SPEAKER_0 [00:00:00]
Dramas, please.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:13]
Yeah.
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This is life
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with a twist of Lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:24]
So is it is it in the intro to the show where you have the clip from summertime?
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:30]
Yes. Drums please. That's how it starts off. Yep. I wonder how many people actually,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:34]
recognize that song.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:36]
There's at least three of us. Okay. Well, there we go. I so this is this is by the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, DJ Jazzy Jeff. Summertime is, like, one of his,
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I don't know, like, most popular songs ever. I it it's just it's a great jam too.
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Yep.
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I I think it's very appropriate because in my mind, this is our summertime episode.
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Alright. I was looking at the topics and these are all
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summer topics.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:03]
Right? Have you been on Instagram, Stan?
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:06]
No. Why? So I sent you a reel from Will Smith. Oh, yeah. No. I did. I did see that. I did see that. Yeah. I first, I didn't know what a reel was though, so I had to go find missus Lemon and ask her what I was supposed to do with it. So,
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like, I'm constantly learning new things. I I, you know, I didn't know that I yeah. Anyhow,
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it's what it is.
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Alright.
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So there is a verse, right,
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where
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the the end line is, because you're invited to a barbecue that's starting at four. And I thought Right. I thought that's where we should start. Right?
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So Alright. We're gonna I know we've got this agenda, but we're gonna do it in reverse order. You smoked
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:49]
your first
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:50]
pork shoulder.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:52]
I did.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:53]
How long have you had this smoker?
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:57]
When did I buy it?
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:58]
That last year.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:00]
I'm trying to think.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:02]
I don't remember.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:03]
When did Finker tell me to buy it? I think it was about a year. It's been about a year. What have you smoked on it? Because I honestly thought you had done a pork shoulder, so this news surprised me.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:13]
So I've done
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whole chickens.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:16]
I've done wings.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:20]
Is that it? We did ribs.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:22]
Oh, ribs. Yeah. Ribs are my favorite thing to smoke. So I've done ribs a couple times, chickens a couple times, wings a couple times. But this was the first time with a pork shoulder. Thing is pork shoulders are just a lot of meat standing. There's only two of us. Yeah. There's that Although, you shop at Aldi all the time and they at least back when I shopped at Aldi, they had half shoulders.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:41]
Do you not have you have you looked at Aldi for I not seen the half shoulder. I think missus Colmer gets the pork shoulder from Aldi though. Okay. Well, you should keep an eye out for that because I
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:51]
again, back when we shopped at Aldi, bought a bunch of these and froze them and worked through them because when it's a half shoulder,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:57]
it it doesn't take nearly as long, first of all, and then you wind up with not as much meat. Also, for what it's worth, John, you can absolutely freeze
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:05]
shoulder meat after it's been pulled. That's what we did. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Alright. So alright. But you did your first I just don't have a I don't have a giant freezer to store stuff in yet. Not yet. Not yet.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:15]
I did. It was an eleven and a half hour smoke.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:19]
How big was the shoulder?
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:21]
Six.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:22]
Just over six pounds. Okay. I didn't wrap it when I should have because I'm like, hey, this is going really fast and like I'm just gonna try to wait out the stall.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:33]
Yep. That's I've been there. Done that. I'll admittedly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:36]
I don't I almost never wrap.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:39]
Yeah. I just I don't know. Too much work. But so so tell me about tell me about the smoke.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:46]
So I used hickory and applewood.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:49]
Did it in the offset smoker. I started
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:51]
I think I fired it up around like
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06:15 in the morning, something like that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:58]
And I actually felt like I had
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come into my own and knew my smoker and I was able to keep a relatively consistent temperature the whole time.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:08]
Missus Kolmeyer found some rub at the grocery store that I'd have to go look at what it was.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:13]
But overall, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:15]
this was amazing. Okay. So good smoky flavor. Good smoky flavor in the meat. Alright. Absolutely. Smoke ring?
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:23]
There was a smoke ring, but I shredded it. I didn't slice into it to see what the smoke ring actually looked like. I mean, when you pull it, as long as you got you got the bark, you can tell. Crunchy bark, soft bark, what were you going for? Crunchy bark. Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:36]
And
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what I mean, how'd you serve it?
