Pit Barrel Cooker (PBC) Appreciation Thread

[BigKing]

Love this thread. I've a few hundred pages in and can't stop reading.

My PBC came in last week. Fired it up Saturday with some chicken as a first run. I monitored temps just to see where it would run as I'm not far from sea level. It ran great right around 280 for the majority of the time. Needless to say I am a believer now. The chicken was the juiciest I've ever had. The skin got dark and was chewy because I didn't crack the lid to raise the temp. All in all it was a success. I've got some ribs to do this week and found a tri-tip at Sam's. The tri-tip is a rare find around here. This one comes in a brine preseasoned with peppercorns. Figured it wouldn't hurt to try it.

On a side note, folks should post up their Super Bowl food plans. I'm still deciding but one of those bacon wrapped sausage logs vs some chicken wings are near the top of the list.

PBC crushes chicken wings.


Of course, there is enough room for both :thumb:

 

[johnnylightnin]

I’m finding the Weber briquettes don’t run as hot as Kingsford on my unit. I’ve got both rebar out and I’m capping out at 260.


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[TealStBBQKing]

Do you know how many briquettes you started with? Also what's your outside temp? I know my barrel will not get as hot with the same number of briquettes from January vs July

 

[johnnylightnin]

Do you know how many briquettes you started with? Also what's your outside temp? I know my barrel will not get as hot with the same number of briquettes from January vs July

Not sure how many. One of the small Weber chimneys full. Finally got up to 300 just now. It’s about 65 outside right now!


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[BigKing]

Interesting. I think I read that they might take a little longer to get burning v. the Kingsford. Perhaps I will let them fire up in the chimney longer than I do with the KBB.

 

[johnnylightnin]

Interesting. I think I read that they might take a little longer to get burning v. the Kingsford. Perhaps I will let them fire up in the chimney longer than I do with the KBB.

I’m thinking that’s it. I’ve had it around 285-300 for the past hour. It just took a lot longer to get the temps up.


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[TealStBBQKing]

65?! It's 9 here now I'm extra jealous because I'm not using my barrel and I'm freezing my butt off

 

[D&D BBQ]

The Virtual Bullet did a test here on Weber vs Kingsford here:
http://virtualweberbullet.com/kingsford-long-burning-weber-hardwood-charcoal-burn-test-2017.html
It appears that that Weber may take a little longer to get ignited and ultimately should be around the same temperature (maybe, though I’d to see some thermometer readings), what the Weber charcoal should get us is significantly longer burn times. After I finish my current bag of KBB, I’m popping a Weber bag!

 

[johnnylightnin]

65?! It's 9 here now I'm extra jealous because I'm not using my barrel and I'm freezing my butt off

Louisiana has its problems, but 9 degree temps ain’t one of them.


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[blacksmith]

Guinness beef

I saw so many glowing reports about Wolfe Pit's recipe I thought I would try it. Using cheaper meat attracted me as well. When I went to the HEB anf found the chuck was as expensive at $4.50 per pound and they were not that large, in the 2 lbs range. The butcher did point out the shoulder roast was $1.49 so I picked up about 6 lbs.

I am not a fan of bell peppers so I went with straight red onion and seasonings. I bought fresh garlic but the wife put the groceries away and I could not find them. Sigh.

I cubed the shoulder to get more surface area and cook faster (it’s going to be shredded anyway) and hit all sides with McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning. I laid It on liberally and it was surprisingly spicy. Neither my wife or I are afraid of hot and this was pretty warm rub. I like it on Pork too and never noticed it being warm.

It was really rainy that day, everything was damp so I gave the chimney a little help.

I put them on the Pit Barrel Cooker with a load of Stubbs and let her rip.

I then went in and prepped the vegetables.

I like the flavor of caramelized onions (plus the smell drives my wife wild)

It hit 165 at about 90 minutes.

and I added it to the vegetable/Worcestershire/stout bath.

Then the sauteed onions on top

And back in the pit till fork tender.

It took almost 2 hours till fork tender, then I shreaded it.

I took it to a potluck gathering and it was a huge hit – none was left to take home.

 

[BigKing]

Fired up the PBC for a couple of racks of beef short ribs, six pounds of wings, six brats and seven smoked sausages. Used the Weber briqs for the first time:


-They are much larger than the KBB ones. Due to this, I counted out 30 for the chimney light as opposed to the 40 for KBB.
-I let them burn in the chimney for around 18 minutes v. the 12 I do for KBB. The reports that these take awhile to get going are true. I could have left them in the chimney for even longer.
-Everything looked great after 2 hours. Put the wings on. Check an hour later and it is evident that the half of the basket next to the intake is really burning out while the back half is basically dead. Don't have temp probes but could tell the wings didn't look right and the the rack farthest from the intake seemed to have actually dropped in temp via a Thermopop reading. I took the rebar out with the ribs hooked on and turned it around so the rack further from the intake was now closer to it so it could get more of the heat. Once the ribs were both around 170, I wrapped them so i could lay them on the grate, allowing me to screw around with the fire. I stirred up the fire to spread the coals around and had the lid off for maybe a minute and half. Things really picked back up at that point.
-I was done cooking everything around 10 hours in to the initial lighting. It looked like I was going to have maybe 8-10 briqs not even catch but I took the lid off for maybe 2 minutes and that side of the basket started to get going. Impressive because I never get significant heat at the 10 hour mark with the KBB. Feel like I had a decent amount of cooking time left.


