Hi all,
I'm new to this forum and keen to learn! I want to get into a bit of background before I launch into my questions/issues.
So, many years ago I started with a 14" Smokey Joe, then upgraded almost immediately to the full size Weber Kettle (I think 22"?) once I realised I could managed a charcoal cook. Before that, I used, terribly I might add, a simple propane BBQ, as I had never actually done outdoor cooking.
After a couple of years, we found an 18" WSM (or is it 18.5"? Can never remember) and have smoked many a things on that. I absolutely love it, but the main issue continues to be size and temp stability (temp stability is really not that much of an issue, but it is annoying to constantly be adjusting, watching, etc). Of course, now that I am reading up on these forums, I see that there are many things I could do to address the temp stability, but the size continues to be my issue; I can get two full racks of ribs if using both grates, but the more you block the flow of heat, the harder the temp is to maintain, and 4 racks gives my family enough for maybe 1.5 meals; in other words, I find the small WSM is not ideal for entertaining, or for more than a meal or two. As well, I find it difficult to maintain the thin blue while tending to the meat on the lower rack. Either way, I just wanted to try something different. As an aside, the only reason we picked up the WSM is because my wife found it online for $250cdn used; the previous owner used it 3 times and didn't like it! I see they are almost $500 new and this thing was practically new. Suffice to say, I'm keeping my WSM but I now have a new toy!
At Lowes, I found a Broil King XL offset smoker; the product number is 958050 and other than that, I don't know how to refer to it or what to call it. It does not have the internal damper, so I think it is a 2020 model, which I think is the better option, as I read that the internal damper did not do as intended and so was removed. I have also seen that earlier models have a few longevity issues. It normally sells for $1000 but the floor model was on sale for $499. How could I go wrong???
I would say that I am still a rookie to smoking, having dabbled with my WSM for many weekends for the past 3 years. My favourite is ribs, but I've done brisket, whole turkey (SMALL turkey), whole chicken, bacon from scratch which I am currently enjoying, pulled pork, prime rib, sirloin roast, etc. I think I have the WSM figured out, but I also think that's the tip of the iceberg and am not the most confident.
I have searched and so far have had difficulty finding solid answers to my questions, and so here goes:
1. Is the BK XL a good or even decent smoker? There's not a lot of chatter about it online. I'm not giving it up at this point, as the deal was awesome and I cut my hand up pretty good getting it all set up to my liking (more on that if you're interested how/why; it's funny!), but I'm just retroactively curious about the quality, experiences of others, etc. I hate relying on online reviews on the purchase websites as most people post reviews quickly after purchase, when they're at their most satisfied.
2. Naturally, the offset came without gasket for the firebox main and side doors, being the floor model and all. The gasket on the main door is steel braided style, which I like, but I have not been able to find anything close to it. The ONLY gasket I found was fibreglass rope, so I purchased some and realised that fibreglass rope may not be the best because tiny little fibreglass fibres were shedding. I'm not risking getting fibreglass fibres in my food, so I'm just curious if anyone else has used fibreglass rope and, if so, how do you address the shedding fibres? My initial thought is to soak the rope a few times, then take a look to see if fibres are still shedding.
On a side note, I was going to do my cold smoke of my bacon on the BK. I normally add 4 briquettes to the fire chamber on top and underneat of a soaked chunk of maple wood. After doing this in the BK, I see that there are many leaks that I will need to address. I have enough fibreglass rope to deal with all the leaks, but I am just concerned about the fibres.
3. I do realise that an offset is very different from a WSM, but so far I'm struggling to understand the basic mechanics of an offset smoker session. I suppose I should just jump in and figure it out, but I'm hesitant to ruin a good piece of meat in the process. We purchased a half-pig and I would love to turn out a pulled pork as my first smoke on this thing, but don't want to risk ruining such a high quality piece of meat. As well, our covid christmas dinner this year will be a prime rib, since we hate doing turkey and don't have a massive group to feed this year. I want to ensure I nail this.
I've watched a few videos, read a few guides, and still am lost on it all. So... is the process similar to the WSM, where you get your charcoal going, heat up the unit, then close all the vents to the point where temp is stable, then add your smoke wood chunks or chips, wait for the thin blue smoke, then add the meat? If so, I guess I'm confused because it seems that the offset smoker firebox runs significantly hotter than the WSM, and so I would think that one would get more white smoke than blue smoke when adding the wood. That was my experience yesterday, just trying to do an hour cold smoke for my bacon; the four charcoal briquettes were running hotter and producing white smoke, so I didn't end up actually double smoking my bacon, which I normally like to do. I threw a chunk of cheese on there for 20 minutes and sure enough it had that fire flavour as opposed to that delicious smoke flavour.
As well, it seems that a lot of people are throwing logs on their offset smoker and letting them just catch fire; that again seems to me that it would produce white smoke over thin blue smoke, so again I'm left wondering how the heck to get this thing optimal. This I guess is my main question; how the heck to run this thing.
Many thanks for reading my wall of text and any answers you have.
