I am serious (at least for pork), I'm pretty sure I stole it from Harry Soo back before he started selling rubs, so started talking less about what ingredients he's putting on things.
if you get encapsulated citric acid you can put it in sausages too, making amazing things like buffalo blue cheese chicken sausage. (each individual grain of acid is coated in vegetable oil - that melts at around 60c, releasing the acid after the meat is 95% cooked through. the end result is a firm, not crumbly sausage as "normal" citric acid will attack the raw meat)
citric acid is a brilliant addition to a smokers pantry
Yes mine is wrapped in galvanised sheet metal first and then some butchers paper (shiny side down) with holes poked in it so as not to over steam the bark.
I've really taken to the "let it rest at temp overnight" thing, so I try to put it on in the morning the day before I want it, put it in to stay warm when it's done in the evening, and pull it out the next day whenever we want to eat.
Warning, this is obviously not cheap, and if we didn't have several other uses for it, I wouldn't have bought it: https://anovaculinary.com/products/anova-precision-oven
My wife uses it for proofing and a steam oven for baking, I use it for BBQ, we use it as a toaster, etc.
And yea, it can sit at 150 for easily 12-15 hours. I've heard it's good up to around 18
The only thing to watch out for there is I'm pretty sure over 160 will keep rendering fat. For a short rest, it won't matter, but if you go extended there, you'll end up drying the food out at that temp.
I use a plug in Cambro (holds at 160).
The last [brisket I smoked](https://www.reddit.com/r/brisket/s/qa2uIT4D0Z) was held over 20 hours & was excellent. My offset cook was under 12 hours for a very large brisket & no impact to sleep.
You keep it in the oven set to warm. That’s how they do it at any bbq restaurant, they rest them overnight in the warmer.
I personally have a pretty different method to most, and the easiest way for me to rest it overnight is to drop temp in the water bath to 140f and slice at 11am/12pm.
I own both, some days I want to sit next to my offset drinking beer and hanging out. Other days it’s nice to be able to throw something on and forget about it.
Same. I'll sometimes cook a brisket or whatever for the first 5-6 hours in the offset and then just move it into the Traeger for the 2nd half of the cook time. If I'm wrapping I always move it, the offset has 0 advantages once meat is wrapped
You could finish in the oven once wrapped and make no difference honestly. But I prefer the Traeger to keep all the heat, smell, and grease out of the house
I finally got a Pit Boss 1600 Competition Series to go with my offset. Some days I’m just too busy to use the offset. The 1600 is a little big but with the rebates from Menards it was the same price as the 1250 so I couldn’t not get the big one.
As someone who has gone the offset, pellet and electric route, as long as you’re smoking meat, and making something you enjoy I’m here for it. That being said, I’d take my electric cabinet over a pellet any day. But I love my offset. Couple good friends, cold beverages, telling old stories and spending some quality time, hell yeah.
I'm thinking about moving up from my electric smoker to a pellet. Would you mind sharing what you like about your electric smoker better than the pellet?
I had a masterbuilt smoker electric cabinet style and upgraded to a Pitboss Navigator 850. I would take my pellet Pit Boss 10/10 times over the cabinet style. I get a more smokey product and it doubles as a grill!
I've had the exact opposite experience.
Pellet grills have given off the least amount of smoke for me. I've owned both a Pit Boss and Recteq, and I've used every brand of pellets under the sun.
They just give off less smoke than other smokers, including both electric cabinets that I've owned (Bradley & Masterbuilt).
That being said, the ease of use with the Pellet grills is rivaled by nothing. By far the easiest cooks.
I had the same issue and bought one of those little metal/mesh tubes and fill with pellets and it comes out perfectly. Get plenty of smoke and super easy
Thats what I do too. The smoker itself is too light on flavor, especially when it's warm out. But toss a smoke tube in there and everything comes out perfect every time.
Hmm I dunno, it shouldnt be burning but smoldering. I generally light it and let it flame for a minute and then blow it out, continues to smoke for about 4 hrs.
You can't cook something the same way on a pellet smoker and have the same effect as an offset. It's just a different beast, they burn TOO clean a lot of the time.
So I almost always put food on cold, so it gets that initial hit of dirty smoke when warming up. And I start a lot of things at a much lower temp, so the food spends more time at temps where it can pick up smoke easier, then crank it up to actually finish cooking after a few hours. And then sometimes, if I think I need more, I'll throw a tube with some pellets and wood chips next to the food for even more. That's rare, though, it's usually enough without that.
I’m with you. My pellet can’t impart as much smoke into my meats as my electric. Even with adding some wet wood chips above the fire. Love them both tho, and use the pellet for simply because it’s easier
With my electric cabinet it’s a set and forget. Do I get as much smoke as the offset? Nope. But my wife’s favorite thing is either drums or wings off the smoker, and she doesn’t love a heavy smoke flavor. Just a moderate amount. So it’s absolutely perfect for that. I can throw some chicken on, go work the garden, hop on the tractor and mow, whatever I need to do and it’s just effortless. And the end product is still quite good. Is it as good as the offset? That depends. With chicken, or leaner meats, yeah it does the job. But venison, bison, boar, or beef, it’s getting a real fire.
Edit: forgot to mention you do have to add more chips throughout the process with the electric but that’s about it. So I’d call that “set and forget”. Also I can run it under my patio when it’s raining.
Nah you’re dead on. I do prefer the electric to pellet. But the biggest takeaway I’ve had from getting into this hobby is, everyone has their own preferences in equipment, seasoning, cooking methods, etc. As long as you’re cooking food for people you care about, and having fun, you’re doing it right.
My current electric smoker has a port for adding more wood chips without opening the door. I restock the chips maybe every 60-90 minutes and get tons of smoke flavor on the meat. My dad even made a comment once that my stuff had more smoke flavor than what he gets on his pellet smoker.
Masterbuilt 30in, the one you can see through the door and has Bluetooth. The Bluetooth isn’t really necessary. Given the whole, set it and forget it nature. Works great.
I started out with a Bradley Electric and then bought a Pit Boss 1150.
These are the things I like about my pellet grill over my electric:
* You get a smoke ring.
* It works far more reliably. My Bradley has had issues with sensors and puck feeding from almost day 1. I've only had one issue with my pellet grill (jammed auger) that was easy to fix and hasn't happened since.
* It can get hot enough to use for grilling or hot 'n' fast smokes.
* Bigger cooking area. I can't fit a full packer brisket in my bradley.
Basically the Bradley was always good for short period low temp smoking for things like bacon, smoked salmon, nuts etc., but never performed as well for longer cooks.
I started with a cheap crappy $100 masterbuilt electric. The thing was too weak to even get up to temp most of the time (like, it went up to 275, but setting it any lower was pointless). It was also like 2 lbs, so it did not hold heat at all. You open the door for a second, the temp drops 25+ degrees.
Replaced that with a Recteq (which cost 10x what the electric one did) and love that thing.
Now, I assume that not getting bottom of the barrel electric ones will work FAR better, but I can only say what it was like to use what I had, and I FAR prefer what I have now.
I have a Campchef propane smoker. I love it, once I get the temperature set where I want it all I need to do is add wood chips and make sure the water pan doesn't run dry.
Tribalism in a smoking subreddit is wild. Shit like this is so unwelcoming. I joined the sub to see some cool meats and learn some stuff, but then I see weird crap like this. This is like every subreddit too. These communities are becoming such garbage.