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:41]
A big pile of meat, Stan. Just Had some barbecue sauce on the side if you wanted to add it. I actually used some habanero hot sauce as well. Oh, okay. So Did you spritz this shoulder
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at all?
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:55]
I did. So I used half water, half apple cider vinegar,
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and I pretty much spritzed it
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once an hour
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before wrap.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:05]
I thought you didn't wrap it. I wrapped it late. Oh, wrapped late. Okay. So would you you wrapped it like
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:11]
mid
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:12]
stall? Is that what you did? Mid stall. Yeah. Okay. So then I wrapped it, and then I almost hit like the second stall around one eighty five or something like that. It's sat there for a while. It was weird. But Yeah. Shoulder is a is a tricky beast. Right? It'll it'll mess with you with that stall, and you you reach this point where you're like, you lose all hope. Like, this meat is never going to cook,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:32]
you know? And then right at this point where you're like, I'm just I'm just gonna take it off and just start cutting into it. Then all of a sudden, it starts going up, and you're like, oh, you know, victory victory is mine. But it's totally worth it. So what what, top temp did you go to?
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:44]
I took it off at 02:02.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:46]
Okay. Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:49]
Good deal. What did you serve with the shoulder?
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:51]
What did I serve with the shoulder? Missus Kollmeyer had roasted some veggies.
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Do you remember which veggies?
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Not
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really.
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Zucchini
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and
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I don't think it was peppers that time.
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Broccoli.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:07]
Okay.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:08]
Clearly, it didn't leave a last impression.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:11]
Besides, no. Because the pork shoulder was so amazing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:14]
So, I mean, do you have any idea like how much of the pork you ate? Did you eat about a pound, would you say? Two? Two pounds?
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:22]
Two and a So I ate it three days. So the next morning, I actually made a scramble with some smoked
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:28]
pork in it, which That was
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:31]
sounds good. Yeah. Was it just eggs and pork or did you throw anything else in there? So I did eggs and pork. I didn't throw anything else in there. I had more hot sauce.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:42]
Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:44]
Good So are do you plan on doing one of these again?
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:47]
Probably. I don't know if I'll do it anytime soon.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:49]
I actually smoked wings
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this last weekend,
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:53]
and I was not overly impressed. I over smoked them or my fire was not burning cleanly enough, so it had kind of a bitter taste to it. So Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:02]
That deflated my ego.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:04]
Same same wood? Did you use the same wood for that smog? Yep. Same wood. I didn't
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:08]
I should have split the
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:10]
log
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:12]
into smaller pieces and fed it going in, but I figured wings, okay. I'm gonna leave them on for what, like hour and a half. So let's just use a big piece of wood to get it to burn for an hour and a half. But, you know. Okay. Alright. Is that the last time you did wings, did you do it that way or did you do it differently?
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:28]
So the last time I did wings,
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:31]
I did it that way but the logs were smaller.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:34]
So I fed it a couple times and I had a more clean burning smoke. I think I also did wings at a lower temperature but everybody says to do wings higher so you can get more of a crispy skin. So what what temperature did you do them at then?
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:48]
Two seventy five is what I did shot for.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:51]
Okay. And the previous time you did what? Like, two twenty five? Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:54]
So for this worth, I'll tell you what I do now. I mean, you've had my my wings on the grill that are not smoked.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:02]
Right. But the times I've switched wings Do really well. Yeah. Why you
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:07]
had a good teacher, John. So so those I think I like, I try to keep the grill in that, like, 300 to $3.25 range, which actually my grill is hard to keep that low.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:17]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:18]
then you're just constantly turning them to make sure that nothing sticks and get stuck, and I usually do mine skin side down, which is, you know, a a lot of people are like, no, you can't do skin side down. But that that helps get that nice crisp crunch to it. The Sure. Skin will get crispy. Right? The hotter the heat. And so, when I've smoked wings, what I've done is I will smoke them at 02:25
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:38]
for, let's say, an hour. Right? Not a terribly long time, but I'll just go crazy with the smoke. The lower the temperature, the better.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:45]
And then,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:46]
I will throw them onto a really hot grill, like a 400, four fifty grill. Yeah. So that's what I did the first time.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:52]
I because I finished them on the grill. Unfortunately, I smoked them too long, so they ended up a little dry. Missus Colmire loved them the first time though. Okay. So I was trying to
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:02]
overcorrect my mistake last time, I guess. Do you do you sauce these or do you serve them with just a dry rub?
