Hey folks, resurrecting this thread just to point out that for all the navel-gazing I did in trying to assess what I'd be using any new cooker for, there's a "use case" that has emerged since I got the SnS deluxe that I never even thought of. And that's a two-cooker approach to long cooks: using the kettle for the first few hours with charcoal and wood chunks when the meat is at its coolest & most moist (try saying "most moist" out loud five times fast!) to get some good smoke on, and once the bark is good and set move it over to the pellet smoker for hands-free stability the rest of the way.
This seems like using each cooker's strengths. The meat is in the kettle for the first hours when temp control is a no-brainer, before things start to waver, getting great smoke from wood chunks. By the time it moves to the pellet smoker, it's mostly done picking up any smoke, but hey, it's still there for whatever it can take up. If one is wrapping or boating, it's an easy time to do that. Then you get the advantage of steady stability while you work on the rest of your meal, no need to worry about fire management.
And it so happens that at the moment I have a big bag of Royal Oak Chef Select charcoal that I got on sale. I had two bags of B&B when I first got the kettle, and this is what I used next. Burns WAY faster than the B&B, it's not even funny. So this 2-cooker approach is a great way to get use out of the charcoal. Yeah, I could sear with it, but as a practical matter I'm not lighting charcoal for that when I can turn knobs on my GrillGrates-equipped gasser...
Here's an example kettle-to-pellet cook, some beef ribs:
This seems like using each cooker's strengths. The meat is in the kettle for the first hours when temp control is a no-brainer, before things start to waver, getting great smoke from wood chunks. By the time it moves to the pellet smoker, it's mostly done picking up any smoke, but hey, it's still there for whatever it can take up. If one is wrapping or boating, it's an easy time to do that. Then you get the advantage of steady stability while you work on the rest of your meal, no need to worry about fire management.
And it so happens that at the moment I have a big bag of Royal Oak Chef Select charcoal that I got on sale. I had two bags of B&B when I first got the kettle, and this is what I used next. Burns WAY faster than the B&B, it's not even funny. So this 2-cooker approach is a great way to get use out of the charcoal. Yeah, I could sear with it, but as a practical matter I'm not lighting charcoal for that when I can turn knobs on my GrillGrates-equipped gasser...
Here's an example kettle-to-pellet cook, some beef ribs:
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