Well folks, yesterday I had to return my Old Country BBQ Pit Smokehouse. I hated that I had to do it but it just wasn't working out. It was well put together, thick steel, didn't leak (that much), 3 cooking grates, huge fire box, big water pan, duel smoke stacks, great at maintaining temperature and easy to manage. The food came out well cooked every time, perfect bite, perfect texture.... and not a drop of smoke on it.
Man, I tried everything. I used Cherry, Pecan, Hickory, Mesquite, Oak, store bought, local wood guy, wet, dry, old new, you name it, I tried it. I even closed off 1 of the huge smoke stacks hoping that would keep some of the smoke in longer. I even intentionally burned a dirty fire one time. I could not for the life of me understand how such a beautiful piece of $700 equipment was not performing up to par with my $80 offset (same wood). When I made chicken, everything about the chicken was perfect except there was ZERO smoke flavor. My wife told me to chill out because at least the food tasted good. I told her "it tastes like you made it in the oven" ... that didn't go over so well lol. Had to explain to her that I didnt pay for an extra oven. I paid for a SMOKER, then she understood lol. After talking to some of my BBQ buddies I decided to give it one more chance, I really wanted this to work because it had so many other great qualities. So I decided to smoke some chicken legs, thighs, and a rack of baby backs. All were cooked damn near to perfection. Those ribs were probably the best cooked ribs I have made in the 2 short years I have been learning the art of BBQ. Juicy, perfect bite, left a clean bone. Had everything you'd look for in ribs.... that were cooked in an oven. No smoke flavor at all. I looked at my wife, who had been the leading activist for "team Smokehouse", and she said,"these taste great, but you're right... there's no smoke on these at all".
I cleaned up the smoker, loaded all 400 lbs of it onto a Uhaul and took it back to Academy and got a Old Country BBQ Pit Pecos offset Smoker. It was only $399 and they knocked off 15% due to a little rust that was on the smoke stack that I already got rid of on the initial seasoning burn. Today I'm going to try out my new toy. I think I'll need to get something to seal up the door on the cooking chamber, but I kind of expected that.
Back to the Vertical. I felt like a NFL General Manager that drafted a 6 ft 5 wide receiver with a blazing 40 time, can jump out the building, great route runner, good team player... but cant catch a cold if he were locked in a room with folks dying of the plague. After discussing it with a some BBQ friends, we think it may be due to the smokestacks being on the top of the cook chamber and maybe they should be on the sides, lower, allowing the smoke to circulate around the protein a little longer. Just a thought.
Well, I'm off to fire up this Pecos.
Man, I tried everything. I used Cherry, Pecan, Hickory, Mesquite, Oak, store bought, local wood guy, wet, dry, old new, you name it, I tried it. I even closed off 1 of the huge smoke stacks hoping that would keep some of the smoke in longer. I even intentionally burned a dirty fire one time. I could not for the life of me understand how such a beautiful piece of $700 equipment was not performing up to par with my $80 offset (same wood). When I made chicken, everything about the chicken was perfect except there was ZERO smoke flavor. My wife told me to chill out because at least the food tasted good. I told her "it tastes like you made it in the oven" ... that didn't go over so well lol. Had to explain to her that I didnt pay for an extra oven. I paid for a SMOKER, then she understood lol. After talking to some of my BBQ buddies I decided to give it one more chance, I really wanted this to work because it had so many other great qualities. So I decided to smoke some chicken legs, thighs, and a rack of baby backs. All were cooked damn near to perfection. Those ribs were probably the best cooked ribs I have made in the 2 short years I have been learning the art of BBQ. Juicy, perfect bite, left a clean bone. Had everything you'd look for in ribs.... that were cooked in an oven. No smoke flavor at all. I looked at my wife, who had been the leading activist for "team Smokehouse", and she said,"these taste great, but you're right... there's no smoke on these at all".
I cleaned up the smoker, loaded all 400 lbs of it onto a Uhaul and took it back to Academy and got a Old Country BBQ Pit Pecos offset Smoker. It was only $399 and they knocked off 15% due to a little rust that was on the smoke stack that I already got rid of on the initial seasoning burn. Today I'm going to try out my new toy. I think I'll need to get something to seal up the door on the cooking chamber, but I kind of expected that.
Back to the Vertical. I felt like a NFL General Manager that drafted a 6 ft 5 wide receiver with a blazing 40 time, can jump out the building, great route runner, good team player... but cant catch a cold if he were locked in a room with folks dying of the plague. After discussing it with a some BBQ friends, we think it may be due to the smokestacks being on the top of the cook chamber and maybe they should be on the sides, lower, allowing the smoke to circulate around the protein a little longer. Just a thought.
Well, I'm off to fire up this Pecos.