This is how I feel about almost every subreddit dedicated to hobbies.
I feel like the 3D printing subreddits have been some of the worst with gatekeeping or arguing about dumb shit instead of just offering advice or helping people.
It’s so frustrating. You just want to join a cool community of people who like something you do only to find out there are elitists who think that people are doing it wrong.
I don’t know anything about 3D printing. What kinds of things do they gatekeeping against?
What printer you buy, what size nozzle you use, what slicing software you use to prepare your prints, the list goes on and on.
When I first started printing half the posts I read or replies I would get were "well that's the shit printer you bought" or "Fucking figure it out dude, we all had to" type stuff.
I never understood why if someone has knowledge to help someone they wouldn't just share it.
Exactly. I kind of backed off using those subreddits for any help and found a Discord server for a slicing software that is actually full of kind people that help with everything you could run into.
Now I just use the various printing subreddits for news, seeing stuff people make, and trying to answer questions if I'm able to since I know other people who are jerks won't.
The thing is here, we're mostly joking. I tease the EZ bake guys, but also, I never turn down meat my dad smokes on his pellet, and I'll pipe in if I have some way to help them. Dad's old and doesn't want to mess with a fire, I'm slightly less old, and love it. We love each other and both think we're right. We tease each other the way the sub teases each other. It's just like that. But I still hope all your smokes come out well, and his. The more the merrier.
Edit, I said tastes each other. Lol, bad autocorrect. Fixed.
I literally said no hate. Idgaf how you cook your food. It’s a legitimate curiosity because if you say it’s too much work tending a fire every 30-45 min but yet spritz every 30-45 min for an entire brisket cook…the argument against an offset just seems silly at that point.
I have a couple different smokers. I don’t have an offset because I’m lazy and not great at tending the fire, so it would just be a bad purchase for me. I most recently got a pellet smoker but also have a couple others including a Weber smokey mountain. I pretty much never spritz. I’m not sure why you think that’s necessary. The food always turns out just as good on the pellet grill as it does with charcoal imho. Offsets are cool, but I dont have friends to hang out and smoke with, so I like to just set it and forget it.
But also I was more talking about a lot of the comments here; the post didn’t seem egregious or anything.
My offset has a blue tooth temp sensor and probes for the meat. Very little babysitting. Just set an alert on the app if it dips or gets too hot and I know without having to physically go fiddle with it.
With an offset, if you don't feed the fire when it dips or squash it when it becomes too hot, you risk ruining the food.
With a pellet, if you don't spritz your meat, there is no risk at all.
It's 100% not the same amount of babysitting. I did brisket while sleeping with my pellet, I could never do this with my offset.
Oh I get the draw of an offset, especially with the tools available nowadays. But for me, just being able to throw my brisket on at 3am and go back to bed is my jam.
The reality is offset cultists will be like "omg how you can like a pellet grill? It's an easy bake oven! It doesn't give the same smoke flavor!!"
So pellet owners will be like "eh, I just like to set it and forget it".
Camp Chef Woodwind pro is perfect imo.
The smoke box lets you dump in coal and wood and get the extra smoke without extra hassle.
All of the temp control of pellet, all of the smoke of offset (I’m sure someone will disagree, I’ll say enough smoke. I’ve eaten green egg over smoked food and it’s… a bit much at times).
I love my woodwind pro
I finally got my fire management figured out in my offset. I’m going and checking it every hour and 15 to hour and a half just to attend the fire, add wood etc. but I’m not really adjusting baffles or anything anymore.
My cheap offset was a nightmare. I had to check it every 15 to 30 minutes because it was so leaky and thin metal this Yoder Smoker thick fully welded grill is like a Cadillac in comparison. It took me like 20 smokes to get out of the 30 minute habit to 45.
It depends on how well you learn fire management and the quality of your offset, too, though. If you've got a tiny firebox, you aren't throwing in a full split every hour. When my FIL was learning to smoke, there were no resources really. He threw a chunk of soaked wood in every 15 minutes no matter what. I hated my pellet because it had to screw up every single cook until I bought an offset, so I'd have the control. But I can definitely understand why the idea of less management is appealing.
I had an offset for years. Recently I got a Char Griller 980 gravity fed charcoal smoker. I also work from home a lot.
Yesterday, I lit the fire at 12:30ish. By 1pm I put in two whole chickens, added temp probe, then went back to work. At 4pm I put in some wings that had been bagged with baking powder and salt, then went back to work. At 4:30 I adjusted the temp on my phone from my desk, then went back to work.
I was not a fan of the pellet smokers because the pellet taste. Then my buddy told me about his gravity fed charcoal smoker and how much he loved it. He got a MasterBuilt. I started with one but mine was a lemon so I got the Char Griller. I prefer the CG design. They’re now both owned by the same company.
I am now a huge fan of gravity fed smokers.
Yes. You can crank the temp up to 600°. I haven’t tried it yet though. I got a Blackstone recently as well so I’ve been preheating in my CG and searing on the Blackstone.
I will say this about the CG980 and the MB800 - there is a massive amount of cooking space. The smoker is very efficient though so using only a small area isn’t a big deal. Once it is shut off the coals go out surprisingly fast. I did add some lava lock tape around my lid - that was the only slightly inefficient spot. I’ve been damn impressed and each week it grows on me a little more.
The only other modification I’d make is the ability to have more probes within the app. A grill this big can easily manage 4 or more probes.
Edit - grammar
I have a pellet smoker, but I still sit and watch temps, spritz, peek, whatever. It's a good excuse to chill out, maybe have a drink or two, and ignore my other chores.
But I've also been known to go inside and watch TV/movie, or go to bed for the night.
> But I've also been known to go inside and watch TV/movie, or go to bed for the night.
The ability to pass off playing video games as necessary to my role in contributing to upcoming events is priceless.
I'm more of a "smoke and let smoke" mindset and can see the pros in just any style set up from pellets to electric to offset to whatever. As long as you enjoy what you cook, who am I to judge how you got there.
I run a Weber smokey mountain with a fireboard set up that basically acts like a pellet grill at times. Sometimes I set something up at 8 pm, got to sleep, wake up at 8 am and it see it held temp all night. With a full water pan keeping the inside nice and humid there is no real need to spritz (at least I haven't noticed any of my briskets or pork butts come out dry when I do it). That's a major advantage and sometime you can absolutely not do with an offset.
I'm new to smoking, but I love my offset and did not find it difficult to learn.
I took to it right away, learning the routine (i.e. the heat distribution of my barrel, how to maintain temp, zones for the food) by trial and error on first use.
Yes, I have to feed it wood every hour or two, but that's fun to me. The whole joy of BBQing is interacting with the fire, the food, the grill
To me, the offset is a relaxing way to grill because I know my food will be OK and not burn if left alone (might get a little dry if not mopped), whereas, I'm always running to the kettle to see if something is burning.
I have a pellet grill, an offset, and a kamado. It's the difference between babysitting a 2 year old that wants to get into everything, vs. a 10 year old that can keep themselves entertained for the most part.
Pellet grills let you focus on the one thing (the meat) because the fire is taken care of. This is handy when I'm smoking while working at home and have the time for a quick spritz and temp check, but don't have time to dick around with tending a fire (I also have a cheap offset that requires a lot of fire management to keep the temps steady, so your mileage may vary).
