My Yoder Smokers YS1500 has arrived! (Very picture heavy)

Well, the first big cook went wonderfully. It was for my son’s second birthday party, so all of my family that is very familiar with my barbecue was there. It was a great test for a new cooker, and I cooked everything the way I normally do and that they are used to.

I did two briskets, a pork butt, ABT’s, bacon wrapped/brown sugar smokes, and two fatties. Not huge, but a decent sized cook non the less. All of the food had a great smoke flavor. I would say on a scale of pellet cooker to stickburner, the smoke flavor was on the side of stickburner. It was a very good smoke that was very present, but you never tasted the smoke when you burped later in the day. So a strong, but clean smoke. Hard to describe, but when I gave my wife the first burnt end, her comment was “Oh my gosh...that’s really good. And that smoke flavor...Wow!” She has had everything I have ever cooked, and she may very well be happier that I have these cookers than I am because she had been deprived of BBQ for over a month now. But we both remarked that we don’t remember that much smoke flavor even with our less-than-great stickburner, and a good quality smoke flavor. We are impressed.

Cooker with raw food loaded. I had about as much room behind the flats as I did in front. Two whole packers would fit easily in those spots. I did the point and flat separated and point above the flat on recommendation of brother HoDeDo. Two butts would fit easily front to back.




The cooker and a work surface under a canopy. I’m getting soft guys. I used to stickburn, all day and night outside in 100* heat and love it. Now I’ve got a pellet pit, under a canopy, in the shade with 8 hours of sleep to my name. I feel like I’m cheating, but the results are awesome, so….. :decision:




Food ready to wrap.




The brisket was probably the best CAB I have cooked. It was very tender, juicy, and had a GREAT smoke flavor. It came out with a perfect balance of smoke, beef, and rub. This is the first time I would say I attained a perfect balance of those. I would have been proud to turn it in. I brought the brisket and burnt ends inside, when out to grab something and came back in, and the burnt ends were gone! I thought someone dropped them on the floor or something, they were GONE. (Sorry, no pic of the burnt ends)




The butt was very tender, lots of smoke and very juicy. We have been kinda burned out on pulled pork for a little while, but this was a great re-introduction. We were both picking through it and eating it like we used to when I first started barbecuing. It didn’t get as much attention from everyone as brisket is king with my family. But I got as many compliments on the pork as I did the brisket, but everyone filled up on brisket first. Look at the color on the butt before I wrapped it! This photo is in no way edited.






This is the sides loaded, and pork butt on top. I had too much foil bunched on top, otherwise the butt would have fit front to back. Eventually the fatties got moved down to the bottom. They cooked very slowly for some reason and ended up behind schedule.




ABT’s, Wow. A home run. THE best ABT’s I have done by far, and they were gone in a matter of seconds. We could have cooked triple the amount and still not had enough. This picture is driving my wife nuts and she’s threatening to go to the store to get more peppers and bacon for tomorrow. I'm not going to stop her. :becky:




The bacon wrapped, brown sugar and rubbed with 3Eyz smokes were very good. Think pig candy wrapped around a smokey. The only issue was I went too heavy on brown sugar and it didn’t all dissolve. But the flavor was there.




And two fatties. Nothing more I need to say.




I am VERY happy with this cooker. It cooks flawlessly, the smoke flavor is the best I have had (perfect balance of strong and not overpowering) and is dead even and I can predict how the food will come out even after only a few days. And if I want/need a hot spot, I can make two of them. I am very happy I sold my cookers to get this. My whole family noted that this was better than my other barbecue they have had, and they don’t just say nice things to be nice. If they didn’t think it was better, or if it was the same, they would tell me. I was told a few times that I had outdone myself. I didn’t change my technique at all, so the cooker deserves some of the credit.

The Pup said:

Please tell us about the clean-up.

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The funny thing is, I actually took pics of the cleanup last night. I'll get them posted later.

Bigdog said:

Your ABTs look great. Please tell me more on how you made them.

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We kept it very simple, halved jalapeños (deveined & deseeded), cream cheese, a slice of thick cut black label bacon, and a very light dusting of Lotta Bull unBULLevable rub. I don't know why they were so much better than normal,but they were. I was the first time we have ever halved them (to make them go further) and we liked them better that way. They cooked around 250* (I adjusted temp a few times) for about 2 hours or a little more I'd say.

Ron_L said:

You had me at naked fatties :-D

The food all looks great! Nice job!

Now, some questions :-D

1. How big were the briskets and the butt?
2. What temp did you cook at?
3. How long were they butts and briskets cooking before you foiled?
4. How long did they take total?
5. Can I have your Yoder?

:becky:

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1. The briskets were both 12lbs in the cryo. It's getting more and more tough to find large briskets anymore. The butt was 7lbs.
2. I cooked at 225*
3. I put the food on at 10 PM and I wrapped around 9 AM.
4. Total cook time for the big cuts, 14 hours for the brisket, 15 for the butt.
5. I didn't know you were into sheet metal work... :caked:

Shiz-Nit said:

How much pellets did you run through on that last big cook you posted? I was just wondering how it would compare to my Backwoods Competitor on fuel usage.
In your opinion would it be cheaper to run the YS1500 or my BW Competitor?

I just sold a stick burner that I bought used and brought back to life and resold it so I have some cash to play around with on my next purchase.

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Ron_L said:

Thanks for the info! That's similar timing to my FEC. I'm also curious about the pellet consumption when you have a chance.

I agree on finding big briskets. I used to be able to find 15 lb packers regularly but now I feel good if they are 12 lbs.

Oh yeah... Wrong Yoder

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I didn't mention pellet usage! :doh:

I can get about 25lbs of pellets in the hopper (I used Lumberjack MHC), I had the controller set a 255* over night to achieve a grate temp of 225*. As the day came around a warmed up, I could set it back down to about 235*. I lit the pit at 9PM the night before, loaded the big cuts at 10:30, pulled the briskets around 1PM and put the finger foods on and kicked the controller up to 265* and ran it there until 4 PM (the fatties were very stubborn). I used a whole hopper plus about 2 more lbs. So this is not exact, but we will say 27lbs over 19 hours, so about 1.4lbs per hour and some of that was at a higher temp. So the pellet usage is pretty good for a cooker this big.

I've never cooked on a BW, but I would guess it's more efficient though.

Ron_L said:

Thanks for the info! That's similar timing to my FEC. I'm also curious about the pellet consumption when you have a chance.

I agree on finding big briskets. I used to be able to find 15 lb packers regularly but now I feel good if they are 12 lbs.

Oh yeah... Wrong Yoder

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I'm guessing that Yoder sells for A LOT more than mine.

I normally say anything I own is for sale for the right price, but this pit is so dang even and predictable. That's worth it's weight in gold to me. The biscuit test I did shows that better than anything.