My next cooker....
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 10:23AM My friends think I'm crazy, but I have a strong desire for a cooker with greater capacity. Now I don't cook for an army of folks that often, but at least a half dozen times a year I need more room cooking room than I have with my Big Green Egg & Bubba Keg. It's at those times that I also wonder if I'd use the capactiy even more if I had it.
When that happens, I run two cookers or do multiple cooks and hold & reheat the meat. I don't care for the time that this takes and I also don't care for reheated BBQ. So I'm on the hunt for my next cooker that will give me greater capacity.
To be honest, I'm also thinking of taking it up a notch and trying my hand at competition BBQ. That adds the need for more flexibility & portability, so I'll need to keep those things in mind as I consider my next move also.
Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to seriously ponder the merits of the next category of cookers from a capacity perspective. I figure they breakdown into the following categories:
- Pellet Poopers - These are pellet cookers from the likes of Traeger
, Country Smokers, MAK, etc.
- Cabinet Style cookers - charcoal or wood fired cookers from folks like Backwoods, Stumps, Spicewine etc.
- Off-set Stick burners - I really don't think this type of cooker fits me the best, but Klose, Jambo and others make some really nice off-set cookers.
I'd like to get some first hand cooking time with some of the different cookers, so I'll be looking for a way to do that in addition to my research of the various products. Stay tuned, and I'll keep you posted on my research, but in the meatntime if you have any first hand experience of your own that you'd like to share, drop me a comment below.
Cheers,
Braddog
Reader Comments (3)
I'd love a big stick burner but don't have the $10k for a Jambo. Given my experience with the Egg, I'd probably lean more towards the cabinet style smokers, although I've never cooked on one.
Chris;
I agree. I've been leaning towards a cabinet style cooker for awhile, but since I'm shopping I may as well look at all of my options. I don't really have a place to store or a need for anything as big as a Jambo, although they do make a couple of backyard models.
It should be fun shopping!
Cheers,
Braddog
I feel you. I run 2x18" wsms at home and compete with 3x18" wsms. I'd love to play around with cabinet style or jambo, but the truth is that it would probably be overkill for me.
If you're serious about competing, you could get away with adding one wsm to your current arsenal and would be in good shape. I've never competed on one large cooker, but three small ones gives you the flexibility to put each meat on its own time and temp schedule and frees you up to get creative with your entries. And a wsm works the same way as your current cookers so the learner curve would be brief.
But if you got the scratch, go for it. Big cookers are cool and give you the option to vend.