High Temp Grilling GMG Pellet Cooker

This is my attempt to modify my new Green Mountain Daniel Boone grill to sear, grill, and cook high temperature items. About all pellet cookers are setup to cook indirect which makes it a little more difficult to accomplish this task. A few of the better pellet cookers do have an insert which can be installed or setup for just this purpose. Much of the ideas and data used in this modification comes from the Pelletheads.com forum and I have refined it to suit my method of cooking. 

In my opinion, the very best steak or chop must be cooked direct at the “Tip of a Charcoal or Wood Flame” and I feel that this modification comes pretty close to what I can get out of cookers that are designed for this task. 



This is a State Fair cut ribeye which I have cut 3/4” thick out of the whole ribeye loin and will be used in a sandwich just like one would purchase at the fair. It was cooked for 4 minutes, turned 90 degrees and cooked for 4 more minutes, turned over and cooked for 4 minutes, and the turned again 90 degrees for 4 more minutes and removed from the cooker. Totally overcooked at well done but this was my first attempt and very easy to fix.

Here is my setup in my Daniel Boone GMG cooker. 



I started by laying two firebricks on each side like you see in the picture. My plan is to use a couple of Brinkmann Stainless Steel heat tents over the firebox and up as high as I can get them in the cooker. These heat tents will protect my firebox and the bottom of the grill from all the grease and juices that might come out of the meat. They will also prevent some of the flame ups and still allow some of the drips to get thru and sizzle on the tents producing some of that great grilled flavor. I want my fire to get plenty of air and as much flame as possible to hit the bottom of the heat tents and spread out under my Grill Grates. Again, the closer I can get to cooking somewhat direct at the “Tip of the Flame” is what I want. 



These are my two adjustable Brinkmann Stainless heat tents installed in the cooker. 



I put the standard grids into the cooker and then added my two Grill Grates which gives me a very high temp cooking surface of about 13-3/4” by 10-1/2 inch total. 



The setup works perfectly in my opinion and the flame or tip of the flame from the fire box is right at the cooking surface of the Grill Grates. At this raised height, the fire does spread out under the heat tents as planned and gives me an even very high heat cooking surface over the total area of the grates. If you look close, I think you can see the flames thru the holes at the grate level.

I was also hoping to be able to cook at under my cookers top temperature range of 500 degrees and still get great results as I felt that it is kinda foolish to have to run at these temps which can lead to warped parts and wasted fuel. I am happy to report that all my cooking is being done at 350 degrees set temp and I am getting great results. 



My second round of State Fair steaks were cooked 2 minutes and then turned 90 degrees and then cooked for 2 more minutes and turned again for 2 more minutes and pulled off the grill. This 8 minute total cooking time produced a medium done steak. Still a little too much time as I prefer a more rare steak. 



Next up were a couple of boneless chicken breasts and these were cooked for 2-1/2 minutes, turned 90 and cooked 2-1/2 more, then turned over and followed the same on the second side. This 10 minute total cook time produced a final internal temp of 165 degrees.



Chicken just off the cooker. 



I also cooked three 1/4 pound fat burgers. These were cooked the same total time as the steaks and were just slightly over done.





The results off my first high temp cook.



The State Fair ribeye is normally served on a bun but since we low carb, I put them on a couple pieces of toasted low carb bread. I then add some lettuce, a thin slice of onion, tomato, and a slice of pickle. 



That is one fine sandwich!

I am very pleased with this setup and just need to work on my cooking times.

New Green Mountain Pellet Cooker--Wangs & Thangs

This is my first cook in my new Green Mountain Daniel Boone pellet cooker. The cook started out in a big box.



First job was to put it together in our nice cold Indiana weather.



Ready for the pre-burn to burn off all the manufacturing oils and gunk. After this burn, I cooled it off, tore it all down, and brushed peanut oil and all the internal parts and fired it up again to season the cooker. After about an hour at 350 degrees, it was ready for use.



I built two raised second grids for the cooker to double it capacity and used the left side only for this cook. Nice feature with this cooker is all the available height inside the cooker at about 13 inches for items like beer butt chicken or turkey. It will also be used for a couple of my rotisserie setups. There is even room for that 5 layer jerky setup inside the cooker. Gonna be fun working with this cooker!!

Rubbed up 5 pork steaks and placed three of them on the left side of the standard grid and then added the last 2 on my raised grid. The hot wings were rubbed with my blazing hot wing no-carb wing rub and placed on the cooker. Started this cook out at about 190 degrees for about 30 minutes to get maximum smoke and then raised the temp to about 275 degrees for the balance of the cook.