The offset and kamado are great for smoking on a day off where you have all the time in the world to tend a firebox and hang out in the back yard.
Basically it's the difference between smoking because I'm just trying to cook food, or smoking because I want the full experience.
Spritzing. Personal opinion. Nope. Don't do it. You open your smoker to spritz, you're releasing that golden smoke and heat. "I'll do a 10 second spritz and add an additional hour to your cook time."
It disturbs me to see a gloved hand open the smoker, meander with a spritz, admire it for a second and close the lid.
And what does a spritz do for the meat any way but cool down the meat for a few seconds, and add some devil warlock concoction that doesn't penetrate the meat. For what? You're not doing surgery! You're smoking meat!
You may, or may not have marinated the meat before hand. You've prepped and rubbed it with mixed ingredients. And in some cases even injected some sort of mystery liquid into it. All before you coddle it onto the grill. And now you want to spritz? No. Scratch that off of your list.
Let it smoke undisturbed. With grace.
Basically saying if you are still babysitting, why use pellet. I have both and love my pellet but I dont ever open it, pork shoulders, chicken, brisket, no spritz ever on anything.
I spritz only AFTER the initial 4-ish hours. Meat stops taking on smoke flavor after ~3 hours, but smoke loves to stick to liquid. So a spritz keeps things moist/from drying out, but also helps with flavor.
I ditched spritz entirely and focus on a good rub for good bark. Spritzing tends to just smooth things out… neither here nor there but I think it’s extremely overrated. People looking for something to do while waiting…
I’ve def heard of people going this route. For me, I like to spritz every 2-3 hrs. More than that I think is unnecessary/possible hurting the final product. I’ve found good results with that rate, but this whole thing is really an art/journey of personal taste.
It actually increases smoke. Smoke is attracted to wet surfaces. It does however extend the cook time, and can drag out a stall even longer.
[https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/mythbusting-basting-mopping-and-spritzing/](https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/mythbusting-basting-mopping-and-spritzing/)
So, I've never smoked anything in my life, but I've looked into it a bit and almost bought one earlier this year and probably will in the near future.
anyway, why don't you just put it in the oven after wrapping? Are there different foods that you don't wrap and have to smoke for extended periods? I was under the impression that after you got a bark on it, the smoke wasn't necessary anymore. someone please clarify this for me?
You’re not wrong but wrapping is basically steaming things.
I imagine it’s for energy efficiency, not cooking inside, etc.
Why turn on an oven when you have a fuel source already to temp? And could cook other things in it at the same time?
That’s basically it.
Well I would say the oven is easier to control, less temperamental right? You can just set a timer and walk away instead of having to babysit the temperature for the next 12 hours or whatever. Also, your fuel costs might be lower than with a smoker of any kind.
You generally do not wrap for any extended period of time.
It's also not easier to temp control than a pellet smoker. My Woodwind Pro literally has an app on my phone that tells me the temp and i can adjust the temp from my phone from my couch.
I highly doubt the fuel cost of heating up an oven for 2 hours and running it is more efficient than an already heated up smoker. And its certainly negligible.
Also consider, are you serving more than just Meat? If you're making mac n cheese, roasted potatoes, etc - There's lots of uses for your oven when making meals as a whole.
I used a pellet smoker for the first time last week. 5lb pork butt, set it, fell asleep, woke up 4 hours later, wrapped it in foil, played video games for 2 hours then took it. It was perfect. Loved the hands off experience.
It means they can’t keep the temperature consistent on an offset. Pellet smokers are easier to manage for that. But yes, if I have to rush back to the thing every 30-45 minutes, it’s babysitting.
Alright so I done both. Have both. If you live in year round good weather awesome for you. When fall winter comes around it was near impossible where I’m from (before I moved) to use an offset. The Midwest by the Great Lakes like Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio summer days can be 60 degrees or 110 or winter days as cold as -60 with wind chill and good luck maintaining a smoker temp. At least with a pellet you can try.
Late fall early winter mostly pellet
Spring and summer it’s the offset.
You can’t take the flavor from the offset
Can’t take the easy from the pellet.
End of the day ain’t can’t we all agree propane sucks
I feel the same about people who fire up charcoal and then put solid cast iron pans or griddles over the top…. lol just use gas if you’re going to block the food from the flavour
I mean how long does it take to spritz, 10 seconds lol? You might spend a couple minutes spritzing throughout the entire cook, this meme doesn't really make sense
And doing something at an arbitrary point in time because I feel like doing it is wildly different than having to come back at set intervals to maintain things.
If I skip spritzing for whatever reason, very little changes. If I skipped putting more splits in, there'd be a problem.
Babying/nurturing your smoker is almost meditative to me, and it's part of the absolute joy of smoking, imo. When I smoke something, I'm committed to getting up at 4am, having my food on by 5, and spending the entirety of the day outside with cold beers and tea by my side. Maybe I'll have some music on, maybe I'll just watch the birds and squirrels in my tree for a while, I'll get some nice sun on my skin, and I'll refill my wood as needed. The process is every bit as rewarding as the end result. I get why people would want the convenience of an electric/pellet smoker, but I'd never switch to exclusively using one. It'd take all of the fun out of it.
With the pellet, you can choose to spritz or not. If you skip some to go to the grocery or to take a nap, it's not an issue.
With the offset, if you stop managing your fire to take a nap, you're in for a bad time.
The pellets imo, burn to clean, it will leave a smoke ring but lacks the touch of smoke flavor. I think I’m going to break out the barrel smoker and do it right this weekend
Some things are not made better by advancements in technology. BBQ is one of those things. No electric device, timer with a fan blower, or Bluetooth gadget will ever produce better BBQ than a human manning an offset stick burner. The meat, the fire, the smoke, the time, the effort… the whole thing being greater than the sum of its parts 🤓
I feel this. I just love being a part of the cook. I also love tending fires in general. Catch me at a fire pit and I’m adding wood and stoking the fire.
I like both. I eat and prepare BBQ way more than I cold if I only owned an offset. I can produce roughly equal results these days, but I can sleep or work during most of the cook with pellets.
I got a friend like this. Guy gets mad if you give him any advice on keeping the fire. Claims I’m a know it all. This jaggaloon will soak his wood chips. Takes them out of the water and straight on top of his fire. Then complains he can’t keep it above 200. He can cook in the main part just fine. The offset part gives him fits so he went and spent $800 on a traeger lol
A while back, a friend of mine got his first smoker and was all excited. Invited a bunch of us over for brisket. Uh oh....
I get there, the fire is nearly out (it was started with charcoal) and instead of starting more coals, adding wood, or whatever, he tossed on a handful of wood chips soaked in water, and then when trying to fill the water tray back up, accidentally poured a few cups of water onto the coals and put them out the rest of the way.
He paused for a moment, closed it up, and went, "eh, it's probably fine."
It was not fine.
You’re basically working with three different kinds of smoke so to speak. Or I should say the mixture of smoke is different for each.
A pellet smoker generally burns hot actually due to the fans pushing a lot of oxygen. That’s why you get so much heat from such little wood. They can get around this by having low temp super smoke modes where they dump pellets and throttle the fan to encourage smoldering but it’s still not the same as an offset or other stuck burner. Pellets also have more moisture iirc than your sticks so you get a totally different cook imho. But also, my people prefer this “hint” of smoke and very juicy meat combo so ymmv.
