Bacon on the grill from now on!

[MAK DADDY]

We cooked up some bacon over the flame zone, I will never use a pan on the stove again!
350 degrees, cooks in minutes and no flare ups! We have also smoked it at 175 for an hour or so, bacon just soaks up the wood flavor.

[Hopefull Romantic]

They look good for tomorrows breakfast. If any are left.

HR

[MAK DADDY]

You know bacon is gone as soon as it comes off the grill ;D

[OU812]

Bacon Bacon Bacon Bacon Bacon, I likes Bacon

[classicrockgriller]

Is that open flame directly above where the pellets are ignited. How large of an area is available for open flame cooking?

[squirtthecat]

Yeah, I'm curious too.    What all powers this critter?   Got a schematic?

[MAK DADDY]

You can see a cutaway view on the website.
The design idea is to be able to somewhat sear foods as well as have the ability to cook dinner time meals quickly and easily more like a gas grill that most people are used to without the flare ups! It also works great for bacon veggies etc. We didn't want to wait 45 minutes to cook a steak at dinner time.
The flame is diverted with a diffuser plate so to not distort the stainless steel grease tray, as the flame wraps around that plate it then goes through the embossed holes for direct heat (more heat than flame).
The embossed holes divert grease drippings down the plate and into the grease bucket instead of falling into the bottom of the pit, grease that does make it through the small holes is burned up for the most part.
There is a plate that covers up the flame zone for all indirect cooking. The flame zone area is approx 1/3 the grill surface when uncovered.

[classicrockgriller]

I went to your web page and read everything there.
Question, from the diagram it looks like the Mak has a slanted drain pan also. And from what you have told me, the Mak also has a cover for normal smoking when not wanting to direct flame a steak or other goodies. And then you stated that to direct flame you remove the pot cover and take off a cover in the center that exposes the diffuser plate. When you are say doing a bst butt and do not want the direct flame are you covering your slanted drain with alum foil to keep grease out of the center plate or is that a completely different slanted drain pan?   CRG

[BigJohnT]

Looks like you have done your homework on this one.

Can you use any pellets? They have pellet fuel at my local Orscheln's but I don't know anything about pellet fuel. If your smoking can you use normal pellets for fuel and somehow just use special wood to smoke with?

John

[classicrockgriller]

John, the web site didn't show anything other than one wood available, but I am thinking that the same wood for the pellet boss runs this one too. Probably Traeger pellets. 

[MAK DADDY]

I went to your web page and read everything there.
Question, from the diagram it looks like the Mak has a slanted drain pan also. And from what you have told me, the Mak also has a cover for normal smoking when not wanting to direct flame a steak or other goodies. And then you stated that to direct flame you remove the pot cover and take off a cover in the center that exposes the diffuser plate. When you are say doing a bst butt and do not want the direct flame are you covering your slanted drain with alum foil to keep grease out of the center plate or is that a completely different slanted drain pan?   CRG

Maybe I didn't explain it right you never remove the diffusser plate unless your cleaning the fire pot. The flame zone cover is actually on top of the grease tray not over the fire pot.
here is a picture to explain, it the photo the cover has been simply slid over to the right opening the flame zone. I usually use a spatula to move it although there is a handle loop on it. I wanted to be able to move it from the outside of the grill but it was to complicated to keep the handle cool and keep the grease from gumming up the operation, I will figure it out someday :)
I usually don't use foil on the grease pan, just scrub it clean once in a while. Some of our customers do though pretty religiously, its just a matter of preference.

[MAK DADDY]

Looks like you have done your homework on this one.

Can you use any pellets? They have pellet fuel at my local Orscheln's but I don't know anything about pellet fuel. If your smoking can you use normal pellets for fuel and somehow just use special wood to smoke with?

John

Hi John, you have to use hardwood food grade bbq pellets NOT HEATING PELLETS as they are made from recycled wood which may have glues and such in them. The same pellets are used for smoking, baking, grilling etc. You can't use chuncks of wood, it will jam the auger system.
We sell Bear Mountain pellets 13.00 for a 20lb bag, Mesquite, Hickory, Alder, Maple, Cherry and Apple. You can find Bear mountain pellets at other locations as well. You can burn any brand of bbq pellets in our unit! Including Bear Mountain, traeger, bbq delight, the pellet guy and others.

[classicrockgriller]

I know Traeger virtually has no ash, almost burns to nothing.

[MAK DADDY]

I know Traeger virtually has no ash, almost burns to nothing.

Treager pellets work fine. There has been some talk about treager using some sort of oil for flavor instead of real wood. Not sure what that's all about but I do know the Bear mountain pellets are very different colors for each kind and the treager ones all seem to look the same.

The MAK GRiLL fire pot made from stainless steel and is removeable, just pop a pin and take it out to clean any ash over time. We designed that feature so customers without a shop vac (or ones tired of using one) could clean the unit easily. People who have experience with other pellet grills love this feature.

[classicrockgriller]

kewl. I have used grapevine, hickory, and oak and I did see a little difference in those colors, but Wouldn't know what grapevine is suppose to look like.