Long story short, these definitely burn longer but do seem to take longer to get going. It did seem to be "cleaner" in regards to the smoke on the initial light up. I'll probably put more briqs in the chimney next time and concentrate the pour in the middle/back of the basket away from the intake. I did an "all over pour" on this one and it got me. I like them though and am intrigued by the longer cook time possibilities, like maybe I could do a no wrap packer or butt now that I'm not as worried about dropping temps around the 8 hour mark.


Beef ribs were awesome, by the way. SPOGOS worked great on them.

-

 

[drunkenmeatfist]

I picked up the BHC on sale and I know it's not popular here, but I wanted to post this somewhere. Did my first cook on it tonight and I was pretty impressed. Used Weber briqs and a chunk of oak to make a tri-tip. Super easy and probably one of the best tri-tips I have made. Have a feeling that the barrel will get used quite a bit even though I have a kamado and a pellet smoker.

 

[blacksmith]

I picked up the BHC on sale ...

I was curious about the quality. I observed it is at least ten pounds lighter, at least by my remote research on the web. I have the Pit Barrel and it is pretty stout, heavy in fact. The coal basket on the Pit is really well built. I got the ash pan and was surprised to find it was heavy gauge stainless.

The Pit is well built.

 

[BigKing]

The PBC thread simply should not be this far down the list so I'm bumping her. Did another cook this weekend with Weber briquettes and built a better fire, however, there was still some issues with needing to move the coals around halfway through. Good cook though with 3 racks of spares, brats and hot links and a ton of chicken thighs. Put the ribs on at 11:45 in the morning and took the last bit of hot links off close to midnight and still had a decent fire going in half of the basket.


Haven't posted a pic in a long time so here is a drunk and starving, poorly planned photo of a prime shortie from Super Sunday.

 

[smoke ninja]

I bought a barrel house cooker for $90. yes I know I'm what is wrong with America. still I couldn't help myself for the price, I didn't even need it.

so can I play in here with you guys or is the BHC strictly forbidden? if I'm not welcome I'll take my vacuum cleaner and go home

 

[dadsr4]

I bought a barrel house cooker for $90. yes I know I'm what is wrong with America. still I couldn't help myself for the price, I didn't even need it.

so can I play in here with you guys or is the BHC strictly forbidden? if I'm not welcome I'll take my vacuum cleaner and go home

Maybe rename the thread UDS Jr's?:noidea:

 

[Stlsportster]

I know this won't be popular..may need Andrew, Bob C, and Sako to help reign me in...but is this just now the how to cook with a UDS thread?

Back in the early pages there was a 'tussle' regarding this thread staying clean from other products. This was not to talk about similar methods of cooking with the WSM or UDS, but specifically to be the PBC.

This group, and the mods, agreed that this was a thread for the specific Brand Name Pit Barrel Cooker.

Just like you wouldn't go into the Shirley Fab thread and post pictures or discuss how a Lang was built...this was a forum for the PBC owners.

Starting to see lots of BHC posts...I'm not specifically opposed or in support of that...I'm just asking...


And by the way ninja, that is some killer looking chicken!

 

[BigKing]

I think there should be a separate BHC thread while maybe 10% of the posts in that thread get cross-posted here as to not violate the court agreement.

 

[smoke ninja]

I know this won't be popular..may need Andrew, Bob C, and Sako to help reign me in...but is this just now the how to cook with a UDS thread?

Back in the early pages there was a 'tussle' regarding this thread staying clean from other products. This was not to talk about similar methods of cooking with the WSM or UDS, but specifically to be the PBC.

This group, and the mods, agreed that this was a thread for the specific Brand Name Pit Barrel Cooker.

Just like you wouldn't go into the Shirley Fab thread and post pictures or discuss how a Lang was built...this was a forum for the PBC owners.

Starting to see lots of BHC posts...I'm not specifically opposed or in support of that...I'm just asking...


And by the way ninja, that is some killer looking chicken!

I think there should be a separate BHC thread while maybe 10% of the posts in that thread get cross-posted here as to not violate the court agreement.

I do understand the very valid point and recognized it from the moment I posted my bhc in this thread. Maybe it's that we're at almost 10,000 posts. Maybe it's that Bob and Andy dont seem to be posting alot. Maybe I'm just a douche canoe :fish2:

I'm not just flaunting the unwritten rule. The barrel house cooker has a unique relationship to the pit barrel. They were former business partners, I wonder if any of the "improvements" bhc made were based on information they obtained from Noah. If it was considered a licensing deal that both agreed on up front would this be viewed as more ok?

If the consensus is for me to not post any barrel house cooks in this thread that's fine, I'll still read it and make occasional comments on your guys' cooks and mods. The fact is $100 is my personal limit. I'm not the PBC's target customer. I'll never pay $300 for one and not because I think it's not worth it. The only way for me to enjoy the unique style of pit barrel cooking is to buy used, this closeout sale for the barrel house, or to build one based on the PBC design.

 

[Twisted T's Q]

man that is some great looking chicken ninja