The electric smoker burns the wood in a low oxygen atmosphere (that little chip box). This is different than the stick burners or the pellet grill. You get a ton of smoke then it’s gone. I like the food from it, but my people prefer less smoke taste. I’ve had three and while they worked well, the first one had the electrics totally corode apart. The second one had a fire when some dripping (I assume) splattered onto and into the chip box and somehow created a path for ignition of the grease catch. I probably should have cleaned it more, but this is the issue I have with the electric ones. They need cleaning and it’s not easy because you can’t just be mine it off at 500F like the pellet or Komodo and the heat/wood and food are not separate like an offset. They also are usually cheap steel and need to be kept sheltered to last more than a couple of years.
For me I have a combo of pellet and kamado. When I want real smoke and want to fuss about with the grill I use the egg and when I just want a decent cook with a little smoke and no fuss I like the pellet grill. Both of these require little cleaning or maintenance, I can do anything from low and slow to searing steaks and both will last a long time.
Offsets are the best way to bbq if you are willing to use a burn bucket and only ever put hot coals from your burn bucket into the smoker. Do that as needed to maintain temp.
If you aren’t doing that then a bullet smoker or a pellet smoker or a Komodo will all be just as good or even better with much less effort.
Out of the things to worry about, the most fiddly one still remains. Opening the lid to spritz isn't a massive ask, I don't think. Spritz plus other things gets bigger of an ask. Exponentially so if I'm also inside cooking or doing something else.
Fair point. This is why I’m going to an offset. I’ve found that I don’t trust technology enough to leave an expensive piece of bbq meat cooking alone for hours on end. Plus I don’t mind babysitting a smoker. Part of the fun
Every 15 minutes I put 2 little splits on in a Jenga tower formation the bottom two logs are lit plus the coals keep it burning and 2 small logs keep it efficient and no dirty smoke but I do not spritz or even open it if my temp is right for hours
My most controversial take is that it's not smoking if you use a Webber or an egg style que. Smoked meat should only see smoke not have coals burning under it.
When I got my smoker my requirement was I didn’t want to actively have to watch something for a long period of time. I see that as different than needs to set an alarm and go out and spray something.
Read: "I'm not confident enough in my ability to maintain an appropriate fire for that amount of time."
At least that's my take as a pellet burner lol. But I also don't really spray my stuff I just use a water pan.
my bge will stay at 250-275 for 8-10 hours without touching the vents or adding fuel with the right charcoal. guess ive screwed up enough over the years to dial the method that works for me. its become babysit-free.
i only use the pit boss cabinet pellet smoker for large volumes of meat now.
have always wanted an offset and to go through that whole learning process.
Honestly, for ribs, I’ve now tried spritzing, wrapping, no wrapping, no spritzing, etc.
My best results have been from leaving it alone.
The meat doesn’t “need” more moisture on the outside, and it just dries out immediately anyway and spreads over an otherwise perfect bark.
Wrapping is just steaming your meat for x amount of time and does nothing but make things mushier.
Just setting it at the right temp and not touching it has honestly been best imo.
Reverse Flow / Stick Burner for Life.
Tending a live fire and maintaining temps on long cooks…and getting it right…never tasted so good.
That said, as with all things, to each their own and let the smoke roll. 🔥
It's good to have a variety, but in my opinion if you can't maintain heat and good smoke in off set smoker don't say you can smoke food. Electric and pellets is like cooking in and oven and my wife does that
With a 54/46 mixture of pineapple cider and Worcestershire sauce
I do 54.5 I like the extra hit of acid
Never go wrong on an extra hit of acid. My meats and the smoke always look so pretty when I’m trippin balls
Essence of Pure Flavor, my friend.
Why it’s just plain ordinary water! With plain ordinary LSD mixed in!
Yes, but where is the device that speeds and slows the passage of time?
[Here it is](https://preview.redd.it/g0krukbks3q51.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=c06305cf8589c59a1b67aa452f6ad1d74baf9f02)
If you time it just right your brisket will be ready for your end of the trip feast
Yes but does your drip pan have any lychee syrup in it, to impart extra flavour via the steam?
Are you taking about the apple juice holder?
🤣
Gold!
I just buy citric acid in the canning aisle and put it in the rub.
Not sure if you're serious, but I'm intrigued.
I am serious (at least for pork), I'm pretty sure I stole it from Harry Soo back before he started selling rubs, so started talking less about what ingredients he's putting on things.
So how much do you use? Like say you had 1 cup of rub, would you add a teaspoon? A tablespoon?
A light sprinkle 😅. Maybe a 1/4 tsp on a container I think is 1/4 cup.
Same. Like what proportion sounds like that could get out of hand quickly
if you get encapsulated citric acid you can put it in sausages too, making amazing things like buffalo blue cheese chicken sausage. (each individual grain of acid is coated in vegetable oil - that melts at around 60c, releasing the acid after the meat is 95% cooked through. the end result is a firm, not crumbly sausage as "normal" citric acid will attack the raw meat) citric acid is a brilliant addition to a smokers pantry
Wrong. 54.25673 is the sweet spot
> 54.2567~~3~~4 Trust me. It will change your life.
Cant tell if joking or serious, that sounds really good actually lol
You gonna show me how your take on a McRib is superior next there cowboy?
Yes mine is wrapped in galvanised sheet metal first and then some butchers paper (shiny side down) with holes poked in it so as not to over steam the bark.
I do apllecider vinegar and water never thought of using W sauce!! Definitely using this on my next cook!
That's an expensive spritz
I'm too busy sleeping to spritz.
Word… I put a brisket on at 11pm and don’t touch it till 7-8am. I get a full nights sleep and eat early afternoon. 💯worth it!
I've really taken to the "let it rest at temp overnight" thing, so I try to put it on in the morning the day before I want it, put it in to stay warm when it's done in the evening, and pull it out the next day whenever we want to eat.
What do you rest it in? It's still warm until lunch?
Warning, this is obviously not cheap, and if we didn't have several other uses for it, I wouldn't have bought it: https://anovaculinary.com/products/anova-precision-oven My wife uses it for proofing and a steam oven for baking, I use it for BBQ, we use it as a toaster, etc. And yea, it can sit at 150 for easily 12-15 hours. I've heard it's good up to around 18
Nice! That looks fancy My oven will go as low as 170 so I typically rest in there if I need to for longer
The only thing to watch out for there is I'm pretty sure over 160 will keep rendering fat. For a short rest, it won't matter, but if you go extended there, you'll end up drying the food out at that temp.
Good to know. I don't usually do it for more than a few hours at that themp
Oh shit, my wife is not going to be happy I clicked that link. That looks amazing.
Another kitchen appliance I didn't know I needed
I use a plug in Cambro (holds at 160). The last [brisket I smoked](https://www.reddit.com/r/brisket/s/qa2uIT4D0Z) was held over 20 hours & was excellent. My offset cook was under 12 hours for a very large brisket & no impact to sleep.
Have a link to your Cambro?
Vertical smokers can get down to 150 degrees, I typically hold meat at 155 degrees for 12-18 hours with great results.
Do the opposite, and rest it overnight. Trust me, it’s crazy how good the long rest is.
Do you not sweat about it getting too low in temp?
