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this is a quick review of the Oklahoma Joe Highland reverse flow smoker after my first big smoke.
Please excuse minimal grammatical and punctuation snafus. Since my stroke, my typing is excruciating at best and I am relegated to using speech to text in many cases.
I will try and keep this brief as I think answering questions may be easier than trying to rewrite war and peace in one review.
Preface: I have done mods on the cooking chamber and completely sealed with gasket and clamps. The only exit points for air and smoke is the drip tube and reverse flow smokestack. After reading reviews and watching you tube videos, I figured that using gasket on the firebox was futile, but welcome thoughts after reading this review.
So: if I could look back and had it to do over again, would I still buy this smoker? By all means.!!!
Here’s a synopsis of the first smoke: 9- pound bone in Boston butt, and one 4-pound pork belly.
So let’s address the elephant in the room: IMHO the firebox on this smoker is crap, and a wood sucking pig. (Very small, as is the basket included to use wood splits.)
I typically use a chimney of charcoal briquettes and let it burn to embers, then add wood for smoke. For this 11th hour smoke I used a nearly half a bag of kingsford, and half a bag of shitty “Blowes” apple and hickory chunks.
If you are lucky enough to live in the country and have access to good wood sources, God bless you. I am relegated to department store which sucks at best. (Ft Lauderdale)
Back to the review; once the smoker gets to temp, I held it without much messing at between 215°and 245°measured with a probe on a grate clip. (thermopo)
The smoker Holds pretty close to a perfect for me smoking temperature with the firebox door grate about ¼ open.
The final product was fantastic, a beautiful pork butt with bark to die for. I am still kicking myself in the ass for not snapping a picture of the final product, but I had a patio full of starving people and was busy making pork belly tacos to hold them over during the rest period
So maybe it’s just me, and I am open to criticism, but close to $30.00 of briquettes and hickory and apple chunks seems excessive for this cook, but I achieved a beautiful smoke ring and bark .
I guess there’s still a learning curve. Next up, St Louis ribs, which I typically made in my electric with a 3-2-1 method.
this is a quick review of the Oklahoma Joe Highland reverse flow smoker after my first big smoke.
Please excuse minimal grammatical and punctuation snafus. Since my stroke, my typing is excruciating at best and I am relegated to using speech to text in many cases.
I will try and keep this brief as I think answering questions may be easier than trying to rewrite war and peace in one review.
Preface: I have done mods on the cooking chamber and completely sealed with gasket and clamps. The only exit points for air and smoke is the drip tube and reverse flow smokestack. After reading reviews and watching you tube videos, I figured that using gasket on the firebox was futile, but welcome thoughts after reading this review.
So: if I could look back and had it to do over again, would I still buy this smoker? By all means.!!!
Here’s a synopsis of the first smoke: 9- pound bone in Boston butt, and one 4-pound pork belly.
So let’s address the elephant in the room: IMHO the firebox on this smoker is crap, and a wood sucking pig. (Very small, as is the basket included to use wood splits.)
I typically use a chimney of charcoal briquettes and let it burn to embers, then add wood for smoke. For this 11th hour smoke I used a nearly half a bag of kingsford, and half a bag of shitty “Blowes” apple and hickory chunks.
If you are lucky enough to live in the country and have access to good wood sources, God bless you. I am relegated to department store which sucks at best. (Ft Lauderdale)
Back to the review; once the smoker gets to temp, I held it without much messing at between 215°and 245°measured with a probe on a grate clip. (thermopo)
The smoker Holds pretty close to a perfect for me smoking temperature with the firebox door grate about ¼ open.
The final product was fantastic, a beautiful pork butt with bark to die for. I am still kicking myself in the ass for not snapping a picture of the final product, but I had a patio full of starving people and was busy making pork belly tacos to hold them over during the rest period
So maybe it’s just me, and I am open to criticism, but close to $30.00 of briquettes and hickory and apple chunks seems excessive for this cook, but I achieved a beautiful smoke ring and bark .
I guess there’s still a learning curve. Next up, St Louis ribs, which I typically made in my electric with a 3-2-1 method.