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:09]
Just a dry rub. Okay. Can put sauce on the side or any something like that. But Well, so for for what it's worth, if you ever over smoke or you're like, they're they're too cooked on the smoker, one thing you can do is go sauce them and then throw them on the grill, because that will cover a multitude of sins, as as many sauces do. Right? Right. And and if you have a group that's not into heat, you can always sauce them in
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:33]
Barbecue. Barbecue sauce. Right? And then you get a little caramelization on the outside.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:37]
So, you know, there are ways to to, I think, fix those
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:40]
challenging
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:41]
cooks with with with wings. But I think people take wings for granted. Right? Like, they go, wings wings are easy to do. They're really not because they're a small piece of meat, and sometimes the smaller the meat, the the more challenging, because it's not so forgiving. Right? Right. You know, if you leave a pork shoulder on the smoker for an extra half hour,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:01]
you're most likely not gonna ruin it unless you're at a super high heat, you know? Right. So that's just not the case with with
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:08]
with a wing. So I will say that I nailed
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:12]
the internal temperature of the wing. So I usually cook dark meat 10 to 15 degrees over one sixty five when it comes to chicken. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:20]
Oh, so you take it to one seventy five? Is that what you're saying? Yep. So I'll usually shoot for one seventy five whether I'm doing it on the grill or smoker just because I think the texture is better on dark meat at that time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:30]
Don't do that with the chicken breast, though. No. No. Yeah. With the chicken breast, it'll it'll be dry and powdery. There is something to be said. I think if if dark meat is cooked is is not cooked hot enough or, like, doesn't get to a high enough temperature, it can almost be, like, squishy or rubbery. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:48]
Like a like a wet rubbery. I don't like not like a dry rubbery. This sounds weird to say, but but if you've ever, you know, cooked dark chicken meat and
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:58]
not gone hot enough, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Right. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:03]
Good deal. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:04]
are you I I did I already ask this? You're do a shoulder again?
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:08]
You did. Yeah. So I I will do a shoulder again. I don't know when. Like, is this I mean, could you see this being like a monthly thing for you?
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:16]
Probably not.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:17]
No? Okay. It's a long smoke to do monthly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:21]
It is. It is. On the offset,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:23]
like, I am tending the fire every single hour. So Yep. Well, this this maybe leads to
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:30]
my situation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:31]
Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:32]
I have done a ton of pork shoulders. So last year, I would say we did at least one shoulder a month for probably six months out of the year. Like, I did at least six shoulders last year,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:45]
maybe more.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:46]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:47]
the thing that that kinda killed it for me is is as it got colder,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:51]
my smoker, which was chips and chunks with a propane heat,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:57]
does did not have a large chip box,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:00]
and
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:01]
it also was not, like, insulated or sealed very well, and so Mhmm. The temperature required a lot of management. Right? So I was tending to this thing probably as much as you do with your offset smoker. Right? Right. Maybe longer,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:13]
actually. I don't I don't know, like, not longer, but, like, more frequently because the the chip box is so small. And then, you know, certain situations with really long smoke, I'd actually need to empty it and like, you know, refill it because of the coals, like, there's just no room. Right? And I need that air moving around for good smoke.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:29]
Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:30]
I had I quite frankly, I had put off smoking
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:34]
this year, and it was kinda sad, honestly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:37]
I did a shoulder and it was good, but I I was like, I just don't like doing this, you know. Like, thought the the fun had just been sucked out of it. And then on the fourth, we actually did a shoulder, and we did a roast, and we did some briskets on my neighbor's smoker Yep. Which
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:53]
was not fully automated, but had it was electric, and it had a pellet feeder. Yep. Right? And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:59]
the amount of hands on
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:01]
interaction was significantly reduced. And I was like, you know what?
