BBQgeek

GA BBQ - The 2008 Sapp Map has been released!

      It is with great enthusiasm and a little bit of pride that I announce to my litte BBQgeek community that the 2008 Sapp Map has arrived!  This list represents a strong sample of the BBQ restaurants ready to serve you in the greater GA vicinity.  Scott Sapp has published his comprehensive list this year as two JPG files, so make sure you download both files for your reference.   If you have any amendments that you would like to suggest for the Sapp Map, please let me know and I will forward your comments to Scott.

      And to those of you out there who are familiar with coding and Google mash-ups, I would love to talk with you about moving the Sapp Map into the 21st century.  Please contact me directly at the contact me section of BBQgeek.

      For those of you who would like to communicate directly with Scott, you can reach him at scottsapp@charter1.net  .   Thanks for visiting our little website and thanks to Scott for his efforts!

Download barbecue_map_0708.jpg

Download barbbecue_map2_0708.jpg

Weber E310 Genesis Rotisserie Review

So, I couldn't have been happier to upgrade my 15 year old Weber Summit grill with a brand, spanking new Weber Genesis E310 gas grill.   But then I brought the new grill home, dismantled my old Weber rotisserie, and tried to install it on my new grill.  Oopsie.  You thought you'd save a buck or two.  Wrong-O, BBQ-boy.  Your new grill is larger and your old gear won't work.  Please visit Home Depot and sacrifice $80 of your hard earned moolah to replace a perfectly functional rotisserie.  What an ugly lesson to have to learn at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon with your family expecting a delicious rotisserie chicken by 6:00 Pm.

Setting aside the ridiculous issues around replacing a fully functional rotisserie, my main beef with the new Weber rotisserie is the handle.  My old rotisserie spear had a nice insulated wood handle  with a screw off cap that allowed you to add a counter-balance to help with even rotation.  My new rotisserie is equipped with a simple metal handle that gets HOT HOT HOT!  And I've been deprived of the ability of using a simple counterbalance to offset odd shaped meat.  This is improvement?  This is innovation?  Color me disappointed when my favorite grill company (four grills in my possession and counting) squeezes me for a new rotisserie kit that doesn't improve AT ALL on the old version.  This isn't improvement.  This is a crappy ploy to squeeze me for more bucks.    Here's my problems - in order:

1.  I should have been able to only replace a portion of my old rotisserie kit.  My motor was fine, as were my rotisserie clamps.  Why can't I buy a new spear that fits the new 310 series and salvage the rest?  Do you really need my money that bad?  Your grills run at a premium at the local home improvement store.  This should have cost me no more than $20- $25 to accomplish.  Certainly not 10% of my overall spend on the grill.

2. The handle is  complete BS.  I should not a large kitchen towel to remove my rotisserie from my grill.  If the grill is running at 400 degrees, then so is the spear and so is the handle.  Dear Weber, this is not an improvement.

So, I'm still quite happy with my new Weber E310, but I could use a little love from the Weber Co.  I'll be watching my mail box for a gift certificate.

Thx - BBQgeek

GRILL-LAND has arrived!

So, after a couple years fearfully smoking meats on my deck, I finally have created GRILL-LAND!  A place virtually free of burnable flooring.  A place that fears not Fire - Ye, no it welcomes Fire.  I had dreamed of housing both my Chargrillers in GRILL-LAND, but I had to sacrifice one to the dungeon located BELOW the deck.  Heck, the truth is that I only need one Chargriller unless I'm catering for more than fifty people.  And when someone needs some catering, I can drag ol' faithful out and smoke IN THE GRASS (you should see my smokin' Fescue lawn).  So, please note the river stone floor and the concrete grilling mats.  I'm a pitmaster that respects fire.  I've seen more than one smoker flame up because of latent pork fat and that's a moment you do NOT want to be on a deck.  Nonflammable materials are your friend, dear fellow BBQ'ers.

A New Member of the BBQgeek Family

A couple weeks ago, my 15 year old Weber Spirit grill gave up the ghost again and I was facing another burner replacement exercise.  As much as I loved old Red, I decided it was time to upgrade.  I searched and searched through the piles of private label grills offered up for purchase at the local hardware mega-mart.  Unfamiliar and unresearchable names came up.  Charmglow (turns out to be privately manufactured by Brinkmann), Perfect Touch, etc.  All of these too-large, stamped stainless steel grills left me cold.  They had no mass and felt like they were made of the cheapest materials possible.  I knew that their trashy little burner tubes would die in just a couple short years and I'd be struggling to find replacement parts.  So, I choked back the formidable price point on the Weber E310 and swallowed.    I am very happy I did.  This is a solid grill.  It's got a nice, heavy lid with substantial hinges and a handle you can trust.  Up0n initial firing, I was able to get it up to 700 degrees in just about 10 minutes.  The heat is distributed very evenly across the grill surface.  I've cooked steaks and rotisseried a chicken at this point.  Both turned out very well - better than they would of on old Red (bless his dearly departed spirit).

So, lessons learned?  Don't be impressed by 6 foot long grills made out of thin stainless steel.  Stick with a tried and true product.  You'll be glad you did when you need parts in 5 years.

Biggest BBQ in the World!

I stumbled across this story this morning detailing how the country of Uraguay BBQ'ed 26,400 lbs. of beef to take the Guiness Book world record for World's Biggest BBQ.  Apparently, it took 1,250 grillmeisters and 6 tons of charcoal. 

This site has a few more great pictures of this event.