David, Putting indicating marks on the grill is a great idea. Do you have any pictures to show how you did it?

I need to get a new camera. I don't have any pictures to show how I did that. I just took a permanent marker and made a notch above the lever at fully closed, 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, etc. It isn't real exact, but it is close enough to get the job done.

i'm in a wheelchair so i use a large mirror. also lets me see if anything is blocked by ash.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave L.:
David, Putting indicating marks on the grill is a great idea. Do you have any pictures to show how you did it?

If you have the OTG model with the ash pan just put a couple of marks on the air inlet piece the pan sits in with a permanent marker. The one touch lever sits right below the inlet holes. The first mark i have indicates the vents are about to crack open and the very last mark i have shows the vent is now fully open. I also put some marks in between showing 1/4,1/2,3/4 open positions.

thanks David, that's what I thought you did.

quote:

Originally posted by J Reyes:
Pics including a cook log:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/10170855@N05/Xq4m9b

I am just starting with all of this. I am the proud new owner of a new 22.5" OTG, and I am very impressed with it so far.
I was wondering what you are using for the cook log. Is it from a spreadsheet or a specific program? I would like to use something similar but I am not sure where to find.

I'm not aware of a specific program. It isn't hard to create a spreadsheet file to fit your specs.

Cooking logs are very good when you are new to this or when you want to experiment with a process to tweak one or two variables at a time to see what kind of results you get. I'm sure that people who compete would also do well to track their results as they try out different processes.

When you are new I think it is good to keep things relatively simple at first. Find a baseline that works well for you and then try manipulating just a single variable to see how it changes the results. If you try a different rub, a different charcoal, a different cooking temp, a different specialty cut of meat, a different method of testing for done, etc, then it becomes hard to know which variable was the one that really mattered when you nail it.