🔥 What's cooking on your SmokeFire/Searwood? 🥩

[primeone]

Lots of good photos for the weekend. We might have to get some type of photo contest going soon!

 

[Rickyjk619]

10lb pork shoulder, low and slow. I use Bad Byron's Butt Rub, love that stuff, but I know it's not for everyone. The plan is to use a combo of cookinpellets.com perfect mix and weber grillmaster. Set it to 225, put a pan under the grate, and let her rip. I'll put a couple probes in to see how the pan affects the temps.

I smoked some beef short ribs along with baby backs and baked potatoes on the Smokefire. I will say that I had to play the wind in the beginning but after that it cooked flawlessly. If the back of your smoker is catching the wind then it’s never going to keep its temperature up. I had a small grease fire at the end so I am going to make some modifications so that doesn’t happen again. It could have been bad if I wasn’t paying attention. I am very pleased thus far. I will say this though I would not recommend this smoker to a novice. Your going to end up very frustrated if you buy this and think it’s going to do all the work for you. Smoke on

 

[DutchieCooks]

Sunday is pizza day

 

[SmokeMeister]

Here’s a couple pics of my aborted pork shoulder. Nice bark, super moist, and killer smoke flavor.

 

[GriLLMaRksRseXy]

First cook went awesome!! Slow cooked ribs all day, then the cheddar stuffed meatloaf, cheesy potatoes and beans as the day went on turned up the heat the last hour. It came right up to temp I hope it keeps working as designed.

Recipes for the cheesy potatoes, the beans and def. the stuffed meatloaf............PLEASE.

 

[BadAss BBQ]

Well, I almost don't even know where to start. This is long, I apologize in advance. It's been a disaster. Put it on at 9PM, it was working perfect when I checked it before bed at 12:30. Just happened to wake up at 1:30 and checked the temp, 140. By the time I got out there, it was 130 and dropping. Checked the hopper, found no issues with bridging or voids. Kept dropping. At a loss, I cranked it up to 350. Temp started rising, so I lowered the setpoint back down. Temps started going back down again. Ended up shutting it down and restarting at 2:30. Started back up, came up to temp and it was going again at 3:00. Made sure to push pellets as far to the left side as possible.

Woke up at 8AM, temps were fine. At 8:30, I noticed temps dropping, waited a bit to see if it would recover, it didn't. Checked hopper and it was starved of pellets, completely gone on the left side with a decent pile on the right. Pushed them over, but it was too late, it was dead. Restarted again, and here's where things really started going wrong. Started it back up, got almost up to temp, then it just slowly dropped, dead again. Restarted at 9, basically did the same thing, dead again at 9:40. Restarted again at 10. Though all this I've found that setpoints up to and including 300 use a normally low fan speed with bursts to high and this would not sustain heat, continual drops. Setpoints 305 and up are high speed fan, which allowed it to recover, but very slowly. Currently set at 305 with grate temps of 275. Setting it to 300 or lower,it dies. Maybe I can get over the finish line this way?

So, first of all, what the heck happened at 1:30 to cause it to go crazy? It's my own fault it died at 8:30. Maybe that allowed moisture into the hopper and that's why I'm having all the issues now?

If this cook had turned out well, I was all set to keep it and work through any issues. However, I'm pretty frustrated right now and questioning whether I want to keep dealing with this...

I built a custom temp controller for my WSM and it has no trouble going for 12+ hours with no input from me. That's looking awfully good right about now.

I hope you let Weber know about all of this, its detailed enough for them. You may have a hardware issue and I'm sure they will address it.

 

[SmokeMeister]

I hope you let Weber know about all of this, its detailed enough for them. You may have a hardware issue and I'm sure they will address it.

Yeah, this was pretty disappointing and I'm honestly on the fence now. Right after I took the meat off, I went out and thoroughly cleaned the entire thing with the intention to return it. When it works, it's actually really great. The issues are just wearing on me a bit. I guess we'll see how I feel today now that I've had some time to calm down.

 

[TechDadCO_dotcom]

10lb pork shoulder, low and slow. I use Bad Byron's Butt Rub, love that stuff, but I know it's not for everyone. The plan is to use a combo of cookinpellets.com perfect mix and weber grillmaster. Set it to 225, put a pan under the grate, and let her rip. I'll put a couple probes in to see how the pan affects the temps.

Did you end up using the pan under the grate? If so did you just put it to the left or right side or right on top of the heat/center? Thanks!

 

[RSchiers]

I know the weekend is over but I am starting a pork butt for dinner. I will update as it goes.