I'm new to this forum and keen to learn! I want to get into a bit of background before I launch into my questions/issues.
So, many years ago I started with a 14" Smokey Joe, then upgraded almost immediately to the full size Weber Kettle (I think 22"?) once I realised I could managed a charcoal cook. Before that, I used, terribly I might add, a simple propane BBQ, as I had never actually done outdoor cooking.
After a couple of years, we found an 18" WSM (or is it 18.5"? Can never remember) and have smoked many a things on that. I absolutely love it, but the main issue continues to be size and temp stability (temp stability is really not that much of an issue, but it is annoying to constantly be adjusting, watching, etc). Of course, now that I am reading up on these forums, I see that there are many things I could do to address the temp stability, but the size continues to be my issue; I can get two full racks of ribs if using both grates, but the more you block the flow of heat, the harder the temp is to maintain, and 4 racks gives my family enough for maybe 1.5 meals; in other words, I find the small WSM is not ideal for entertaining, or for more than a meal or two. As well, I find it difficult to maintain the thin blue while tending to the meat on the lower rack. Either way, I just wanted to try something different. As an aside, the only reason we picked up the WSM is because my wife found it online for $250cdn used; the previous owner used it 3 times and didn't like it! I see they are almost $500 new and this thing was practically new. Suffice to say, I'm keeping my WSM but I now have a new toy!
At Lowes, I found a Broil King XL offset smoker; the product number is 958050 and other than that, I don't know how to refer to it or what to call it. It does not have the internal damper, so I think it is a 2020 model, which I think is the better option, as I read that the internal damper did not do as intended and so was removed. I have also seen that earlier models have a few longevity issues. It normally sells for $1000 but the floor model was on sale for $499. How could I go wrong???
I would say that I am still a rookie to smoking, having dabbled with my WSM for many weekends for the past 3 years. My favourite is ribs, but I've done brisket, whole turkey (SMALL turkey), whole chicken, bacon from scratch which I am currently enjoying, pulled pork, prime rib, sirloin roast, etc. I think I have the WSM figured out, but I also think that's the tip of the iceberg and am not the most confident.
I have searched and so far have had difficulty finding solid answers to my questions, and so here goes:
1. Is the BK XL a good or even decent smoker? There's not a lot of chatter about it online. I'm not giving it up at this point, as the deal was awesome and I cut my hand up pretty good getting it all set up to my liking (more on that if you're interested how/why; it's funny!), but I'm just retroactively curious about the quality, experiences of others, etc. I hate relying on online reviews on the purchase websites as most people post reviews quickly after purchase, when they're at their most satisfied.
2. Naturally, the offset came without gasket for the firebox main and side doors, being the floor model and all. The gasket on the main door is steel braided style, which I like, but I have not been able to find anything close to it. The ONLY gasket I found was fibreglass rope, so I purchased some and realised that fibreglass rope may not be the best because tiny little fibreglass fibres were shedding. I'm not risking getting fibreglass fibres in my food, so I'm just curious if anyone else has used fibreglass rope and, if so, how do you address the shedding fibres? My initial thought is to soak the rope a few times, then take a look to see if fibres are still shedding.
On a side note, I was going to do my cold smoke of my bacon on the BK. I normally add 4 briquettes to the fire chamber on top and underneat of a soaked chunk of maple wood. After doing this in the BK, I see that there are many leaks that I will need to address. I have enough fibreglass rope to deal with all the leaks, but I am just concerned about the fibres.
3. I do realise that an offset is very different from a WSM, but so far I'm struggling to understand the basic mechanics of an offset smoker session. I suppose I should just jump in and figure it out, but I'm hesitant to ruin a good piece of meat in the process. We purchased a half-pig and I would love to turn out a pulled pork as my first smoke on this thing, but don't want to risk ruining such a high quality piece of meat. As well, our covid christmas dinner this year will be a prime rib, since we hate doing turkey and don't have a massive group to feed this year. I want to ensure I nail this.
I've watched a few videos, read a few guides, and still am lost on it all. So... is the process similar to the WSM, where you get your charcoal going, heat up the unit, then close all the vents to the point where temp is stable, then add your smoke wood chunks or chips, wait for the thin blue smoke, then add the meat? If so, I guess I'm confused because it seems that the offset smoker firebox runs significantly hotter than the WSM, and so I would think that one would get more white smoke than blue smoke when adding the wood. That was my experience yesterday, just trying to do an hour cold smoke for my bacon; the four charcoal briquettes were running hotter and producing white smoke, so I didn't end up actually double smoking my bacon, which I normally like to do. I threw a chunk of cheese on there for 20 minutes and sure enough it had that fire flavour as opposed to that delicious smoke flavour.
As well, it seems that a lot of people are throwing logs on their offset smoker and letting them just catch fire; that again seems to me that it would produce white smoke over thin blue smoke, so again I'm left wondering how the heck to get this thing optimal. This I guess is my main question; how the heck to run this thing.
Many thanks for reading my wall of text and any answers you have.
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