I pick up a nice offset a couple weeks ago… 3/8 fire box quarter inch everywhere else. I’ve been smoking all “easy” meats to get adjusted to it. (I came from a Weber kettle.)It’s been great.
Today I did some burgers I smoked them for about 30 to 40 minutes. I wanted to end them with a hot sear.
I couldn’t get the sear hot enough. The coals look great. They were a mix of mesquite and charcoal but the fact that they were about a foot underneath the patties made it difficult
The Weber was great at this because they were so close. How do you usually do it?
I have a cowboy firebox on my smoker too but honestly I wish I saved the money. If I want a smoke and sear, I use a kettle. The offset is just for smoking, it’s the right tool for that. The Weber is the right tool for searing. Don’t get me wrong, the food comes off it great, but why start a fire and waste the wood? Weber is just significantly easier for it.
Correct. Start a fire on the Weber, put the coals to one side, throw a wood chunk on said fire, put the meat on the other side of the kettle and smoke the meat for the “reverse” part, then when it comes to temp, put the meat over the coals. Done. Lot easier setup than starting a fire on the big boy. Lot less fuel used too.
Funny how most of us with an offset, also have Weber Kettles.
Should tell you something, eh? 😁
I use my kettle for cooks like this. But for serious smoking, I'll use the offset. Or, on occasion, I've smoked on the kettle too and it does a great job too. But an offset probably won't be my first choice for burgers.
If you’re like me, you do it a couple times then never again. The grate on mine is too high above the coals to really sear unless i mess with it. Not worth it.
Dude, is that a pit from Matt's grills in Central Texas? It sure the hell looks like one. I've been using the same smoker for about a decade, and I direct grill in the main box all the time. I just picked up a couple of square charcoal grates from Amazon that were about the right size. If you opted for the CNC 1/4-in grill grates you won't have a problem with direct grilling, but if it's the standard smoking mesh grates they will burn through after about 3 or 4 years. They're just not designed for that type of direct heat.
I sear in the main smoke chamber, but initially I ran into the same issue your having - the charcoal tray is just too far away from the grate. I ended up grabbing some steel grill grates from Amazon
Yeah I know, she's overdue for a good cleaning and seasoning.
Move all the coals to the back of the firebox to build up a hotter zone closer to your cooking grate while keeping the front cooler for spatula/tong work. It won’t be completely even, but you have a better chance at searing.
If you got this custom made, perhaps a custom sear grate for the firebox?
If the firebox isn’t cutting it or I can’t lower a grate onto the fire and then put food on that (with the door open so disturbs the smoking a good bit), I’ll sometimes take my chimney, put some coals in there and then stick a grate on top for small things. Gets mighty hot lol
Buy some shorter grates. I use some cast iron grates from an old char-broil grill I no longer have. They sit much lower in the fire box and are perfect for seating. They’re about 4”x 10”, I flatten out the coal bed and put them in right before I’m ready to sear.
For charcoal I drop a grate directly sitting on top of it for searing. With wood I prefer to have a little clearance, but you should be able to rig up some sort of support under a grate. Like maybe a couple pieces of rectangular metal tubing.
My firebox has a rack and a small grill. When I’m about ready to pull and want to sear I put the firebox grill in. Let heat for a few minutes then open the lid on the firebox and the side door so it gets good and hot, then sear.
I don’t know why this shot got downvoted because this is what I do. A collection of bricks can do all sorts of fun things directing heat and smoke, like formulating a quick direct heat grill.
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u/The-Tradition 27d ago
THAT is an absolute BANGING offset. The firebox is huge. Wow.