Over the holidays my friends at Mr. Bar-B-Q offered to send me out one of their grill accessories to use.  They also offered to give another set of whatever they sent as a giveaway on the blog.  I couldn’t pass up a chance to get my readers something nice so I accepted.  (Note:  This is my way of saying, so I’m in compliance with all stupid laws and rules, that the pizza grilling kit I’m going to talk about here was free to me.)

This isn’t so much a review of the Mr. Bar-B-Q Grill Stone Pizza Set they sent me, but a review of my pizza making skills, which are somewhat lacking.  The pizza stone and giant pizza spatula, I  hesitate to call it a pizza peel, worked great.  Mrs. Grail bakes an awesome pizza in the oven so I attempted to duplicate her efforts on my 26 inch Weber Kettle.  Take a look at how I did it and offer up some suggestions at the end in the comment section for your chance to win your own Mr. Bar-B-Q Grill Stone Pizza Set.

Keep in mind this is a Weber 26 inch Kettle which is considerably larger than the 22 inch most people have in their backyard.  The first thing I did was fire up a whole chimney of charcoal and once it was ready form it into a ring around the bowl.  Because of the size of the kettle I needed to add some extra charcoal.  Once all the charcoal was hot I placed the pizza stone on the grill.

For some reason, I’m not quite sure why, I thought it would be a good idea to have the pizza stone a little higher up into the dome lid so I placed the pizza stone on top of my GrillGrates.  I’m not sure if this was a good idea or not.  I’ll need to try this again without them to see how the process goes.

The pizzas I cooked seemed to take longer than I would have anticipated, about 15 minutes.  I don’t know maybe that’s the right time frame, but it just seemed like a long time.

The flavor was great and Mrs. Grail’s Pizza Dough Recipe was fantastic but for some reason I just wasn’t satisfied with the results.  I was hoping for more of that “wood fired pizza” flavor.  It just wasn’t there.

Here’s what I would do next time to try to improve.

I think I need a much hotter kettle than I had.  I didn’t the get the temperature in the dome over 400 degrees.  To do this I need to either use more charcoal or use my smaller 22 inch kettle.  Is the ring of charcoal a good idea?  Or should I have spread it out?

I’ll probably try using the pizza stone directly on the grate instead of trying to raise it higher.  Thoughts?

Want to win a Grill Stone Pizza Set from Mr. Bar-B-Q so you can make great pizza outdoors?  Here’s how to get an entry:

• Leave a comment here about cooking pizza outdoors.  It can be a comment about how you’d like to do it for the first time, it can be a comment about how I can improve my pizza making skills. Just leave a comment.  You can leave multiple comments for multiple entries, but not more than once a day.
• Next if you have a Facebook account you can get an additional entry by “Liking” this post on Mr. Bar-B-Q’s Facebook Page.  (You’ll need to “Like” their page first, please do so.)
• You will also get one more entry if you “Reshare” the link on Mr. Bar-B-Q’s Facebook page.

On the morning of January 28th all entries will be transcribed into an Excel spreadsheet.  A number will be selected using a random number generator at Random.Org.  And that will decide our winner.  Winner will be notified that morning via email and/or Facebook!  Easy?  I sure hope so…

Thanks to Contestgirl for the promotion!

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I have to admit my inner “Tool Man” wants me to have anything that runs on electricity, but so far I’ve avoided buying that one.  When it comes to pulling pork I’m pretty much a two forks and lots of arm action kind of guy.  I’ve always found my technique to be adequate.  So why try anything else.

I found a good reason to try something else recently when I got an email from the gang at Meatrake offering me a couple sets of Meatrakes.  One for me to try and and another to give away.  I replied and told them sure, go right ahead and send them out.  I mean trying something out for free beats the heck out of buying something and discovering it’s not the product you thought it was going to be.  I have to admit, though, I already knew I wasn’t going to like this “tool” at all and I felt a little guilty accepting their offer.

But, I was wrong…

The Meatrake actually did make pulling the pork a lot easier.  I ripped through two 8 pound butts in around five minutes.  This is pretty fast for me.  I thought it was a great tool and now I’m glad I got them.  I’ll probably use them every time I shred me some meat.

The handles are made from polypropylene and fit nicely into my hands.  I wish the handles were a little bigger around than they are, but it’s not really much of a problem.  The tines are make from professional grade stainless steel and tear through meat with ease.  I was even able to separate the pork fat from the pork using the Meatrakes with very little difficulty.

I suppose I could pad this review with lots of hyperbole and big words of praise. Instead I’m just going to tell you these things work and they work good.  In my opinion they are work $19.95 if you are pulling lots of meat.  You can purchase from Meatrake.com.

Now for the giveaway details.  The rules are quite simple.  Leave a comment on this post with why you want a set of Meatrakes.  Then tell all your friends about it.  Have them come here and leave a reply to your comment.  The person who gets the most replies to their comment wins.  Drawing will be held at Noon (Pacific time) on January 2nd.  Winner will notified via email, so make sure you leave your email.  In the case of a tie, I’m just going to pick someone…

Simple enough?  Ready…set…comment!

