nucornhusker
Babbling Farker
Well, after “Operation Cooker Purge”, I have my two new cookers. The flagship cooker of which is the Yoder Smokers YS1500 pellet smoker/grill. I initially wanted a YS1320 when I bought my YS640 back in February, but it just didn’t work out. A few months ago Yoder discontinued the YS1320 in favor of the YS1500 which is the same cooker, just 6” longer. The 6” extra allowed for pans to fully fit inside the cooker (I hope to get a picture with pans inside soon). I had an “ah-ha” moment about a month ago that I could get the two cookers I ultimately wanted (YS1500 and BigJoe) if I sold all of the cookers I had, and set aside a little more cash. I realized one day that I used my YS640 and KJ 95% of the time, and most of the other cooks were with my Weber Smokey Joe’s if I was at work. So why not clear out some space and upgrade in the process. :noidea: I sold the cookers, and the orders went in. The both arrived on the same afternoon (some planning was involved for that) and I got straight to work on the YS1500.
First off, pictures do not do this cooker any justice. Way more impressive in person.
Ubiquitous FedEx truck shot.
On the pallet, still wrapped...this thing is HUGE!!
Unwrapped, on pallet
Everything is inside (pull handle, stainless shelf, therms, grates, pellets, HMS) and packed up awesome like last time
Here is a picture of the full bottom of the inside. The bottom has a seam or crease to help all of the grease and oil move to the middle of the tube then out the drain
The firepot. It is “sunk-in” to the bottom of the pit, not set atop the bottom of the pit like most if not all pellet pits. This helps to keep the fire further from the food and behave more like a stickburner.
Left side HMS installed with sliding heat damper connected to pull bar
HMS plate fully installed. The graduated holes allow heat and smoke to come up evenly left to right across the pit. How even you ask, that answer to come up shortly.
Bottom food grates washed, dried and installed
And now the top grate also
The cooker, man she is big and beautiful.
Do you see sweet blue from this pit? All day long, non stop TBS from a pellet pit. No intermittent puffs of white then heat vapor. Just sweet blue.
And now to test evenness and season up the pit. Over 4lbs of thick-cut, Hormel Black Label Bacon. Smoked at 225* for 3 hours. This is the before
And now with three hours in the pit, the after
And a plate full of evenly cooked bacon
As you can see, the bacon was completely dead azz even front to back, side to side. The only spot where the bacon was a little crisper, but not the least bit black or burned, was the very way left back slice. That was it. Otherwise, perfect bacon all of the way across. The bottom rack pieces were a little more crisp, and the top rack a little more chewy, which is to be expected. The bottom line is, this sucker is EVEN, and I am IMPRESSED. I can’t wait to do more.
I will be doing a good amount of cooking on the YS1500 this weekend, so I will be posting to and updating this thread throughout the weekend. I also plan to do a biscuit test also for evenness.
First off, pictures do not do this cooker any justice. Way more impressive in person.
Ubiquitous FedEx truck shot.
On the pallet, still wrapped...this thing is HUGE!!
Unwrapped, on pallet
Everything is inside (pull handle, stainless shelf, therms, grates, pellets, HMS) and packed up awesome like last time
Here is a picture of the full bottom of the inside. The bottom has a seam or crease to help all of the grease and oil move to the middle of the tube then out the drain
The firepot. It is “sunk-in” to the bottom of the pit, not set atop the bottom of the pit like most if not all pellet pits. This helps to keep the fire further from the food and behave more like a stickburner.
Left side HMS installed with sliding heat damper connected to pull bar
HMS plate fully installed. The graduated holes allow heat and smoke to come up evenly left to right across the pit. How even you ask, that answer to come up shortly.
Bottom food grates washed, dried and installed
And now the top grate also
The cooker, man she is big and beautiful.
Do you see sweet blue from this pit? All day long, non stop TBS from a pellet pit. No intermittent puffs of white then heat vapor. Just sweet blue.
And now to test evenness and season up the pit. Over 4lbs of thick-cut, Hormel Black Label Bacon. Smoked at 225* for 3 hours. This is the before
And now with three hours in the pit, the after
And a plate full of evenly cooked bacon
As you can see, the bacon was completely dead azz even front to back, side to side. The only spot where the bacon was a little crisper, but not the least bit black or burned, was the very way left back slice. That was it. Otherwise, perfect bacon all of the way across. The bottom rack pieces were a little more crisp, and the top rack a little more chewy, which is to be expected. The bottom line is, this sucker is EVEN, and I am IMPRESSED. I can’t wait to do more.
I will be doing a good amount of cooking on the YS1500 this weekend, so I will be posting to and updating this thread throughout the weekend. I also plan to do a biscuit test also for evenness.
