Gas or Charcoal

XL Big Green Egg with mesquite, hickory and other lumps charcoals and hardwood chunks (unburned for smoking meats) of apple, pecan, hickory, mesquite and whatever else I can find. It is my opinion that if you haven't tried a big green egg, do so. Especially the folks that like smoked fish, it does it even better on the EGG!
www.biggreenegg.com

I have a mix of both types of components, but in a few days I will only have four mosfets in the signal chain.

Trelja:

You can go a couple of ways: pile the coals in grill, or use your starter can. Faster with starter can, easier in grill. Takes a minute or two of torching, and then ten minutes or so to burn down, depending on how much torching you do. Somewhat faster than newspaper method -- perhaps not "dramatically" -- but much more reliable. A nice thing about the torch is that you can hurry the coals along at any point if you need to. If I recall, my unit is 30k BTU -- presumably higher BTU units faster. But I've never found mine to be too slow, and the price is right.

Slipnot1:

I've seen permanent installations off natural gas; very convenient, and probably not much of a hassle to do, though I'm not familiar with details. One could also have a "hybrid" set up, with a gas jet to start your wood or coals. I think some nice smokers, like the Big Green Egg, are easy to configure this way.

Now, for a turkey frying thread!

John

Webber and hardwood charcoal, no lighter fluid. Tube pre and SS amp. For added flavor try marinating a steak in a good high alochol 9% plus Imperial Stout or Old Ale for about 6-8 hours before cooking. Or try using a good strong IPA with some chicken. For a great inexpensive steak try a Chuckeye Center Eye Steak ask your butcher, pretty much a Ribeye for half the price.