Roughshod
Wandering around with a bag of matchlight, looking for a match.
Hey guys, glad to be a member of the Brethren. I have been around smokers for quite a while now, but I would not call myself an expert by any means. I have had a couple Big Green Egg's for a few years and I love them for cooking at home for the family, but let's face it...those things are TINY. Doesn't take too any folks coming over for dinner before you are just flat out of space to cook. So I have had it in the back of my mind that I need to get a bigger smoker for a while now, but I can't say I was really motivated to do anything about it...right now I'm kind of glad that I didn't.
Then I joined the VFW. Sounds random, I know. We are a small post with serous financial problems. We don't have a bar, which is how a lot of posts make their money. We tried various fund raisers and raffles, always with mixed results and very little income from it. Then one day someone had the idea to do a Boston Butt sale, and that was a very serious pivot for us financially. The first sale we did we sold 80 butts. Next one was 110, then 130. The most we have sold at one sale is 140, but I do expect that number to be passed on our next sale. So we are selling a lot of meat, and it has completely turned around our financial issues.
Trouble is, we are doing this mostly on borrowed smokers, and we never quite know what we are going to be able to wrangle up for a cook. The smokers we get run the whole range from horrible to excellent. I bought a VERY used double oil drum smoker from a church and rehabbed it into service. Works well and it can hold a lot of meat, but you have to keep a burn barrel running all night to feed it and it works you half to death. One came from some idiot that knows how to weld, but had zero idea how to design a working smoker. That one failed to work for us on two different cooks, then I took it upon myself to cut in a much larger air door in its firebox...problem solved...sort of. One of our members had a big beautiful smoker built from a huge propane tank. Great build quality, but performs not so great. We typically end up with something like a 50 degree temp difference end to end on that one, which is not good at all. The best one is the guy that lets us borrow his Lang...I won't lie, I'm kind of in love with that thing. Problem is, he is talking about selling it.
So that comes back around to why I'm here. I'm going to buy a smoker, a big one for these VFW fund raiser cooks. I know that I have serious holes in my smoker knowledge, so I'm here to learn before I go spending thousands of dollars on something that isn't quite what I need. After my initial research I'm leaning toward a large cabinet style, hopefully 3 racks tall, something like a Shirley Straight Back. I haven't asked them for a quote yet, but I have done enough metal fabrication to know quality when I see it, and I'm not sure that I can afford their work. Like I said, I'm researching right now. Thank you guys for allowing me to join your community, and thanks in advance for the advise!
Then I joined the VFW. Sounds random, I know. We are a small post with serous financial problems. We don't have a bar, which is how a lot of posts make their money. We tried various fund raisers and raffles, always with mixed results and very little income from it. Then one day someone had the idea to do a Boston Butt sale, and that was a very serious pivot for us financially. The first sale we did we sold 80 butts. Next one was 110, then 130. The most we have sold at one sale is 140, but I do expect that number to be passed on our next sale. So we are selling a lot of meat, and it has completely turned around our financial issues.
Trouble is, we are doing this mostly on borrowed smokers, and we never quite know what we are going to be able to wrangle up for a cook. The smokers we get run the whole range from horrible to excellent. I bought a VERY used double oil drum smoker from a church and rehabbed it into service. Works well and it can hold a lot of meat, but you have to keep a burn barrel running all night to feed it and it works you half to death. One came from some idiot that knows how to weld, but had zero idea how to design a working smoker. That one failed to work for us on two different cooks, then I took it upon myself to cut in a much larger air door in its firebox...problem solved...sort of. One of our members had a big beautiful smoker built from a huge propane tank. Great build quality, but performs not so great. We typically end up with something like a 50 degree temp difference end to end on that one, which is not good at all. The best one is the guy that lets us borrow his Lang...I won't lie, I'm kind of in love with that thing. Problem is, he is talking about selling it.
So that comes back around to why I'm here. I'm going to buy a smoker, a big one for these VFW fund raiser cooks. I know that I have serious holes in my smoker knowledge, so I'm here to learn before I go spending thousands of dollars on something that isn't quite what I need. After my initial research I'm leaning toward a large cabinet style, hopefully 3 racks tall, something like a Shirley Straight Back. I haven't asked them for a quote yet, but I have done enough metal fabrication to know quality when I see it, and I'm not sure that I can afford their work. Like I said, I'm researching right now. Thank you guys for allowing me to join your community, and thanks in advance for the advise!
