Reveling the best affordable smoker - we review and explain why we've selected the Pit Barrel Cooker as our top choice for a charcoal smoker for #MeatGeeks. smokingmeatgeeks.com/pit-barrel/.
The Original Pitt Barrel Cooker is our winner for the best smoker under $500. You can purchase it here: pitbarrelcooker.com/products/.... We’ve selected this as our #1 pick for several reasons:
• Cost: it comes in at around $350 shipped to your door.
• Manufacturing: commitment to quality construction, and has recently been redesigned with 18 gauged steel and enamel coating
• Assembly: it ships basically pre-assembled.
• Effectiveness: it maintains ideal smoking temperature with one basket of charcoal for upwards of 10 hours.
• Cooking: using a convection style cooking, meat turns out evenly cooked with just the right amount of smoke.
In this video we:
• Provide an introduction to the Pitt Barrel Cooker Co
• Explain why we like the Pitt Barrel Cooker and have selected it as our favorite cooker under $500
• Unpackage it to show you how its shipped and what it comes with
• Explain the 5 minute assembly
• Show you product fully assembled
• Provide a few best practice tips and our general feedback
The Pitt Barrel Cooker Co, is family as well as veteran owned and operated, right here in the US. The family over at the Pitt Barrel Cooker Co. stand behind their product 100%, even to the point that they offer a customer support phone number to talk you through any of your Pitt Barrel related questions or troubleshooting needs - these are guys (and gals) who take their smoking as serious as your desire for a tasty smoked dinner. Continue reading for additional reasons why we’ve selected the Pitt Barrel as our favorite smoker for the money.
When purchasing a smoker you’ll find they range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand; with the average cost for a noncommercial smoker coming in at around $750. The Original Pitt Barrel Cooker has checked all the boxes needed for a trusted smoker as it yields among the best tasting meat of all the smokers we’ve used. Ideal for smoking brisket, ribs, pork butt, turkeys and any other large cuts of meat.
The Pitt Barrel Cooker is a charcoal based smoker. It can perform a 10 - 12 hour smoke on a single basket of charcoal, while maintaining a temperature of 240°F to 265°F, all without the need for maintenance. One correction to note: in the video I mentioned “it maintains the ideal temperature of 225°F”, this is actually not entirely accurate; when it come to the Pitt Barel Cooker its natural internal cooking temperature ranges between 250°F - 265°F. While this is a hotter internal temperature than we recommend on our website for most meat smoking sessions, it’s perfectly fine when using the Pitt Barrel Cooker. This is because it maintains a consistent temperature of around 255°F through the entire smoke. The main reason we recommend smoking at 225°F is because it leaves room for error as it relates to temperature spikes; limiting the chances of the meat sitting in high temperature (above 300°F) for too long.
The design of the Pitt Barrel Cooker is similar to a UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker) which is a popular style smoker among smoking meat enthusiasts. The setback with a traditional UDS is that it is a DIY project; meaning you have to build it from scratch yourself, while perfecting air intake. The key to maintaining constant temperature is oxygen flow - too much and you burn up your coals way too fast while increasing internal temperature beyond ideal smoking temperatures - too little and you risk temperature falling into dangerous levels, while collecting large amounts of smoke inside the barrel that can make the meat taste bitter. The Pitt Barrel Cooker has perfected the design of their barrel to maintain the perfect air flow; it is truly incredible. The Pitt Barrel Cooker comes with a vent installed at the bottom of the barrel which should be set based on your elevation. Check the Pitt Barrel website for a diagram: www.pitbarrelcooker.com/info/....
Using the Pitt Barrel Cooker only requires:
1. Load the charcoal basket mostly full with coals, mixing in a few wood chips and set it inside of the barrel
2. Light a hand full of coals in a chimney until their mostly lit
3. Add them the coals to the charcoal basket in the barrel
4. Hang your meat and shut the lid
5. Come back 8 - 12 hours later to retrieve your tasty and smoky meat for consumption
In the smoking meat world there is nothing better than a “set it and forget it” smoker. The unique feature of the Pitt Barrel Cooker is that it can perform these long smokes without the need for electricity, while using charcoal, in a convection style cook. For all these reasons the Pitt Barrel cooker possesses unique skill sets among all mainstream smokers in $500 - $1000 price range.