Got a Karubacue

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Rockinar

is Blowin Smoke!
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Bought a Karubacue. Got to test it today with some split chicken breast. Was trying to learn how big of a fire I need, big logs? big chunks? small chunks? Lid on? lid off? playing with the valves, etc the whole time.

Anyway, I cranked it up full blast and let it rip to see how hot I could get it. It would hold a pretty steady 340 in 50* weather. But the fan ran the majority of the time.

Just used a basic store bought brown sugar based rub. Wood I used was store bought apple which is of course kiln dried so it basically burned like gasoline.

It came out good. Nice even cook on all the pieces. Smoke flavor was minimal due to doing mostly "clean burn". Would try "dirty burn" next time.
 
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I have seen them on youtube. How well does it work if it is windy out?
 
Interesting cooker, I've not heard of those. Looks like your chicken came out great. Thanks for the post!
 
Very cool. I have always wanted to hear an unbiased review of one of these. Can't wait to see more of your cooks.
 
padge31 said:
I have seen them on youtube. How well does it work if it is windy out?
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Wind I don't think would be much of an issue, if any at all as far as controlling temps. I'd would be more worried about the fire hazard.
 
Thatgrimguy said:
Very cool. I have always wanted to hear an unbiased review of one of these. Can't wait to see more of your cooks.
Click to expand...


I have some opinions on it. Jury is still out on the food. I think it will be a thumbs up though. I just need more seat time and my cooking is not the best. If food comes out bad on this thing, it's pretty much my fault. This cooker is idiot proof though.


The positives so far:

It's just as quick to fire up and get going as my Weber Kettle.
Food appears to cook nice and even.

Uses real burning wood, and you get the real wood flavor (not smoldering chunks and chips wood flavor).

Small footprint. Takes up roughly as much space as my 18" Kettle, but has much more cooking area.

Fire management is idiot proof, just toss some wood on it when needed.
There's little to no learning curve, no tuning plates and does not seem to have cold spots unless you stuff it full I'm guessing.

Negatives:
It's a non insulated metal box (by design), and gets hot, all of it. Could be an issue with small kids around, but I guess an offset would be too.

There's some open flame and potential for fire hazard.

It uses a bit of wood. But I had it cranked up full blast today and was using kiln dried wood so probably not a good test. I think today was worst case situation as far as fuel consumption.
 
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Greg Rempe interviewed the designer a couple of weeks back on bbq central show
 
htrisna said:
Greg Rempe interviewed the designer a couple of weeks back on bbq central show
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I just watched it. Cool interview. I think these cookers will start catching on. I can't see why not. It's basically the same as a offset smoker, just on a smaller scale and with little to no learning curve.

I only have had it one day, but I'm pretty excited.
 
Pretty neat looking cooker. Watching the YouTube video I can see what you mean about the fire hazard. It's just about like an open campfire.
 
How did you check the cooker temps? I ask because you're not supposed to run probes through the door, supposedly messes with the draft. I thought the temperature regulator setup on these only went to 300 degrees is it actually higher than that?
 
I can't see buying any smoker that requires electricity or gas to run.
 
KevinJ said:
How did you check the cooker temps? I ask because you're not supposed to run probes through the door, supposedly messes with the draft. I thought the temperature regulator setup on these only went to 300 degrees is it actually higher than that?
Click to expand...

You can put a small probe in a port at the top that gets you a close reading, supposedly the lowest temp in the cooker.

Screenshot_1_11_16__8_53_AM_zpsdddybmdy.jpg


There are also two small holes in the corners that you can snake a probe through if it's the right size.

Screenshot_1_11_16__8_51_AM_zpsktnpocka.jpg
 
The Karubacueis really interesting. I hope you post a lot more about it in the future as you get used to it. I love the idea of having consistently good smoke from an all wood fire. Thanks for sharing.
 
This is interesting looking. It's totally new to me, and don't own a tv so have never seen an advertisement for it. I'm off to check Youtube.
 
Just watched the Youtube C-60 tour video. The very last thing the guy said on the video was that you don't want to try to snake a probe through the door because it would just cause problems. Very interesting cooker, though.
 
A quick vid of operation where you can see the inverted flame when the draft fan runs. The exhaust is right by the power cable so you can see the quality of the smoke going through the box. I think I had the dirty valve closed on this one. If it's open you get a bit more visible smoke but not much.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jItMDUuXAUI"]KBQ - YouTube[/ame]
 
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