Warning: that $200 offset smoker from the big box store cost me 30 pounds of pork butt and 14 hours of my life

Thin steel won't hold temp steady even if you babysit it like a newborn. Anyone else learn the hard way that cheap gear just eats your meat and time?

2 comments

2 Comments

norag6610d ago

Gotta disagree a little bit here. That steel thickness thing gets thrown around a lot but its not the whole story. My first smoker was a thin walled offset and yeah it was a pain but I learned to manage it pretty good once I figured out how to use the vents right. The real issue is usually airflow not just metal thickness. A cheap smoker with bad welds and gaps will leak heat way worse than thin steel that seals up tight. Also 30 pounds of pork butt? Man that hurts. Ive had a few bad cooks like that before and it always stings. But honestly for $200 you cant expect a pit that holds 250 degrees like a tombstone. You gotta work with what you got. Build a fire management system using cheap firebricks or even a water pan to stabilize things. It wont be a Lang but itll cook decent once you figure out its quirks. Bottom line is a budget smoker can work fine if you treat it like a project instead of a set and forget deal. Might not be pretty but you can make good food on it once you learn its personality.

williamhill10d ago

That 30 pound pork butt comment got me thinking @norag66, did you ever actually weigh your meat loss on a cheap smoker or just guess? I had a similar offset once and I swear a 10 pound brisket came out looking like a 6 pounder after all the drying out. The water pan trick helped but still, that thin metal just radiates heat like crazy in the wind. How many cooks did it take you before you stopped fighting temperature swings and actually got consistent results?