I have been using my Weber Q1200 for quite a while and, despite the fact that it is a great little grill, I decided to give it to a friend and upgrade to something bigger.
I put together a quick video review of the Weber Q1200 that goes through what I loved about the grill as well as some of the accessories that I bought to go with it.
I had a lot of fun with the little grill. My last cook on it was a monster steak that weighed a little over three pounds…it was entertaining to grill such a massive beast on such a small grill.
Pork steaks are one of the best cuts of meat you will ever come across. Pork steaks are meaty, succulent and incredibly affordable.
I have been cooking pork steaks for years. Usually I sear them in a cast iron skillet in the kitchen but I also love to put them on the grill.
I made a video on how I cook pork steaks on my little Weber Q gas grill. I start by letting the pork steaks sit in a cold smoke environment for about an hour before I finish cooking them over high heat.
I tell you what…these pork steaks were simply amazing and a ton of fun to cook!
You can skip the cold smoking step if you like and just throw these guys on a hot grill. They will cook fast so keep an eye on them and don’t let them go much past 145F.
I have been diving deep into the world of pellet grills and learning a lot along the way.
My first pellet grill was a budget friendly Z Grills and I loved using it. However, after I got on the Facebook groups and various bbq forums I started getting envious and wanting a higher end pellet grill like a Yoder or a Rec Tec.
I eventually found a Rec Tec RT 340 for sale at a great price and snapped it up. It was fun having two very different styles of pellet grill on my deck!
There were a lot of things that I loved about the Rec Tec. The styling was gorgeous, I loved the precision of the PID controller and the WiFi connectivity was cool as heck. At first I also loved the ability of the Rec Tec to get up to 550F and do some serious steak searing.
But then I discovered something I really disliked about the Rec Tec….the shutdown cycle. The shutdown cycle on the Rec Tec adds pellets into the fire pot after a five minute blown down period. Usually this isn’t a problem but sometimes it was creating smoldering fires in my grill long after it had been shut down.
Here is my video that shows the issue in greater detail.
I ended up getting rid of the Rec Tec because of the shutdown cycle and it was, in comparison to my Z Grills, a pain to clean.
Z Grills is going to be coming out with a PID controlled grill this year. I don’t think it will have WiFi but I am excited to try it out.
After years of saying that I wanted to get a griddle I finally pulled the trigger and bought a two burner tabletop griddle from Pit Boss.
The griddle cost less than $100 and I think I will get at least that much fun out of playing with it! I wasn’t sure if I should get the Pit Boss or the equivalent Blackstone griddle but I think the Pit Boss will resist rusting better.
The first cook on the griddle was pretty simple. I sliced open a couple of cajun sausages and slapped them down on the hot griddle. It only took a few minutes for the sausages to cook through and then we ate them on a slice of white bread with plain yellow mustard. It was almost like a fried bologna sandwich but better!
My pups got to share a sausage….I couldn’t resist those begging eyes.
For my second cook I seared some steaks and for the third I made some breakfast tacos!
This griddle is making me happy and I look forward to using the heck out of this thing!
A question for you: What is your favorite thing to cook on a griddle? I am looking for some fun ideas to try. Thanks!
Pellet grills are increasing in popularity as they are easy to use and can be used to produce great slow smoked food as well as high heat grilling.
The big drawback with most pellet grills, especially the more affordable models, is that they just don’t get hot enough to do serious searing. Most pellet grills top out at a maximum temperature of 450-500F which is great for chicken wings and smashburgers but it falls a little short when it comes to the temperature needed to properly sear steaks.
I finally figured out a simple hack that lets me take my Z Grill up into the 600-700F range to properly sear a steak! Here is a look at what I did!
If you don’t feel like watching (although I wish you would!) then the setup goes like this:
Remove the grease tray.
Remove the heat deflector.
Place a set of GrillGrate panels on the cooking surface and turn the grill up to 450F.
Boom! Now you are grilling directly over a raging fire pot and the GrillGrates will be in the 600-700F range.
This is the type of grilling that makes me happy!
Although I did this with a Z Grills pellet grill you can do the same trick with a Traeger as the grease tray, heat deflector and fire pot location are pretty much identical between the brands.
