Cooker/Smoker Recommendation Please
- Thread starter SC_Dave
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ChiefBrock
Knows what a fatty is.
I would say PR60 from Meadow Creek...but that is a lot of money to spend to only feed 25 people or less. I can feed three times that many on my PR42 doing a whole hog and cook for 15-20 on regular basis (family) for birthdays, holidays, etc....doing racks of ribs, shoulders, chicken wings, etc.
K-Train
is Blowin Smoke!
Don't know if anyone mentioned it but, Humphrey's. Just got my Battle Box yesterday. I know it's early, but I love it.
T-Man
is one Smokin' Farker
3000 dollars ..... Just enough for a medium Spicewine ...
Hawg Father of Seoul
is Blowin Smoke!
I'll be the first to say that you can get an R and O offset (nontrailer, but full size) for around that price or a Fatgirl.
http://www.rnosmokers.com/R-O-Smokers.html
http://www.rnosmokers.com/R-O-Smokers.html
bbq.tom
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I cater (usually 30-50 people events) and cook for home (family and friends) and LOVE my LANG 36" Hybrid Patio Smoker (with the 30" charcoal grill on the front). Only $1500 plus delivery, but you should be close enough to pick it up and save a couple hundred.
I've had 3 butts and 3 racks of ribs on the smoker, with two dozen thighs on the grill portion (offset grilling) at the same time! Great for catering and even competing for some comps.
As far as temp control and fuel - I can get 2-3 hours at 275 degrees between opening the firebox!
If I was to do it over again - I'd get the LANG 48" Hybrid. Just saying!
I've had 3 butts and 3 racks of ribs on the smoker, with two dozen thighs on the grill portion (offset grilling) at the same time! Great for catering and even competing for some comps.
As far as temp control and fuel - I can get 2-3 hours at 275 degrees between opening the firebox!
If I was to do it over again - I'd get the LANG 48" Hybrid. Just saying!
Check in with Jimmy ( Smokin Cracker ) on this site. He has a couple of cookers that he can make you a great deal on.
thunter
is Blowin Smoke!
Tom,
The Lang 48 Hybrid is where I am headed, and it sounds like it would be a great fit for this brother too, if he is into the rigors of tending to a stick burner like I am.
dbq
Full Fledged Farker
I'd build a UDS and buy $2800 worth of meat.
BBQ_MAFIA
somebody shut me the fark up.
I also agree with Casey Dog and IAMMADMAN. Her are a few of my thoughts.
Stick Burners and Cabinet Cookers are different animals. Your first step should be to decide which style suits your needs, then work within that group to determine what you want.
I'm lucky have both styles of cooker so I will give you my 2 cents.
Stick Burners:
Stick Burners are very impressive units and lots of people love it see them cooking away.
Her you need to decide if you are leaning to a Traditional Offset or a Reverse Flow (ie. LANG).
Depending on where you live, wood can be expensive.
You will need a place to store your wood so it will season properly and always be ready to cook as needed.
You could always buy a charcoal box for the unit and use a combination of Charcoal and sticks.
But, you need to decide if this defeats your purpose of having a stick burner or does it add flexibility.
For me, it added a great degree of flexibility.
Stick Burners can turn out great product but you need to baby sit them closely. If you only burn sticks
the fire box will need to be fed every half hour or so and you will need to work the vents to insure you have a
stable temp in the cooker. This can take a lot of practice to get right.
If you don't mind all the work a stick burner is a great choice and can be a lot of fun.
For a lot of people staying up all night and feeding a fire box can get old very quickly.
Here again you could use a charcoal box and get longer burn times and some rest..
You could also decide to cook Hot and Fast and save some time. Either way you will need to consider
how you want to manage the fire.
Cabinet Cookers:
Probably not as impressive to look at compared to the Stick Burner. Of course a custom paint job
would improve the look if this is important to you. Insulated cabinet smokers stay cool to the touch and can
always look clean if taken care of properly. My Spicewine is about 5 years old and looks brand new.
Charcoal is available year round and during certain sale periods can be bought in bulk for a good price.
As with sticks, you will need a place to store your charcoal if you buy in bulk. If you don't have the space,
it may be a better choice to buy it as needed and avoid the storage issue all together.
Wood chunks can be bought year round and a large supply does not need to be stored.
Insulated cabinet cookers usually hold rock solid temps which allow for long steady burn times.
When assisted with a air control devise like a Guru, Stoker, or IQ 110, it is basically a set it and forget it unit.
Cabinet Smokers can be heavy and difficult to move. The weights on these types of cookers can vary greatly depending
on size and manufacturer and specifications.
My Big Green Egg gets the most use at my house, however, if I could have only have one of my larger cookers, it would be my Spicewine
which I would have mounted on a trailer.
I can't give a fair comparison between cabinet smokers as I have only cooked on a Spicewine. I can however tell you that
these units are amazing and built to last. If you are looking for bang for the buck, the Spicewine will out last all of us. The only
down side may be the weight of the cooker. Pricing for Medium Spicewine can be found on their site. http://spicewineironworks.com/ http://spicewineironworks.com/http://spicewineironworks.com/ The Medium holds a lot of meat and is a great over all size. It can handle almost any job unless you plan on feeding very large crowds on a regular basis.
I hope this is somewhat helpful. Good luck with your choice and be sure to let us know what you end up buying.
Stick Burners and Cabinet Cookers are different animals. Your first step should be to decide which style suits your needs, then work within that group to determine what you want.
I'm lucky have both styles of cooker so I will give you my 2 cents.
Stick Burners:
Stick Burners are very impressive units and lots of people love it see them cooking away.
Her you need to decide if you are leaning to a Traditional Offset or a Reverse Flow (ie. LANG).
Depending on where you live, wood can be expensive.
