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Pappucho
03-15-2010, 12:24 AM
I've a long time lurker here. I owe a debt of gratitude to the members here who turned me onto the Big Green Egg grills. Here's my large on my home made table:

http://www.portaphile.com/P1040876.JPG

I've been looking for a good portable grill to take on camping trips. I've considered the mini but it looks limited for how much I usually grill. For example, how many hamburger patties can you fit at a time? Any mini owner's care to chime in with any experience?

I'm considering the Yakatori grills as an alternative.

Either the large one:

http://cdn.onlinecommercegroup.com/medium/grill-60450-a.jpg

Or possibly the small one:

http://cdn.onlinecommercegroup.com/medium/grill-60449-a.jpg

These retail between 45 to 65 each and seem to be a nice alternative to the Big Green Egg Mini, although there isn't any online opinions that I can find. Anyone here own one?

T-Man
03-15-2010, 12:31 AM
Is that a real dog... in the pic ...lol........ Man really nice table for the egg.. Nice dog too...

landarc
03-15-2010, 12:39 AM
They look small to me, and I would be concerned about the wire mesh grates holding up for any length of time. The medium looks like a ceramic version of a Hibachi, we used to take a couple of cast iron hibachi whenever we went camping. They were cast iron though, and too small for much more than four people.

bigabyte
03-15-2010, 12:41 AM
Never seen them before, but they look interesting.

Pappucho
03-15-2010, 12:44 AM
Thanks! The dog is a Bull Terrier named Rogue. The table was built using the plans from the BGE website. I made a mistake or two when building it but overall I think it came out alright. The main mistake was not allowing enough space for the "hole" for the BGE. I've got about a cm spacing around it but looks like it's working out so far. Believe it or not, that was my first wood project ever. Took about 15 hours to build spread out between 4 days.

Pappucho
03-15-2010, 12:46 AM
The online description says "clay" instead of ceramic although they do look like ceramic. The smaller one has a diameter of 11" and the larger one is 10 x 18".

Swineola
03-15-2010, 03:00 AM
That table looks fantastic. You have far more talent that I do - my woodworking skills are slightly below the Homer Simpson level. I love watching the New Yankee Workshop and dreaming of building something that doesn't look like a drunken idiot made it :-).

garyk1398
03-15-2010, 09:37 AM
They look small to me, and I would be concerned about the wire mesh grates holding up for any length of time. The medium looks like a ceramic version of a Hibachi, we used to take a couple of cast iron hibachi whenever we went camping. They were cast iron though, and too small for much more than four people.

I agree, I'd be concerned that the wire would deform with a high heat cook!

Nick@ParkAQ
03-15-2010, 02:01 PM
Very nice Papuccho. Its not a Park-A-Q but very nice indeed if you have time skills inclination and all that. Others prefer to focus on the grilling part.
Park it! Grill it! Eat it!

thomasjurisd
03-15-2010, 02:45 PM
Being in Texas I would recommend the Old Smokey. I bought one last year to take out to Big Bend and it does a great job. They come in three sizes, I picked up the medium and it set me back about $45 I think. http://www.oldsmokey.com/Products/oldsmokeycharcob.html

Nick@ParkAQ
03-15-2010, 02:51 PM
Old Smokeys looks nice. They Wood look better Parked me thinks. http://ParkAQ.com
Park it! Grill it! Eat it!

Pappucho
03-15-2010, 03:42 PM
I'll look into the old smokeys. Do you know where they sell them here in Texas? They do look like a decent alternative. What's generally considered the best portable option? I'm still curious about the bge minis abilities. I feel the grill on yakatori shown above could be upgraded with something aftermarket or custom built so not too worried about the oem grill.

Bacchus
03-15-2010, 03:48 PM
Get a BGE Small. They are very portable. You can do a lo/slo while gone hiking or fishing, then bump up the temp for a skillet or D.O. along with some veggies.

Pappucho
03-15-2010, 04:54 PM
Old Smokeys looks nice. They Wood look better Parked me thinks. http://ParkAQ.com
Park it! Grill it! Eat it!


Wow, 299? I spent around 100 to 120 including the wood, stain and sealant.

Nick@ParkAQ
03-15-2010, 06:10 PM
I would reply with details but the bretheren moderators reprimanded me for advertising on this forum and I'm relatively new. Sorry if I offended anyone. Keep on Q'ing

Pappucho
03-15-2010, 06:12 PM
Get a BGE Small. They are very portable. You can do a lo/slo while gone hiking or fishing, then bump up the temp for a skillet or D.O. along with some veggies.


I think the small would be perfect but it's a bit out of my budget at the moment. The Mini is barely attainable right now but it only barely. I was hoping for a decent sub 200 alternative, preferably sub 100.

