Making barbecue properly is an art. The series of discussing the pros and cons of vessels and techniques to create the best barbecued meats continues here with a discussion of more efficient and of course more expensive barbecue cookers. In our last article we discussed popular, readily available cookers. Exposing meat to low temperatures in the presence of hardwood smoke for an extended period of time so as to break down connective tissue and relinquish a succulent product does not have to have many of the challenges associated with less expensive pits. Home enthusiasts still have choices. Adding insulation, and self feeding fuel systems are all available today for the backyard barbecue chef. These cookers come in a variety of sizes to accommodate your BBQ needs.
Our first venture into marrying technology with tradition will be the double wall insulated cookers or cabinet smokers. These pits are a little on the expensive side, but will reward the user in fuel efficiency. The most popular brands are the Backwoods Smokers, and Stumps. The Backwoods is a water smoker much like the WSM. The firebox is on the bottom of the cabinet, a water pan is set over the firebox and the cooking chamber is on top. The Backwoods smoker has a unique feature where the heat travels up around the cooking chamber through a space in the walls of the cooker and enters the cooking chamber from the top, and exits out through an outlet set at the bottom of the side wall of the cooking chamber. The water provides a very moist environment for cooking.
The Stumps is a classic offset smoker with a gravity feed fuel system. Charcoal is loaded into a chute over a firebox and the fire feeds itself as it burns. Burn times of 12 hours on 20 pounds of charcoal are not unheard of from these units.
Double wall insulated cookers do have an inherent weakness; they all have a difficult time recovering when the door from the cooking chamber is opened. A forced air convection system like a BBQ Guru or a Stoker will easily solve the problem . I’ve been known to use what I call the Red Neck Guru. After I open and close the door to the cooker to mop, baste or glaze, I’ll use an old hairdryer to stoke my fire and get my cooker temperature back to target in a short time.
Pellet feed cookers are becoming popular. The cooking chambers are very similar to most cookers. In pellet burners, wood pellets are fed into the firebox by an electric auger system. A thermostat controls the speed and frequency that the auger turns. One of the largest advantages to the system is it truly is a “set it and forget it” type of cooker. Pellets come in many different wood types and it is very easy to mix “flavors” of woods to get your desired flavor profile. The Traeger and the Cookshack are the most widely known. Cookshack has the advantage of NSF approvals for commercial cooking.
Ceramic cookers are gaining market share. Primo and Big Green Eggs are the brand names that lead the market. With these types of cookers the firebox and cooking chamber are jacketed with thick ceramic. They provide very efficient fuel use and a very moist envoirnment for cooking. These cookers are versatile too. They can grill a steak or cook a pizza at very high temperatures, or cook low and slow for perfect barbecue. The trade is the cash outlay for the amount of usable cooking space. These cookers are also very heavy and transportation is awkward.
When you are buying your cooking vessel take some time to consider exactly what you want to do with your pit. Weigh the advantages of moisture, available cooking space, difficulty of operation, and how much time you actually want to spend tending to your cooker. Once you make the choice, season it properly and get to cookin’.
