PIT BARREL COOKER

[aquaduck]

I like the idea of adding a drip pan.

 

[elsos]

Fastback, with all your experience now, can you offer some additional pointers?
Must have been good on Christmas, santa got one for me!

I've done babybacks a couple times now and think they need a little longer than 4 hours, but pulled them because I've heard a few folks say that they've had them fall into the coals. But they are not as done as I like, a little hard to pull from the bone still.

How do you do them, and how did the cook of seven come out?
Thanks!

 

[camping hoosiers]

I've been keeping an eye on the PBC for about a year now and following the reviews of folks like you actually using the PBC. I finally tired of watching everyone else having all of the fun so I've ordered mine and am just waiting for it to arrive. I noticed that for 2015 that they are making these with a heavier gauge steel and using an enamel paint job more like Weber. I should be in business by this weekend...

 

[tomd]

Has anyone tried chuck roast or other "tuff" cuts?

 

[the aporkalypse]

Just arrived!!  My new PBC. I can't wait to try it.

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• the aporkalypse
• Feb 16, 2015

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• the aporkalypse
• Feb 16, 2015

 

[camping hoosiers]

I'm very impressed with the PBC... it's everything that I hoped it would be... 

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• camping hoosiers
• Mar 10, 2015

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• camping hoosiers
• Mar 10, 2015

 

[the aporkalypse]

Me too.. So far, I've done chicken, pork shoulder, brisket and ribs and all have turned out wonderfully. Not sure why some are slow to embrace the PBC. It's the Q that matters.

Q-view

PBC_004.jpg

• the aporkalypse
• Mar 10, 2015

PBC_008.jpg

• the aporkalypse
• Mar 10, 2015

PBC_010.jpg

• the aporkalypse
• Mar 10, 2015

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• the aporkalypse
• Mar 10, 2015

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• the aporkalypse
• Mar 10, 2015

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• the aporkalypse
• Mar 10, 2015

 

[rastur]

Hi All, my first post here. I received my PBC a couple of days ago and was anxious to try it out. My problem is I have about 20 18 pound bags of Kingsford competition charcoal I bought on sale at Costco. I wrote to Amber at PBC and she said I could use that but that I should use less. So I tried a little experiment today ( without any meat to ruin). I load the PBC basket only half full of the competition charcoal and only enough in my chimney to get these started. After 20 minutes in the chimney I dumped it on the charcoal basket in the PBC, inserted the rebar rods and put a remote thermometer hanging off the rebar. The opening at the bottom was set to 1/2 open. ( I'm at 5000 feet). I put the cover on and waited. Here are the results:

10: 20 added coals to PBC basket - 338 degrees

10:40 -300 degrees

at this point it gave no indication of going lower so I close the vent to 1/4 open

11:00 - 319 degrees

closed the vent all the way which still leaves a small slice open

12:30 - 320 degrees

1:00 - 300 degrees

I have come to the conclusion that the competition charcoal burns way to hot for trying to smoke on the PBC, but might be suitable for grilling. Guess I'll go pick up some original!

 

[elsos]

Raster,
Happy Easter!
I think your temp log verifies the consistent temp I have assumed. The PBC certainly runs hotter than a lot of people's idea of cooking, but it does a great job at cooking in those temps. I stopped keeping track of temps with a thermometer a while back because it was freaking me out. I decided to run on faith of the words of the guys before me and just cook some meat. Comes out great.
Happy cooking! [emoji]127831[/emoji]

 

[jd kenny]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum. I was wondering if any had any experience smoking a boneless leg of lamb in their PBC. I have a six pound leg of lamb. My plan is to simply coat it in olive oil and a beef and game rub. I was going to bring it to an internal temp of 130, wrap it and let it sit for 20 mins. My question is if I should hang it on the hooks or use the grate. I was also wondering if any had a prediction as to how long it would take to get to 130 degrees.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.


Just a little background, been smoking meats for about a year, exclusively on the PBC. I have done ribs, pulled pork, venison, wild turkey, and chicken. Never lamb though


Thanks

 

[aquaduck]

I have not done Lamb yet either. Will be watching.

 

[remmy700p]

 
Hi All, my first post here. I received my PBC a couple of days ago and was anxious to try it out. My problem is I have about 20 18 pound bags of Kingsford competition charcoal I bought on sale at Costco. I wrote to Amber at PBC and she said I could use that but that I should use less. So I tried a little experiment today ( without any meat to ruin). I load the PBC basket only half full of the competition charcoal and only enough in my chimney to get these started. After 20 minutes in the chimney I dumped it on the charcoal basket in the PBC, inserted the rebar rods and put a remote thermometer hanging off the rebar. The opening at the bottom was set to 1/2 open. ( I'm at 5000 feet). I put the cover on and waited. Here are the results:

10: 20 added coals to PBC basket - 338 degrees

10:40 -300 degrees

at this point it gave no indication of going lower so I close the vent to 1/4 open

11:00 - 319 degrees

closed the vent all the way which still leaves a small slice open

12:30 - 320 degrees

1:00 - 300 degrees

I have come to the conclusion that the competition charcoal burns way to hot for trying to smoke on the PBC, but might be suitable for grilling. Guess I'll go pick up some original!