(And if you don’t mind would you please retweet for me)

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Here are the rules:

• Entries much conform to contemporary English language Haiku styles
• Use of three lines
• No more than 17 syllables total
• Entries must be BBQ or Grilling related
• Entries must contain at least one “meat”
• All entries become the property of The BBQ Grail Media Group
• Entries can be submitted beginning November 1st, 2011
• Judging will conducted by readers of the BBQ Grail blog beginning December 15th, 2011
• Winner announced January 1st, 2012
• Prizes will be awarded.  ( Just don’t know what they are yet)

Leave your entries in the comment section!  Have fun and thanks.

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America’s Next Pork Crock-Star

On October 1st, I took over the daily editing and writing responsibilities of Pork, Knife and Spoon through the rest of this year.  PKS is the official blog of the National Pork Board.  It’s a tremendous opportunity for me to spread the word about my love of Pork.  It’s also a great way to incorporate the BBQ community into the site.

It’s Fall and The National Pork Board is running a contest on the best family style Slow-Cooker recipes.  Details are here!  Now, before all you BBQ enthusiasts think I’ve gone off the deep end.  I’m promoting the contest here because I know there are lots of closet slow-cooker users in the ranks and the readers of this blog are great cooks.  Just remember it’s “Slow Cooked Pork in BBQ Sauce” and NOT “BBQ’d Pork.”

Better Recipes:  Weekly Recipe Contest…BACON!

Now I know there are lots of bacon fans out there with tremendous bacon skills.  This recipe contest on Kristina Vanni’s site The Daily Dish.  Details are here!  And just for the record…MOINK Balls are taken.  Someone else is entering them.

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Grail Note: The Winner of the MrBarBQ.com contest is Mary M. from Wantagh, New York.  I’d like to thank the folks at MrBarBQ.Com for sponsoring this great contest.  If you’re looking for great BBQ Accessories please check them out.

Do you have a father or know of a father who deserves a nice BBQ/Grilling present for Father’s Day? Here’s your chance to win that super-duper Father (or father figure) a great present from MrBarBQ.com. The winner of this prize package will receive the new Hydro Grill Blaster pictured above along with an 18 piece stainless steel grilling tool set with aluminum case.

Here’s how we’re going to do it…

From now until 6:00pm (pacific time) on June 12th, 2011 you can leave a comment here on why your nominee deserves a chance to win these great prizes. The more nominations a person has, the better chance they have to win. Also, if you are on the list of people who have “Liked” MrBarBQ on Facebook your nomination will be doubled. You can nominate anyone you want to win this great Father’s Day gift. You can nominate multiple people, just make sure you nominate on different days.

I will notify the winner, via email, shortly after 6:00pm on June 12th. Winner MUST respond to email within 24 hours with shipping information or the prize will be given to someone else. The goal is to get this prize shipped in time for Father’s Day. There will be NO EXCEPTIONS to this rule.

(NOTE: All comments are moderated on my blog. If it doesn’t show up right away, just it will soon. Once I approve one of your comments the others will appear immediately. And rules are subject to change)

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Here’s how we’re going to do it!

Rules:

1. Receive an entry for Retweeting or Tweeting about the contest using the hashtag #GRAILgrate (1 per day)
2. Receive an entry for leaving a comment below on what you’d like to cook with your Grill Grates (1 per day)
3. Receive an entry for “Sharing” the link from my Facebook page on your Facebook page (1 per day)
4. Receive one entry for “Favoriting” this post on StumbleUpon.  (Only once, please)
5. That’s a max of three entries per day + StumbleUpon entry
6. Winner will be drawn at 6:00pm on Sunday, May 15th.
7. And as much as I hate to do it…U.S. Winner Only.  Shipping is prohibitive.  Sorry.

(NOTE: Comments have to be moderated on my blog.  If it doesn’t show up right away, just be patient it will soon.  Once I approve one of your comments the others will appear immediately.  Also shoot me a message on Facebook that you’ve posted the link on your Wall so I can make sure I get your entry.  And rules are subject to change)

Congratulations to John L. on winning a set of GrillGrates for Memorial day

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Entering is simple!  Masterbuilt has teamed with John McLemore at “DADGUM That’s Good”.  All you have to do is visit John’s site and in the Recipe section pick one of your favorite recipes from either the Fried, Boiled or Steamed sections.

Once you’ve picked your recipe come back here and post the name of the reicpe in the “Comments” section of this post.  It’s that simple!  The contest will run through Noon (PST) on Sunday, November 14th.  You may enter once per day, provided you mention a different recipe each time.

The winner will also receive a copy of John McLemore’s  “DADGUM That’s Good Cookbook.

Please Note:  Our goal is to have this fryer to you by Thanksgiving.  Winner will be notified  by 2:00pm (PST) on Sunday, November 14th via email.  Check your email on that Sunday.  If you’re the winner we will need your mailing address so we can get the fryer out first thing on Monday, November 15th.  Closing date of contest is subject to change without notice. 

Comments on this site are moderated.  They may not show up immediately the first time you post.  I make every effort to approve comments quickly but sometimes it may take an hour or so.  Even though they don’t immediately appear, they will soon…

Stay tuned in April for details of the 2011 MOINK Ball Challenge.  The Challenge will be moving to the Spring next year to try and get more participants to join in.

Thanks Michael for a great entry!