Picking up the new $155 PBX Today!

[jfmorris]

Help! I succumbed to temptation last night on my iPad and bought a PBX from Academy - it was marked down to $159.99 and I had another $5 discount, knocking it down to $155 before tax. I just couldn't resist when the list price is a whopping $599 these days. I can pick it up later today.

So my question for fzxdoc , Spinaker , Lynn Dollar and others....

First - accessories.

I bought this because it was cheap. I know I probably DO need to order a cover for it, so it doesn't collect water on that concave lid sitting out in the rain. What else do I need, considering this comes with 3 rebars and 16 hooks. Do I *need* their chimney? I have several of the big Weber chimneys scattered around the grills and shed in the back yard. Can I just go with foil in the bottom like Kathryn describes in her sticky posts to make clean up easier?

Second - lighting.

I think I am reading you light this the same way as the smaller PBC, 40 briquettes removed, lit, and then dumped back and scattered on top, or do I need to make a donut hole in the middle of the charcoal basket and dump the coals there?

Third - charcoal.

I use B&B. Been years since I cleared out a giant shed full of KBB. Do I want to go back to KBB for this, or will the B&B briquettes or lump work? I don't really need wood chunks either do I?

Last - first cook.

I know I need to spray some oil around the inside rim of the lid, maybe the inside of the cooker to help "gunk it up" first. What should my first actual cook be? I've got several butts in the freezer. I could do a couple of chicken sand a couple of butts at once, pulling the chickens when they are done, and letting the butts ride until they are done? Or do I want to do ribs?

My plan is to run this stock, unmodified, and not try to dick with a fan controller. To be the attraction of the PBC/PBX is the simplicity of it. I may dangle a probe from my Smoke or RFX in there off a rebar. My RFX most likely, as the meat probes are then wireless.

Thanks guys and gals!

Jim

[RonB]

Congrats! With the experts we have here, you will be up to speed in no time.

[Spinaker]

Congrats on the purchase!!!

1) I would get a cover for it, just to keep the rain from pooling on the lid. I would skip the chimney, if you already have some. Plus, the PBX is big enough to fit a full size chimney in to dump coal if you have too. (I dump them in the basket, and then lower the basket into the PBX afterwards. I use a metal hook I fabricated for this. But you can also use a heat glove and an old hanger) You can use foil on the bottom, but I have the ash catcher and love it. But foil works fine too.

2) I like to make a donut hole in the middle and let it catch. As mentioned above, do this outside of the PBX. Then I lower the lit basket in to the PBX with my Dingelhopper. (Yes, that is a Little Mermaid reference) Make sure those colas are good and hot, give the chimney a good shake to get the ash off before adding them to the basket.

3) You can use KBB, B&B or whatever you want really. KBB is always constant and predictable and you can buy it anywhere. However, the other fuel work well too. Just go with what works for you.

4) Normally I say do some chicken for a first cook, but you are a seasoned Vet. For you...... I would do pork shoulder for the first cook. Tons of fat, long cook and it will give the inside a good coating of meat gunk to get the seasoning going. I alwasy put my thermometer on the rebar and let it hang, that is just fine. I have never run a fan on my PBCs.

[dpearce]

Haha! You won't be disappointed jfmorris! If I had room, I'd get a second one for that potentially large cook I keep threatening my wife with.

+1 on what Spinaker has recommended. I like the ash catcher, and I do the same with a hook for the basket. I ran a fan for about a year (documented somewhere around here...) and found it worked ok, but certainly not necessary. I've returned the air intake to the default, and cook on it almost every weekend, bouncing between it, the Blackstone, and the Weber kettle.

I would follow Kathryn's lighting instructions, then if you feel like playing around with it, that's always an option. I've mainly used KBB, but recently did some Jealous Devil briquettes. They worked fine.

Have fun and post pics!

[Purc]

Enjoy, it's always exciting to get and learn a new cooker.

