I currently own a Model 50. So far it does a fantastic job on turkeys, ribs, and pork butts. I am ready to buy the larger 55 but am starting to waffle on the absolute versatility of the cookshack. I know what it can do, however alot of the recipes call for various damper positions to help dry things out somewhat. I am thinking of stuff like smoked fish where you want some drying action during the first part or summer sausage.

Of course the competition does not call a Cookshack a smoker, rather a smoke cooker(oven)as it lacks the proper damper controls. I suspect that one could leave the door open somewhat to achieve the same results. Any feedback?

Thanks in advance

I'm thinking the 55 is just the stainless version of the 50.

Naturally ,opening the door some will reduce moisture,as the CS is a moist cooker.

I entered" smoked fish" in the search feature at the top of this page and it returned 130 threads,so we have some pretty active fish smokers.

I know that we have an active group of sausage makers as well.

The "summer sausage" search produced 46 threads.

Something like the Lil Chiefs,only have that cold smoke capability.

Cookshack does make cold smoking kits,or you can easily construct your own smokebox.

As far as using dampers,you are basically cutting off air intake to give cooler temps,and reducing moisture lost by cooking.

The downside of leaving the door open ,seems to me,would be you lose the smoke.

I'm certainly no authority on cold smoking fish or sausage,so hopefully some of them will jump in.

David - what recipes are you referring to? thx

If you look at traditional sausage recipes, for example those at Eldon's Sausage, talk about opening and closing dampers. With the one exception of having to leave the door ajar a bit for the initial drying of casings, I have had pretty good luck just not worrying about the damper instructions.

David,

Interesting question. You've been on the forum for a while now and have read a lot I'm sure.

Give me a recipe and I can adapt it to a CS, heck a lot of guys on the forum do great with seafood and sausage. We have a LOT of great cooks here who can help adapt.

I'm not the sausage guy, just wasn't a thing I did barbecuing, so I'll defer to the experts on that. I know enough to be really scarey with that stuff.

Actually I can adapt it to anything (probably even a bradley after I used one a couple of times). No braggin', I've just cooked a lot of BBQ, like Tom (he's older --LOL)

The key to becoming a great BBQ cook is learning your cooker, learning what it does good and what it doesn't.

Opening and closing dampers on other smokers is just to adjust the temp/air flow. You can do the same in a CS, just open the door and let air in, heat out and humidity out.

Don't care too much what the competition calls the smoker, they're trying to sell their own smokers. Same with anyones definition of BBQ. This forum doesn't have the largest forum presence for a SMOKER company because we don't do barbecue great.

I'd ask, what are you wanting to do? Fish, Sausage, specifics including quantities? We can give you some recommendations. You might be talking cold smoking.

I could recommend an FEC for pellets, or something easy to turn your 50 into a Cold Smoker, might even be a different smoker.

I think you'll find that while we're loyal to CS (remember, I'm not paid by them, I do this because I love BBQ) we're more loyal to BBQ and it's essence.

So, to the question of your topic Is the CS a real smoker? yes. It doesn't have to have dampers to be a smoker. It doesn't have to burn only wood in the ground to be a smoker. Now that's a loaded question. That's like asking if a Pellet Smoker is a real smoker? Duhhh, there's another question.



Here to help!

Russ

I love my CS for smoking fish and summer sausage. Like Smokin' said, its a matter of adapting technique to match the equipment and still achieve the same result.

I hot smoke fish and never leave the door cracked. I've never tried to make lox style salmon, but if I did I would use the cold smoke baffle.

For summer sausage, like tjr says, I only leave the door cracked the first hour.

So far I've only used my cold smoke baffle when smoking cheese, and for the 1st hour of making loin ham (just to give it an extra hour of smoking before it hit the magical 140 mark)

My opinion.....stick with CookShack.

Good luck

Gentlemen, Thanks for the answers. I misspoke because I have the smaller 008 and looking to get the larger 55 do do 2 turkey's at once. (Too many people want them!) I have been fiddling with my existing one and I think that keeping the door slightly open will work. I really want to try and make summer sausage products that get their tang partially from how they are smoked. Admittedly 90% of the stuff I do is BBQ, however I have a mean venison family recipe for ring bologna that is second to none. We smoke that in an open fire smokehouse for 4 - 6 hours at 140 degrees. Thanks for the advice and I will seach the archives and see what others do. I guess it's off to Cabela's to upgrade.

Call Cookshack sales and see what they may do on a trade for you.

They do a lot of upgrades,that way.

Tom,

Thanks for the advice however I have 3 standing offers! Went to Cabela's to look at the 55 and spend some time with the salesman who had heard how good these work. I am waiting for the Cabelas promotion where you spend up to $500 and get $150 in Cabela's bucks. All said and done I should be able to upgrade for less than $250 counting the last Cabela's bucks promotion.

David,I sold my 009 & went bigger to a 55.I love it.I think you will appreciate it as much as I do.

Richard

quote:

Originally posted by SmokinOkie:
[qb]

Don't care too much what the competition calls the smoker, they're trying to sell their own smokers. Same with anyones definition of BBQ. This forum doesn't have the largest forum presence for a SMOKER company because we don't do barbecue great.

Russ [/qb]

Since this could be easily misunderstood, I want to clarify that Smokin' is saying that we DO have the largest forum presence for a SMOKER company because Cookshack and Fast Eddy's by Cookshack smokers DO great barbecue!

Donna

The scary part is I understand Smokin'.

Lol, Tom, so did I, in fact, it made perfect sense when I read it too!

Yeah, it still makes sense to me too

I can't say for the Minnesota store but in Kansas City, many of us working in the food preparation sales department at Cabelas, own Cookshacks. I just bought a 050 myself so I can move up from my current 008.