We raise our own beef, pork & chicken, so some sort of meat is almost always on the menu. We also live in the middle of nowhere and love pizza, so I'm usually making that once a week, along with baking all sorts of breads. With that has come an accumulation of assorted outdoor cooking appliances that includes two gas grills, two vertical smokers, an offset smoker, a pig roaster, a BBQ pit, and a cold smoke shack. While sitting out back enjoying my morning coffee the other day, I was suddenly reminded of an old Frank Lloyd Wright quote that sticks in my head; that "many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions", and while far from being wealthy, let's just say that I had an epiphany at that moment, as a comfortably retired janitor.
I had already primed wife number last that we might be able to include some sort of pizza oven in a planned addition and backyard makeover this year, but the outdoor kitchen part of the project was growing out of control. Her sister had purchased one of those egg things, that I immediately dismissed as ridiculously small and impractical, but she enjoys cooking with it, so I sensed a bit of sibling rivalry a brewin'. Our assorted cooking gear was mostly older stuff that was not particularly efficient, nor especially fun to cook with, so I was already secretly planning on replacing a smoker or three, as well as a roaster, but here's the thing. A value line offset smoker for my brisket, by the time I mod it out and upgrade some particulars, was gonna run close to a grand, and if I wanted something much larger or more efficient, I was very quickly going to be looking at spending several thousand dollars for something that was still gonna run me ragged when I smoke. The small pig roaster is an older eye sore, but it works, and here again, any sort of acceptable replacement is more good money after bad in terms of still taking up space for a fairly singular use appliance. The big ass gas grill has pretty much always been nothing special beyond being a convenient way to cook outside of the kitchen, 'cuz I mean, what's so special about gas cooked meal, the grill marks? And then there's the pizza oven. Building it is within my skill set, but the older I get, the more stingy I've been getting with my time. The alternative of course is to just buy one, but here again, anything that'll do a decent job on a 16" pie is going to start at another thousand dollars and up, so where does this leave me?
"Look honey, that new Old Country offset smoker is gonna be two grand with crating and shipping from Texas" (we're in Delaware)
"And a decent pizza oven is gonna be another $1,000, for something that's gonna look kinda cheap and just sits on a counter".
"Carl's Hot Box pig roaster is another $1,500 by the time we add all of the doodads and have it shipped," (a friend makes and sells them)
"And a decent sized ceramic Kamado Joe is three grand, plus almost another $1,000 for a rotisserie, a pizza cooking attachment, and assorted geegaws. All of that for grill space that can only hold one brisket or a single large pizza."
"That's over $8,500 to basically do little more than we can do already, but wait!"
"We (this is part of the psychological warfare, where I turn 'Me' into 'We') can buy this here Komodo Kamado Big Bad that can cook twice as much food with a whole lot less hassle, AND you get to pick from all of these amazing colors and finishes, AND it'll save us over a thousand dollars!".
"Best of all, it's a whole lot nicer than that silly egg thing that your sister bought at Lowes. You know, the one that's exactly like a million others on patios all over the country..."
"The garden club girls are gonna die!"
"I can sell all of this other crap while we're at it."
"How can we not buy this?!"
Yeah, this is not a luxe item, this is just common sense (or at least that's how I'm trying to sell it). lol
Not a want, but a need. lol
Anywho, looking forward to ordering one up later this spring, but first I have to build a place to put it. :)
