The point to that was, and I should be honest, to me, bbq and smoking is a lot like that. I mean yes "technically" I've been working 14 hours to cook pork butts for a fundraiser or big event. But the reality was I lit a fire, then seasoned everything, put it on the racks, maintained a fire, then at the end pull the butts off and shredded them. That's it. But then walk into whatever the big event is and everyone is like "omg that was so great, thank you for working so hard at it." Which in reality it was me and a couple buddies smoking cigars while watching football all day with maybe a solid two hours of work.
And there's different degrees of this. Ribs have a little longer prep time. If you're grinding and making sausage, that can get fairly labor intensive. But pulled pork is the gravy train which is why I always recommend it for large events. And when I talk to the people running the events they're always concerned about the shredding part. Then I explain I have a stainless steel bucket, I made stainless shredders that go on a cordless drill. Put a butt in the bucket. Run the drill, pull the bone out, then pour into your serving container. Done.
But what is absolutely cheating and the synopsis to this blog; ham and pastrami. All you have to do is know how to maintain your heat and smoke. The hardest part is if you're going to make the mustard sauce. You could make it sweet, but that's gross, I'm not a fan of sweet meat. But it's a free country, if you want to make a sugar glaze, you go right ahead.
But to cook the ham. And yes, I use the cheap, not sliced, precooked whole ham. Make a fire. I use the side firebox. You could also make an offset fire. I keep the temp low for a few hours. 180-200ish Fahrenheit. Helps get the smoke deep in the meat. You could go lower. But the objective I'm after is a little rendering of the fat. End result is a drier ham, but I like the crispness to the bark and that 180-200 gets into the rendering part easier and is a good balance for smoke penetration. And I'm after the slight white smoke. Not grey, grey/blue, heavy white or clean. That slight white gets a good not overpowering smoke. And I use hickory, which is my go to flavor. On top of some lump charcoal for heat.
The length of time cooking is up to you. Three hours is good. I like to at least get the internal temperature to 150. To me that's all about the rendering part. But at the end I like to turn the heat up. Say 350 until the outside gets crisp. Then pull it off, let it sit a little bit and slice. Done. And so easy.
Well, that's my advice. If you need to escape for a little bit this season and act like you're putting in effort but not really, just go smoke a ham.
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Fast forward, a few months ago a severe storm came through nearby knocking down some large trees. Amongst those trees were some mature white oaks belonging to a friend. They brought some chunks over, we waited a bit for them to dry and age a little bit and today is smoked wings cooked over the white oak. That heartwood is absolutely fantastic to cook over.
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The Gen 4 revisions focused on customer feedback. Alongside that, for the past 15 years we've done our own testing on the 1000 series. For our own testing, every person that works here has a 1000 series at their own house to use personally. We cook lunch on one here every day (except intense weather days), another one here only cooks occasionally during the summer and another other cooks occasionally throughout the year and is cleaned regularly. The three test grills, and the grills used personally, allow us see how each react with varying levels of use and maintenance. The one here that was built in 2015 that cooks lunch gets abused. As in we are the worst owners of one. We never sent it for powder coating so it can sit outside. Plus to top that, it of course is always full of ash that we only clean out when we can't get air to the fire. Maybe once a year we fully clean it out. Frequently we just let it go into a grease fire to burn it off. I should also mention you shouldn't do any of the previous mention if you plan on keeping yours around for awhile. But, we wanted to see what absolute neglect would do while it was in use. It looks rough now, mostly because it was never powder coated. But it is coated in grease and smoke. However, it still functions the same as a new one. We'll continue to use it everyday until we can't. But at it's current pace, it'll easily last another 7 years of abuse.
I should also mention the test grills and the grills used personally are all in Illinois. For grill testing in other regions, we rely on working relationship with verified customer feedback.
