Wake up and light the smoker, because succulent pulled pork and fall-off-the-bone ribs come to those who wait. The Smokey Mountain Cooker™ smoker has two cooking grates for smoking multiple items at once, and dampers that adjust easily so that you’re always in control of the heat—and your feast. To my childhood mind, firing up a Weber charcoal grill had existential significance. It felt like an important, manly task because in my home, like I’m sure in many homes across America, my dad was in charge of it.
When it comes to cleaning the lid and bowl, burning charcoal and cooking food will cause carbon to accumulate on them. This is normal, and if you’ve used charcoal before, you’ve seen it; it looks like peeling paint. Our home tester used this to cook up barbecue classics like chicken wings weber charcoal grill and ribs, and she was highly pleased with its performance. Other aspects she liked were that the grates became more nonstick as the testing went on and the warming rack proved itself to be the perfect bun warmer. Since then, Hasty-Bake has refined and polished off the rough edges.
Looking for a charcoal grill that you can bring to the big game or on your next outdoor adventure? Then you should consider the Weber Smokey Joe portable charcoal grill. Just like full-size models from the brand, this 14-inch grill has a porcelain-enameled lid and bowl, as well as steel grates and an ash catcher down below. With charcoal grills, I test for effective air control by smoking low and slow at 225°F, roasting in the mid-range around 350°F, and letting ‘er rip with a blazing, red hot fire. Leaky grills are harder to control and get rated accordingly.
The Weber grills were the only grills that didn’t come with a hardware pack. You can easily set up either Weber grill by yourself and it only requires you to use a hammer or screwdriver for attaching the handle and wheels. The rest ranged in setup time from 27 minutes to over an hour, with varying levels of difficulty and number of persons needed to complete the task.
It’s relatively inexpensive as far as grills/smokers go and it will essentially last a decade or longer. Having said all of this, this upgrade is not necessary to smoke on the weber kettle. If you’re someone who has never smoked meat before and you look at the lid thermometer, you might panic when you see 400F on your lid thermometer. We noted similar temperature performance from the Nexgrill, along with similar rib results.