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:05]
This is nice. This is really nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:08]
And in the back of my head, I was like, I'm gonna buy a new smoker. I'm gonna buy one that auto feeds,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:13]
and I'll just I'll just do it when when I, like, I reach my breaking point. Right? K. But after that fourth
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:20]
weekend that we had, that was so good,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:23]
I was like, I want I wanna do this,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:26]
like, soon. And then my mom was coming out of town,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:29]
and then I get to thinking, well, I should smoke some meat for mom, you know? Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:34]
So and I pulled the trigger, and I bought a trigger.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:38]
You pulled the trigger on a trigger? I pulled the trigger on a trigger. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:42]
So I I'm trying to think now. I smoked
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:45]
every day for the first five days that I got it. I'd like If we If you remember the,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:51]
Marvel episode featuring Patrick Sturtevant, we were waiting on your meatloaf to finish up on the smoker. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah. So I totally forgot about that. I I forgot that we did that. That meatloaf tea turned out fantastic, by the way. I'm gonna do another meatloaf this week because it turned out so well. The Nice. The ground beef just soaked up that smoke, and it was it was delightful. So everybody seemed to like it too, which is good. That's always a plus. Yep. Especially with three kids at home. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:19]
I went ahead and I did ribs with mom. I did salmon That was your first time smoking ribs, wasn't it? It was. It was. And Did you like it as much as I do? No. No? Okay. Well, let me me back up. The the process of actually smoking the ribs is actually a lot of fun. Right? So because you got different things you're doing, like, especially if you're doing that three two one method, like, there's different things that are going on
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:41]
that
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:43]
I I think is just it's fun and engaging.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:45]
The thing that I realized it's been a long time since I've had ribs. The thing that I realized after I was done smoking is that I don't actually like eating ribs.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:53]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:54]
it's a lot of work, right, to eat ribs. And
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:58]
I am just
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:00]
I'm just not into that. I think if I think when it comes time to eat, I wanna just This is eat why I don't like to eat things that you have to eat with a spoon. Well, yeah. Things that are really small, like
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:10]
spaghetti noodles. Or or quinoa? Or quinoa. Actually, that quinoa's fine usually. Okay. Well, that's like that's like as small as you can get. Right? Yeah. So It's true. But the I think the ribs turned out fine. They were they were tasty, and everybody seemed to like them.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:26]
I didn't know that mom apparently has similar feelings about ribs and was very cognizant of her feelings about ribs. She never she never told me. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:36]
you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:37]
she's like, oh, yeah. They're good. They're good. You know? But in reality, she's like, I don't just don't like working for my food.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:44]
The thing is I have two I have two additional racks of ribs in the freezer. So I'm doing ribs again at some point. I just I just don't know when. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:51]
yeah. You know, it's
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:53]
I did they're they're good. The salmon, everybody but me loved.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:57]
Yeah. Yeah. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:59]
I had in my mind that I wanted a a smoky moist salmon, and this was more like like if you bought already smoked salmon, you know, like when it's cold like that. So it wasn't what I was going for, but every everybody liked it. Right? So everybody ate it. I mean, Lucy, I think,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:17]
like, licked the the plate that I put it on, like, she was over the top.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:22]
It went really so this was interesting too. I was not entirely satisfied with the smokiness of it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:29]
The next day though, I realized it was way more smoky than I realized.
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:33]
Nice. And so yeah. So that's that's what I found is that usually if you wait overnight,
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:40]
the smoke flavor comes through more, especially for you as a smoker who's probably been out
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:44]
smelling the smoke all day. Yep. And I that's that's a really important part there because I am all when I search something, I'm always asking Sarah,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:51]
is it smoky? Right? Because I at Right. This point, I can't tell. Like, my my clothes smell like I think the meat's supposed to taste,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:58]
you know, and like, I got it in my beard and my hat, and and, you know, I'm just lucky to, like, know what anything tastes like at that point.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:06]
And usually, she's she's
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:08]
very encouraging. She's like, oh, yes, honey. It's it's very very smoky. It's good. And then I'm like, are you telling me the truth? I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:15]
But I did I did a pork shoulder with mom,
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:18]
and oh, wow. I didn't even tell you the best part about the salmon. This is actually funny. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:23]
I put the salmon on. Was supposed go, like, two and a half hours, the recipe I had. Yep. And then I went to church.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:28]
Yep. K? While I was at church, I was monitoring
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:32]
the probe on the salmon, as well as the smoker itself,
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:37]
and it came to a point where I was like, I actually don't want it to keep cooking at heat, so I flipped it to
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:42]
keep warm mode, which was a whole thing that the the Traeger has. John, it was awesome. I like I came back from communion, and I just happened to look down at my phone, right, like like the center that I am. I was like, oh, that's it's running.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:55]
Wouldn't wouldn't have How's the watch app?
