Pit Barrel Cooker (PBC) Appreciation Thread

[cajunrph]

Originally Posted by AClarke44

Yes especially at the low temp you were at. I'm assuming the butt Is at least 6-7 lbs or bigger? Edit: just saw 9lbs. Yes that timing is normal considering where your temp was.

Is it windy at your house tonight? Wind will affect your temp. If not, I say it's time to open the vent cap a tad (after your cook).

Yes, it was very windy the whole day. I tried to turn the pit so the wind wasn't blowing into the vent, but the wind was swirling. The butt Is done. IT was around 195. It fell apart when I pulled it off the grate. I had to transfer it to a grate when I added the coals. All turned out good. No pics of the butt. It wasn't much as it fell apart.

[AClarke44]

Originally Posted by cajunrph

Yes, it was very windy the whole day. I tried to turn the pit so the wind wasn't blowing into the vent, but the wind was swirling. The butt Is done. IT was around 195. It fell apart when I pulled it off the grate. I had to transfer it to a grate when I added the coals. All turned out good. No pics of the butt. It wasn't much as it fell apart.

Yeah the wind was probably your main issue. You may tweak the vent cap just a tad more open anyway but lots of wind will cause temp drops like that.
But as you saw, once you get to know your PBC, you can make adjustments and easily get the temperature under control and always turn out great Q!

[cajunrph]

Originally Posted by AClarke44

Yeah the wind was probably your main issue. You may tweak the vent cap just a tad more open anyway but lots of wind will cause temp drops like that.
But as you saw, once you get to know your PBC, you can make adjustments and easily get the temperature under control and always turn out great Q!

Thanks, Yes it's a learning curve. I've done both ribs and pork butts on my Egg "Turbo" Style. That would be at 325-350* indirect heat. The ribs would take about the same (3-4 hours) and the Butt would be done around 4ish hours. Since the ribs were done about the same time as the turbo ribs on the Egg I thought the pork butt would take the same time. It's all good as the ribs were the main meal and the pulled pork was for later. Just a lesson to learn each pit on it's own so you can master your pit and become a true pit master. I have the Egg down pat pretty good. Now to learn the PBC just as well.

BTW, everyone loved the ribs. My brother in law came over for some and he was impressed. I damn near took all the praise for the cook then let him in on the secret of the PBC. It's fairly easy to make great bbq on it. Once you get it lined out, not much tending to it. It's more or less set it and forget it. Check it every few hours with your handy dandy Thermapen and sit back and drink you adult libation of choice and enjoy the praises that come.

As a side note, both ribs cooks on the PBC didn't turn out fall off the bone done. I use to shoot for that because before I was enlightened on this and other forums, I thought that was a sign of truly great ribs. I had to pull both of the cooks because I feared the hanging ribs would tear and fall into the fire. Has anyone been able to get fall off the bone tender ribs on the hangers? If someone wanted this style of ribs, although no one complained about the ribs yet, would they have to be finished on the grate?

Thanks again for everyone's kind words and advice. The PBC is going to make a great addition to my small arsenal of cookers. I'm already eyeing a Weber Kettle to add to the troops. Just as in guns, you can never have too many BBQ Pits. At least that's what I tell my girlfriend when she sees me looking at more pits. Hahaha.

[AClarke44]

I believe you can get "fall off the bone" ribs while hanging, but towards the end you just need to watch it really close. Make sure you hook at least 3 bones down. Or use the double hook method like used with briskets. Be gentle when taking them out of the PBC. If you don't wanna risk it finish on the grate, just realize you can only fit a couple racks on the grate.

I have dropped ribs before (once) but they were full untrimmed spares and they ended up fall off the bone. They were good and I caught them right when they fell. In my opinion they fell because if the weight of full spares and because they were "fall off the bone" (i usually like them just before that stage). Never dropped trimmed spares or baby backs. Good luck, looking forward to seeing more of your cooks!

[cajunrph]

Originally Posted by AClarke44

I believe you can get "fall off the bone" ribs while hanging, but towards the end you just need to watch it really close. Make sure you hook at least 3 bones down. Or use the double hook method like used with briskets. Be gentle when taking them out of the PBC. If you don't wanna risk it finish on the grate, just realize you can only fit a couple racks on the grate.

I have dropped ribs before (once) but they were full untrimmed spares and they ended up fall off the bone. They were good and I caught them right when they fell. In my opinion they fell because if the weight of full spares and because they were "fall off the bone" (i usually like them just before that stage). Never dropped trimmed spares or baby backs. Good luck, looking forward to seeing more of your cooks!

Thanks for the info/advice. I look forward to more cooks on the pit. I haven't made it through the entire thread yet. I'm on page 100 or so now. I want to thank you for your posting of the half basket method for short cooks. That's one thing that concerned me with the PBC. The need to burn up a half a bag of charcoal for each cook. I don't have a Weber Kettle (yet) to put the basket in to snuff out the coals. The half basket method with the tweak in placement of the fire bricks on one side or the other of the basket handle is a great idea. This settles my concern about wasting coal. I don't mind the cost as much as having perfectly good burning coals going without anything to put on them. Sorta like wasting coffee, or beer, or good Scotch. Haha.

I'm going to open up my vent a little more for my next cook. I think I may be just a tad less than 1/4th if anything right now. I'm going to open it up to just shy of 1/2 and see where that takes me. But again, both rib cooks came off excellent.

