Meet...The Beast

Well, as promised, I would like to introduce y'all to my new pit. Don't really have a name yet, but perhaps MOAB-OS is in order. It could be called a Bandera-like pit, but it was really thought of to scratch an itch I had myself. I envisioned this pit about a year ago and speant months deciding whether I wanted it or something a bit more standard, and then deciding how to have it built. In the end, I had changed my mind a few times on size, but settled on something I think is ideal, and went to Lonestar pits to have it built. Some of you may know that Lonestar is the company that hired Steve from Bates pits, and even though he is the head pitmaster there, the business is run by Tom now. Tom and Steve were great the whole way through, and I highly recommend them to design and build almost any pit you have in mind. Very friendly and accomodating to my every concern, and in the end, they really went above and beyond, adding features to my pit for free. Overall, they are very affordable too, or at least are as of this writing. I truly expect their prices to go up with quality and service like I have seen. Not trying to be a walking billboard for Lonestar, but there has been enough bad press, and they were so helful the whole way through, I would like to encourage any one interested in a custom pit to consider them.

So the details of my pit: As I said, it could be called Bandera-like, but I prefer just to call it a Vertical-Offset, and a rather big one! It's 24" deep by 33" wide. The smoking chamber is 36" tall, and there is about 12" of resouviour under the lowest grate. I supposed I could put a water pan there, but have no intention. If anything, I'd just fill it up with water directly, and drain when done. The firebox is 24" square, 1/2" thick, which is plenty of room, and has the combination griddle/grill on top of it. I've also found that to be a good side stand and log warmer.

One of the biggest problems I've found so far is that it's quite heavy. So heavy that I was not about to try to move it to get a good picture, and this is all I've got. My camera doesn't go wide enough angle to get the whole thing, but I think you can get the general feel from here. In a bit, I'll have some pron on the first cook and comments on that. Enjoy. The longer I have this pit, the more I enjoy it!

dmp

Here is another pic that Tom took while it was still at Lonestar.

dmp

pr0n!

So, as promised, I will be posting a pictoral of my first cook on the beast. One of the big reasons why I got this cooker is that I believe in the power of hanging food as you smoke it, particularly ribs. Combine that with the 20 slabs of loin ribs in the deep freeze and my general lack of desire to cook all day/night, and baby backs were the subject of the first cook. I was told late that chicken would be better for other members of the household, so I decided to through on a few quarters as well. Of course, while I was cooking all of this, I threw on some ABTs and a fattie. The ABTs were pablanos stuffed with a mixture of "hot" Jimmy Dean and cream cheese and then wrapped with thick bacon. The fattie was "regular" Jimmy Dean wrapped around the the remaining hot sausage/cream chease mixture. I ended up throwing some slabs on for a "Brother" who lives close by, and between seven slabs, four chicken quarters, ABTs, and a fattie, I cooked more than my old NBSS' capacity on the first cook. Excellent!

The Sausage and chicken were done after about 3 hours, and then they came off to become snacks. I liked the sausage okay, but the stuffed peppers ruled. May pass on the sausage going forward, but will definitely be stuffing some more capsicum pods! The ribs came off in two tiers: The first for the "Brother" were a little bit pre-done, but timing required it, and he said he may throw them in the oven for a few. The batch which came off second were excellent. I thought about it all night, and I'd say that they are among the best ribs I have ever made! Note, not the best ribs I've ever eaten. Ribs were never my strong point in the past, but these were great! Gonna cook again in two weeks for a party, again outpacing my NBSS' capacity. This first cook has been exciting, and I look forward to learning the pit more in the future! Pictures below. Please beware that the last shot isn't to show how large my bite area is, but rather to show my pride how the meat was just falling off the rib bones. Nearly perfect! Next post, I'll talk about the pros and cons of the cooker itself, at least so far.

dmp

QansasjayhawQ said:

:idea:
But be sure to check to make sure you aren't backing up into a thorn tree or something like that.

Click to expand...

Yeah. It's hard to tell, but if I backed up anymore, I'd be inside my house. There is a big window through which I could take a picture, but then you don't see the whole thing. Thanks for the cheers so far all.

dmp