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:57]
I haven't actually I haven't actually used the watch app. I should try that. Is there a watch app? There there is. Yeah. That would be cool. I there there is, and I I haven't I haven't
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:05]
haven't messed with this. I'll have try that. But I but I just glanced on my phone to see what the temperature was. I was able to hit the button, and then put it to keep warm, and Nice. And just make an adjustment to this smoker
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:14]
while I was, you know, five miles up the road at church. And I was like, this is exactly what I paid for, you know. You know what
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:21]
this is gonna be awesome for?
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:23]
Brisket?
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:25]
I'm gonna say Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:27]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:29]
I mean, you can do brisket for Easter. That would be great. I wonder a rack of lamb. Yeah. So I was just thinking, like, to get some lamb and and just smoke that. That would be fantastic. Oh, my. Alright. I gotta think gotta think bigger. With with the shoulder, the thing that was awesome was I put it in
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:45]
around eight or 09:00
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:47]
the night before I wanted to eat it, and I didn't get up at all over the course of night. Like, when I put it in, I think for the first three hours, I went and I spritzed it with some some vinegar or apple cider vinegar. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:59]
But then I went to bed.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:01]
I slept in. I ate breakfast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:04]
I got ready for my day, and then around 10:30, I walked out just to, like, look at the grill, but I didn't know what actually to do. So so I didn't I didn't touch it. Just walked out Check the book. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:15]
I did go a little bit later in the afternoon, and I actually opened it up because I put some potatoes in. Right? Right. But but other than that, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:24]
I was just along for the ride, and it was great. It was totally hands off. Turned out really smoky. I had a good ring smoke ring on it. The bark was was on point.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:33]
All around,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:34]
good stuff. So Nice. I will
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:37]
excuse me. Probably be doing a shoulder
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:40]
at least once a month here moving forward. I I love shoulder and it doesn't take much time with a family of five to plow through it. So Right. There you go. Nice. You need to write a blog post on this.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:52]
On on just smoking meat? On the Traeger. Oh, on the Traeger. That's I should do a review. I had you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:58]
I consternated quite a bit over
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:00]
what to get, like which trigger model.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:03]
Because there's three tiers. There's the pro, the ironwood, and I think timberline is the is the top tier one. And I want if I went with ironwood,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:11]
and I was gonna go with a smaller one, like, in terms of surface area until the fourth, and then I realized Four
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:19]
big chunks of meat Yeah. In the smoker. You know, because suddenly, like, in my mind, it was not unreasonable that I would want to do this again. Right. And and so,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:29]
you know, I just decided that I needed to go big or or,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:33]
you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:34]
not get it at all. Right? So I got the eight eighty five or whatever. One thing that's interesting, this one does not have any kind of a chimney on it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:41]
Oh. Yeah. So the Pro series has a chimney. The other two do not.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:46]
The the
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:47]
ironwood is insulated, so is the timberline.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:50]
It also has this feature called super smoke, which involves another fan that like creates more smoke circulation inside of the body.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:57]
As far as I can tell, they all work pretty great. I I was going for it because of the insulation primarily,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:05]
and that super smoke feature. Thought that would be be fun to play with. Sure. The the quality of construction on this thing is
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:12]
unbelievable.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:13]
It is a it is just a really well crafted
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:16]
machine. It it's imp like, as you're putting it together, it's impressive at how, like, sturdy and just well done
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:22]
the entire
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:23]
the entire contraption is.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:26]
The boxing of this thing is unbelievable. It's it's Oh, yeah. I saw a picture of this. Yeah. So so for Sarah
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:34]
posted a little bit about this on Instagram, but when you start the the
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:41]
the little instruction book, right, says go go get a six pack. It takes a six pack to construct. So it's like tools you need, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:49]
screwdriver and
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:52]
it might have just been a screwdriver and six pack, I think, is all that said. Right? So. Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:56]
Well, but it gets better, John, because at specific
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:59]
steps, it actually indicates when you should open up the next spear.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:03]
Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:04]
And That's awesome. It gets even better because there are so you got the main box, right, that the trigger is in, and then there are little boxes inside that, like, brace it, right, in certain ways. Sure. You pull out a p a box that has hardware on it, and you're looking at the top of it, and you realize that there's actually a punch hole