Aside from the humid salt air in the gulf, the midwest does see the same test results as the other regions. Humidity and maintenance are key aspects. The salt air didn't see much change if maintenance was done. Same with the pacific northwest. Just like everything else, maintenance is key. And use, the grills used regularly last the longest, but they're getting this nice layer of animal grease on them. Also, yes, folks in the desert have the gravy train. I've seen grills there that are 12 years old, kept under an awning that look brand new. But I've also seen engines there sit outside for 80 years that aren't stuck.
Before I get to the next topic I know people are going to ask about why we didn't see much change with humid salt air. Reason is we use salt in cooking (most forget that during evaluation). Unless, your grill is getting dumped in the ocean during a hurricane and later dredged out (has happened, three times to one grill).
The one thing that would effect the rate of corrosion is wet ash which makes lye and it is very corrosive. Then add intense heat cycles and the rate of corrosion increases. Which is why cleaning the grill is important. However, the Gen 5 version will be built to easily service the corrosion.
We've built thousands of the Original Braten 1000 series. We've always had the focus that this grill has the ability to become a heirloom. And in the thousands of more grills to come, that focus will remain the same.
The next generation will focus on making the 1000 series more versatile by adding more accessories. The other focus is increasing the longevity and serviceability. The looks will vary slightly from the gen 4 version. The size will remain the same. There will be a slight increase in functionality. Right now, we are not going to say what exactly those changes will be. And no you cannot get a sneak peek. Final prototypes are being worked on right now. Once the prototypes work out the way we expect, we'll quickly go into production with them. Right now I expect preorders to start shipping in April.
To preorder a Gen 5 version, you can order a Gen 4 online and in the note section enter your request for a Gen 5. Your order will go into a build list and ship once completed.
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Cardboard boxes, the boxes we use to ship campfire series in. Been using the same company for well over a decade. Enter in the same order we've entered in for years. Only to get a reply that they don't have them and they don't know when they'll be receiving them in. So begins the search to find replacements. Thankfully, we did find another supplier.
Ash containers, can't get them. Suppliers expects them to come in a certain time. Email them, nope don't have them. Check back in a month. They happen to be the only domestic supplier of that size and style.
Rotisserie motors, we've had an order placed since last May from the motor manufacturer. Been using the same supplier for 16 years without ever an issue in supply. Called, emailed, trying to find a person that knows when we should be expecting them. They don't know. So begins a search to find another motor manufacturer. One challenge is finding a domestic source. Which is quite the challenge. As you may well know, we don't build stuff in this country like we used to. It's tough to find domestic sources. But, hopefully we have found a source. We've now gone through the redesign and testing phase. We started the search and redesign phase last November when we finally came to the conclusion getting motors from our former supplier isn't going to happen in the near future. Now hopefully in a couple months we can finally start shipping rotisseries again. The one plus side is the new motor will have more torque than the last one. It's double the old torque. It's heavy, but it's an impressive little motor. It went for days on the offset load test. Which is the hardest test for a gearmotor. Everything else for the rotisseries is already built and sitting on the shelfs. Just waiting on motors.
Steel has gone stupid. We normally buy enough steel at a time to build 300-600 grills. The last order we shrunk the order to build 150 grills. Just on the hopeful side thinking maybe once we build the 150 grills and need to reorder, the price would have shrunk. I think the last time I looked, it's <200% higher than before the pandemic. The last time I talked to our steel supplier they didn't know when the price would correct. Maybe this year see a little price shrink. Personally, I think the price will shrink some. But with the inflation, I'm thinking we might be in a new norm.
Wood, we use wood for the handles and for crating the 1000 and 2000 series. Well, we all know where we've been with the whole wood issue. The handles are the same but the crates had to get redesigned.
And the list just keeps going, I think I could bring up the components list and every item that goes into building a grill has been a challenge. Either receiving in the raw material or getting a completed component from a supplier, it's all been a frustrating challenge.
End of rant.
