Alright - I did a dry run tonight in preparation for the real deal tomorrow! Had eight guinea pigs volunteer. I know that using hot dogs for one's first smoke is a bit akin to training wheels on one's first trip to Sturgis...oh well.
And of course I forgot to take pics until it was all over...but I will tomorrow!!
Unfortunately, both batches of dogs turned out a bit nasty, but I think I can explain.
Batch #1: On several occasions, there was
lots of smoke. I believe I can attribute this to putting the dogs on before the Weber was really stabilized; lesson learned. I did witness the glory of thin blue smoke and will pursue it hotly tomorrow. So - there was a bit of bitterness to the smoky taste; not too pleasant. FYI I was using apple chunks throughout.
Half of the dogs I spiral-cut (there WAS a learning curve
) and the other half I wrapped in bacon. I sprayed the spiral-cut dogs with olive oil and put celery salt on them, but I think I overdid it on both
too salty and GF said they were a bit greasy. Perhaps leave them off altogether?
I think I may have pulled them too fast; they were getting nice and dark, but perhaps not quite enough.
Batch #2: Thin blue smoke! 30 minutes or so at 325. I think they needed to be on for longer. Plus, I had more guinea pigs arrive than I was expecting, so I had them bring dogs, and unfortunately they brought some "smoked" sausage with cheddar inside; they just didn't taste good. HOWEVER, the smoky aftertaste in my mouth was really great!!! Just smelling these vs. the others showed a huge difference in smoke. Also, I gave each of these about 20 seconds over the coals before pulling them to hopefully get the best of both worlds in smoke flavor and little of that nice char. Man, did that bacon smell good when it was in those flames! Never smelled as good as that before or after, which was yet more evidence that perhaps everything needed to cook longer.
Now then - we need to talk. I made up a batch of Fingerlickin's chili sauce - SWEET JESUS. THAT stuff will preach!! He is risen indeed!! Quintupling the recipe for tomorrow. That with fresh onions, as pictured previously, is simply out of sight. Truly made up for the dogs' shortcomings!!!!! As I dumped all 3 tablespoons of chili powder in, I thought "hmm, this sure seems like a lot...I hope it's not too spicy..." but I resolved to make it exactly as it was and then amend later if needed. Man, am I glad I didn't - it was truly sublime. What a winner!! Saving that recipe forever.
As always, I have a litany of questions! Sorry to be such a pain.
1. Getting a seal on the Weber. It was also the maiden voyage of my Maverick 733, which is a truly lovely thing. I did have some problems getting the Weber to seal well since the Maverick wires were keeping the lid from really seating well; I would get smoke from around the lid, which probably also meant that air was getting in as well. I could route it through the top vents, but that would be a complete PITA when removing the lid...any great ideas? FWIW I'm almost done with the offset restoration, so I hesitate to drill into the kettle or anything such since I use it regularly as the fantastic grill that it is.
2. Temp control on the Weber. Sure enough, the Mav showed that dome temp has absolutely nothing to do with grate temp. So I ended up pretty much having to close off the bottom vents and even take the top to half-shut just to get down to 325; perhaps this is due to the lid's poor seal because of the Maverick. I'm looking for good info about which vents to monkey with or not, and there's a whole lot of conflicting info out there; what do you all recommend?
Well there it is!! Off to bed - going to be a crazy day tomorrow!!
You all are the best.