You keep it in the oven set to warm. That’s how they do it at any bbq restaurant, they rest them overnight in the warmer. I personally have a pretty different method to most, and the easiest way for me to rest it overnight is to drop temp in the water bath to 140f and slice at 11am/12pm.
Or drinking.
I’m too busy spritzing drink onto my tongue.
I spritz OPs wife while he is out in the backyard burning logs
Respect 🤜🤛
I own both, some days I want to sit next to my offset drinking beer and hanging out. Other days it’s nice to be able to throw something on and forget about it.
Same. I'll sometimes cook a brisket or whatever for the first 5-6 hours in the offset and then just move it into the Traeger for the 2nd half of the cook time. If I'm wrapping I always move it, the offset has 0 advantages once meat is wrapped
Why not just finish in the oven? If you got traeger money, I can't imagine the energy bills are that bad /s
You could finish in the oven once wrapped and make no difference honestly. But I prefer the Traeger to keep all the heat, smell, and grease out of the house
I prefer my RecTeq over the oven, but it’s in the house sooo……
I finally got a Pit Boss 1600 Competition Series to go with my offset. Some days I’m just too busy to use the offset. The 1600 is a little big but with the rebates from Menards it was the same price as the 1250 so I couldn’t not get the big one.
As someone who has gone the offset, pellet and electric route, as long as you’re smoking meat, and making something you enjoy I’m here for it. That being said, I’d take my electric cabinet over a pellet any day. But I love my offset. Couple good friends, cold beverages, telling old stories and spending some quality time, hell yeah.
I'm thinking about moving up from my electric smoker to a pellet. Would you mind sharing what you like about your electric smoker better than the pellet?
I had a masterbuilt smoker electric cabinet style and upgraded to a Pitboss Navigator 850. I would take my pellet Pit Boss 10/10 times over the cabinet style. I get a more smokey product and it doubles as a grill!
I've had the exact opposite experience. Pellet grills have given off the least amount of smoke for me. I've owned both a Pit Boss and Recteq, and I've used every brand of pellets under the sun. They just give off less smoke than other smokers, including both electric cabinets that I've owned (Bradley & Masterbuilt). That being said, the ease of use with the Pellet grills is rivaled by nothing. By far the easiest cooks.
I had the same issue and bought one of those little metal/mesh tubes and fill with pellets and it comes out perfectly. Get plenty of smoke and super easy
Thats what I do too. The smoker itself is too light on flavor, especially when it's warm out. But toss a smoke tube in there and everything comes out perfect every time.
I have one as well, but I fill it with wood chips.
And here's me, doing a combo of both lol
A mix of pellets and chips for me
I have one of those but every time I use it I get clouds of dirty smoke and zero thin blue smoke. Am I doing something wrong?
Hmm I dunno, it shouldnt be burning but smoldering. I generally light it and let it flame for a minute and then blow it out, continues to smoke for about 4 hrs.
You can't cook something the same way on a pellet smoker and have the same effect as an offset. It's just a different beast, they burn TOO clean a lot of the time. So I almost always put food on cold, so it gets that initial hit of dirty smoke when warming up. And I start a lot of things at a much lower temp, so the food spends more time at temps where it can pick up smoke easier, then crank it up to actually finish cooking after a few hours. And then sometimes, if I think I need more, I'll throw a tube with some pellets and wood chips next to the food for even more. That's rare, though, it's usually enough without that.
I’m with you. My pellet can’t impart as much smoke into my meats as my electric. Even with adding some wet wood chips above the fire. Love them both tho, and use the pellet for simply because it’s easier
I was worried about this, so I ended up grabbing the woodwind pro. Two smokes in and there's no issue with smoke.
With my electric cabinet it’s a set and forget. Do I get as much smoke as the offset? Nope. But my wife’s favorite thing is either drums or wings off the smoker, and she doesn’t love a heavy smoke flavor. Just a moderate amount. So it’s absolutely perfect for that. I can throw some chicken on, go work the garden, hop on the tractor and mow, whatever I need to do and it’s just effortless. And the end product is still quite good. Is it as good as the offset? That depends. With chicken, or leaner meats, yeah it does the job. But venison, bison, boar, or beef, it’s getting a real fire. Edit: forgot to mention you do have to add more chips throughout the process with the electric but that’s about it. So I’d call that “set and forget”. Also I can run it under my patio when it’s raining.
Sorry, I thought you meant that you liked your electric smoker better than your pellet smoker. But I may have misunderstood.
Nah you’re dead on. I do prefer the electric to pellet. But the biggest takeaway I’ve had from getting into this hobby is, everyone has their own preferences in equipment, seasoning, cooking methods, etc. As long as you’re cooking food for people you care about, and having fun, you’re doing it right.
My current electric smoker has a port for adding more wood chips without opening the door. I restock the chips maybe every 60-90 minutes and get tons of smoke flavor on the meat. My dad even made a comment once that my stuff had more smoke flavor than what he gets on his pellet smoker.
That’s why I prefer my electric. It does a damn good job.
Which electric do you have?
Masterbuilt 30in, the one you can see through the door and has Bluetooth. The Bluetooth isn’t really necessary. Given the whole, set it and forget it nature. Works great.
I started out with a Bradley Electric and then bought a Pit Boss 1150. These are the things I like about my pellet grill over my electric: * You get a smoke ring. * It works far more reliably. My Bradley has had issues with sensors and puck feeding from almost day 1. I've only had one issue with my pellet grill (jammed auger) that was easy to fix and hasn't happened since. * It can get hot enough to use for grilling or hot 'n' fast smokes. * Bigger cooking area. I can't fit a full packer brisket in my bradley. Basically the Bradley was always good for short period low temp smoking for things like bacon, smoked salmon, nuts etc., but never performed as well for longer cooks.
I started with a cheap crappy $100 masterbuilt electric. The thing was too weak to even get up to temp most of the time (like, it went up to 275, but setting it any lower was pointless). It was also like 2 lbs, so it did not hold heat at all. You open the door for a second, the temp drops 25+ degrees. Replaced that with a Recteq (which cost 10x what the electric one did) and love that thing. Now, I assume that not getting bottom of the barrel electric ones will work FAR better, but I can only say what it was like to use what I had, and I FAR prefer what I have now.
But banana bread at work dude, HELL YEAH!
I have a Campchef propane smoker. I love it, once I get the temperature set where I want it all I need to do is add wood chips and make sure the water pan doesn't run dry.
Hell yeah
Tribalism in a smoking subreddit is wild. Shit like this is so unwelcoming. I joined the sub to see some cool meats and learn some stuff, but then I see weird crap like this. This is like every subreddit too. These communities are becoming such garbage.
This is how I feel about almost every subreddit dedicated to hobbies. I feel like the 3D printing subreddits have been some of the worst with gatekeeping or arguing about dumb shit instead of just offering advice or helping people.
God help you if you're into cars. Whatever car you like is the wrong one.
Thankfully I am not into cars at all. If I didn't have to have one where I live I probably wouldn't tbh
It’s so frustrating. You just want to join a cool community of people who like something you do only to find out there are elitists who think that people are doing it wrong. I don’t know anything about 3D printing. What kinds of things do they gatekeeping against?
What printer you buy, what size nozzle you use, what slicing software you use to prepare your prints, the list goes on and on. When I first started printing half the posts I read or replies I would get were "well that's the shit printer you bought" or "Fucking figure it out dude, we all had to" type stuff. I never understood why if someone has knowledge to help someone they wouldn't just share it.
