Hey QFAN, how's the XL 0.1 working out?

The Virginian

Hey Mike, you have had a week or two to kick the tires on the XL propotype since the Jack, what's the report? I hear its a chicken and rib cooking monster! I can hardly wait until they start arriving on the store shelves so I can get started. You have a place setter for that thing? [p]Brett

BBQfan1

The Virginian,
Well, it's just now settled on the deck since Bryan went AWOL after the Jack; I think he had visions of a hernia helping me lift it onto the deck so he hasn't returned my calls! LOL I did get another friend to help me the other night, so I am off to the races now. I finished up a cottage roll on the XL last night and it worked fine, but it does take longer to get all that ceramic up to temp.
The firebox-to-cooking grate depth is not nearly what we're used to, so that is going to take some adjustment, but I am definitely looking forward to using a small fire in that huge cooker and attempting some low temp smoking. I'm hoping that with cold weather, small fire and some ceramic mass (yes, it has a plate setter which is a monster!) I can do some true cold smoking with this unit. Will try to do many different things with it and keep everyone posted as to adjustments and results over what we are used to with the other sizes.
Utilization of the dome space (or lack of same) on things like turkeys and multiple butts for example, may take some experimenting; the dome slope is not near that of the large.
Going to smoke some Canadian back bacon this weekend (it's curing as I write this) as well as a brisket. Anything you'd like to see/hear about being tried on this thing?
qfan

The Virginian

BBQfan1,
I'd like to get some data on temperature differentials at different points on the grate, and at different heights, to see what the temperature variance is across different parts of the cooking area (especially for indirect cooking). [p]I would also like to know how large a turkey will fit in that thang! [p]Brett

BBQfan1

The Virginian,
I know that in Lynchburg we had up to 4 butts in there at once and the variance front to back settled between 7 and 10°F difference throughout the entire cook. That's pretty consistent in my book.
I'll monitor it in a couple places when I do the brisket this weekend too.
Qfan

drbbq

BBQfan1,[p]I keep thinking it will have those variances too, but when I cook I just don't see them. I have twice now cooked three slabs of St. Louis ribs laying flat and they have cooked very evenly throughout. I don't have a bunch of polders polders so I can't give you a readout but the ribs were cooked evenly. I cooked seven chickens in Lynchburg and they were evenly cooked too. Now this is at around 250 dome temp. It might be different at higher temps.

Nature Boy

<p />I agree Ray.
With that monster platesetter, and my makeshift grid raiser, I experienced some of the most evenly cooked ribs ever. Here is what the ribs at the Jack looked like after a few hours. I was suprised how even the temps were. [p]After Qfan is done playin around, I look forward to doin some more sperimentin next year!
Chris[p]

jake42

Nature Boy,
Now that's an Egg.
Ribs look great.

Smoked Signals

Nature Boy,
Set up looks like platesetter / bricks/ grill / ribs. Why did you raise the grid? Did the drip pan not fit? What is the grid probe for? Did it register quite a bit different then the dome?[p]Thanks,
Doug