Primo Green Egg, Etc

[calculus]

I have a weekly meeting with friends(beer session) and recently we have been talking about those ceramic type smokers like the Primo. One friend was thinking of getting one. He said they range from 700 for a small one to 1200 for the big one. That's way too much money!! Anyway I brought up the fact that I never see these in photos of smoker competitions. He wants to use it mainly for smoking. Are these better than a barrel type wood smoker? Or any other smoker?

 

[ribsandwhiskey]

These smokers can be used for a variety of purposes as they retain heat very well as long as you use actual lump charcoal, not briquettes. I have seen Pizza's done in the and had good results and have also seen pork shoulders smoked for long periods. I cannot afford one, or I would have for sure.

They got very hot, and have a tendency to create a flame backdraft when you open the lid. Make sure you always "burp" the lid before fully opening.

 

[Dutch]

The BGE is a charcoal burner with wood chunks being used for the smoke flavor. There is a BBQ competion held here (Fire and Ice) where one of the teams last year had 4 BGE that they used.

On the FoodNetwork (last year or the year before) they were doing a show on one of the big competions (Memphis in May or Jack Daniel's) and one of the teams was using the BGE. So they are out there; seeing as how they are ceramic, you need to use extra TLC when hauling them around.

 

[elde]

I was about to say - you don't see 'em in competitions because they are a royal PITA to move successfully. OTOH, you also don't see huge competition style pits in the average backyard either.

Different tools for different audiences.