The one nice thing. At the peak of all of this. We were at one point 800 grills behind on the build list. Last year, once we were able to get material and components, we brought in more people and equipment to where now we're starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. So maybe, hopefully we can get back to normal.
]]>Chunks of pork shoulder. Lightly seasoned with seasoned salt and black pepper. Smoked with apple logs for two hours at 275. Then seared to crisp the bark. Topped with the flavor of the day sauce (it's a random pick, we try a variety, today was a Carolina style sauce). Then close the vents and lid. Let sit away from the fire for 1/2 hour to bake the sauce. With the vents and lid closed the temp raised to 375. Which is what I want. Heavy wood smoke at the end for the aroma and to slightly caramelize the sauce. All done with an offset fire inside the cooking chamber.
Simple but we like it. Hopefully there's enough for us. 12lbs of meat. It'll be close.
For those interested. We have an Original 1000 series we use. Built 9/18/2015. We never sent it off for powder coating. Which now means it has a nice iron oxide patina covered in grease. (shoe cobbler has the worst shoes) We use it three or four times a week to make lunch. It's made a lot of lunches with very little cleaning. Maybe someday we can scrape it off for a photo moment.
]]>There's always going to be issues to overcome and challenges that test us. But this one, f**k this one. We started this thinking in two weeks we were done. Then a month. Then maybe by July we would be clear. Now we're talking maybe sometime next year.
But just like other business' we have employees, customers, people that we need to take care of. We have to keep the chain moving somehow. In some way keep the gears turning after more wrenches have been thrown in it than Snap-On can make.
As I write, we are behind on 380 some grills. We make batches of 300 then that gets broken into sub-batches of 40. If everything was running smoothly, we can build 40 grills a week. If everything was was working, 380 doesn't seem like that bad of number to overcome. But that's where the perfect storm comes into play.
If at any moment, anyone gets sick or tests positive, they can't be here. If their kids get sick, they can't be here. If they've been in contact with someone that's been positive, they can't be here. And that's just now. When everything was shutdown, no one could be anywhere. Plus, we rely on outside vendors to supply us material, whom are also going through the same staffing issue.
The other thing, everyone that was sitting at home ordered a grill. A fantastic problem to have. We're somewhere around 6x the order volume. A great problem to have. Except when we have staffing and material ordering issues. Then it's a real problem.
We're getting better at adapting with corona or Covid (I really don't care what it's called). The gears in the machine seem to be spinning -ish. But it really is a day by day thing. We could have a really good week and crank out 40 grills. Then the following week for whatever reason the chain breaks. And I cannot emphasize the sarcasm enough to say how fantastic it is to go from everything running, to shut down without notice. But we still keep pushing to overcome this. I tell people in the shop that we're only truly non-productive when we're just standing around. So find something to build while we figure out how to get grills shipped.
To our customers; thank you. Thank you for being understanding that we are all dealing with our own challenges to overcome. Thank you for being a positive push. Thank you for sticking with us. We will all get through this together. Then after this has passed, I never want to hear about it ever again.
]]>It's always neat to see grill pics at their home. Even neater when the grill's home is in another country, as in nowhere near here. This one is sitting in Dubai and I thought it was a neat pic. Far removed from the cornfields it was built in. Thank you Sunder for allowing us to share.
]]>He specified his size requirements and one of his requests is he wanted it to look established, as if it has been around for decades. The really nice thing, even refreshing and what we enjoy, is we were given artistic license. Other than the size requirement, he only specified it needed to look and work like a traditional Schwenker grill. He then set his budget and said "I've seen your work before, I know you do good work and I want you to just build me a great grill."
So as we finish the grill, I thought it would be nice to share. This grill is headed to a Christkindlmarkt in Carmel, Indiana with the intention to cook 5000 sausages a day on it for the Christmas season. My hopes is this grill is still going strong and making good food, long after I'm gone.
May even take a road trip to Carmel, Indiana to see them use it. I'm down for a couple Bratwursts.
Cheers,
Spike
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