On my first cook I did some pre seasoned HEB Leg quarters. I don't usually like dark meat much. But the PBC kicked some major arse on the hind quarters. I'll definitely have more chicken on the pit soon.

One of the major advantages of the PBC is it's portability. Both cooks I did were at my Girlfriend's house. Since getting my Egg I have been hesitant to do any meats that require smoking on the Old Smokey. I didn't want to chance it going wrong. Before the Egg I was basically a griller. I didn't smoke anything till I got the Egg. All cooks away from home on the Old Smokey were basically grilling. Good cooks mind you, just not smoking. The Egg is just too big to move to another setting. The PBC, although no lightweight, is manageable to move between houses.

I'll be taking my PBC to my mother's house in Louisiana when I return home for visits and smoke some awesome ribs and other meats. They think I'm a Pit Master from the grilling I do on the Old Smokey. They may give me a trophy when they sink their teeth into ribs done on the PBC. Not to mention chicken. I look forward to many more smokes to come.

[AClarke44]

Glad you like the fire brick method for short cooks. That's typically how I always do chicken. I agree with your comments about the charcoal, I feel the same way which is why I started doing the half basket cooks. I've used it for tri-tip too. Anything that will cook in about 2 1/2 -3 hrs or less I use that method.

Edit: Wait till you see some of ssv3's cooks on the PBC. He takes it to a whole new level!

[cajunrph]

Originally Posted by AClarke44

Edit: Wait till you see some of ssv3's cooks on the PBC. He takes it to a whole new level!

I've seen his cooks. I bow down to the King of Pit Barrel Cooker. One day I'll cook like him, when that day comes he will have upped his game and I'll have to up mine to catch up again.

[AClarke44]

I wanna thank all of you who have helped make this thread great. I started it back in May and never thought it would grow like it has. Today we hit 75,000 views and nearly 2200 posts! That's very impressive. Thanks again guys and gals! Keep the awesome food pron and advice coming!

[Bob C Cue]

Originally Posted by AClarke44

I wanna thank all of you who have helped make this thread great. I started it back in May and never thought it would grow like it has. Today we hit 75,000 views and nearly 2200 posts! That's very impressive. Thanks again guys and gals! Keep the awesome food pron and advice coming!

Wow. Who would have thunk it! Thanks Andrew for starting this thread and for all of the great advice you have given over the last 7 months. And thanks to all who have made this thread such a great resource for the PBC and BBQ in general!

[ssv3]

My PBC brothers! I'm a back down from the mountains. Had a blast and only used the PBC on New Year's day, well the evening of the 1st really . I actually had the privilege to impress a chef. No idea she was one until we got in the kitchen, talked and starting throwing down. She couldn't have enough of the BB ribs.

While people loved the ribs I was more impressed how the PiBster held up temps. Average temp was 25* during cooking and she performed flawless. The fire basket still had live briqs in the mornings when temps were in the 10's through the night.

Some recap pron



I'm not kidding when I said it was cold



There she is







We partied hardy and no real pics of the ribs until this AM on my breakfast plate. I love next day bbq since the smoke, rub flavors settle in overnight.



And since we all like pron here are some random pics of how we do it SoCal

























Happy New Year guys!!!!

[ssv3]

A buddy sent me this photo. He was also up in mountains south of me for New Years.

I love the pic

[ssv3]

Originally Posted by AClarke44

Glad you like the fire brick method for short cooks. That's typically how I always do chicken. I agree with your comments about the charcoal, I feel the same way which is why I started doing the half basket cooks. I've used it for tri-tip too. Anything that will cook in about 2 1/2 -3 hrs or less I use that method.

Edit: Wait till you see some of ssv3's cooks on the PBC. He takes it to a whole new level!

Originally Posted by cajunrph

I've seen his cooks. I bow down to the King of Pit Barrel Cooker. One day I'll cook like him, when that day comes he will have upped his game and I'll have to up mine to catch up again.

Dude!! You guys making me Honestly the cooker is so dang versatile you just can't help it. I took the lazy route on this last trip though. Way to much going on.

[AClarke44]

Wow! Now that's how to party in style Sako!

[Ertothel]

Got a 6.5# butt on for an hour now. Standard problem for me is a temp drop and then a slow climb - running a little cool (255 now), but I'm in no hurry.

Planning on cooking a pizza for the yunguns at the end.

For pizza, do you guys set the grate down in the normal position, or something more like the suggestion quoted below?

Originally Posted by PatioDaddio

Here's what I do:

1. Start it as you normally would (full basket of Kingsford blue, lighter fluid, and wait 20 minutes)
2. Leave the rods in, set the grill grate on top of the rods with the handles up as they normally would be.
3. Put a 16" pizza stone on the rack and let it heat up for about 20 minutes.
4. Put the pizza on the stone and rest the lid on the grate handles.

This essentially turns the PBC into a simple pizza oven, and it works great. I do the same with garlic bread.

WARNING: This method will burn/peel some of the seasoning off of the inside of the barrel, but it comes
back with continued use.

John

Thanks.

[AClarke44]

Your issue is common with people at sea level and in humid areas. Haven't totally figured it out but usually it just takes a little more fiddling with the PBC during the cook. It'll still turn out great food.

Patio Daddio knows his stuff, especially when it comes to the PBC. He's won cooking contests with his. Any advice or techniques he has are definitely solid. I may try that pizza method myself. I missed that origonal post from him. Thanks for posting.