Pit Barrel Cooker (PBC) Appreciation Thread

Haole Pete said:

Okay, one last PBC Project and then I'll stop. For a bit.... :tape:

The PBC Prep Table:

This one will have no instructions, as YMMV extremely. I was fortunate in that I had an aluminum table base to start from...

Welded up a frame with the edges made out of angle iron so i could drop in a piece of cement board. Cut a 20" hole in the board.

Was smart (lazy?) and sized the top to be 6x12 TILES in size, so the only tiles I had to cut were around the hole.

Tiled, grouted, and painted the base with black spray paint from the initial green.

Now I got a prep table that matches the rest of "The Cantina"...

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Man, that is SWEEEET!

My 1st cook on the PBC was chicken, and the KBB taste was overwhelming. Just nasty. Now I do it just as I have always done, lighter fluid and DO NOT put the meat on until clean smoke. That method tends to cook hotter, but you can play with the vent to get the results you want. I just talked one of my friends into an 18.5" WSM on sale at HD for $179, and now I want her to get a Gateway rib hanger kit and see how the WSM does hanging meat.

I've got two ducks waiting in the fridge to put in the PBC this afternoon. My first time cooking duck and first use of the bird hanger in my PBC. I'll try to get some pics for everyone

Just hung my 12 lb prime packer. I used the suggestions from Andrew and others and I'm hoping for better results. I opened the vent a bit more, put 40 coals in the chimney, and waited until they were all glowing and flames were shooting out before I dumped them into the basket. Then I rubbed and hooked the meat and hung it about 10-15 minutes after I dumped the coals. I skipped the wood this time. I think I'm on the right track this time. The smoke is thinner and my temp is around 260 just a few minutes after adding a large cool hunk of meat.

Edit: one hour in and temp seems to have settled in the 280's. IT is at 120.

Edit: after about 2.5 hours after hanging I noticed the temp start to drop down to around 260, so about 20 degrees. This seemed to roughly coincide with the stall, meat was in the low 150's. Not sure if it is common for the PBC temp to drop during stall or if something else is going on. When meat hit 160 I wrapped it and now it's back on, with temps around 250. I wanted to leave it hanging longer, but was starting to smell the more acrid smoke and I was worried that would ruin the meat. When I pulled it I noticed the coals on one side of the basket were nearly all burned up, while the other side was still relatively full. Very uneven burn pattern.

AClarke44 said:

If your temp drops more slightly crack the lid to get the temp up. Let it hit about 290-300 before you close the lid back.

You may have to do that a couple times during the cook....

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It hit around 248, but is now rising again and is at 255. Brisket is at 196 IT, so I think I'm good. Should be pulling it and resting in a cooler pretty soon.

AClarke44 said:

Ok good. Yeah at that temp you should be probe tender soon. Just make sure you use probe tender in the thickest part of the FLAT and not a certain temperature to know when it's done. When its done, loosen the foil and basically "tent" it for 10-15 min, then wrap it back in foil, put it in a cooler with a couple towels, and let it rest a minimum of an hour.....longer if you can.

Hope this helps. Sorry of I stated a bunch of stuff you akready knew...lol....:mrgreen:

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It does help and I sure appreciate it. It probed very tender, in fact so tender that I accidentally pierced the foil on the bottom like a dummy and lost a bunch of juice. I grabbed another piece of foil and put it under it and it's in the cooler now. Hopefully that doesn't cause it to dry out.

That's a fast brisket cook Sunny. My 14 lb briskets take about 9 hours. You'll have plenty of time to rest in the cooler which is great. Hope yiu have some pics!

Bob C Cue said:

That's a fast brisket cook Sunny. My 14 lb briskets take about 9 hours. You'll have plenty of time to rest in the cooler which is great. Hope yiu have some pics!

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Yeah, it was a little over 5 hours total. I would have let it hang longer and bark up more if I hadn't been concerned about the acrid smoke I started getting. It looks and smells incredible, hopefully it will taste as good.

Turned out great! Really nice smokey flavor, tender, and juicy. Complete 180 from my 1st cook. Thank you all for the tips!

AClarke44 said:

Looks great! Nice job!

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Thank you Andrew, and thanks for your help along the way! I think your suggestions on starting the fire made all the difference this time around. I really appreciate that you took the time to help me out. Looking forward to the next cook!

SunnyInTexas said:

Thank you Andrew, and thanks for your help along the way! I think your suggestions on starting the fire made all the difference this time around. I really appreciate that you took the time to help me out. Looking forward to the next cook!

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Andrew is the PBC Whisperer. Follow his lead and you can't go wrong.

Amazing, the duck came out so good

I don't know how to delete sorry for the double post

TealStBBQKing said:

Amazing, the duck came out so good

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Looks great. Glad it came out so well.

Cheap Eats

I picked up a couple of really nice picnics at Kroger yesterday for 77 cents a pound. I like to live vicariously through this site and see all the beautiful Wagyu and prime cuts you guys cook, but to me, turning something cheap into something delicious is what got me started smoking!