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:21]
for, you know, like, on the box, and you you push down,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:24]
and it it's a it's a holder for a beer.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:27]
Nice. Right? And so, all of the boxes inside the Traeger had places to put beers
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:33]
as you're assembling.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:34]
Right? Which is just like
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:36]
awesome. I'm so glad you didn't find this assembled. Oh, I know. Right? Well, that's a whole other story in of itself. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:42]
so, like, all said and done, we watched Traeger has an awesome video that shows how you put this whole thing together.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:49]
The the assembly, it just
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:51]
it was easy. It was straightforward. It was clear. The documentation was fantastic. I like the Toro, which we'll get to in a minute.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:59]
And then when all was said and done, if you watched the video all the way to the end, it said, oh, but wait,
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:05]
turn the box inside out. And so we did, and it the inside of the Traeger box was actually printed with, a cottage.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:13]
Right? And there were lines that you could use to cut out for a window and a door, and it it was like a little trigger that like the the flaps folded up to form a roof. It was this whole thing, and it was intended for kids to play, because that's what kids do with big boxes. Right? And Traeger thought, well, you know, it's just ink. We'll just print it on the inside of the box and be good to go.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:33]
And I I think this is this is like dicing the cake for me because the thoroughness and thoughtfulness of
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:39]
what they've put together
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:41]
literally went all the way to the inside of the box, you know? Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:45]
So I I have had fantastic smoking.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:48]
I had an unbelievable setup.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:51]
I've just been impressed with this company and this smoker,
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:54]
you know, Soup to Nuts. So I, at this point, absolutely
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:58]
could recommend them to anyone who wants a smoker. They're a little pricey. Right? But I I think you get what you pay for in
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:06]
a lot of things in life, and this is probably one of them.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:10]
If you intend on doing this with any kind of
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:14]
regularity and you want the fully automated,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:16]
you know, pellet feeding, right, that's a big big qualifier because that's not for everybody. I get it. You know?
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:22]
Our our friend, Aaron Fanker,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:24]
Meat Roast by Fanker, Extraordinaire. Right? He's got two smokers. He's got the one where he's it's an offset he's constantly managing, and he's got a pellet feeder for when he he just wants to do luxury smoking.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:35]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:36]
I I think you just have to decide, like, what what stage you're at and what you want. But but if you if you're looking for automation,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:43]
right, like this is this is top notch in my opinion. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:47]
And it had a good food result.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:51]
Yeah. I mean, that's that's how you, you know, the coup de grace is I took off my first pork shoulder
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:56]
and Sarah, myself, the kids all declared that this is the best shoulder I've ever smoked. Nice. Right? So
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:03]
not only was it the easiest, but it was the best, you know. It didn't like, that's that's exactly what I want. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:09]
Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:10]
Well, nice. Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:12]
Last One but not
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:13]
day. You you'll get there, John. You'll get there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:16]
Someday, I'll have to upgrade and you can take this one off my hands. That's that's what There you go. Once you move to Indianapolis, because you wanna You wanna go with the next step up right now, don't you, Stan? No. I won't. There's there's a whole discussion to be had there about the benefits of the Ironwood versus Timberline. I I don't see it. So but that's either neither there. I thought it was a clear jump from pro to Ironwood.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:35]
Again, you know, double double insulation,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:38]
you know, super smoke, not having the chimney, like, there's a lot of things going for it there. But Yep. I digress.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:45]
Last to cover, because I you know, when I buy things, I just get a little crazy. Right? Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:51]
For a while now, you've been telling me I needed to get a new mower.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:55]
I don't think I told you that. I think that your neighbors started giving Lucy trouble because it was not self propelled and small me trouble because it was not self propelled in Lucy's mind. But but, you know, you you don't you don't get off that easy. You don't get off that easy. You you've been constantly sending me like references to Toro mowers for for probably over a year now.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:17]
Probably.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:17]
Yeah. Like like you're like, oh, well, you know, this mower would do this
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:21]
like to live vicariously
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:23]
through you, Stan. Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:25]
and so here we are.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:28]
So I asked John, which which Toro lawn mower should I get? And you pick the one that's not available anywhere.