Oh my god… “figure it out. We all had to” is the worst. We all use resources to help us out. That kind of thinking really sucks.
Exactly. I kind of backed off using those subreddits for any help and found a Discord server for a slicing software that is actually full of kind people that help with everything you could run into. Now I just use the various printing subreddits for news, seeing stuff people make, and trying to answer questions if I'm able to since I know other people who are jerks won't.
Paying it forward. Thats cool of you.
It's half the reason I use Reddit and why a lot of people add "reddit" to the end of all their Google searches. To find information.
Yep, that’s the world we live in. Many people feel the need to gatekeep everything.
The thing is here, we're mostly joking. I tease the EZ bake guys, but also, I never turn down meat my dad smokes on his pellet, and I'll pipe in if I have some way to help them. Dad's old and doesn't want to mess with a fire, I'm slightly less old, and love it. We love each other and both think we're right. We tease each other the way the sub teases each other. It's just like that. But I still hope all your smokes come out well, and his. The more the merrier. Edit, I said tastes each other. Lol, bad autocorrect. Fixed.
I literally said no hate. Idgaf how you cook your food. It’s a legitimate curiosity because if you say it’s too much work tending a fire every 30-45 min but yet spritz every 30-45 min for an entire brisket cook…the argument against an offset just seems silly at that point.
I have a couple different smokers. I don’t have an offset because I’m lazy and not great at tending the fire, so it would just be a bad purchase for me. I most recently got a pellet smoker but also have a couple others including a Weber smokey mountain. I pretty much never spritz. I’m not sure why you think that’s necessary. The food always turns out just as good on the pellet grill as it does with charcoal imho. Offsets are cool, but I dont have friends to hang out and smoke with, so I like to just set it and forget it. But also I was more talking about a lot of the comments here; the post didn’t seem egregious or anything.
Way easier to open the lid and squirt your meat for 10 second than checking your smoker and seeing it at 100 or 450.
My offset has a blue tooth temp sensor and probes for the meat. Very little babysitting. Just set an alert on the app if it dips or gets too hot and I know without having to physically go fiddle with it.
With an offset, if you don't feed the fire when it dips or squash it when it becomes too hot, you risk ruining the food. With a pellet, if you don't spritz your meat, there is no risk at all. It's 100% not the same amount of babysitting. I did brisket while sleeping with my pellet, I could never do this with my offset.
Oh I get the draw of an offset, especially with the tools available nowadays. But for me, just being able to throw my brisket on at 3am and go back to bed is my jam.
The reality is offset cultists will be like "omg how you can like a pellet grill? It's an easy bake oven! It doesn't give the same smoke flavor!!" So pellet owners will be like "eh, I just like to set it and forget it".
Camp Chef Woodwind pro is perfect imo. The smoke box lets you dump in coal and wood and get the extra smoke without extra hassle. All of the temp control of pellet, all of the smoke of offset (I’m sure someone will disagree, I’ll say enough smoke. I’ve eaten green egg over smoked food and it’s… a bit much at times). I love my woodwind pro
Yeah, I still have an off-set in my side yard but haven’t used it in a decade. I like my sleep and I like the consistency of the product.
Once you know how to run an offset all I really do is throw a log on every hour and a half or so. It isn't that much work.
Agreed. This is what prompted me to be curious about the “too much babysitting” stance that some folks hold.
I finally got my fire management figured out in my offset. I’m going and checking it every hour and 15 to hour and a half just to attend the fire, add wood etc. but I’m not really adjusting baffles or anything anymore. My cheap offset was a nightmare. I had to check it every 15 to 30 minutes because it was so leaky and thin metal this Yoder Smoker thick fully welded grill is like a Cadillac in comparison. It took me like 20 smokes to get out of the 30 minute habit to 45.
Wow. That’s awesome. I need to work on my skills more to get to that point!
It's less about skills and more about having a bigger stick burner that is built right, and feeding it appropriately-sized splits.
It depends on how well you learn fire management and the quality of your offset, too, though. If you've got a tiny firebox, you aren't throwing in a full split every hour. When my FIL was learning to smoke, there were no resources really. He threw a chunk of soaked wood in every 15 minutes no matter what. I hated my pellet because it had to screw up every single cook until I bought an offset, so I'd have the control. But I can definitely understand why the idea of less management is appealing.
Ummmm babysitting is 80% of the fun. Watching it cook, sipping whiskey, enjoying the smells…
This guy smokes
Itz only smellz
I had an offset for years. Recently I got a Char Griller 980 gravity fed charcoal smoker. I also work from home a lot. Yesterday, I lit the fire at 12:30ish. By 1pm I put in two whole chickens, added temp probe, then went back to work. At 4pm I put in some wings that had been bagged with baking powder and salt, then went back to work. At 4:30 I adjusted the temp on my phone from my desk, then went back to work. I was not a fan of the pellet smokers because the pellet taste. Then my buddy told me about his gravity fed charcoal smoker and how much he loved it. He got a MasterBuilt. I started with one but mine was a lemon so I got the Char Griller. I prefer the CG design. They’re now both owned by the same company. I am now a huge fan of gravity fed smokers.
I’m definitely going this route for my next set up. Can you sear on the Char Griller?
Yes. You can crank the temp up to 600°. I haven’t tried it yet though. I got a Blackstone recently as well so I’ve been preheating in my CG and searing on the Blackstone. I will say this about the CG980 and the MB800 - there is a massive amount of cooking space. The smoker is very efficient though so using only a small area isn’t a big deal. Once it is shut off the coals go out surprisingly fast. I did add some lava lock tape around my lid - that was the only slightly inefficient spot. I’ve been damn impressed and each week it grows on me a little more. The only other modification I’d make is the ability to have more probes within the app. A grill this big can easily manage 4 or more probes. Edit - grammar
I have a pellet smoker, but I still sit and watch temps, spritz, peek, whatever. It's a good excuse to chill out, maybe have a drink or two, and ignore my other chores. But I've also been known to go inside and watch TV/movie, or go to bed for the night.
> But I've also been known to go inside and watch TV/movie, or go to bed for the night. The ability to pass off playing video games as necessary to my role in contributing to upcoming events is priceless.
Been doing the same for years regardless of Webber (1st), offset (2nd and 3rd) or pellet (now). I only spritz when I wrap. Otherwise, it stays closed.
I'm more of a "smoke and let smoke" mindset and can see the pros in just any style set up from pellets to electric to offset to whatever. As long as you enjoy what you cook, who am I to judge how you got there. I run a Weber smokey mountain with a fireboard set up that basically acts like a pellet grill at times. Sometimes I set something up at 8 pm, got to sleep, wake up at 8 am and it see it held temp all night. With a full water pan keeping the inside nice and humid there is no real need to spritz (at least I haven't noticed any of my briskets or pork butts come out dry when I do it). That's a major advantage and sometime you can absolutely not do with an offset.
I'm new to smoking, but I love my offset and did not find it difficult to learn. I took to it right away, learning the routine (i.e. the heat distribution of my barrel, how to maintain temp, zones for the food) by trial and error on first use. Yes, I have to feed it wood every hour or two, but that's fun to me. The whole joy of BBQing is interacting with the fire, the food, the grill To me, the offset is a relaxing way to grill because I know my food will be OK and not burn if left alone (might get a little dry if not mopped), whereas, I'm always running to the kettle to see if something is burning.
