Smoking with the Pit Barrel Cooker

Everyone on the InterWeb seems to love the Pit Barrel Cooker so I ordered one and finally had a chance to fire it up. The design is elegant: a small barrel with an adjustable vent on the bottom, fuel held in the bottom, and a hanging rack on top. The holes for the hanging rods (made of rebar, another touch of elegance) seem to provide most of the ventilation up top.

This shot shows the meat hanging on a hook. The result is all-around heating from vertical airflow, a much improved situation from my old two-barrel smoker. This airflow results in considerably faster cooking times while maintaining moistness and flavor. I used some applewood chips but I think that a lot of the flavor comes simply from dripping onto the hot coals. The vertical meat means that applying a traditional liquid mop is difficult; the solution is to rub with oil.

After about 4.5 hours I applied the Texas Crutch (foil wrap and chicken broth) and finished the brisket in the oven. I then used the smoker to concentrate on ribs.

Here are the finished ribs. Both the ribs and brisket were outstanding: wonderfully tender and moist, great smoky flavor. I look forward to many more meat-filled weekends.

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