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:34]
Right? Matte black super recycler.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:36]
Yeah. Super recycler. I think they're all matte black. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:40]
it was you you specifically recommended the one with the Honda engine.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:44]
Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:45]
Would have a black engine cap on it instead of the red one. Okay. Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:50]
I didn't get that one, John, because it wasn't available.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:52]
Fair enough. But Bricks and Stratton, I think that's a Milwaukee company, or they were at one point. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. A lot of a lot of things have Bricks and Stratton's engines, and they're
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:01]
probably fine. I have been, you know, using a Husqvarna with a Honda in it for
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:08]
ten years now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:10]
And and so
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:11]
I've got a pretty, like, high level of confidence in a Honda small small engine, you know, as well the Honda big engine, but that's another episode for another time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:21]
So I I ordered
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:23]
basically the the highest end
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:27]
Touro with the Briggs and Stratton that I could get, and I I Yep. Had it mailed. This was your problem. Well, yeah. There's so many problems. So I ordered them the highest end one that they had. It had a 190 cc mower or
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:39]
engine in it, and then it also had an electric starter.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:42]
K?
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:43]
I also ordered it to be mailed and delivered to me, and and I'm telling you right now, don't ever do this, because I have no idea what kind of tumbles and turns that mower took.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:55]
But when it got here, the battery for the starter
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:58]
had dislodged and clearly slammed into something,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:02]
because it damaged the leads on it and and bent them out of shape. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:07]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:08]
we we get it out. We start fiddling with it, and it's it's just clear to me that this this battery has banged around quite a bit. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:16]
I did not realize, and this is shame on me for this, that if you have a electric starter on your mower,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:23]
you have to plug the thing in to charge the starter.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:27]
It it makes sense when I say it out loud, but in in my mind, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:32]
that was not a thing I was gonna have to do, you know? Sure. And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:36]
as soon as we go charge the battery up or attempt to charge the battery up, I was turned off by
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:42]
that whole thing. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:45]
Battery wanna set the record straight right here.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:49]
You do not need an electric start on your lawnmower. I absolutely. You absolutely don't. Right? I thought Especially with the new ones that literally you can
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:58]
use a quarter of your strength to pull it and it will start. Yeah. It's
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:01]
it's insane how easy this thing starts. But again, I just I went went to the nines and then, you know, we dealt with it. So battery's damaged, leads won't stay on.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:12]
Also, just looking at this thing. Right? Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:14]
the
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:15]
electric starter
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:17]
was just strapped on to the non electric starter mower.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:21]
Yep. And it was super cheap. The the construction of all of the electric starter components were super cheap. And so it was clear to me that, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:29]
this was not worth the increase in cost. Right? Right. And it was like, it was $60 or something to to upgrade to the electric starter.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:38]
But I decided to take it back to Home Depot. I was very frustrated with the whole thing. We spent a lot of time trying to get everything connected and working. It just wasn't happening.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:50]
And I just decided, you know what? If they have one in store,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:53]
that is the the step down, which is actually just a 163 cc mower,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:57]
but no electric start. I would just get that one and take it home. Right? But I was gonna open the box, go through it before we before we left. And I did that. They had one, so it's good to go.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:06]
That mower
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:07]
is is a real treat. Like, it it just runs
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:10]
real nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:11]
But again, I think a big difference was it had not been banged around inside of a
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:16]
box while being shipped. That was the you know, probably made a difference. Yep. The electric starter, absolutely not worth it. You heard it here. I and what John said is a 100% true.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:27]
This thing is a breeze to start. Lucy was actually shocked at how easy it was to start compared to the Husqvarna, which honestly, the Husqvarna is not that hard to start compared to the motors that I used as a kid. So Yep. You know. And for the record, Lucy is how old? 11.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:43]
- So an 11 year old can start this. Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:47]
Hen Henry tried. He did not have luck. I think it was a leverage thing because he's little on short Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:53]