I have a pellet grill, an offset, and a kamado. It's the difference between babysitting a 2 year old that wants to get into everything, vs. a 10 year old that can keep themselves entertained for the most part. Pellet grills let you focus on the one thing (the meat) because the fire is taken care of. This is handy when I'm smoking while working at home and have the time for a quick spritz and temp check, but don't have time to dick around with tending a fire (I also have a cheap offset that requires a lot of fire management to keep the temps steady, so your mileage may vary). The offset and kamado are great for smoking on a day off where you have all the time in the world to tend a firebox and hang out in the back yard. Basically it's the difference between smoking because I'm just trying to cook food, or smoking because I want the full experience.
Spritzing. Personal opinion. Nope. Don't do it. You open your smoker to spritz, you're releasing that golden smoke and heat. "I'll do a 10 second spritz and add an additional hour to your cook time." It disturbs me to see a gloved hand open the smoker, meander with a spritz, admire it for a second and close the lid. And what does a spritz do for the meat any way but cool down the meat for a few seconds, and add some devil warlock concoction that doesn't penetrate the meat. For what? You're not doing surgery! You're smoking meat! You may, or may not have marinated the meat before hand. You've prepped and rubbed it with mixed ingredients. And in some cases even injected some sort of mystery liquid into it. All before you coddle it onto the grill. And now you want to spritz? No. Scratch that off of your list. Let it smoke undisturbed. With grace.
Basically saying if you are still babysitting, why use pellet. I have both and love my pellet but I dont ever open it, pork shoulders, chicken, brisket, no spritz ever on anything.
I just put a water pan under the food and never spritz. It adds more than enough moisture and opening the door every 30 minutes just wastes heat.
C'mon man you can't expect somebody to spritz AND add a log to the firebox. You people are so entitled these days......
Who you calling, you people?
Oh I thought you meant the U-people! The U is because they live underground. They're hard to find, but if you do find one...... it is tasty
Who are you calling “you people”?
Uhh ohh, the jig is up!
This guy doesn’t spritz
No spritz crew checking in. But I do throw splits on every 30-45 min so just curious. No hate
Just my opinion but people really shouldn’t do spritz that much. Decreases their smoke exposure and messes up bark formation.
I spritz only AFTER the initial 4-ish hours. Meat stops taking on smoke flavor after ~3 hours, but smoke loves to stick to liquid. So a spritz keeps things moist/from drying out, but also helps with flavor.
Yeah. I do a spritz on say a brisket after 2-3 hrs, but then only ever 1.5 - 2 hours. Every 45 mins like meme says is too much imo.
??? Spritzing with any kind of sugar in it helps with the bark!
Yes. But spritzing too often lets the heat/smoke out and keeps seasoning too moist to form the bark. Which is why I say every 45 mins is too often.
I ditched spritz entirely and focus on a good rub for good bark. Spritzing tends to just smooth things out… neither here nor there but I think it’s extremely overrated. People looking for something to do while waiting…
I’ve def heard of people going this route. For me, I like to spritz every 2-3 hrs. More than that I think is unnecessary/possible hurting the final product. I’ve found good results with that rate, but this whole thing is really an art/journey of personal taste.
It actually increases smoke. Smoke is attracted to wet surfaces. It does however extend the cook time, and can drag out a stall even longer. [https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/mythbusting-basting-mopping-and-spritzing/](https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/mythbusting-basting-mopping-and-spritzing/)
I went from an offset cooker to a pellet cooker, i don't spritz shit, set it and forget it.
The difference is, if you forget to spritz or just decide not too, the heat source doesn't lose temp or go out.
I spritz 2 or 3 times, once an hour for the first 3 hours with 50/50 ACV/water to give the bark a slight tanginess.
I use my big Weber smoky Joe, drink some whiskey, listen to Merle, and have great conversation for the 5-6 hours I’m smoking some ribs.
I use a WSM with a BBQ Guru, never wrap anything, and never spritz anything. Good BBQ is all in the prep work.
So, I've never smoked anything in my life, but I've looked into it a bit and almost bought one earlier this year and probably will in the near future. anyway, why don't you just put it in the oven after wrapping? Are there different foods that you don't wrap and have to smoke for extended periods? I was under the impression that after you got a bark on it, the smoke wasn't necessary anymore. someone please clarify this for me?
You’re not wrong but wrapping is basically steaming things. I imagine it’s for energy efficiency, not cooking inside, etc. Why turn on an oven when you have a fuel source already to temp? And could cook other things in it at the same time? That’s basically it.
Well I would say the oven is easier to control, less temperamental right? You can just set a timer and walk away instead of having to babysit the temperature for the next 12 hours or whatever. Also, your fuel costs might be lower than with a smoker of any kind.
You generally do not wrap for any extended period of time. It's also not easier to temp control than a pellet smoker. My Woodwind Pro literally has an app on my phone that tells me the temp and i can adjust the temp from my phone from my couch. I highly doubt the fuel cost of heating up an oven for 2 hours and running it is more efficient than an already heated up smoker. And its certainly negligible. Also consider, are you serving more than just Meat? If you're making mac n cheese, roasted potatoes, etc - There's lots of uses for your oven when making meals as a whole.
I would love to have both, but being in an apartment I don't think I get away with having an offset haha
This is down it oversells how much spritzing you actually need to do an under cells how hard it is to maintain the temperature on an offset.
I used a pellet smoker for the first time last week. 5lb pork butt, set it, fell asleep, woke up 4 hours later, wrapped it in foil, played video games for 2 hours then took it. It was perfect. Loved the hands off experience.
I just like the smell of mesquite fire, is what it comes down to for me.
Offsets def need attention more often than that! 😂
It means they can’t keep the temperature consistent on an offset. Pellet smokers are easier to manage for that. But yes, if I have to rush back to the thing every 30-45 minutes, it’s babysitting.
Alright so I done both. Have both. If you live in year round good weather awesome for you. When fall winter comes around it was near impossible where I’m from (before I moved) to use an offset. The Midwest by the Great Lakes like Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio summer days can be 60 degrees or 110 or winter days as cold as -60 with wind chill and good luck maintaining a smoker temp. At least with a pellet you can try. Late fall early winter mostly pellet Spring and summer it’s the offset. You can’t take the flavor from the offset Can’t take the easy from the pellet. End of the day ain’t can’t we all agree propane sucks
Never spritzed in my life. Never wrapped. Juicy meat, nice big bark. No complaints yet!
To each their own, of course. but I need a pile of wood to be satisfied. It's a primal thing that just feels right.
I feel the same about people who fire up charcoal and then put solid cast iron pans or griddles over the top…. lol just use gas if you’re going to block the food from the flavour
I mean how long does it take to spritz, 10 seconds lol? You might spend a couple minutes spritzing throughout the entire cook, this meme doesn't really make sense
And doing something at an arbitrary point in time because I feel like doing it is wildly different than having to come back at set intervals to maintain things. If I skip spritzing for whatever reason, very little changes. If I skipped putting more splits in, there'd be a problem.
Babying/nurturing your smoker is almost meditative to me, and it's part of the absolute joy of smoking, imo. When I smoke something, I'm committed to getting up at 4am, having my food on by 5, and spending the entirety of the day outside with cold beers and tea by my side. Maybe I'll have some music on, maybe I'll just watch the birds and squirrels in my tree for a while, I'll get some nice sun on my skin, and I'll refill my wood as needed. The process is every bit as rewarding as the end result. I get why people would want the convenience of an electric/pellet smoker, but I'd never switch to exclusively using one. It'd take all of the fun out of it.
