Fire and Forget? Lone Star Grillz Insulated Cabinet Smoker

[coque]

Dear SMF:

I hope you don't mind me picking your brains re: insulated cabinets.

My whole push to upgrade my smoker has been a "fire and forget" cooker so I can sleep or watch the kids. As much as I treasure the fun of tending logs and catching whiffs of smoke, I can't babysit a fire like I did before the kids arrived--it's a stage of life thing. 2 questions:

1) What's your overall sense on the insulated cabinets? Lone Star Grillz claims their large cabinet can hold 40 pounds of briquettes and burn 30+ hours without opening the main chamber or tending a fire! If I understood Chris' video, it looks like the only work during a smoke would be refilling water through their tunneled water port.

2) What would you folks say about the criticism that insulated cabinets don't allow the meat to form a good bark/smoke ring? I'd greatly appreciate hearing from members that have smoked on regular stick burners versus insulated cabinets. Low maintenance sounds great but I won't spend thousands if the food is inferior.

I know the insulated cabinets are hella expensive, but I figure if I'm going for a new cooker, I should avoid duplication and have a rig that truly fills a niche I don't currently have.

COQue

 

[gr8day]

You won't find a better made Insulated Cabinet Smoker, this link will keep you busy for a couple of hours. LSG

 

[chef jimmyj]

Insulated cabinet don't allow the meat to form a good bark or smoke ring?!?!

Whom ever told you that has been smoking something OTHER than Meat!!!! Total BS! Its Science not what the cabinet is made of, the shape or if insulated. You make sufficient heat to cause the browning of the Maillard Reaction and the surface proteins to coagulate and dry, you got Bark. You use a fuel that generates sufficient Nitrogen Dioxide gas to set the color of the Myoglobin in the outer 1/2" of the meat before it hits 140 and the proteins coagulate, you got a Smoke Ring! The balance comes between having high moisture the first 4 hours to keep the surface moist for max smoke ring penetration then letting the cabinet dry out for max bark. This can be done with a bowl of water in a Weber Kettle or a $30,000 insulated Southern Pride.
I looked hard at the LSG cabinet and don't think you can get more space and build quality for the the money...JJ

 

[coque]

Thanks Gr8day!  That's a heck of a lot more than just a couple hours.  I can't believe how deep the BBQ Brethren thread goes.

Appreciate the comments Jimmy J.  I have a back ground in biochem, but the catch is if the smoke and heat don't reach the meat itself, then it's a $3000 white elephant.  The criticism, for example, is in the reverse flow vertical cabinets where there's uneven draft from high above going to the racks below.  If there's uneven drafting, then there's uneven cooking/smoking.  Thus, no Maillard and no NO2 :(

 

[chef jimmyj]

What you say about the reverse flow design is true, especially cooking below 300 degrees. But you asked about insulated cookers not getting the job done and the vertical from LSG.How is the Lone Star a reverse flow? As I mentioned, I did a lot of research on these. I spent some time discussing the design with Chris. Chris told me there is a heat deflector, optional, and the water pan over the fire box. Heat passes up slots on the sides of the deflector and pan. As long as meat does not block the sides of the grates heating is generally even bottom to top once up to temp and drafting properly. It's a total KISS design with no over engineering...JJ