I it wasn't I don't think it was muscle strength. I think it was just leverage. Right? So that the angle was weird.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:59]
But here's here's one other thing. The
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:02]
the manual
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:03]
in this
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:05]
mower box
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:06]
was unbelievably bad.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:10]
Like, it didn't make any sense, and and, like, there's not a lot to do. Right? So
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:15]
whether or not you need a manual, I think, is is in and of itself debatable. But,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:19]
like, just not easy to navigate.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:22]
So when when the battery was damaged, I was looking for some kind of diagram that showed me how to tuck
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:29]
the wiring harness inside of the compartment the way that it was supposed to. Right? There was no such diagram.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:35]
I had to get on to, like, the Home Depot website to listen to other people complaining and explain how they did it, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:42]
which is just not great. So I I think, like, Toro needs to step it up big time. It's more like Traeger. Yeah. Exactly. And this was the thing. Right? As I'm as I'm dealing with the Toro, I'd already dealt with the Traeger.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:54]
And so my expectations were probably pretty high,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:58]
but it just it was a stark contrast. Right? Because this is a this is a premium mower,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:02]
fundamentally.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:03]
Is not some chump mower.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:06]
I got the John Kollmeyer edition, you know, all trick out with the super recycler and all that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:10]
But
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:11]
when we finally did use it, great cut. It it really mulches
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:15]
so much better than
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:19]
I I would have ever imagined. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:22]
It also
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:23]
just rides more smoothly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:26]
and that self that that self paced self propulsion Personal pace. Yeah. Personal pace. That's what it is. Yeah. That's that's slick. I ain't gonna lie. Like, it it does a really good job of matching. You have to the thing is you have to know how to hold
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:38]
the
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:40]
the the handle. Right? Like, you've gotta
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:42]
if you push out,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:44]
you will not be as comfortable as if you push down the angle that it is at. Right. If that makes sense. So that's that's probably an adjustment they could make to, like, change the orientation of that. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:55]
and and Lucy being, you know, shorter than me, I think she had a little hard of a time, you know, trying to orient her her hands on it, but she she figured it out. And suffice to say,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:06]
I I think personal pace is totally worth it. I I would, you know, easily recommend or endorse that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:13]
So Nice. Yeah. Do you have blade stop on this more? I do not have blade stop. I would have loved blade stop. That's a pretty cool feature.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:21]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:22]
I I guess I think it's honestly, I think that's a Honda engine feature.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:27]
Oh.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:28]
Because the what I also noticed is as I was looking at Honda mowers, and if
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:33]
if there had been a Honda mower at Home Depot, don't know how this would have shaken out.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:37]
But all the Honda mowers have that feature. So Got you know, and That makes sense. For those that don't know, right, blade stop is basically like you
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:45]
don't turn off the engine,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:48]
but the blade does stop. So if you think about it, right, like you're you're working and you go to get a drink. Right? Or there's a toy in the yard that you gotta pick up and move. Yep. Yep. Or or trash from some neighbor kid left behind. Whatever. Right? Right. Like, nothing that ever happens, although it happens all the time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:06]
And and I there's some advantage to that. I'm sure that that's probably less stress on the engine than starting and stopping it, and that's probably the key there. So, you know, I've got a neighbor. I have watched. They clamp their handle down, so they they essentially have like, they can walk away from it. But I always think to myself, oh, man, that's just an accident. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:24]
but anyhow, John, I I just like to say I think your recommendation shook out. I
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:30]
I need you to be a little more bold in telling me not to do the electric start next time though. Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:34]
I'll work on it. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:37]
alright, my friend. That's the summertime episode.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:40]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:41]
Summertime. Summertime. Alright, my friend. I think until next time. Later,
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:46]
Stanley. Have fun on your trip that you might be back from already.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:50]
Or I might not be going on at all in case you're listening and you're that kind of person. Right. Yep. Alright. Trish. This is Stan Lemmon reminding you to help control the spread of COVID nineteen.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:01]
Go get a vaccine.