Taters on the Ranch

[Hell Fire Grill]

A couple years ago I cooked for a youth sports fund raiser with this Ranch kettle.



When I showed up I wasn't real happy about the foil but the little gal running the program put an awful lot of effort into wrapping them so I never took any off.

The Ranch cooked about 350lbs of taters that day. Most of the loads were right around 50# each but the last two loads I piled the them 2 high and cooked quite a bit more than that. They were cooked at 500* and there were several that were very well caramelized, by the end of the day.

Directly next to me, on the right, was a dude with a Treager Texas Pro or whatever the largest model is. He had a obnoxious little 2k generator to run the cooker since we didn't have access to power. After he got the generator running (?) he heated the grill up as high as it would go, I think the knob on the doohicky said 400*. When he loaded it it started at around 250* and gradually heated to @ 360 max, IIRC. I was well into my second load before he got his first one done. He cooked 2 loads and noticed I was piling them 2 high and tryed it, he ended up transfering all his taters to my kettle when he ran out of time and all our customers were leaving. Thats ok I had enough fire to finish the job.

Red was looker that day.

[austin87]

I'm with you on the foil, I never wrap my taters. Sweet potatoes, Russetts, whatever. The skin gets crispy and a little smoky and is far and away the best part of the tater.

Just rub with a little oil/butter/bacon fat and a little salt. I do put sweet potatoes in dry though.

Nice work on the big ranch.

[mattmountz94]

glad to see the ranch do so good.  would of love to see how a yoder or another high dollar pellet grill would of performed

[Hell Fire Grill]

glad to see the ranch do so good.  would of love to see how a yoder or another high dollar pellet grill would of performed

I would imagine the firebox is very similar between the Treager and the others. I think its the size of the fire that limits output.

[addicted-to-smoke]

I'm with you on the foil, I never wrap my taters. Sweet potatoes, Russetts, whatever. The skin gets crispy and a little smoky and is far and away the best part of the tater.

Just rub with a little oil/butter/bacon fat and a little salt. I do put sweet potatoes in dry though.

Nice work on the big ranch.

Agreed on all counts!

I think people are conditioned to see foil on potatoes, from restaurants? That, and not in the habit of eating skin. I wasn't either, for decades,, until I cooked them naked in my charcoal grill. You can better see their progress sans skin, and yeah they taste better!