Was itching for a new toy. After all, its been nearly 3 months since my last new toy. I had the itch for charcoal smoker. I have an electric (SmokingIt #2 tricked out) a pellet pooper and now a Pit Barrel Cooker.
First things First: Spare me the "dummy, you coulda built a UDS for 13 cents". I appreciate where you UDS guys are coming from but I ain't interested in building one. If I ever get a UDS it will likely be one made and ready to go. I build and mod guitars, I don't have enough time or desire to build other stuff.
Anyway, I was intrigued and after much research figured this is a good way to get into charcoal smoking. Money is not an issue for me but I wasn't about to drop 4 figure coin on a Backwoods or Stumps, only to find that I may not like charcoal smoking at all.
It arrived about 4 days after I placed the order. It was very well packed and included a couple of shakers of Noah's rubs. I make my own rubs, but I'll find use for it at some point (more on that later). Nice touch.
Last night on the way home from the airport I picked up a bag of KBB some SLC ribs and a plump yard bird. I've been interested in trying my hand at some Jamaican jerk style ribs. So I made up a marinade for one of the racks to sleep in last night.
I had a home office day today so it was a perfect day for me to test this thing out. Early afternoon I prepped the non-jerk rack and threw caution to the wind and put some of Noah's rub in that rack. Hung them up and about 2.5 hours in I hung the bird.
No question about it, the chicken from this thing is the bomb. That alone will justify the purchase. My wife is not a BBQ fan but she raved about this chicken. Home run for me. My son will try some chicken and ribs later but I am sure he will approve.
The jerk ribs were so so, but that is entirely due to my mediocre jerk marinade. It just didn't have the jerk flavor I was looking for. Plus, I am not into marinading meat so I may try a dry jerk rub in the future. The marinade does something to the meat that I don't like. The other rack was delicious. Noah's rubs were fine, and it was good to mix in some different flavors today.
There are some things I will tweak but the learning curve should be short. This thing runs hot by nature so I couldn't be sure of timing. That combined with the curiosity had me peeking in way too much.
This is a great addition to my arsenal and I will be cooking on it a lot as I get to know it better.
Here are some pics.
This is a nice little idea I got from somewhere to light the charcoal in the chimney.
Cut off a few and ate them before I took pics. We almost devoured the whole chicken before I remembered to take pics of that.
First things First: Spare me the "dummy, you coulda built a UDS for 13 cents". I appreciate where you UDS guys are coming from but I ain't interested in building one. If I ever get a UDS it will likely be one made and ready to go. I build and mod guitars, I don't have enough time or desire to build other stuff.
Anyway, I was intrigued and after much research figured this is a good way to get into charcoal smoking. Money is not an issue for me but I wasn't about to drop 4 figure coin on a Backwoods or Stumps, only to find that I may not like charcoal smoking at all.
It arrived about 4 days after I placed the order. It was very well packed and included a couple of shakers of Noah's rubs. I make my own rubs, but I'll find use for it at some point (more on that later). Nice touch.
Last night on the way home from the airport I picked up a bag of KBB some SLC ribs and a plump yard bird. I've been interested in trying my hand at some Jamaican jerk style ribs. So I made up a marinade for one of the racks to sleep in last night.
I had a home office day today so it was a perfect day for me to test this thing out. Early afternoon I prepped the non-jerk rack and threw caution to the wind and put some of Noah's rub in that rack. Hung them up and about 2.5 hours in I hung the bird.
No question about it, the chicken from this thing is the bomb. That alone will justify the purchase. My wife is not a BBQ fan but she raved about this chicken. Home run for me. My son will try some chicken and ribs later but I am sure he will approve.
The jerk ribs were so so, but that is entirely due to my mediocre jerk marinade. It just didn't have the jerk flavor I was looking for. Plus, I am not into marinading meat so I may try a dry jerk rub in the future. The marinade does something to the meat that I don't like. The other rack was delicious. Noah's rubs were fine, and it was good to mix in some different flavors today.
There are some things I will tweak but the learning curve should be short. This thing runs hot by nature so I couldn't be sure of timing. That combined with the curiosity had me peeking in way too much.
This is a great addition to my arsenal and I will be cooking on it a lot as I get to know it better.
Here are some pics.
This is a nice little idea I got from somewhere to light the charcoal in the chimney.
Cut off a few and ate them before I took pics. We almost devoured the whole chicken before I remembered to take pics of that.
