Sounds like it did allright. :-)

I have to say once modded the chargiller is a good smoker. Although I didn't do the basket mod the exact same way. I left the rounded rails on the outer edge and I didn't use threaded rods. I used 4 bolts and used washers to sandwhich bolt them to the sides.

But once you do that a couple shakes to free the ash and temps are steady on mine from 230 on the right to 210 on the left.

Good luck.
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:-)

Looks great. Love the bark too.
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had small herf here yesterday, so i smoked up a couple butts and a couple chuckies, and a few italian sausage. good reviews.

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Looks great Wes!

I can't clearly tell from the picture, is that a variable height shelf support rail that you used for holding the cooking grate up?
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yeah, i have bolts set at 2", 4", and 6" from the rim. depending whats cooking is what level i set the grate. havent cooked a large enough batch of meat yet, but i can run 2 grates at once.
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Got a Ground turkey fattie stuffed with onions, peppers, cheddar and fried potatoes on right now and have some ABTs to add in a bit. Yum!
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Nice spread Wes!
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A couple more shots from my shindig this weekend

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Man, I had a great time this weekend! to top it off last night, I got back to the house after dropping my dad off expecting to start cleaning up, and everything was already taken care of. Sat out with my neighbors smoking quality cigars and sampling fine liquor (he is a regional sales manager for a distributor :-)) until 2:30ish this morning.

What a great weekend!
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Wow ... what a great cook. That flat looks unreal!!!
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Here is another good Char-griller mod page. Pics of the mods halfway down the page or so.
I had no end of trouble with mine, and I don't even have the side fire box. Plugged a few
holes with bolts, extended smokestack down to the grill level, and calibrated the thermometer
and I can keep things pretty stable.

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/vi...mods&start=180

Cooked two racks of ribs this weekend, forgot to take pics cause at the smoke ring you HAVE to
have them offsite and html them in. F that. Here I can post freely and I will remember to take pics in
the future. Some of the best I have ever done. BUT I mixed all the salt out of my rubs and got it too
UNSALTY accidentally, so my ribs were heart healthy this weekend. Was pi$$ed a few weekends in
a row cause my butts were saltier than I like em. I mixed in more of everything in proportion and
left out the salt. Got carried away apparently. But I think knowing this I will just shake on some sea salt.
Salt doesn't belong in a rub.
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Thanks Brent, it came out really good. I'm not a real beef guy, mostly do pork. We had friends coming over that don't do pork so I wanted to have something for them. In the past I haveused my Pork Goodness Rub on the brisket, but Holly suggested we try something else this time, so I pulled a rub together at the last minute. Now I have to try and remember what I put in it! :-)
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Here's my first attempt at a fattie from the past weekend just before I pulled it off the smoker. Ground turkey stuffed with onions, mushrooms, potatoes, peppers and cheddar wrapped in bacon. I used hickory for the smoke.

I stuffed a little too full, but it held together for the most part.

I really liked it, and so did my girlfriend, which kind of surprised me. And, of course, I had to throw some jalapenos on too :-)

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Does anyone have a recipe for a fatty?
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Chris that looks awesome. When can I come over and have some?
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Very Nice. You did a great job of crisping the bacon too. :-)
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I brought the leftovers to work and they were devoured by my coworkers so unfortunately it's all gone. But I'll definitely be trying it again.

Thinking spinach, mushrooms and feta for round 2. :-)
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cricky101, the color & "look" on the fatty and the ABTs look frickin' perfect bro.


The way I understand it, a fatty is really more of a concept than it is a recipe. there might be a recipe out there, but I've never gone looking for one. Basically the concept goes something like this:

Get a bag of ground sausage (uncased), lay down a long sheet of HD aluminum foil or saran wrap on a clean counter, cutting board or baking tray, spread/roll out the sausage in the center of the foil/saran wrap tray like it was focaccia dough, about 3/8"-1/2" thick just skip the dimples, try and keep it relatively square or rectangular. Sprinkle with rub or spices as desired (I recommend low or no salt rubs/spices, because the sausage usually has plenty of salt in it already)

Pile whatever you want in the center of the fatty in a line that will be perpendicular to the rolling direction on the rolled out ground sausage. Be it thin apple or pear slices, whatever cheeses you like or think would go well, peppers - bell, anaheim, jalapeno, fresno, serrano, habanero - whatever you like here, basil, spinach, onion, shallots, chopped garlic, shredded cabbage, finely diced potatoes, just about anything. If you put bacon in there, I would recommend pre-cooking it first (I'm sure someone out there gets away with not precooking it - I'm not interested in risking eating raw bacon, so I pre cook). I've seen beans put in fatties (use canned beans since they are already cooked and a slotted spoon to minimize juice). Basically, whatever you think would go good in there. I've seen fatties with veggies, pork, even stuffed like they were a pepperoni calzone w/ pepperoni, pizza sauce and mozzarella. I've been toying with the idea of forming one into more of a boat or trough shape and cracking a few raw eggs in there with some cheese and pre-cooked potato pieces and peppers, then sealing it - essentially a breakfast fatty, just never gotten around to it.

Now that you have your fillings layered out, roll the sucker up like it was a california roll sushi, and seal the ends by folding over and pinching.

If you are going to do a bacon weave mat, I would probably do that before you roll out the sausage.

Then throw the sucker in a low temperature smoker for a few hours. Without the bacon weave, the sausage is kind of fragile, you might want to set it on a fish grate or an old cookie baking cooling rack that is turned 90degrees to the direction of the cooking grate rods (so it forms a square cross-hatch pattern). I know some people who cook the fatty in the foil or saran wrap (yes, real Saran brand Saran wrap will hold up to 275-300 degree temps before melting) for about 30 minutes to let it "set" then remove the foil/saran. To me, this seems like an futile exercise in dexterity that is just begging the fatty to fall apart when half-cooked.
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I have made all kinds of fatties, but my favorite two are the easiest.

1. Open a chub (roll) of Jimmy Dean Hot sausage by slicing the plastic from end to end. Put some pork rub on it. Throw it on the smoker at 225 for 3 hours. Put in in foil with some apple juice. Put it back on the smoker for 2 hours.

2. Open a chub (roll) of Jimmy Dean Hot sausage by the plastic slicing from end to end. Cut the chub almost in half length wise and put in a long chunk of your choice of cheese (I like Monterey Jack). Close the chub back up and seal as best you can with your fingers. It really helps here if you can wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and put it back int the refrigerator for a while. Put some pork rub on it. Throw it on the smoker at 225 for 3 hours. Put in in foil with some apple juice. Put it back on the smoker for 2 hours.

When I have used vegetables they get too runny for my liking... but then again I don't remember not eating it!!! Fattys Rule!!
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Hahahaha, this is me. I eat my failures faster than my successes.
One thing to keep in mind Darrell is to keep the cheese "between the hash marks" so to speak.
When the fatty is nearly done, the cheese will make a run for the ends and get wasted out in
the pan, mixing with grease and becoming "nearly" unsalvageable. I strained mine through a
paper towel once. I love cheese. But I digress.
If you keep the cheese mostly in the middle, it will migrate out anyway, but having farther to go,
may mostly stay inside the fatty where you want it.

As for vegetables, I like some well strained rotel in mine.

Here's about a dozen fatties with pics

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34438
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12.5 lb Brisket.
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