Check Out My Hybrid Meat Box!

So a while back I had a local sheet metal fab shop build me a spacious box for a new hybrid smoker... took me a while to finish it (lazy mod) but I have 150 peeps to feed pulled pork to tomorrow so decided to get busy!

All finished up now (couple more racks to be built is all...) and I've got 75 lbs of boneless butts on now smokin' away!

I made it so I would have enough room to be able to place a charcoal basket in the bottom next to the pellet poopin fire pot, this way I can get the best of both worlds, charcoal & wood flavor and extra sleep and consistent temps with the pellets.

Cooking through the night on the maiden voyage.

Original Post Here - http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92446

24* outside, holding at 250*



10 butts all lined up!

Alright! We're close to 10 hours in and just broke the stall, most of the butts are right around 190*, give or take a few degrees.

Overnight temps got down to 18* and it looks like I used about 9-10 lbs of pellets. Typical pellet color isn't as dark as you'd normally expect a butt to look like after 10 hours, something to work on with the charcoal/wood part.

Sorry about the crappy pics - wife left the camera at her sister's house the other day...

swamprb said:

It has come a long way since you showed me the pics in Yakima!

Where is the Rib-O-Lator???

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The ROL will have to wait a while before getting worked on... Kind of a tough adaptation for it. I don't want any holes through the double wall so that means I'll have to make some sort of internal setup... plus, the main focal point of the ROL is to help even out the hot & cold spots - Since I'm burning pellets and getting the convection, I'm hoping that I won't have the hot & cold spots to worry about.

jestridge said:

Does it use pellets?

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As one of it's fuel sources. yes!

Gore said:

With "hybrid meat box" in the title and knowing you're from Montana, I was a little scared when I opened this one: I half expected it would be furry.

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Why is that meat boxes always have to be furry with you?? Gitcher mind outta the woodpile! :heh::heh:

By hybrid - I mean that it uses wood & charcoal and/or pellets

bigabyte said:

Cool idea! Looks good too.:thumb:

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Looks good? Hmm, looks more like the 52" sony bigscreen projection TV I had back in 1989 - lol! Thinkin now, maybe that's what the graphic I put on the door should look like - kinda like it's the TV picture...

Ron_L said:

Me too!

Looks interesting. Can you post more detailed pics when you have time?

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I expect that sorta thing out of Gorden Ron, but you?? I thought Parsley Lady propped you up a bit higher than that! :tsk::becky:

I'll try to get some pics up in the next week - I've got MOINKS, ABT's, Wings and mac & cheese that I'm doing for 170 people at my friend's wedding next weekend too, so I'm gonna be busy!

Anything in particular that you're wanting a better pic of? Or details need described?

Norcoredneck said:

Where did you get the pellet system?

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Let's just say I used to have a Traeger lil' Tex... Now I have a meat box.

My tex came with the 3 position switch and it worked alright for the past few years, when I put it into the cabinet I bought the 180-LV digital controler.
I was a little concerned about the firepot being able to keep up after going to a much larger cooking chamber, I was pretty impressed, didn't burn that much fuel either.

I haven't done the biscuit test yet to find the hot spots/cold spots, but with the 10 butts on yesterday, there really weren't any big variances in color...

jestridge said:

What does it measure?

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Cooking chamber is 3'wx2'hx2'd

4 racks of 2'x3' gives me 24sq/ft of cooking space! :clap2:

The walls are 2" thick, so 40" outside dimention and 39" tall about 26 deep