To continue beating the poor horse.......

[tombigbee]

Looking for guidance....
I'm 74 and have cooked on everything under the sun over the years. Very old school, charcoal and wood, meat in the same chamber with and exposed to the fire guy. However, I've experimented a good bit as well, with upright cabinets both electric and gas, offsets, custom built grill/smoker combos, etc., etc.

I'm tired of trying to maintain a constant temperature for long cooks with charcoal and wood. Betting I'll hear that some of you have mastered that task, but I inevitably have big swings due to my fuel burning down, then the pain in the butt adding of more with a spike upward, over and over for 6 or 8 hours.
It's stopped being fun.

I never liked the lack of bark on meat and tough, rubbery chicken skin that the cabinet smokers, and to some degree the offsets, produced either.

I'm only vaguely familiar with them, but is a pellet outfit where I need to be? Will they produce nice bark on butts and ribs? Or, is there something else out there that should be considered?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[BigW.]

Sounds like a pellet smoker would be a good fit. Another option would be a gravity fed. With both you can get good smoke and high enough temp to cook chicken to get a crispy skin. The forced air will also get a nice bark on brisket, pork butts etc.

 

[jcam222]

Looking for guidance....
I'm 74 and have cooked on everything under the sun over the years. Very old school, charcoal and wood, meat in the same chamber with and exposed to the fire guy. However, I've experimented a good bit as well, with upright cabinets both electric and gas, offsets, custom built grill/smoker combos, etc., etc.

I'm tired of trying to maintain a constant temperature for long cooks with charcoal and wood. Betting I'll hear that some of you have mastered that task, but I inevitably have big swings due to my fuel burning down, then the pain in the butt adding of more with a spike upward, over and over for 6 or 8 hours.
It's stopped being fun.

I never liked the lack of bark on meat and tough, rubbery chicken skin that the cabinet smokers, and to some degree the offsets, produced either.

I'm only vaguely familiar with them, but is a pellet outfit where I need to be? Will they produce nice bark on butts and ribs? Or, is there something else out there that should be considered?


Thanks for any suggestions.

Highly recommended you check out a Masterbuilt Gravity feed. Load a chute with a mix of charcoal and wood chunks, light a bottom, set temp, cook away. It maintains the temp automatically for you. Excellent bark and honesty hard to distinguish the finished product from that done in a stick burner. My buddies is going strong going on 4 years and his Q rivals that off my Lang or 270 cabinet.

 

[02ebz06]

I'm a pellet fan.
Love putting a brisket on at 9pm, going to sleep and having brisket for lunch the next day.
No problem getting a nice thick bark.
I stopped using brown sugar in a rub (just S&P now) as it would be too thick for my taste.
Still get a good bark.

 

[Texascat]

Sounds like a pellet smoker would be a good option to consider. I switched to one a couple of years ago for many of the same reasons you stated. They're consistent and convenient. I've never had a problem getting bark and beautiful smoke ring. I've become a big fan of overnight cooks as well. Just keep it clean and they're pretty trouble free.

 

[zwiller]

I think sometimes pictures speak louder than words. Weber SmokeFire pellet grill.

 

[in. pred]

only pellets ive tried were in a tube on my gas grill so i cant say on a fancy pellet grill/smoker. i like wood chunks. pile of coals in same chamber as meat my go to. less fuel less adjustments.

maybe you could rent or barrow one for a weekend and see how you like the end results before dumping the$.

 

[in. pred]

looks prretty choice there zwiller!!

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Highly recommended you check out a Masterbuilt Gravity feed. Load a chute with a mix of charcoal and wood chunks, light a bottom, set temp, cook away. It maintains the temp automatically for you. Excellent bark and honesty hard to distinguish the finished product from that done in a stick burner. My buddies is going strong going on 4 years and his Q rivals that off my Lang or 270 cabinet.

You gonna make me get one of these things yet! The only thing holding me back is the cost of charcoal.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Rich, chopsaw has a Weber SmokeFire he swears by. I love my RecTec.

 

[912smoker]

You gonna make me get one of these things yet! The only thing holding me back is the cost of charcoal.

No excuse Brian. It's always on sale somewhere

Keith

 

[Winterrider]

You gonna make me get one of these things yet! The only thing holding me back is the cost of charcoal.

I'm with ya Brian. Kinda spendy and they use plenty.

 

[tallbm]

Looking for guidance....
I'm 74 and have cooked on everything under the sun over the years. Very old school, charcoal and wood, meat in the same chamber with and exposed to the fire guy. However, I've experimented a good bit as well, with upright cabinets both electric and gas, offsets, custom built grill/smoker combos, etc., etc.

I'm tired of trying to maintain a constant temperature for long cooks with charcoal and wood. Betting I'll hear that some of you have mastered that task, but I inevitably have big swings due to my fuel burning down, then the pain in the butt adding of more with a spike upward, over and over for 6 or 8 hours.
It's stopped being fun.

I never liked the lack of bark on meat and tough, rubbery chicken skin that the cabinet smokers, and to some degree the offsets, produced either.

I'm only vaguely familiar with them, but is a pellet outfit where I need to be? Will they produce nice bark on butts and ribs? Or, is there something else out there that should be considered?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Hi there and welcome!

I think it depends.

You could go get a Masterbuilt Electric Smoker 40 inch (MES40), do the simple rewire it to (cut ends off 4 wires and wire nut to make 2 whole wires) use an Auber PID controller and cut out the safety limit switch or swap it with a 352F safety switch.
Rock the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS) tray that provides smoke via wood pellets.
This route will get you a set and forget, dead on temps, perfect smoke for up to 12 hours with no babysitting smoker.
You could do everything from no heat cold smoking to 325F degree chicken smokes that avoid rubbery skin. This also includes sausage, jerky, and bacon smoking.

A pellet smoker will still likely have some temp swings but is more set and forget than a stick burner.

Both options will give you bark.
The rewired MES40 will retain moisture without added water and has amazing insulation. I get fantastic bark by not wrapping the meat and the moisture retention keeps most things from drying out. You will still have to wrap a chuck, brisket flat, and other super long cooking meats with less fat but they are the exception and not the rule.

Let us know a bit more about what you are wanting in addition to steady temps because it will help continue to figure out the pros/cons of your options :D

 

[schlotz]

Based upon what you've indicated, yes. A pellet smoker would be a good choice. Lots to choose from but I would suggest you look beyond the entry level. Start with reviewing RecTec. Many here use them and I've yet to read negative comments on them vs a number of 'other' brands that seem to pop up with reported issues. There are a few in the next upper level to consider but it depends on what features they provide that may or may not be important to you.