Hello everyone, I am new here to the forum but have been lurking for a while. a little background on my self.
I live in upstate ny (albany area), im a mechanical engineer and I have been inti smoking for about 3 months now. i have gotten in the habit of smoking food every weekend (some times a couple time a weekend) and I have enjoyed every minute of it.
I have a smokin it #3 electric smoker (first smoker ever, bought electric off a recommendation for a buddy).
So far i have cooked the following with varying results.
Baby back ribs,
do these almost every weekend, have them down to a science, cook for approximately 4.5 to 5 hrs un wrapped at 225.
Pork butt / Shoulder (for pulled pork)
Have done one of these every other weekend since starting, typically cook 10 to 15 hrs, approach now is start at 200 over night and then bump up to 225 for the finish, never wrapp either. Have done injected and not and seem to get better results injected.
Burgers / Meat loaf
These came out too smokey, i think the additional surface area made it absorb the smoke too much, was bad enough that I havnt tried agian, need to try agian with very little wood
Bacon.
Have done this a few times, have it dialed in, i use a very small amount of wood, cook the bacon at 225 for about an hr or so. it seems to " cure" the bacon. The wife and i typically make blts with this.
Pork loin.
Cooked a 10 pounder the other weekend for family and it came out perfect, 225 for 2 to 3 hrs.
Brisket
Did a full brisket for superbowl. Temp on the flat shot up really quick the jumped around, turned out my temp probe broke, brisket was very dry and disappointing, will try agian but this was an expensive mistake.
Whole chickens
Have done several, I am on the fence on how they coom, the skin is always rubbery. the meat is always juicy but something is just off about them.
Smokin it #3 smoker.
So i have no experience with other smokers but my experience so far with the smokin it smoker has been positive.
First this smoker being electric is set it and forget it. This has been useful up here in NY over the winter.
The smoker is really efficient with wood. I bought a few bags ehen I started and have used maybe half the wood.
Everything stays very moist (except the brisket).
Now not everything is great with the smoker. first i noticed that temps can swing 20 to 40 degrees. also because its so moist its hard to get skin on chicken to crisp up. Also if you are doing one pork butt or one rack of ribs it does great, but when you load it up all that moisture makes it hard to crisp everything up the way i like it. There really is only one vent on the top (and a small grease hole in the bottom), I think this is why it stays to moist.
Lastly it kind of feels like cheating just putting it in the smoker and walking away.
So now to what smoker I should get. I have been looking at the Yoder ys640 or chyenne (or larger cousins)
I realize that they are two different animals.
The ys640 is closer to the setup I have now, set it and walk away. However I think the ability to get higher temps (smokin it only goes to 250) would allow me to BBQ chicken and crisp up the food more. I am worried about having to buy pellets plus having a fan / computer just seems like more failure points
The offset type seems like it would be more work but would solve all my issues and worries with the other two. It would give me an excuse to hang around the house all day and drink beer / screw around with out the wife getting too upset. My only worrie is that its way more work than i anticipate and it would end up collecting dust.
So does anyone here have any advice? Im sure i would get alot of use out of the ys640, the offset seems attractive but im worried it would be too much work abd I would end up not using it.
I have attached some photos of cooks I have done
I live in upstate ny (albany area), im a mechanical engineer and I have been inti smoking for about 3 months now. i have gotten in the habit of smoking food every weekend (some times a couple time a weekend) and I have enjoyed every minute of it.
I have a smokin it #3 electric smoker (first smoker ever, bought electric off a recommendation for a buddy).
So far i have cooked the following with varying results.
Baby back ribs,
do these almost every weekend, have them down to a science, cook for approximately 4.5 to 5 hrs un wrapped at 225.
Pork butt / Shoulder (for pulled pork)
Have done one of these every other weekend since starting, typically cook 10 to 15 hrs, approach now is start at 200 over night and then bump up to 225 for the finish, never wrapp either. Have done injected and not and seem to get better results injected.
Burgers / Meat loaf
These came out too smokey, i think the additional surface area made it absorb the smoke too much, was bad enough that I havnt tried agian, need to try agian with very little wood
Bacon.
Have done this a few times, have it dialed in, i use a very small amount of wood, cook the bacon at 225 for about an hr or so. it seems to " cure" the bacon. The wife and i typically make blts with this.
Pork loin.
Cooked a 10 pounder the other weekend for family and it came out perfect, 225 for 2 to 3 hrs.
Brisket
Did a full brisket for superbowl. Temp on the flat shot up really quick the jumped around, turned out my temp probe broke, brisket was very dry and disappointing, will try agian but this was an expensive mistake.
Whole chickens
Have done several, I am on the fence on how they coom, the skin is always rubbery. the meat is always juicy but something is just off about them.
Smokin it #3 smoker.
So i have no experience with other smokers but my experience so far with the smokin it smoker has been positive.
First this smoker being electric is set it and forget it. This has been useful up here in NY over the winter.
The smoker is really efficient with wood. I bought a few bags ehen I started and have used maybe half the wood.
Everything stays very moist (except the brisket).
Now not everything is great with the smoker. first i noticed that temps can swing 20 to 40 degrees. also because its so moist its hard to get skin on chicken to crisp up. Also if you are doing one pork butt or one rack of ribs it does great, but when you load it up all that moisture makes it hard to crisp everything up the way i like it. There really is only one vent on the top (and a small grease hole in the bottom), I think this is why it stays to moist.
Lastly it kind of feels like cheating just putting it in the smoker and walking away.
So now to what smoker I should get. I have been looking at the Yoder ys640 or chyenne (or larger cousins)
I realize that they are two different animals.
The ys640 is closer to the setup I have now, set it and walk away. However I think the ability to get higher temps (smokin it only goes to 250) would allow me to BBQ chicken and crisp up the food more. I am worried about having to buy pellets plus having a fan / computer just seems like more failure points
The offset type seems like it would be more work but would solve all my issues and worries with the other two. It would give me an excuse to hang around the house all day and drink beer / screw around with out the wife getting too upset. My only worrie is that its way more work than i anticipate and it would end up collecting dust.
So does anyone here have any advice? Im sure i would get alot of use out of the ys640, the offset seems attractive but im worried it would be too much work abd I would end up not using it.
I have attached some photos of cooks I have done
