Where to find a good 10-15 gallon cast iron pot/burner combo

Most hardware stores in Gonzales have a pretty good selection, my favorite being Galvez hardware on 42

Lamendolas supermarket on Burnside

but the best set up come from R and R welding in Paulina, I have a 20 gallon setup from him that is a beast

R and R welding in Paulina...better quality and way cheaper

Just seen that place. Looked to have a good selection there as well. May have to swing by one day since that is closer. I really like the R&R guy's work as well and it seems that he does custom builds.

Oh wow that's awesome. What brand is the pot you bought from them?

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Lamendolas supermarket on Burnside

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Wherw I got mine.

Think I paid 440 otd for curved paddle, 20 gallon pot, rolling burner, stainless lid, stainless handles.

DO NOT GET A 20.

I did because it was so close in cost, but the reality is it is too big to use 99% of the time. The guys were helpful and tried to talk me into the smaller one

You have basically two options for really good setups around the same price. I know from going through all this a while back. A lot of the places others are mentioning are just selling these setups at slightly marked up prices to make a profit. The others are selling cheap burners not in the same ballpark as the following.

Garry Matte's Home Center in Rayne, LA
All aluminum burner with casters and decorative cut out. Also comes with two SS rods that can be inserted to cook with a flat bottom pot.It comes with one ring and between the burner itself and ring you can use pots anywhere between 5-15gal. They don't advertise it on their website, but you have options of cutouts on the front of Fluer De Lis, deer head, or crawfish. They also sell similar burners without wheels made for certain size pots for a good deal less money but still aluminum (you can see these in the back of Morbid's Gary Matte picture post).

R and R welding in Paulina, LA
Really solid pot/burner. Carbon steel construction. Can order different rings to accommodate for each different size pot. This setup has more comfortable handles.

These are both very well made, and the TD posters seem to be split almost 50/50 between the two. The only really noticeable difference from what I have seen is that comparing the setups of the same price, you will get an all aluminum burner from Gary Matte, but the R&R set up is carbon steel.

The aluminum will never rust, but from what I hear as long as you put in some effort to taking care of it you shouldn't have problems with the R&R rusting either.

That being said carbon steel will be heavier by a bit. I will also mention you can get the burner made out of aluminum by R&R for ~$150 more I believe.

My own personal experience:
After going back and forth between the two, I decided on the all aluminum from Gary Matte. I got the deer head cut out and looks great. I like the ability to fit all the pot sizes as standard (the ring is included and burner bowl shaped so bigger pots sit right on it). I ended up buying a 10gal set up from them and a 5gal pot and have been happy. The one downside I can think of is that when cooled the aluminum likes to hang on to the cast iron pot from retraction, but it has not been a big problem for me.

Edit: I will also warn as another poster stated, 20gal is bigger than you will need most of the time. You can feed 100 people easily with a 10gal pot, but I am not sure what your experience is, you may already know this.

You definitely won't be mad either way. I am very happy with my burner from Gary Matte's. You may want to bring some extra cash cause they have a lot of cool stuff there.

I got this very long SS paddle from this amazon listing. The price fluctuates, but I got it for ~$20-$25 and it is very long. SS Paddle

You will never see anyone as hard on a pot as me when cooking pastalaya.

I stir, scraping the bottom, for two plus hours. I never lid my pastalaya.

Cure is good.

When I stopped thinking of the cure as a coating, and instead started thinking of it as chemically adhering carbon to iron, I got better cures on pots.

Having said that, we really shouldn't turn this into a curing a pot thread :lol. Guys get sensitive.

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two SS rods that can be inserted to cook with a flat bottom pot.

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this was an unexpected surprise. haven't used it yet. but, could come in handy.

Nothing wrong with using wood but I prefer the SS paddle (easier to clean and less likely for me to damage/chip up). Only time I have heard of issues with the paddle and cooking is when someone I worked with said another coworker had an aluminum paddle and would get shavings in his dish periodically. Basically just don't try to use an aluminum paddle and you'll be good.