that you've got a 2-gallon bowl full of water above the fire. That extra mass is the key to consistant temp. Fill it all the way.

The grills and the grate are well made and you could tell they took the time to deburr the parts before plating. This is a pet peeve of mine, as I hate to buy products that have burrs on parts, or where burrs have been plated over or painted over.

The porcelain enamel was very well done and I proved it was hard to chip right away by dropping the lid. The thermometer appeared to work well and was easy to read. The whole unit was very stable in use, and a part of that is due to the large mass of water which adds about 20 pounds of weight to the whole unit. This weight (as much as 90 pounds total once loaded with meat, water, coals) is one of the reasons that they tell you not to put the unit on a table.

Ok, the bad stuff . . .

Unfortunately the legs (feet really) are rather short. I found that when I had to tend the fire, water, or check the lower rack, I was sitting on the ground. They are also aluminum and there's an aluminum heat reflector, which means that you can use the smoker on a wood patio deck without setting it on fire. It also means I can't extend the legs by just welding on more steel. Nor can I just bolt it on.

The base bowl is not rigid enough to withstand the extra forces applied to it at the bolted connections. In other words, I would bend the bowl if I just screw much longer legs on it.

The solution of course is to put it on a really sturdy table manufactured just for the purpose, and screw it down by those aluminum feet, or make a tall base which does not apply bending forces to the bowl.

When you lift the lid there's no place to hang it and no hinges. It would probably fall over if you hinge it open without two gallons of water in the bowl however. Of course because of this I dropped the lid trying to balance it on something else. The high impact plastic handle took the brunt of it without complaining.

I have the same complaint about the door. There's no hinge, and it falls off too easily when you open it. It's also stamped aluminum with a plastic handle. I don't understand the aluminum as all this does is cause the unit to lose heat 3x as fast as would a similar steel door. I guess it was cheaper to make and ship but I would like to put a steel door on here with real hinges and a steel latch. I can virtually guarantee this will result in more consistent temperature, though that temperature may be a little higher, all other things being equal.

I think they should include a charcoal starter chimney designed exactly for this unit. It really is hard to charge it up properly without one, though I managed to, with a torch and newspaper.

So well there are a few things that I would and will probably change on this smoker, overall I'm very happy with the results and the money I spent.
 
Nice review CMQ. You have given me inspiration to get my grill on. Just re-employed, so may be a few weeks before it all comes together. The best thing is making the neighbors jealous with the aroma during cooking.
 
Well so far I haven't got it good enough to where I don't have to poke the fire occasionally. But I've only had three fireings.

I have enough smoked meat to last for several days though.

So before I attempt anything else I think I will do something about the door and a lid holder. I did see all the goodies you can buy online but they're way too expensive for my taste. I might have bought the pre-made stainless steel door but the guy doesn't tell you how thick gauge it is.

In my mind the heavier it is the more heat it'll hold so I don't want a thin door.

I have welding equipment and a lot of scrap steel, some expanded metal, tubing, fittings, chains . . . Sort of a mini junkyard that so far my wife has not forced me to get rid of.

Anyhow I think I'll put a 19 gauge steel door on it and paint it black unless I can find a hunk of stainless steel that's appropriate.

I will probably be building a steel table with a place to hang my lid, poker, & the BBQ tools. I've been using the stainless grill as a work Shelf but I'm going to make something special.

And hopefully attractive, so my wife doesn't hate it. ;)
 
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Today is my 4th firing of the Weber Smokey Mountain Grill. Woohoo! I've got a whole rack of ribs, cut in half, and some big sausages with pork, beef, lamb, cheese and artichokes in them.

I bought some apple wood chunks and I'm using them this time instead of hickory. I also bought regulation Kingsford charcoal and I'm surprised to see that they've changed the shape over the years. I guess it weighs the same but the briquettes seem to have less charcoal in each one. The Weber briquettes i bought looked just like the old-fashioned Kingsford briquettes.

I also bought a commercial charcoal chimney and it works ok. I don't like the handle and I will probably modify it.

Anyhow I seasoned these ribs with dry rub let them go in the fridge for a couple weeks. I threw a little more dry rub on top and some garlic slivers.
I dumped a few pounds of charcoal in the chimney and about 8 pounds more in the basket around it and lit some newspaper underneath the thing. Within 20 minutes I had it all assembled and mest on a grill approaching 225° . . . and here it is.
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So far it is holding a constant 245° on the Dome, it has been going for an hour and a half, and I have not peeked. I'm going to try and let this go for about six hours. I don't think I will bother to flip the ribs. Or perhaps I will flip one and not the other, and see what happens.
 
This went 5 hrs before we peeked. It looked done enough, and it was.
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The temp was steady as a rock the whole time, and I never touched the door or poker once.

I just put the lid back on so it'll keep going. I want to see how long the coals will last.

BTW, I basically used the Minion Method. Or maybe it was the Nitesite method?
 
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