Typical Indiana Winter weather with a temp of about 33 degrees and winds of  22-30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. 



Later into the cook, I sauced the hot wings a couple times with a mix of Franks and Sriracha, some butter, more cayenne pepper and some Splenda for sweetness. 



After the hot wings came off, I added four 1/3 pound burgers, and three varieties of sausage links.  I also sauced my pork steaks at this time with my lo-carb sauce.

The results of the cook...



Burgers and dogs look good.



Blazing hot wings.



Pork steaks. 





My lunch.

Steak & Grilled Romaine Lettuce on the CB 500X

This no-carb short cook was done on the CB 500X with some of that fine Wicked Good charcoal. Nice cool morning with the temp at 31 degrees and nice sunshine. I started a chimney full of the charcoal and went inside to prep my food. 



The ribeyes are cut about 1-1/2 “ thick and weigh a little under a pound each and are choice graded.

The romaine lettuce was cut into two pieces each and then I drizzled on some olive oil, some garlic powder, some sea salt, and some fresh cracked black pepper on both sides. 



By now the charcoal was ready so I poured it into the cooker. I then started the lettuce cut side down and just gave it a short char to get a few leaves blackened up a little and then turned them over.



As soon as they are turned over, Jan added some fresh grated parmesan cheese to each clump.



Just about done on the cooker. 



Next on was the ribeyes. 



I seared the first side about 6 minutes and then turned them over. The second side took about 5 more minutes to get to my finish internal temp of 120 degrees and they came off the cooker. 



I plated the steak and my grilled romaine lettuce up with a couple of slices of tomatoes and my no- carb recipe of “Brown Butter Cauliflower Mash” which is a work in progress at the present time. 



Sure made a nice lunch...the little cooker is a joy to use.

Large Cook on my Char-Broil CB 940X

I did this cook back in August on my CB (Yugo) X over charcoal with a little hickory for smoke. I set the cooking grid up with about 1/3 of it direct and the other 2/3 rds indirect. I had several meats to cook and needed both direct and indirect for the cook. 



I started with 5 pounds of 28% flavor burger and Jan made up 16 burgers from the 5 pounds. Added salt and pepper.  Bout 1/3 pound each makes a nice small burger.



Since I needed a very hot fire at the start, I added a small amount of lump to the direct side of the cooker and then filled up a large Weber charcoal chimney with lump and after it was well lit, poured it into the cooker and added some smoke wood.

I like to put a good sear on my burgers and then finish them on the indirect side to about 165 degrees internal. 



There is my Yugo, De Soto, or maybe Edsel doing it’s thing. Real shame that this once  great cooker in no longer listed on Char-Broils website. 



Here are some of the other meat cooked on this round. Top left is a package and a half of the Eckrich Grillers, and right of it some bun size hotdogs. Top right plate has 4 strip steaks which will be used for my steak and mushroom hoogies. Bottom two plates are six big pork steaks. Not shown are about 22 of my very hot chicken wings.



My steaks are prepped with some Smokey Mountain steak rub. These 4 one inch steaks are seared about 2 minutes a side and they are done to medium rare and I took them off the cooker. 



Thats my burgers getting happy on the indirect side of the cooker. 



Next were the dogs and I like to put a little char on them. I followed the dogs with the Grillers. I love these things and use them for snacks. 



Steaks just off the grill.



Burgers looking good.



Jan’s dogs.



The Eckrich Grillers.



The pork steaks were prepped with my no-carb rub. I like them seared just like a beef steak and then slow cooked indirect for a couple hours. 



While my last pork steak was searing, I picked a few hot peppers out of my patio boxes and added them to the grill. 



My hot chicken wings were prepped with my no-carb rub and then I added mucho ground cayenne pepper. Just like about everything I cook over charcoal, I like to somewhat char it for that additional flavor. Nothing beats a hot charcoal fire licking at the bottom of my meats and veggies on the cooker for the most great flavor. 



I added a second raised grid in the cooker to make room for all the indirect items that I was cooking. 



Working the cooker...as you can see, I am finishing up putting a little char on my wings and then placing them on the indirect side of the cooker. Pork steaks are still soaking up some smoke and heat. 



Chicken wings were sauced next with some Frank’s hot sauce mixed with some butter, some Splenda, and some ground cayenne pepper. 



The cooks treat and man they were good. 



The hot wings.



I cut up all four steaks for my special treat which I will fix at a later date. 



The pork steaks were sauced with my low carb sauce and then taken off the cooker. Really hard to beat a good pork steak dinner. 



Close up of the pork steak.