GMG Daniel Boon - first impressions

[Tiny]

Morning chums,
Well I finally did it, scraped together the pile of cash needed to purchase an Daniel Boon from the good people of the American BBQ company.

Firstly the vendors, not what I would say are the tightest administratively speaking, things like confirmations of order and the like not forthcoming but delivery is rapid and the service over the phone excellent, when I called in with an assembly query they talked me through it and the sales manager left me with his mobile and a genuine "any problems over the weekend call me"

So to the beast itself, you will need a mate to help with the assembly, it isn't complex but the 12 stone box it comes in takes some manhandling. The you tube video is straightforward but it will take you a fair chunk longer than it suggests, reckon we were about 2 hours all in but this was with a blind man and a 14 year old lad so not perhaps a fair benchmark.

Built it has a real solid quality feel, although it is cleverer than a dolphin in a university gown it has a nice retro iron look and feel.

Fired it up yesterday and it works like a dream, I have the WiFi mod so can control it from the iPhone and it is push button simple. cooked some basics like sausages and wings to judge the evenness of temp and it is pretty even across the cooking area a little warmer on the right over the burn pot but not worth worrying about.

Used the gold blen pellets which are mostly hickory and they gave an excellent balanced smoke flavour and all the meat came off super moist. Have an array of meats to try this weekend and am really looking forward to it.

Yes it is expensive, but no more than a top Weber gasser, is it cheating? perhaps it is but then if you have rigged your WSM with an party Q or guru or the like is that any different?

So first impressions are excellent, I would heartily recommend to all the other blind bbq'ers out there but not sure there are many! I think you sighty folk would like it to.......in fact it is so good I have told the wife we will slim down the collection to just the GMG and the Weber kettle.....probably
Cheers
Tiny

[Simple-BBQ]

Hi Tiny,

It's great to hear your first impressions of the Daniel Boone. Hopefully you will let us know how you get on over the weekend as you cook some of other meats. This is particularly of interest and finding genuine testimonials doesn't seem that easy.

Cheating? As you say, no more than some of these other gadgets designed to help achieve a great end result. Where the real benefit lies, I suspect, is that you can leave it to do its thing without too much fuss or attention. Time is valuable and if something like this means you can enjoy cooking more often then it is to be embraced. Can we say progress?

The WiFi App might be nice, looking out of the window just now.

Best of luck with it.

Dan

[tommo666]

Congrats on the latest member to the family. I love mine and use it all the time. It works great as an oven doing higher temp cooks. Steaks, burger all come out excellent. A couple of things to bear in mind, check the food probe in boiling water as it can vary a bit. Also if you do a firmware upgrade to the controller it will change the display from centigrade to Fahrenheit.

An alternative source for pellets is here: http://www.liverpoolwoodpellets.co.uk/o ... llets.html

I use a product similar to frogmats which are a silicon mesh. This stops smaller items dropping through the grates, i get them from poundland at 1.00 per sheet. They work fine and are dishwasher safe.

A new ios app is being tested at the moment which connects to your home network so hopefully that should be released soon. If you get stuck for ideas try some of the recipes in the manual they work.

[Simple-BBQ]

A new ios app is being tested at the moment which connects to your home network so hopefully that should be released soon. If you get stuck for ideas try some of the recipes in the manual they work.

So with a little bit of technical stuff in the background one could monitor their Daniel Boone away from home too then!?

[slatts]

Great review Tiny

I'd love one but just cannot afford it right now.

I have a pitmaster iq and as it gives me a decent nights sleep and the food is just as good then as far as I can see all is well with these kind of things, I don't see it as cheating just helping us along to good food.

We've all learnt without the gadgets, well I have, and have had those up and down nights with the worry of the temps dropping etc. Now im enjoying some sleep while cooking over night.............even more so as the wife doesn't get woken up by the maverick alarm

[Tiny]

Good people more to report, Ribs yesterday and they were again super tasty and moist but I bottled it and should have given them an extra hour....as a point of reference does my butcher just have particularly meaty babybacks? a single rack is around the 2kg mark and there is lots of eating....

But I digress, tried searing burgers and it err well just did, better than on an gasser and without the crazy world of Arthur Brown over charcoal......switched to the Texan blend and although its a stronger flavour still rounded and mellow.....

Currently have an large Potkjie full of chilli that has been bibbly bubblying at just over 100 for 4 hours, think it is nearly done.....

Sadly back to work tomorrow so the pork joint and the half salmon will have to wait till next weekend......and am still musing on the eldest lads "can I have my mates round for an BBQ Friday Dad?" request.

But GMG is just bloody fantastic at this point.......
Cheers
Tiny

[JBBQ]

I think it is one of the best purchases I have ever made (and I have bought lots of STUFF!)

Did you find the Texas blend burns way faster than the Gold Blend too? I have stopped using it purely from an expense perspective!

[Tiny]

Hi JBBQ,
Cant say I noticed much difference at all, at the moment finding it hard to judge how many pellets I am using as I have 2 bags open and have cooked at a range of temps. Did notice when you ramp it up to proper hot as I did when I was burning it in it ate pellets....

But at the mo I just don't care it is bloody marvellous,
Cheers
Tiny