The BBQ Report

If you think I’m a nerd for blogging about barbecue, you have to check out this excerpt from the ExtremeTech book, Geek House, published by Wiley Publishing.

In this project a couple of hardware hackers hack a barbecue pit with computer sensors and a DC fan in order to automate the 10-16 hours process of cooking a brisket. Rather than hang around the pit all night (hey, they’ve got video games to play) adjusting dampers and stroking the fire, they built a self-regulating ventilation system that maintains perfect cooking temperatures inside the pit. By controlling the fan speed they control the oxygen supply to the fire, and thus the internal temperature of the cooking chamber. All they have to do is add wood!

They also monitor the temperature of the meat, the speed of the fan, and other parameters to the system through an integrated LCD panel. The whole thing is controlled by a tiny programmable computer known as a Basic Stamp, measuring only a few inches across.

This is an interesting contraption, but a one-off hack, so you can’t go buy your own just yet. It will be interesting to see if this type of technology makes it into commercial grills at some point. But at some point, if you don’t like cooking barbecue maybe you should just go buy some? I mean if it were easy, where’s the fun in that?