The small is capable of doing about seven 4" patties judging from the pic here (borrowed from here (http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/bgegg.htm)):

http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/images/burgers12.jpg

Using the same approach for the Mini it looks like I'd be able to get three 4" patties to fit on there at a time. Not that bad, I was worried I'd be cooking one patty at a time.

swamprb
03-15-2010, 06:52 PM
I have seen these on the Imperial Kamado site in the past, and have restored a couple old K's that had the wire mesh grates for cooking close to the coals. Here is a link and they are available. http://imperialkamado.com/shichirin/i_shichirin_index.htm

I have no experience with the small grills, other than my Lodge Hibachi, but here is a very informative history link of ancient Japanese cooking. Click on any of the highlighted pics or links and the history lesson just keeps getting better!
http://imperialkamado.com/i_history.htm

I've seen some Yakitori grills on craigslist, but they were long and narrow with wire grates for cooking thin strips of meats or veggies. Never followed up on them-

Hope this helps a little!

FatDaddy
03-15-2010, 07:49 PM
why not get a weber smokey joe? I can cook quite a few hamburgers on mine at a time, and it grills steaks with the best of em. I still wish I could have gotten the 18.5" before they discontinued it.

Pappucho
03-15-2010, 09:19 PM
why not get a weber smokey joe? I can cook quite a few hamburgers on mine at a time, and it grills steaks with the best of em. I still wish I could have gotten the 18.5" before they discontinued it.


My first real pit was a Weber and I even smoked my first brisket on one. It's a very nice pit but thinking about going a different route. I've decided on just going with a cast iron hibachi I piced up at the local Academy for 90.00. Here's a pic:

http://www.portaphile.com/P1040887_op_640x425.jpg

And inside my BGE Large to get a size comparison:

http://www.portaphile.com/P1040888.JPG

Looks solid and should last a lifetime. My only problem is that my open grilling experience is pretty rusty so I'll need to get some experience now. Any happy Lodge Cast Iron Pit owner's here? Unhappy ones?

Pappucho
03-15-2010, 09:27 PM
I have seen these on the Imperial Kamado site in the past, and have restored a couple old K's that had the wire mesh grates for cooking close to the coals. Here is a link and they are available. http://imperialkamado.com/shichirin/i_shichirin_index.htm

I have no experience with the small grills, other than my Lodge Hibachi, but here is a very informative history link of ancient Japanese cooking. Click on any of the highlighted pics or links and the history lesson just keeps getting better!
http://imperialkamado.com/i_history.htm

I've seen some Yakitori grills on craigslist, but they were long and narrow with wire grates for cooking thin strips of meats or veggies. Never followed up on them-

Hope this helps a little!

Alot of usefull information here, thanks! I really wanted to try out the Yakitori grill I listed earlier, but I decided just to go with something a little more conventional. I'm a diehard ceramic pit griller now, with my BGE. I haven't used my metal pit in over a year now since getting the BGE. But with an open top on both the Yakitori and Cast Iron Hibachi most of the benefit of the closed ceramic grill are gone. Both are open grills so I decided just to go cast iron since it was available locally, and I have a camping trip on Wednesday to Lake Amistad and Big Bend so time was pressing. Thanks again for the info!

Pappucho
03-15-2010, 09:30 PM
Just found out Target has the same pit for 79.99 (http://www.target.com/Lodge-Logic-Hibachi-Style-Grill/dp/B000I9N4S8), bummer....

swamprb
03-15-2010, 09:32 PM
My first real pit was a Weber and I even smoked my first brisket on one. It's a very nice pit but thinking about going a different route. I've decided on just going with a cast iron hibachi I piced up at the local Academy for 90.00. Here's a pic:

http://www.portaphile.com/P1040887_op_640x425.jpg

And inside my BGE Large to get a size comparison:

http://www.portaphile.com/P1040888.JPG

Looks solid and should last a lifetime. My only problem is that my open grilling experience is pretty rusty so I'll need to get some experience now. Any happy Lodge Cast Iron Pit owner's here? Unhappy ones?


Here is another Shichirin hibachi link for you to digest!
http://imperialkamado.com/shichirin/i_shichirin_keisodo.htm


As far as the Lodge Sportsman Hibachi, the main thing is to keep the grill grate seasoned to keep meats from sticking. It's so damp in the PNW rust is inevitable. It is perfect for cooking skewers. If you can find one Lodge used to make a griddle for the hibachi, I use an oval CI on mine. Raichlen's Primal Grill featured the Lodge hibachi on one of the episodes.

Pappucho
03-15-2010, 10:45 PM
Here is another Shichirin hibachi link for you to digest!
http://imperialkamado.com/shichirin/i_shichirin_keisodo.htm


As far as the Lodge Sportsman Hibachi, the main thing is to keep the grill grate seasoned to keep meats from sticking. It's so damp in the PNW rust is inevitable. It is perfect for cooking skewers. If you can find one Lodge used to make a griddle for the hibachi, I use an oval CI on mine. Raichlen's Primal Grill featured the Lodge hibachi on one of the episodes.


That's wierd about using diatomaceous earth as a grill material. It's also used as a filter element in pool filters and is considered dangerous in that it doesn't let anything through but water so don't get it in your lungs! I'll need to read up more on that grill, sounds interesting.

I've found a nice review online on the Lodge Sportsman Grill (LSG) here (http://www.cookingincastiron.com/files/20090529_LSG.html)if anyone's interested.

Bigdog
03-16-2010, 08:30 AM
I use my old ECB as my camping grill/smoker. Works great and you can use the inside to store all your stuff when transporting.