Ceramic Grill Works New Prototype--Jalapeno adjustable rack.

Handcyclist · August 2014

Before discussing the new prototype it seems appropriate to first share how and where this information was received. My husband and I attended a Ceramic Grill 101 Class in cooking on the BGE, Grill Dome, and Kamado Joe on Sunday, 8-17-14 at the Ceramic Grillworks store in Monroeville, PA. Franco, his family, and friends hosted a good sized group and fed us well off the BGE--as always, delicious. He shared a wide variety of barbecue sauces, rubs, and marinades. We got to sample many of them. Kudos to everyone for a good time.

Franco shared with his fresh from the design phase and production, prototype adjustable rack. He had it on display for us to see Sunday. The top rack has quarter sized holes in it to hold jalapeño peppers. The lower rack has a removable section for the user to place additional lump or smoking woods into the fire box. Franco gave his permission to share this on the forum. I didn't ask, but am sure he can give you the answer--it looks like a future grate rack package may be in the making--the options to include the bottom rack, a choice of the two existing racks, or a three pack option that includes both the standard rack and the jalapeño rack. The new jalapeño rack could bring about a new design in grill marks on steak--polka dots instead of straight lines!

Thanks Franco for introducing and supporting ceramic grill cooking for so many of us!!

My apologies for not adding a picture as I understand the forum's policy--no picture means it didn't happen. The company and food took precedence over the cell phone and camera tucked away in our vehicle! Am sure Franco will post pictures when the prototype is in its final form and ready for sale.

Big_Green_Craig · August 2014

Here are the pics.

Thatgrimguy · August 2014

Interesting... I wonder if people are really grilling that many peppers.

Big_Green_Craig · August 2014

I grill a ton a peppers. This might be a great idea.

smokesniffer · August 2014

I really like the idea of the pepper grill and also the hatch to access the lump. Are these available??

Photo Egg · August 2014

I think it looks pretty and well made but I would rather use a couple of the free standing ones that cost $15.

The free standing units can be loaded easy, moved around on the grill as needed and tossed in the dishwasher to clean. But in the end I'm still old school ABT. Cut in half boat style and wrapped completely in bacon.

mcmac · August 2014

I would use something like this.

Cookinbob · August 2014

I like the lower rack with the trap door. Would not care about the pepper rack. Unfortunately I have an XL, so it probably won't be available to me anyways.

fishlessman · August 2014

looks nice and well built and will definitely attract newbies

HendersonTRKing · August 2014

I mis-read this and was thinking the rack for the jalapenos was adjustable. That'd be nice, since on my existing freestanding rack (the kind posted by @photo egg above), some peppers are too big to fit and some holes are too big to hold the peppers. How cool would it be if, say, the pepper rack had small/med/lg holes? Or if the holes were engineered to expand and contract? I can dream, right?

buzd504 · August 2014

The trap door is cute, but I pretty much never have to add more lump or wood to my egg. It goes forever.

Legume · August 2014

how do these vertical pepper racks work with a bacon wrapped pepper?

Photo Egg · August 2014

HendersonTRKing said:

I mis-read this and was thinking the rack for the jalapenos was adjustable. That'd be nice, since on my existing freestanding rack (the kind posted by @photo egg above), some peppers are too big to fit and some holes are too big to hold the peppers. How cool would it be if, say, the pepper rack had small/med/lg holes? Or if the holes were engineered to expand and contract? I can dream, right?

If the pepper is to small I stick a tooth pick through the pepper to stop it from sliding through the hole.

HendersonTRKing · August 2014

@photoegg -- I've done the toothpick trick and I've also jammed larger peppers into the holes -- it works, to a point, and keeps me from going to the boat/cut in 1/2 method, which I don't like as much. Like so many things, they system is imperfect. And also like so many things, despite the imperfections, I never have any leftovers. So maybe this is much ado about nothing.

I don't think I'd do the full-sized grate, though. As others have said, I like moving the rack around the grill. And doing multiple racks isn't really a bother.

All this talk about ABTs has me hungry!

Skiddymarker · August 2014

Legume said:

how do these vertical pepper racks work with a bacon wrapped pepper?

Most of them don't. If you want to wrap your pepper with bacon, assuming you have cut the whole stem end off, cleaned, stuffed and then wrapped, you can use two toothpicks or a fine skewer and rib rack. Once positioned vertically, I've had a tough time getting the bacon to stay.

SmokeyPitt · August 2014

I suppose it would function fine as a normal cooking grid as well. It does seem a little much for something so specific as grilling peppers. From the picture it looks like the holes might be a little big and your average size jalapeno will fall through.

If you could cook drumsticks vertically that might be cool. I didn't feel like counting but looks like at least 35 holes.

It also might be nice to use with a spider to get polka-dot sear marks.

smokesniffer · August 2014

Skiddymarker said:

Legume said:

how do these vertical pepper racks work with a bacon wrapped pepper?

Most of them don't. If you want to wrap your pepper with bacon, assuming you have cut the whole stem end off, cleaned, stuffed and then wrapped, you can use two toothpicks or a fine skewer and rib rack. Once positioned vertically, I've had a tough time getting the bacon to stay.

good point @ skiddymarker.

Fred19Flintstone · August 2014

Heck, I would buy it just for the wacky grill marks! Alas, I have an XL. :(

Griffin · August 2014

I've always had a problem with the holes being too small once the pepper is wrapped with bacon. Plus most people don't like the pepper to bacon and filling ratio. I'll stick with the "boat" method and keep my money in my pocket.

Big_Green_Craig · August 2014

I'm sure Franco would expand to all of the sizes at some point. If this is built like the current model, it will be awesome.

SmokeyPitt · August 2014

Griffin said:

I've always had a problem with the holes being too small once the pepper is wrapped with bacon. Plus most people don't like the pepper to bacon and filling ratio. I'll stick with the "boat" method and keep my money in my pocket.

I guess you could just skip the bacon...

...now I'm just talking nonsense!!!

Thatgrimguy · August 2014

SmokeyPitt said:

Griffin said:

I've always had a problem with the holes being too small once the pepper is wrapped with bacon. Plus most people don't like the pepper to bacon and filling ratio. I'll stick with the "boat" method and keep my money in my pocket.

I guess you could just skip the bacon...

...now I'm just talking nonsense!!!

I'd rather skip the pepper than the bacon!!

Terrebandit · August 2014

Just buy 2 or 3 self-standing pepper racks and save money for more lump.

lousubcap · August 2014

Looks overspec'ed for the purpose but suppose the popper tier could substitute for the normal second tier of the CGW two-tier swing rack set-up. Agree that the "trap-door" is nice but certainly not necessary. I'm sure it will be quality engineered but not sure of the real market. FWIW-

yzzi · August 2014

I've actually been putting chopped bacon in the filling. Easier to assemble.

Ceramic Grill Works New Prototype--Jalapeno adjustable rack.

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