Wished you lived closer. I'd take that KC off your hands!!

 

[remmy700p]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum. I was wondering if any had any experience smoking a boneless leg of lamb in their PBC. I have a six pound leg of lamb. My plan is to simply coat it in olive oil and a beef and game rub. I was going to bring it to an internal temp of 130, wrap it and let it sit for 20 mins. My question is if I should hang it on the hooks or use the grate. I was also wondering if any had a prediction as to how long it would take to get to 130 degrees.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.


Just a little background, been smoking meats for about a year, exclusively on the PBC. I have done ribs, pulled pork, venison, wild turkey, and chicken. Never lamb though.


Thanks

I've done bone-in and boneless leg of lamb on my Weber kettle (offset) with Kingsford and chunk wood. One thing about this protein is that you can run it hotter than typical BBQ, i.e. like a tri-tip. 300F-350F works great.

I'd guess that targeting a 130F internal temp on a 6# boneless leg @ 325F will take anywhere from 25-30 minutes/lb. Always use a digital therm. You're looking for an extraction temp of 125F. Lamb WILL climb in temp due to holdover heat.

I wouldn't hang a lamb leg... unless you can catch the drippings in a pan; the juices are too damn good to lose. (Chunk up some Yukon Gold taters and toss them with a little melted herb butter and salt and lay them in the drip pan to cook!)

When you do it, make sure to take some pics and post em up.

 

[jd kenny]

Well, it went pretty well yesterday. I made a homemade rub with the following ingredients,
Rosemary, thyme, basil, fresh garlic, sea salt, peppercorns, and crushed red pepper. I just eyed everything up when mixing it. The flavor profile was pretty good. I then coated the leg of lamb with olive oil, put the rub on it, and let it sit for an hour.
I then set up the cooler with some blocks of cherry wood and charcoal. I cooked the lamb by hanging it on the hooks of the PBC. I brought it to an order all temp of 130. I then took it out of the PBC, sprinkled lemon juice over the lamb, covered it with foil for about thirty minutes. I then sliced the lamb up. It was cooked pretty well, I would say it was more medium to medium rare, but the meat was moist with great flavor. It took about 2.5 hours in the PBC. Served it with Greek potatoes and Tzakiti sauce. Pretty happy with the cook. Got great reviews from the family about it. My dad said it was the best meat he has ever had. I'm sure that is an overstated. I attached images from the start to the finish  

lamb - dry run.jpg

• jd kenny
• May 5, 2015

Lamb - Hanging in PBC.jpg

• jd kenny
• May 5, 2015

Lamb- finished.jpg

• jd kenny
• May 5, 2015

Lamb - Sliced.jpg

• jd kenny
• May 5, 2015

 

[worktogthr]

Wow, that looks great!  I am loving the PBC but I haven't tried lamb yet.  Looks  awesome!

 

[plixs]

Hi Guy I'm a virgin to the smoking world but not to cooking .

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• plixs
• Aug 15, 2015

I just got my PBC in a few days back and have used it 3 times.

As a matter of fact its going right now with 2 racks of beef ribs

.

Can't believe the flavor and moister that the meat has !!

Any tips and tricks I'm a sponge !

Thanks Guys

 

[plixs]

Is the 250 the lowest you can get it with the BBQ guru and the pit viper ?

I also have the same set up but haven't done it yet . Just want to see what its like

without the BBQ guru set up . Your the first person i have seen with that .

Not saying it has not  been done yet . Nice Work !!

 

[plixs]

Hey Auqaduck,

I also have the same set up but have yet to do it just want to get a good feel for the PBC before i mod her up.

What temps do you get when you run the pit viper?

Thanks Aquaduck !

I recently obtained one of these as well. It does do a good job but in smoking Jeff's recent chuck roast recipe I modified it to accept my Digi Q as the company states the temp in the barrel is 275 - 290 with the vent set as it came from the factory. I wanted to cook slower so hence the changes. (250 is as low as I could get it)

I just cut a piece of steel and used a standard adapter and the same mounting hole that the factory vent cover was attached to. Worked well and after about 6 hours I still had plenty enough heat left to crank up the fan and grill some sliced rib eye for Philly cheese steak sandwiches. The smoke really helped the flavor.

Not as big as my other units but it will hold a lot set up in the hanging configuration. So far it is quite good.

 

[aquaduck]

Hey,

        Still higher than my other pits. 250 is about it. Does not seem to need the fan at all.

 

[scraggy58]

Hello folks. I just took delivery of my PBC last week so i'm a real newby. I tried out a chicken first of all and it came out great. Really succulent and done in about 2 hours. Yesterday I tried some ribs and although I got there eventually, I had some problems along the way. I'm hoping that someone here may be able to tell me what went wrong. It took quite a while for the temperature to come up but it settled eventually around the 250 - 275 f mark. It stayed there for 2 hours or so and then started rising until it peaked at 390f ! I had to take the ribs out, wrap them and put them in my oven to finish them off. That worked fine but I'm obviously concerned about the PBC temps. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.