 

[SmokeMeister]

Did you end up using the pan under the grate? If so did you just put it to the left or right side or right on top of the heat/center? Thanks!

I think I put a picture of the setup in this thread, but you'll have to scroll back a bit. I used an 11x16 disposable aluminum cookie sheet on the right side above the flavorizer bars. I filled it with water, but it was pretty shallow, so I had to refill it about every 4 hours. If I was doing it again, I'd try to get a deeper pan. Or maybe use the cookie sheet only for grease and put a separate pan in with water.

 

[abmet]

Well, I almost don't even know where to start. This is long, I apologize in advance. It's been a disaster. Put it on at 9PM, it was working perfect when I checked it before bed at 12:30. Just happened to wake up at 1:30 and checked the temp, 140. By the time I got out there, it was 130 and dropping. Checked the hopper, found no issues with bridging or voids. Kept dropping. At a loss, I cranked it up to 350. Temp started rising, so I lowered the setpoint back down. Temps started going back down again. Ended up shutting it down and restarting at 2:30. Started back up, came up to temp and it was going again at 3:00. Made sure to push pellets as far to the left side as possible.

Woke up at 8AM, temps were fine. At 8:30, I noticed temps dropping, waited a bit to see if it would recover, it didn't. Checked hopper and it was starved of pellets, completely gone on the left side with a decent pile on the right. Pushed them over, but it was too late, it was dead. Restarted again, and here's where things really started going wrong. Started it back up, got almost up to temp, then it just slowly dropped, dead again. Restarted at 9, basically did the same thing, dead again at 9:40. Restarted again at 10. Though all this I've found that setpoints up to and including 300 use a normally low fan speed with bursts to high and this would not sustain heat, continual drops. Setpoints 305 and up are high speed fan, which allowed it to recover, but very slowly. Currently set at 305 with grate temps of 275. Setting it to 300 or lower,it dies. Maybe I can get over the finish line this way?

So, first of all, what the heck happened at 1:30 to cause it to go crazy? It's my own fault it died at 8:30. Maybe that allowed moisture into the hopper and that's why I'm having all the issues now?

If this cook had turned out well, I was all set to keep it and work through any issues. However, I'm pretty frustrated right now and questioning whether I want to keep dealing with this...

I built a custom temp controller for my WSM and it has no trouble going for 12+ hours with no input from me. That's looking awfully good right about now.

Dang that's too bad. This is with the new auger right?

 

[abmet]

Yeah, this was pretty disappointing and I'm honestly on the fence now. Right after I took the meat off, I went out and thoroughly cleaned the entire thing with the intention to return it. When it works, it's actually really great. The issues are just wearing on me a bit. I guess we'll see how I feel today now that I've had some time to calm down.

I wonder if your controller is faulty?

 

[abmet]

I didn't have a lot of time this weekend so did some turkey breasts for lunches this week yesterday. I removed the finger guard from the hopper and decided I wasn't going to touch the pellets the whole cook and filled the hopper maybe half way. I had no issues and it held steady at 225, but was only around 3 hours start to finish. The pellets didn't seem to generate as big of a "hole" as they fed in. I'm hopeful this means on longer cooks I won't have to worry about stirring pellets so often. I'll probably still push them over whenever I go out to check on things just to be safe.

 

[SmokeMeister]

Dang that's too bad. This is with the new auger right?

Correct, that's with the new auger. I wonder if it is the controller, as well. I'm just weighing in my mind how much more I want to mess with it And it pains me to even admit that, but this last cook took a lot of my determination away. Just FYI, I had pushed the pellets as far to the left as possible, they were touching the lid for most of the hopper, and I got about 5.5 hours before it died from lack of pellets. There was still a large pile on the right. I did buy some teflon tape, but I didn't have a chance to put it on yet.

 

[rock1640]

Recipes for the cheesy potatoes, the beans and def. the stuffed meatloaf............PLEASE.

• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup crushed cornflakes
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped celery
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1-1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed olives

Directions

• 1. In a large bowl, combine the first 10 ingredients. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well. On a large piece of heavy-duty foil, pat beef mixture into a 14x10-in. rectangle. Spread sour cream to within 1/2 in. of edges. Sprinkle with cheese and olives.
• 2. Roll up, jelly-roll style, starting with a short side and peeling away foil while rolling. Seal seam and ends. Place seam side down in a greased 13x9-in. baking dish.
• 3. Grill, uncovered, at 350° for 65-75 minutes or until meat is no longer pink and a thermometer reads 160°. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.