Looked Good
 

But I was disappointed. After 8 hours of not being able to keep the temp up, I wrapped the shoulder in fol and tossed it in the oven. It tasted good, but (in my mind) it doesn't qualify as "REAL" BBQ.

I have read up on what I need to do, up to and including throwing my smoker in the trash and building something better ~ which is in the works.

But in the interim, here's what I am cooking on and what I made.

~A whole boneless pig shoulder (a butt and a picnic roast)
~Some chicken for a mid day lunch.
~Poppers (jalepeno's w/cream chease, wrapped in bacon)
~Pig Shots (links wrapped w/bacon stuffed w/cream chease & topped w/brown sugar)

That thing was pretty loaded, I can see having to fight temps.

That looks like some good food. I would consider it BBQ

Chow looks good from here.

So does the pool.

Don't do the Jack Nicholson move in The Border...."Soups on!"

are you trying to control the temp by using the stack vent ?
i would also use some drier vent to extend the inside stack down to the grate.

Looks like you overloaded the pit and restricted the flow good excuse to go bigger. Looks good to me, don't be so hard on your self.

Well I doubt I'll be the only one to say this but you are in need of a UDS.

The offset you got, or anything that looks like it, will never give you the ability to hold temps. Not without a lot of modifications and sealing and even maybe then.

Yeah its overloaded, the quality cabinets you see on here can handle that, the COS cannot.

My UDS will suffice but when I pull thee trigger on something it wont be cheap. It'll be good but quality is not cheap.

Just sayin

wow looks good to me.

Looks like your exhaust is almost completely closed. That's gonna reduce the draw, and also cause stale smoke to get backed up in the pit. If that's that case, I'd try to keep it fully open, or close to it.

On the cooker it appears to be an older model with slightly thicker metal than the newer COS models. The exhaust already looks like it's pretty close to grate level too. You should be able to make some great food in that thing with a little babysitting. Isn't that what they call a Char Broil Silver? They were supposed to be pretty decent cookers.

I've finished plenty of Q off in the oven. No different than foiling it and putting it back on the smoker.

I used both the intake on the off set box as well as the stack vent.

I plan on extending the stack down to the grate.

What I REALLY need to do is build a "charcoal box". As it is now, I can't put enough charcoal to get the temp high enough.

It also appears I need to put a shelf under neath the grates as well as build a "deflector shield" somehow because the temps next to the fire box are much higher then the opposite side.

Thanks, over all it tasted great. I just want it to be better. The bar has been set pretty high around here. :wacko:

I agree and just picked up a Webber 22" on CL. I got a line on a drum, but I'm gonna hvae to wait for work to slow down a bit. Having said that, this thing works great as a grill. Tri-tips seared and then moved over to be finished by indirect heat. It will stay, but I need something better...

I forget what it's called. I bought it about 7 years ago and it works well. But I am ready to step it up. I had no idea how far off my temp gage was until I bought a nice digital one. Like I said, I'm gonna keep it, tweek it a little bit, build a UDS and then get something bigger & badder!

You're not the first guy to finish butts in the oven.

Or the last. There's nothing wrong with and no shame in that.

Get some chunks of wood in there with the charcoal. It will heat up. I would start with a basket full of charcoal and then just added wood as I went along. I also use the minion method.