MIL's new smoker

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allisonandrews

Senior Cook
Joined
Apr 4, 2006
Messages
191
Location
North Central Texas
We tested out my MIL's new smoker this weekend.

It is a New Braunfels and she got it for around $400 from Academy. Here is a pic (hopefully).
0263-02219-3360.jpg



We cooked a brisket, a boston butt, some country style pork ribs, and some riblets over the weekend on it. Here are my thoughts on it as compared with the smoker that we use.

1. CON: Temperature guage is set too high. It is almost at the tallest point of the door, so it is measuring the temp too high, not at the grate level.

2. CON: Very responsive to temperature change. We found that we had to watch the fire carefully or we had extreme temperature fluctuations. Ours is reverse flow and larger, so this may explain why we do not experience these extremes.

3. CON: wooded handles got hot very quickly and were somewhat akward.

4. PRO: thicker metal than on a lot of other smokers

5. PRO: doors were easy to open as far as weight was concerned

6. PRO: Fire box had two doors for access and had a grating you could put inside to use firebox as a grill

7. CON: Fire box was small and you had to cut your wood smaller than normal.

All in all, it was not a bad smoker, but after getting used to our large reverse flow, I don't think we could go back. Well, that's not true. We could go back - it would just take a lot of getting used to.

As far as food was concerned, so-so is what I thought. I think the ribs got a bit overdone. The boston butt was definately better than the pork picnic I did the other day. We took it off the smoker at 170 degrees per my MIL's instruction. She considered it a roast and wanted it cooked accordingly. The brisket had a decent flavor, but was not very tender. We smoked it for around 13 hours, but because I did not have my thermeters there, I cannot vouch for temps. My SIL brought the brisket, so it was not one we picked out. Could have been a bad brisket, could have not been cooked long enough, or the temperature spikes during cooking could all have affected it.
 
There are several minor mods you could make to that pit to make it more efficient:

1. Take some flexible aluminum vent tubing and extend the exhaust chimney down to grate level.

2. Install a damper inside the main cooking chamber over the firebox opening directing the heat downward.

3. Line your cooking chamber in aluminum foil and add some fire bricks to it to maintain temps.

4. Fashion a charcoal box out of expanded steel that will fit in side your firebox
 
If it were ours, I would be one of the first trying the mods. However, with my MIL, she would just laugh at me and say I spent too much time online. Besides, this way, we have the upperhand at being able to cook a better brisket (at least until she figures out the new smoker) :razz:

Thanks anyway though!!
 
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