[Lynn Dollar]

As far as lighting and operating, I will defer to others here as I'm still sort've a newb, with not many cooks under my belt.

The best accessory I've bought is this dolly. I found the PBX hard to move around, not because it was particularly heavy, but because it was bulky. Was hard to get my arms around it to get good leverage. But then, I'm 74 yo , also



Vevor Dolly on Amazon

[Huskee]

Congrats!

I'll just erase your name from June's winners list since you clearly don't need a new cooker now... (j/k)

[jfmorris]

Haha. I’m already off the list for 4 more years…. But the real win is the knowledge and community here in the Pit!

[N227GB]

Here's a short list of tips and links I compiled a few years ago.

[LA Pork Butt]

As one of my tee shirts says, “you can never have too many grills.” MCS LOL

[barelfly]

Grills, guitars, bikes…..

[jfmorris]

Well the PBC site shows out of stock on the PBX sized ash catcher, so I signed up to be notified when it is back in stock.

I’ll wait on Kathryn and others to chime in on “must have” accessories before ordering a cover. For the short term I’ll put an upside down leaf trash bag over it to keep the rain off, since I am living on daily rain down here in Alabama so far this week.

i am thinking the included 16 hooks are plenty for now unless i want to get tons of ribs going at once. The question is do i need a basket, skewers, or a turkey hanger….

[dpearce]

I like my turkey hanger! A basket might be nice, don't have one of those. But if it didn't come with a drop grate, you might think about upgrading to one, so you can use the grate and the hooks on one cook.

I still need to get one... I keep saying when this grate get too crusty I'll do it, then I just clean the grate again...

[Duanessmokedmeats]

Get an 18" aluminum pizza pan and cover with foil as your ash catcher.
Easy to clean.

[jfmorris]

Duanessmokedmeats I may have to get the large pizza pan if they don't restock the ash catchers at PBC soon. For the first cook I will likely just rely on foil, per fzxdoc 's writeup.

dpearce I have to wonder how much I will use the grate. I can see the utility of the hinged one if I would hang and grate stuff at the same time...

[jfmorris]

Well, I picked this up at the tail end of a bunch of lunch "hours" errands, and it is sitting in the garage with all the other JUNK on a furniture dolly until I have more time to mess with it.



I was disappointed it was NOT in the box. The guys who brought it out just looked at me like dummies when I said I wanted a new one in the box. "You didn't want it assembled?" Anyway, they had no others in stock, so this was the one I brought home in the back of the pickup truck. I took the lid off before the drive so that it wouldn't fly off going down the road. And the rebar was down in the barrel - I grabbed those before the drive home too.

Since others who purchased at Academy said it was already assembled, I wonder if they even come to the store in the box or not...

Lastly, I know what 22 inches looks like - I have a kettle after all. THIS just seems HUGE due to all the height in the 22" diameter. A lot of cubic inches to hang stuff down in there for sure!

[N227GB]

They saved you HOURS by getting you one that was already assembled!

[ecowper]

You're right about how big that is when compared to a 22" kettle. It's like my WSM 22 .... same size as a kettle, but dang it's way bigger when I look at it next to my kettle.

[TripleB]

Love the work bench in the background…..stuff all over it. Just like mine. So when my wife recommends that I clean it up, I’ll answer, “why? Jfmorris doesn’t clean his up”.

[Jessterr]

Congrats jfmorris , very nice buy! I’m going to probably go against the grain here and recommend not using a cover on it, based on experience with my PBC. After a few instances of going to use it and seeing mold in there, I decided to just try storing it without the cover, and have had no such issue since. In my experience the PBC cover restricted air flow too much to allow for sufficient evaporation of condensation that naturally takes place in humid environments such as here in coastal SC, and I suspect perhaps where you are as well. In fact, my PBC is rusting out in the bottom center due to my having initially stored it with the ash pan lying down flat in its normal use position. Condensation water became trapped under the ash pan, causing the bottom to begin rusting out, and that all took place when I was still using the cover so I’m certain that the water didn’t get in by any other means. The ash pan is great, and I highly recommend it, but also recommend not storing it lying down flat in the bottom as I initially did.

