Hello from Sanger, Tx

[Oakgrovebacon]

Welcome to the pit from Southern Illinois

[Tomoliver1752]

Welcome from Frisco, your neighbor.

[DanielLubin]

Welcome to the P I T ! ! ! !

[tbob4]

Hello from Chico, CA

[Mike76266]

Welcome aboard Mike. Whether you fall in love with your cooker or not, there is always more on the horizon. Hail MCS. Eat good & have fun!

Well, it's not a terminal case of MCS. That's 4 smokers over about 20 years. And, I'm a monogamous kinda guy, so it was only one at a time. And, besides that, I didn't inhale!

[Mike76266]

WooHoo!!!, Welcome aboard Oklahoma Joe's Highland, an' whoever that dude was talkin'!!!
Howdy from Kansas Territory, Welcome to th' Pit!
What kinda metal thickness has th' New Gen RF OKJ's got, anyhow?
We were jus' talkin' 'bout that, in th' past few days, here?
Got an older (2 gens prev.)OKJ Highland, with baffle/tunin' plate, an' gaskets; absolutely delighted with it, over many, many a cook...

I measured this morning, and about 1/8" thick metal. Could be worse. What does your older model have?

Sadly, CharBroil seems to buy decent companies that make a good product and then they cheapen the product.

[Mike76266]

Welcome to the pit Mike76266! It's good tro try different smokers to find the one you like. I haven't heard of anyone using a PID controller in an offset. They're more suited for briquettes where you have a steady supply of fuel, i.e. you don't have to open the fire door to add wood every 15 minutes.

It seems to be working pretty well actually. The BBQGuru people were also skeptical. I start the fire with lump (because I'm lazy) and add a few good sized sticks. The smoker gets to temp pretty quickly and then stays there. Once every hour or two, I toss on another log. And the temperature stays where I want it. How long depends on the size of the last log I tossed in, some last longer than others.

My pastrami was stuck in a stall and I gave into some newbie angst I thought I was over and set the temperature up from 225 to 250. It was about 5 to 10 minutes and it stabilized at the new temperature. Yeah, there is a certain amount of romance to sitting by the smoker with a beer. But it's even better to sit inside in the air conditioning with a beer.

It's not as convenient as getting a Smokey Mountain going with the Minion Method, but it's close.

-Mike

[Mr. Bones]

Tastes good, though, huh?
Please, unnerstand, I have two WSMs, so no offence intended...

[Mike76266]

Welcome from Frisco, your neighbor.

Hey Neighbor!

[Mudkat]

Welcome Mike! Looking forward to your cooks and pics!

[Mike76266]

Tastes good, though, huh?
Please, unnerstand, I have two WSMs, so no offence intended...

Tastes better each time! I've got nothing against a WSM, it just wasn't the smoker made for me. I just I just wanted a big, manly offset. Pity I got a COS instead.

[Mr. Bones]

Please, don't write off yer OK Joe Highland Reverse Flow smoker, jus' yet...
Ya' can make fantastic food in it...
Jus' takes tendin' th' fire, eh?
COS? Yes, perhaps....
Bottom line is, th' Cook....

[Mike76266]

Despite my comments, I'm really starting to like the OK Joe (etc). Yesterday's pastrami was very nice. Well rendered, moist, a great first attempt at home cured pastrami (though still a work in progress. (The pink is from the cure. It was pulled off at 205F.)

[HawkerXP]

Welcome to the Pit!

[Mudkat]

That looks great!

[Mike76266]

It was, and is! Cold the second day was even better than hot the first. What we did was similar to Meathead's recipe, but we didn't steam. If you have great bark, why steam? We smoked until done. Here's Meathead's recipe http://amazingribs.com/recipes/beef/..._pastrami.html

[EdF]

It's probably a regional thing. My Mom was from NYC. The pastrami got sliced really thin, then steamed to give it kind of a wiggly texture before going on the rye bread with the dressing and swiss and sauerkraut.