Smoked sausage and grill basket veggies with the vortex

[austin87]

Second cook with the vortex, I'm really liking this thing. It works differently than the baskets and the metal is a good heat deflector.

Put about 50 briqs of KBB in the vortex, narrow end up. Lit 10 briqs in the mini-chimney and threw them on top for a minion type set up. Put a chunk of pecan over the vortex directly on the cooking grate. Lower vent mostly closed to hold temp low.



Had 5 sweet Italian sausage and 4 hot Calabrese



Cooked and pulled to rest, they took a little over an hour.



Opened the lower vent wide to get the heat up, had yellow squash, mushrooms, and onions in the basket. The vortex is awesome directly under the veggie basket.



Plated...



And the smoke ring money shot

Have a good night!

[Cuda Dan]

Austin87, Nice job on your grilling.

[THUNDERDOME]

Austin you're on a roll. I cooked that panko fish recipe. We LOVED it!

[jcnaz]

Looks pretty good!

[Sauce]

Good looking grub Austin. What is the difference between loading up the vortex vs the charcoal baskets?

Sauce

[WNC]

Now I'm wanting some sausages!

[austin87]

Good looking grub Austin. What is the difference between loading up the vortex vs the charcoal baskets?

Sauce

@Sauce its more concentrated right above the vortex, but because the stainless steel is pretty thick gauge it is a better heat blocker for indirect. The vortex fits perfectly between the charcoal grate and cooking grate, about 5" tall. So, if you aren't directly over the vortex you have shielded, indirect heat. When banking or using the baskets the food closest to the coals cooks a little faster because there isn't a heat shield - the vortex eliminates that. In the photo below only the stuff over the red circle gets direct heat. Everything between the red circle and the green circle/edge of the kettle gets even, indirect heat. It's pretty cool. Also, you can stack coals 5-6 or more high in a small concentrated area. When I bank or use the baskets I can usually only get coals 2-3 deep. Hope that helps.

I'll be cooking quite a bit with this thing. It won't completely replace the baskets but I think it has some really cool uses.

Austin

[Sauce]

Good info, and good cooking!

Sauce

[Nate]

I think I need to get a vortex or make one. Looks like a great tool to have. How low was the temp you were holding?

[austin87]

@Nate after dumping the 10 lit briqs into the vortex I got a phone call and left the lid off for 10 minutes so they were getting tons of air and lighting coals next to them.... It took a little while to cool off after closing the vents but 300-325. Little higher than I wanted but that was my goof at the start.

Had I started with 6-8 briqs and put the lid on quickly (which is what I've got tapped up for the next go) I think I could hold 250 pretty easy.