[Finster]

thanks for the tip on ash pan storage...

[Smoked Transistors]

Winner winner chicken dinner at that price! Congrats!

[Sweaty Paul]

Nicely done!

[fzxdoc]

Wow! Congrats, Jim. You're going to have a lot of fun with that PBX.

I echo all of Spinaker 's recommendations on charcoal and accessories with the exception of the ash catcher.

As far as accessories, you really don't need much of anything else except a cover. That said, Jessterr raises a good point about humidity. I have never had mold on my PBC or other cookers, but then I live in a lower humidity area of the country. Maybe others who live in high humidity areas can comment on its effects with their covered PBC/PBXs.

I ordered the ash catcher but stopped using it after a few early tries with it. The fat from the meats would collect underneath it, making a mess. I'd end up cleaning the underside of the ash catcher plus the floor of the PBC after each cook. Too much work! So I went back to my two layers of heavy duty aluminum foil which still work wonderfully. The widest that I know of comes in 18 inch widths, so you may have to piece it to extend it to the edges of your barrel.

I got the turkey holder, but ended up not using it for chickens or turkeys since I spatchcock turkeys and halve chickens, so all I use for them are hooks. I do use the bar that sits on top, joining two rebars to support the turkey hanger to hang more stuff sometimes, but with a 22" barrel, you've got plenty of room.

I didn't get their hinged grate because I like my "Great Grate" for cooks where I want to use a grate and hang something through half of it. The open area on PBC's hinged grate is smaller than my half-open, no-hinge grate which was easily fabricated by modifying a standard grate. My Great Grate was necessary because back at that time, the PBC folks did not offer a grate with a large opening.

I did get both sizes of the hanging skewers in the value pack, which I use occasionally for stacking meats for Tacos al Pastor, Halal Chicken or Shawarma. I also use them to hang breast pieces when smoking halved chickens, since white meat is preferred by much of my family, and the chicken breast pieces go first.

For sure a couple of sausage hangers are great. I bought some that hold 6 sausages and modified them, long before PBC came out with their 5-sausages holder. Smoking sausages on the PBC adds fat to the fire for chicken cooks (I poke the bottom sausage a few times), which I really like, plus I use the PBC-smoked sausages in pasta dishes, chili, soups, and of course all by themselves. The best raw sausages for my use are from Fresh Market. I load up when they have a sale. Chorizo, Andouille, Hot or Sweet Italian, Bangers, etc.--they have a nice selection. In a pinch, Johnsonville is a distant second.

In the early days I used the hook tool a lot to pull the hooks off the rebars, haven't used one for years. Pulling the hooks with gloved hands when the meat is done works just as well.

I still think chicken (and sausages) make a great first cook. It's quick and gives you practice with customizing the fire lighting procedure to suit you and with temperature management. I think I did 2 or 3 chicken cooks a week until I was happy with my technique. I would give them away to grateful neighbors.

PBC chicken is still one of the top faves in our house. For chicken, I really like PBC's AP rub. I wasn't a fan of their beef rub, but their AP rub for chicken is great. It's very salty, though, but I have yet to over-salt a chicken with it. I use it as an overnight dry brine.

Enjoy using your PBX, Jim. I'm so happy for you.

Kathryn

[jfmorris]

Thanks Kathryn! I had my eye on the PBC and asked a lot of questions about it years ago. I really did not need the huge size of the PBX, but at $155, it was a no brainer. I may do as you suggest and just go with chicken only for the first cook.

We do have a Fresh Market - love their stuff, but only buy when it is on sale. Not sure I can do sausages though unless I order something to hang them with first. I could probably find some kind of fish basket locally and modify it?

[jfmorris]

Question - don't the sausages get done way before the chicken?

[fzxdoc]

Jim, jfmorris , see my post that follows. I couldn't do photos in the comment section.

K.