caltexchris
Found some matches.
Cooking BBQ has been in my family for years. I have such vivid memories of my dad giving me little sips of his beer he used to make his sauce growing up and looking forward to being the first one to taste the ribs when they came off the grill. Through the years I have owned just about every style of grill you can have and currently use and love my BGE and my poor little Weber Genesis just doesn't get much attention.
Got the itch to get another offset and wanted to up my game. I'm in Northern California and started looking all around me for builders. KAT, Fatstack, and JH Smokers were the big three that I found through searches on here and other online sources. Ended up pulling the trigger on the JH Smoker and couldn't be happier.
This thing is a beast. I seasoned it on day 1 with standard high temp cooking spray then got a bunch of little cheapo oven temp gauges and spread them around in the pit to learn the hotspots and areas of the smoker. May also try the biscuit test too this week. Very even temps across the pit. Top rack as expected cooks about 15-20 degrees hotter but I was within about 5-10 degrees left to right. I expect this to even out the more I cook on it.
Next day I did a Prime Brisket, Pork Butt, 2 Racks of Ribs, 2 lbs of Chicken Thighs, and some Sausage. Here is what I learned (feedback is welcomed):
-I made the mistake of using the warmer (temp showing 150) too soon, I think. Once the ribs felt done (+/-5.5 hours), I put them wrapped into the warmer. I let the brisket rest for an hour then put it in the warmer, and I let the pork rest for an hour, pulled it, then put it in the warmer. Ribs were falling off the bone (but amazingly tasty), pork had dried up a bit, and brisket was dry and lost a ton of moisture. I am thinking either the warmer was too hot (baffle between firebox completely closed, and smoke stack barely cracked open), or I didn't give the meat enough time to rest and come down in temp prior to putting it in the warmer.
-Flavor was amazing, but it wasn't quite the intensity of smoke flavor I was expecting (or used to from my BGE). I used local Oak splits and ran the pit around 260-270. I feel like I used a TON of splits - almost one every 20 min or so. I started with a chimney of lump and 4 splits, coal bed was great to start, but adding a single split every 30-40 min didn't maintain the coal bed. Had to add more lump/briquettes every 3-4 hours to maintain a coal bed. Was able to maintain a good solid consistent temp, but I felt like I had to really baby it the entire time. Maybe this is just getting to know my pit?
I'll post another more in depth review of the pit, but man this thing is SOOO well built and kick a@@. If you're looking for an absolutely top notch build at a very competitive price point, call Justin over at JH Smokers.
Got the itch to get another offset and wanted to up my game. I'm in Northern California and started looking all around me for builders. KAT, Fatstack, and JH Smokers were the big three that I found through searches on here and other online sources. Ended up pulling the trigger on the JH Smoker and couldn't be happier.
This thing is a beast. I seasoned it on day 1 with standard high temp cooking spray then got a bunch of little cheapo oven temp gauges and spread them around in the pit to learn the hotspots and areas of the smoker. May also try the biscuit test too this week. Very even temps across the pit. Top rack as expected cooks about 15-20 degrees hotter but I was within about 5-10 degrees left to right. I expect this to even out the more I cook on it.
Next day I did a Prime Brisket, Pork Butt, 2 Racks of Ribs, 2 lbs of Chicken Thighs, and some Sausage. Here is what I learned (feedback is welcomed):
-I made the mistake of using the warmer (temp showing 150) too soon, I think. Once the ribs felt done (+/-5.5 hours), I put them wrapped into the warmer. I let the brisket rest for an hour then put it in the warmer, and I let the pork rest for an hour, pulled it, then put it in the warmer. Ribs were falling off the bone (but amazingly tasty), pork had dried up a bit, and brisket was dry and lost a ton of moisture. I am thinking either the warmer was too hot (baffle between firebox completely closed, and smoke stack barely cracked open), or I didn't give the meat enough time to rest and come down in temp prior to putting it in the warmer.
-Flavor was amazing, but it wasn't quite the intensity of smoke flavor I was expecting (or used to from my BGE). I used local Oak splits and ran the pit around 260-270. I feel like I used a TON of splits - almost one every 20 min or so. I started with a chimney of lump and 4 splits, coal bed was great to start, but adding a single split every 30-40 min didn't maintain the coal bed. Had to add more lump/briquettes every 3-4 hours to maintain a coal bed. Was able to maintain a good solid consistent temp, but I felt like I had to really baby it the entire time. Maybe this is just getting to know my pit?
I'll post another more in depth review of the pit, but man this thing is SOOO well built and kick a@@. If you're looking for an absolutely top notch build at a very competitive price point, call Justin over at JH Smokers.