You will need a place to store your wood so it will season properly and always be ready to cook as needed.
You could always buy a charcoal box for the unit and use a combination of Charcoal and sticks.
But, you need to decide if this defeats your purpose of having a stick burner or does it add flexibility.
For me, it added a great degree of flexibility.
Stick Burners can turn out great product but you need to baby sit them closely. If you only burn sticks
the fire box will need to be fed every half hour or so and you will need to work the vents to insure you have a
stable temp in the cooker. This can take a lot of practice to get right.
If you don't mind all the work a stick burner is a great choice and can be a lot of fun.
For a lot of people staying up all night and feeding a fire box can get old very quickly.
Here again you could use a charcoal box and get longer burn times and some rest..
You could also decide to cook Hot and Fast and save some time. Either way you will need to consider
how you want to manage the fire.
Cabinet Cookers:
Probably not as impressive to look at compared to the Stick Burner. Of course a custom paint job
would improve the look if this is important to you. Insulated cabinet smokers stay cool to the touch and can
always look clean if taken care of properly. My Spicewine is about 5 years old and looks brand new.
Charcoal is available year round and during certain sale periods can be bought in bulk for a good price.
As with sticks, you will need a place to store your charcoal if you buy in bulk. If you don't have the space,
it may be a better choice to buy it as needed and avoid the storage issue all together.
Wood chunks can be bought year round and a large supply does not need to be stored.
Insulated cabinet cookers usually hold rock solid temps which allow for long steady burn times.
When assisted with a air control devise like a Guru, Stoker, or IQ 110, it is basically a set it and forget it unit.
Cabinet Smokers can be heavy and difficult to move. The weights on these types of cookers can vary greatly depending
on size and manufacturer and specifications.
My Big Green Egg gets the most use at my house, however, if I could have only have one of my larger cookers, it would be my Spicewine
which I would have mounted on a trailer.
I can't give a fair comparison between cabinet smokers as I have only cooked on a Spicewine. I can however tell you that
these units are amazing and built to last. If you are looking for bang for the buck, the Spicewine will out last all of us. The only
down side may be the weight of the cooker. Pricing for Medium Spicewine can be found on their site. http://spicewineironworks.com/ http://spicewineironworks.com/http://spicewineironworks.com/ The Medium holds a lot of meat and is a great over all size. It can handle almost any job unless you plan on feeding very large crowds on a regular basis.
I hope this is somewhat helpful. Good luck with your choice and be sure to let us know what you end up buying.
bbq.tom
is Blowin Smoke!
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Maybe I've practiced enough to get it right, or maybe it is because of the smaller chamber of my LANG (36"), but once I've got some good coals in there, I can load up the firebox and close down the vents and keep my temp at 275 for well over 2 hours.
"We're cooking on a LANG!"
mr_ski73
Knows what a fatty is.
I have one and love it!!! For the money I think its a great buy.
I dont have the upright warmer over the fire box but other then that mine is the same and you can buy new for about 2100. That would leave room for some custome options... compare that to the one they sell at Lowes for 1799.00. I really wanted a Lang or Meadow but for the price this is where I landed.
ChiefBrock
Knows what a fatty is.
One thing I found in my search besides deciding if I was going stickburner or pellet....pig roaster or offset, etc. I figured how many people I typically cook for 90% of the time...then I upped the number by 25%-40% to determine what size I needed. Originally wanted PR36 or SQ36....50# pigs made me go Pig Roaster styles....and doing the math and adding some growing room moved me from PR36 to PR42.
I found that the more I smoked and shared my results for input and criticism...the more that wanted to come over and eat.
I have found I can cook a 100# hog on my Meadow Creek PR42.....6 racks of pork spare ribs uncut.....4 full pork shoulders (butte and shoulder)....can usually squeeze 24 wings on there as well with the ribs and hunks of meat as I have fallen in love with wings with my dry rub on them.
Anyhow....for the money you have I would look at what is going to give you the most bang for the buck whether new or used...has the best reputation for quality...and holds its resale in case you decide you want something larger and wife wont let you keep both. LOL
Anyhow....account for more people than you currently expect wanting to be fed when you start and they start tasting the meat......smoke it and they will come.
If I did it over would get PR60....as I have maxxed it out on ribs and shoulders already for get togethers....so if I go over 24 people I go to whole hog instead of ribs. LOL
Good luck and let us know what you decide.
I found that the more I smoked and shared my results for input and criticism...the more that wanted to come over and eat.
I have found I can cook a 100# hog on my Meadow Creek PR42.....6 racks of pork spare ribs uncut.....4 full pork shoulders (butte and shoulder)....can usually squeeze 24 wings on there as well with the ribs and hunks of meat as I have fallen in love with wings with my dry rub on them.
Anyhow....for the money you have I would look at what is going to give you the most bang for the buck whether new or used...has the best reputation for quality...and holds its resale in case you decide you want something larger and wife wont let you keep both. LOL
Anyhow....account for more people than you currently expect wanting to be fed when you start and they start tasting the meat......smoke it and they will come.
If I did it over would get PR60....as I have maxxed it out on ribs and shoulders already for get togethers....so if I go over 24 people I go to whole hog instead of ribs. LOL
Good luck and let us know what you decide.
IslandSmoke
Knows what a fatty is.
LSG Vertical with Oven
Just got a quote from Chris for a 24 x 30 with an oven. I'm seriously thinking about picking this up. This smoker has tons of space at a great price.
Can you provide some insight on how it she cooks? :thumb:
Mahalo!!
Just got a quote from Chris for a 24 x 30 with an oven. I'm seriously thinking about picking this up. This smoker has tons of space at a great price.
Can you provide some insight on how it she cooks? :thumb:
Mahalo!!
