I love garage sales.... and I need some advice.

[KaptKaos]

Picked this up today at a garage sale just up the street.



$20!!

I had to walk it home, and that SOB is heavy. It's a New Braunfels brand. It seems to be fairly well made. It has a little surface rust, but nothing structural. So I plan to clean it up today, and would love to smoke something tomorrow.

Looking for some guidance on how to set the fire, and what I should smoke for a first-timer.

[A930Rocket]

Nice score! The last grill I bought was a POS and I'd like to find a good one like that.

We live in a gated community and I haven't seen a garage sale here in ten years. I wonder what everyone does with their stuff?

[azasadny]

I would take the smoker to a local sand blaster, then paint it with high temp Rustoleum and make it look brand new. Great find!!

[VINMAN]

I have the same one. I love it. Been givin me 15 yrs of great service.! Every yr or two i give it a fresh coat of high temp paint.

The fire, of course goes in the compartment in the left. I use charcoal or hardwood. Mine has a setup to use a small propane bottle to get the fire going faster. I would start out smoking a rack of ribs or small pork butt until u get used to using it. To me the art of smokin meats, is a lot of trial and error.

[onlycafe]

get a medium sized fire going in the box on the left, put a pork shoulder and a couple of racks of ribs in the smoker compartment after giving each a nice dry rub.
smoke at about 220 to 230 degrees for six to eight hours.
any good fruit or nut wood will do.
ribs will be done sooner than the butt.
enjoy with beer and jalapenos.

[azasadny]

Here's the grill I rescued this spring. My BIL's parents were going to throw it away after it didn't sell in a garage sale (it was disassembled). I had it sandblasted, painted it, replaced the regulator/main control, new handles, Parkerized the top grid, etc... Cooks very well and easy to control the heat. Cast aluminum and made in Bristol, WI in the late 70's...Parts are still available.

[stomachmonkey]

$20 is a steal.

Condition looks very good.

They end up looking like that from regular use.

Nice find.

[mikester]

get a medium sized fire going in the box on the left, put a pork shoulder and a couple of racks of ribs in the smoker compartment after giving each a nice dry rub.

smoke at about 220 to 230 degrees for six to eight hours.

any good fruit or nut wood will do.

ribs will be done sooner than the butt.

enjoy with beer and jalapenos.

And don't forget to invite me.

[RWebb]

just rub fatty greasy trimmings into the rust areas for the next summer or two -- it will give it that authentic patina that is craved by the denizens of the EarlyBBQ911S bulletin board

Rustoeum paint is not period correct.

[gshase]

New Braunfels is a quality Texas brand. I did not know they had a west coast market.

[KaptKaos]

Originally Posted by gshase

New Braunfels is a quality Texas brand. I did not know they had a west coast market.

I hadn't seen that brand before Gary, but I tell you, this thing is a tank.

[javadog]

A couple suggestions.

Skip the repainting. It will end up looking just like that, again. It should be made of thick enough metal that it will outlast you.

I have something similar and I'll burn wood down to coals in another grille, like a Weber, and add those to the fire box instead. Burning the wood itself in the firebox makes too much smoke for something like a pork shoulder, which will take 8-12 hours to smoke. Ribs are much quicker. I tend to buy a lot of meat and fill the thing up, every time I use mine. The smoke is there, might as well use it. You can smoke anything. Chicken, sausage, bologna, pork tenderloins, etc.

You might skip the dry rub and barbecue the old way, with a vinegar-based mop sauce. Google will get you a recipe.

JR

[KaptKaos]

Thanks JR.

Been searching for how to best run the fire. Some folks use almond wood logs to run in their smoker. Saying it takes only 2 or 3 to run the smoker for 8 hours +/-.

Others say use lump charcoal and toss on soaked wood chips, and add more charcoal and chips as you go.

Ideally, I'd like to make it as simple as possible to keep the right temps. Simple to me means less fire tending, the better.

I plan to try something simple, like ribs or a tri-tip, first. Any tips?

[javadog]

Do ribs first. They take less time and won't get too black if your fire is too smoky. Here's a basic mop sauce you can use:

1 stick butter
5-6 cloves garlic
2 TB brown sugar
1 pint cider vinegar

Make sure you season the ribs with a bunch of black pepper to start with, and salt them to taste after cooking them.

I'd suggest hickory wood. That's what they use for real BBQ, as opposed to fruit woods and other crap that gets used where BBQ is ruined by "fusion" cooks and other undesirables.

I don't know of any easy way to cook BBQ without tending it way too often. Read a good book, drink a lot of beer.

Like I said, I make my own coals by burning hunks of wood in another grill. I don't know any other way around the problem. If you can see lots of smoke, that's too much.

JR