Charcoal Addict

We’ll see how things work out with the New Lavaworks. It’s actually better than the dead Maverick PT-100 it replaced.

Switching over to Xenforo is pretty easy. It’s much lighter weight platform than IPB. There’s an importer app for moving forums over. Xenforo is lean & mean by comparison to Invision. You’ll need less server resources to run it.

The Javlin appears to be a huge improvement over the Maverick PT-100. The biggest struggle with the Maverick was keeping it clean. Even with a Toothbrush, it’s hard to scrub out every crevice in the PT-100. I have a older Thermapen without a backlight. The only possible concern I have with the Javalin Pro is reliability. Time will tell. The build quality is almost on par with the Thermapen. The Javalin pro is much more solidly built than the Maverick PT 100. The probe is solid on the Javalin & it doesn’t wobble like the Maverick did.

The Lava Tools replacement for my dead Maverick PT-100 arrived today. We’ll take it for a test spin soon. I was hoping to buy a Thermapen MK4, but I decided to give the Laval Tools a fair shake at half the price of the MK4.

My Maverick died. I might end up getting a LavaTools from Amazon. I think the Thermapen is great, I can’t justify the higher price for a minor difference in build quality.

It like anything else. It takes practice & some experimenting to get the best results. Sometimes you need to go hotter at 400 F for some items like chicken to get better results.

i’ll make a loaf of bread on the weekend. I’m really curious how much of an improvement the SloRoller will make on browning the top. It will come down to how evenly it heats the Dome. The Big Joe 3 will always have a slight advantage in air volume over versions 1-2. Good fire building technics (not blocking air holes in the FB, should maximize performance in the Big Joe 1. I’ve modified my Big Joe 1 so much (with KJ add-on’s like the hinge, gaskets, ect) over the years, it’s pretty much on par with a Big Joe 2.

The iKamand is due up for another firmware update. It’ll happen sometime soon. I had to reboot it after I opened my lid to foil my butt. Not too big of a deal.

The SLO-Roller requires Airflow to do it’s magic. It comes at the price of 2 inches of lost vertical real estate in an older Joe. It’s not a big deal for 99% of your cooks but your not going to fit a BJ expander with the SLO Roller in a Big Joe 1-2 models. If you’re hosting huge parties, and you need more real estate, you’re better off selling your Big Joe 1-2 and upgrading to a Big Joe 3 with a SLO-Roller.

That’s repackaged Red Bag RO. It burns much cleaner than Blue Bag RO. It’s not going to win any Charcoal of the year awards. It burns clean and it’s useable.

My bread test will work out. The large Staub French oven easily fits. Poof sometimes we under estimate the amount of room we still have in our older model Big Joe’s.

It really comes down to Airflow. My Butt cook was more even. I want to test a bread loaf cook. The million dollar question. Will a French oven fit under the dome with a Sloroller in place.

Canadian Tire buys the better quality Red Bag RO under its house brand Charcoal. You can get the US RO with a rebadge. It’s not the same quality as the US RO XL. Jealous Devil & Rockwell are available in Toronto. It just sucks to be in Canada’s ugly step child, AKA Alberta.

I got distracted by a crazy relative & forgot to take more photos. I have more cooks planned. You have to be careful in a Big Joe 1. It just barley fit. You have to correct the grates everyone in a while not to scrape the dome.

I’m testing it out with a small pulled pork cook today. I used a completely different fire building technique. I placed the wood at the bottom of the grate. The lump on top. I left the firebox holes clear. I didn’t use the CI grate. I piled more of the lump towards the back all with the goal of maximizing airflow for the SLO-roller to do it’s magic I lit the fire in the top right corner rather than the Center.