Pit Barrel Cooker?

Dave Richards

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SE Minnesota
Is anyone else using a Pit Barrel Cooker? It has spoiled us. I won't order ribs when we go out because I know I'll be disappointed. Everything we've done on it has been fabulous.
 
I've not used one, but a lot of folks on The Smoke Ring forums swear by their barrel smokers. (They call them a UDS over there...Ugly Drum Smoker, lol.) Pretty simple concept, but the results are excellent (as you can attest).

Did you buy yours pre-built or did you build yours yourself?
 
My wife ordered it from here. She got it without telling me and the first thing she did was some baby back ribs. Holy cow! They were excellent. I've smoked salmon on it, cooked chickens, turkey, even steaks. A smoked steak is kind of a surprise the first time you bite into it but it sure is good.
 
Very cool! Looks like a well-built smoker. I'm going to have to try smoking a steak. Hmm...maybe that's what's for dinner tonight. ;)

And kudos to your wife. Not only did she get you a smoker, she even uses it, too. :D My wife wouldn't even know how to begin. Plus, she'd never make it past the part where you have to touch the meat. (Grosses her out.) :rolleyes:
 
They certainly look to do a great job! I used to have a little vertical smoker years ago and it did a good job.

Oddly enough, I'm doing Jamaican Jerk Ribs today out on the traeger just to be a little different from the regular midwest dry rub and sauce ribs.

There are a lot of ways to get things smoked and I fully support anybody who cooks things at home over whatever kind of fire they choose!
 
Looks like a good unit! My first smoker was a Brinkman that works in the same way as the PB. I cooked a lot of stuff, including turkeys, on it. Then I got my first offset firebox smoker. Now, we have a larger offset smoker, an electric (MasterBuilt) as well as a gas grill. We smoke large quantities at a time so it's readily available in our freezer.
 
I have a vertical propane smoker that's about 50" high which is tall enough to hang sausages or a ham in it. Its not quite the same as a Pit Barrel but is a close cousin. I cut some sticks about 5/8" square by 18-20" long so I could hang stuff in it from them (they sit across the rails for the top rack). It has 4 (maybe 5) racks but I don't use those quite as much (turkey breast, brisket, and similar on those).

For cold smoking I pop riveted some dryer duct fittings onto the bottom air inlet and hook a little hibachi up to it with a length of drier duct (I also pop riveted a fitting on the top of the little hibachi - I think I have maybe $25 in that whole assembly as I bought the hibachi on sale at the end of season). This works quite well when its about the right temperature outside (say low 50's to low 60's) as the smoke entering the main chamber is pretty dang near ambient if I don't get to carried away with the fire in the smoke generator (hibachi). If I need more heat in the main chamber I can either run a small charcoal fire in the "smoke box" that came with it or for more heat fire up the propane a little.
 
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