First lowish and slowish cook on the Akorn...

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worktogthr

Master of the Pit
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SMF Premier Member
Nov 3, 2013
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Massapequa, NY (Long Island)
Well...as many of you know, I am a degenerate grill/smoker purchaser. Craigslist, clearance sales, if it's something I don't have and the price is right... I'm buying it.

So a few weeks back I got a chargriller Akorn with the cart for just $80 brand new and already assembled. Home Depot clearance of 75% off. Yesterday I seasoned her up and learned some of the temp control. Also grilled some sausages for dinner:

So today I started a fire for low and slow cooking...


Once the maverick was reading around 175 I put he deflecting stone and a drip pan in place:


Rubbed a small hunk of butt, maybe 4-5 pounds with Big Bald BBQ rub from Jeff's book.

Got the Akorn settled in at 268 and I threw the butt on:

Some nice blue smoke and the sweet smell of hickory:

Usually cook butts around 300 but I'm not eating this for dinner so there's no rush. Going to let it do its thing at 270. If I get impatient and feel like learning the vents a little, I might tinker and raise the temp up. I'll be back!

-Chris
 
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Great start Chris!

I'm in for the ride.

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Al
 
Well of course I had to tinker with the vents for fun so now she's running around 300 for hours without me touching a thing. Really cool how well insulated these are. Butt is at about 165 IT but no wrapping today, just going to let it ride.


Had a turkey breast brining so I figured why not throw it on the akorn!


I'll be back!
 
Well I started this cool at around noon and its 5:30 and the butt is don. About an hour a pound at 300 or so. Here she is:


Not the best picture because it was smokey in there! Got lucky and the turkey was done just a few minutes later :


Had to steal a piece of crispy deliciousness from the butt:


I will be back with the pulled pork later. Wasn't supposed to eat this for dinner, but I might have to have just a bit!
 
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So here it is pulled:


Good results for my first cook. Nice smoker flavor, great bark and I barely had to mess with the vents at all. This will make some good sandwiches, burritos, omelettes, maybe even tamales. Thanks for looking!

-Chris
 
Great cook. But I knew it would be. You know what your doing with any cooker.
 
Nice job on the cook both look good.I am going to do a test run on my WSM later with some RO lump

Richie
 
Hey Chris.  Glad you're happy with your new smoker--you stole it!!!  The butt looks great and looks like it pulled no problems at all.

Gary

Thanks for the kind words Gary! I think I lucked out as far as this Akorn goes. Some reviews said that you can get one that's not sealed so well and temps just continue to climb and then you have to mod it. With this one, I just gradually brought it up to the temp I wanted and it was smooth sailing from there!
 
Thanks so much Richie. I don't have much experience with lump myself but I have to say, I love the way it a crackles haha music to my ears!
I am using this because I have it Smoking a Pork Shoulder tomorrow. Started the burn at 10 AM and adjusted the vents at 10:40 holding 275* now

Richie
 
Looks great Chris!  Love the new cooker!  I couldn't help but chuckle about your wife thinking you might need an intervention...that has a familiar ring to it!  
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Nicely done Brother!

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Red
 
Thanks so much. My cooker count is getting into the digits where the wife is thinking about an intervention. And even still I'm checking Craigslist every day haha
Someone's going to get an IP ban from Craigslist soon.

Nice pulled pork!!!
 
Great smoke and qview. I would like some of that pork.

Points for a great smoke on a new rig.

Disco
 
Looks great Chris!  Love the new cooker!  I couldn't help but chuckle about your wife thinking you might need an intervention...that has a familiar ring to it!  :wife:    :biggrin:   

Nicely done Brother!

:points:

Red

Thanks for the points and the kind words Red! Hahaha I was rearranging my deck this afternoon and my wife starting asking questions like "So how many do you have? What's the difference between all of them? If you had to keep just one, which would it be?" Hahah so just like when she goes shopping and shaves a few dollars off what she actually spent, I left out a few that I have hidden in different parts of the yard. And went on to explain that I couldn't live without any of them haha.


That's what she could see from the kitchen window... But there are many more haha
 
Great smoke and qview. I would like some of that pork.

Points for a great smoke on a new rig.

Disco

Thanks Disco! You're going to get tired of these new cooker cooks of mine in the next few months... Spring cleaning is upon us and you know what people do when they're cleaning up their yard and realizing how they never use that MES 40 they got last Father's Day haha
 
I picked up an Akorn with the cart from home depot a few weeks ago myself...soon as I get antoher nice weekend that I'm home I'm gonna do a test run with some lump in it and see if I can't keep the temps low and stable..maybe toss a butt on it.. :D
 
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