Otto Wilde Grill Came in Today

And it is all that it is cracked up to be.

Where to start? Oh yeah, at the beginning.

Awhile back, I was searing my steaks on my Kamado Joe and cast iron. This worked out, I thought, great for me. I felt that it didn't get much better than that at home.

But then someone pointed me to the "Meater". I looked at it, but didn't like some of the reviews. That led me to the Otto Wilde. But at it's $1300.00 price point, I felt that was a lot to pay for it.

But the good thing was that they would periodically run a sale on it. Then they even came out with a "no frills" version of it.

But then they dropped the price. AND added a discount. That's when I decided to buy.

Anyway, on to the events of the day.

This is how it came in. It was very well packaged and protected. It is very solidly built.










I am the owner of a Rec Tec Stampede and I have moved on to the competition cart for it. This meant that I had the original cart in my basement and can sit the Otto Wilde on it. But you can sit the Otto Wilde onto most any non flammable flat surface that is wide and deep enough to fit it.





I wanted to make sure that she was level, because I've added additional bracing to the old Rec Tec Stampede cart.



They don't say to do so, but I added some plumber's tape to the connections. Looking back though, I'd skip this and simply follow their directions. The first connetion is a counterclockwise twist to tighten. The second is a traditional clockwise. They indicate that you should NOT use pliers or wrenches to secure these connections.



I hooked up a fresh tank to it. And fired it up according to the ignition procedure just to test it out. Let it run for about 5 minutes and then shut it down. I just wanted to see what it would do.

And then I got out my Anova and my Sam's Club Special Sous Vide and my SS pots, and vacuseal.

The boss likes her steak medium well to well done. I'm a full fledged farker, so you know I'm going to want to see plenty of red in my steak.

I set the Sous Vides. 148° for the boss, 130.5° for me and let them ride for a 2hrs. I seasoned only with garlic and virgin olive oil. These are Sam's Club prime filets.



I took the steaks out, and patted them down.



Fired up the Otto Wilde for 3 -4 minutes and put them in. Raised them to that top level with the heat set as high as it would go on both burners.



This is what one minute per side looked like. My heart sank as I figured that I had dried them out.



I got them inside and let them rest and decided that they didn't look too bad.



And then I cut them.



Beautiful. Just the way I like my steak.

And then I cut the well done one.



Again excellent. If you like a medium well to well done steak.

And they tasted great. Juicy, tender, some of the best filet mignon I've ever eaten.

And then my daughter came over. She likes her steaks rare. I did one for her straight out of the regrigerator with nothing more than a little ground sea salt on it.



Three minutes per side. Heat at the maximum, and raised to the top level.



I used the Thermopen and it read 135 so I thought it safe to take it off.

But it was little red even for her, and she likes her's rare to medium rare.



So we put it back on. I fired it back up. This time on the lowest or bottom Meatometer level, but with the heat still blasting and set on the highest output. WTH, I'm experimenting, and there has to be a learning curve. We let it ride for another minute and I tested it with my Thermopen, it read 138°F.



And she says to me, "Dad, this is the best steak I've ever had.



I'm very happy with the Otto Wilde. And it's looking like it will be handling the steak searing chores around this house for awhile.

WBDubya said:

Pellet grill + Otto Wilde is a killer combination! Hardback cookbook is a great reference for OFB cooking.

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I'll bet it is.

I thought about doing a conventional reverse sear instead of the Sous Vide.

I'll try the reverse sear next time around.

But this thing gets the job done and in a short time. I'm liking it a lot so far. Can't wait to try some other foods with it.

TravelingJ said:

Your Valentines dinner, right? Looks amazing.

Been using my sous vide more and more. I doubt I'd drop Otto money, but it sure does look like an amazing tool.

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It is an amazing tool and an excellent one to have in your arsenal as it not only can sear very quickly, it can get up to temps hot enough to sear in about 3 minutes. No more waiting for charcoal to heat up. No more opening vents wide open and waiting.

You just turn the gas on, turn the knob, press down on it for 3 seconds, hit the igniter while still holding the knob down, and it lights up.

This article below is a good article. It's a short, yet great read for anyone considering getting one of these type grills. In it they were testing a variety of infra red over fire broilers and so they let them heat up for 20 mins. The Otto Wilde doesn't need that long to heat up to the point of being ready to sear. About 3 minutes is all it needs to be ready to go.

But by that 20 min time used in the test, the Otto Wilde in their test was over 1600°F.

https://www.grillseeker.com/2019/10...r-grill-vs-inferno-grill-vs-otto-wilde-grill/

You can put a nice sear on a steak with an excellent crust on it at temps like that. And you can cook other foods with it as well.

Like I say, it's an excellent addition to what I already had. And I won't bother to sear with lump charcoal and cast iron any longer because this is much quicker and convenient.

That steak I did for my daughter, literally took minutes to do from the time it came out of the fridge.

Yes, it was a bit rarer than I eat mine. But doing the sear first and then lowering it down onto the bottom level to finish it off to the temp you want, did and will do the trick. It's just a matter of dialing in the times and techniques now.