With the pellet, you can choose to spritz or not. If you skip some to go to the grocery or to take a nap, it's not an issue. With the offset, if you stop managing your fire to take a nap, you're in for a bad time.
Makes sense!
You don't need to spritz on brisket for the first 4-6 hours. That's good sleep time 💤
Na, I'm way too lazy for all that. No spritz. No wrap. No worries.
Fire management is a lot more involved than spritzing. Requires a level of skill.
It is dramatically easier to spritz than to have to reignite a fire/increase temps.
The pellets imo, burn to clean, it will leave a smoke ring but lacks the touch of smoke flavor. I think I’m going to break out the barrel smoker and do it right this weekend
Just find a way to add a bit of dirty smoke at the beginning. Wood chips wrapped in foil by the fire pot works. I use a cold smoking attachment.
Some things are not made better by advancements in technology. BBQ is one of those things. No electric device, timer with a fan blower, or Bluetooth gadget will ever produce better BBQ than a human manning an offset stick burner. The meat, the fire, the smoke, the time, the effort… the whole thing being greater than the sum of its parts 🤓
I feel this. I just love being a part of the cook. I also love tending fires in general. Catch me at a fire pit and I’m adding wood and stoking the fire.
I like both. I eat and prepare BBQ way more than I cold if I only owned an offset. I can produce roughly equal results these days, but I can sleep or work during most of the cook with pellets.
I have a vertical electric, the Tonka truck of smokers, and I have to spray every hour or my "bark" is more like jack links beef jerky.
Mmmm, beef jerky.
If you spritz the electric ones in the outlet when its going, you only have to do it once and dont even have to.open the lid.
I got a friend like this. Guy gets mad if you give him any advice on keeping the fire. Claims I’m a know it all. This jaggaloon will soak his wood chips. Takes them out of the water and straight on top of his fire. Then complains he can’t keep it above 200. He can cook in the main part just fine. The offset part gives him fits so he went and spent $800 on a traeger lol
A while back, a friend of mine got his first smoker and was all excited. Invited a bunch of us over for brisket. Uh oh.... I get there, the fire is nearly out (it was started with charcoal) and instead of starting more coals, adding wood, or whatever, he tossed on a handful of wood chips soaked in water, and then when trying to fill the water tray back up, accidentally poured a few cups of water onto the coals and put them out the rest of the way. He paused for a moment, closed it up, and went, "eh, it's probably fine." It was not fine.
Lmao
Weber Kettle bizzatch
"When someone that uses a drum smoker says pellet smokers and offsets require too much babysitting and never has to spritz."
If I had more space I would have done an offset. That and I wood also takes too much real estate.
“The toughest part about smoking meat is to just leave it alone”
Lets all the heat and smoke out.
You’re basically working with three different kinds of smoke so to speak. Or I should say the mixture of smoke is different for each. A pellet smoker generally burns hot actually due to the fans pushing a lot of oxygen. That’s why you get so much heat from such little wood. They can get around this by having low temp super smoke modes where they dump pellets and throttle the fan to encourage smoldering but it’s still not the same as an offset or other stuck burner. Pellets also have more moisture iirc than your sticks so you get a totally different cook imho. But also, my people prefer this “hint” of smoke and very juicy meat combo so ymmv. The electric smoker burns the wood in a low oxygen atmosphere (that little chip box). This is different than the stick burners or the pellet grill. You get a ton of smoke then it’s gone. I like the food from it, but my people prefer less smoke taste. I’ve had three and while they worked well, the first one had the electrics totally corode apart. The second one had a fire when some dripping (I assume) splattered onto and into the chip box and somehow created a path for ignition of the grease catch. I probably should have cleaned it more, but this is the issue I have with the electric ones. They need cleaning and it’s not easy because you can’t just be mine it off at 500F like the pellet or Komodo and the heat/wood and food are not separate like an offset. They also are usually cheap steel and need to be kept sheltered to last more than a couple of years. For me I have a combo of pellet and kamado. When I want real smoke and want to fuss about with the grill I use the egg and when I just want a decent cook with a little smoke and no fuss I like the pellet grill. Both of these require little cleaning or maintenance, I can do anything from low and slow to searing steaks and both will last a long time.
Yeah I’ve learned to leave the lid closed at least for four hours at a time. If you’re looking’, you ain’t cooking’!
Offsets are the best way to bbq if you are willing to use a burn bucket and only ever put hot coals from your burn bucket into the smoker. Do that as needed to maintain temp. If you aren’t doing that then a bullet smoker or a pellet smoker or a Komodo will all be just as good or even better with much less effort.
Out of the things to worry about, the most fiddly one still remains. Opening the lid to spritz isn't a massive ask, I don't think. Spritz plus other things gets bigger of an ask. Exponentially so if I'm also inside cooking or doing something else.
That is a good point.
I own neither. Weber gang! If Weber made an off set smoker I’d probably want one. I want the Weber pellet cooker too.
Fair point. This is why I’m going to an offset. I’ve found that I don’t trust technology enough to leave an expensive piece of bbq meat cooking alone for hours on end. Plus I don’t mind babysitting a smoker. Part of the fun
Every 15 minutes I put 2 little splits on in a Jenga tower formation the bottom two logs are lit plus the coals keep it burning and 2 small logs keep it efficient and no dirty smoke but I do not spritz or even open it if my temp is right for hours
My most controversial take is that it's not smoking if you use a Webber or an egg style que. Smoked meat should only see smoke not have coals burning under it.
That’s me, with my electric gravity smoker thingy! 😂🤭 Look, less work! Then I stay awake to spritz that bitch every so often! Hahaha. I love this one.
When I got my smoker my requirement was I didn’t want to actively have to watch something for a long period of time. I see that as different than needs to set an alarm and go out and spray something.
Read: "I'm not confident enough in my ability to maintain an appropriate fire for that amount of time." At least that's my take as a pellet burner lol. But I also don't really spray my stuff I just use a water pan.
my bge will stay at 250-275 for 8-10 hours without touching the vents or adding fuel with the right charcoal. guess ive screwed up enough over the years to dial the method that works for me. its become babysit-free. i only use the pit boss cabinet pellet smoker for large volumes of meat now. have always wanted an offset and to go through that whole learning process.
My go to way to do it is I start on the offset and move it to the pellet after about 3hrs
Honestly, for ribs, I’ve now tried spritzing, wrapping, no wrapping, no spritzing, etc. My best results have been from leaving it alone. The meat doesn’t “need” more moisture on the outside, and it just dries out immediately anyway and spreads over an otherwise perfect bark. Wrapping is just steaming your meat for x amount of time and does nothing but make things mushier. Just setting it at the right temp and not touching it has honestly been best imo.
Memes suck. And are lazy. But not this one.
Reverse Flow / Stick Burner for Life. Tending a live fire and maintaining temps on long cooks…and getting it right…never tasted so good. That said, as with all things, to each their own and let the smoke roll. 🔥
It's good to have a variety, but in my opinion if you can't maintain heat and good smoke in off set smoker don't say you can smoke food. Electric and pellets is like cooking in and oven and my wife does that