Competition Equipment

The grill might be useful for chicken and Chef's Choice items but frankly, from a cost point of view it may be overkill.

Having helped Coach out with a couple of his events I can tell you the FEC100 can suffice at all four turn-ins. Big meats are just finishing as ribs need to go in. The one crunch factor is chicken, which is the 1st turn in. Some cooks like to crank the FEC up and cook chicken on the lowest shelf with a foiled shelf overhead - keeps the heat at max temp. That may play havoc with ribs. One work around is to smoke chicken at the same temp as ribs and finish it on a grill.

Think about a trailer, prep tables, coolers, ware washing equipment, tents, cutting boards, utensils etc. It adds up pretty quick. Coach has put together a very efficient set-up without busting the bank but I bet he still has a pretty penny invested.

No doubt SmokinOkie, Tom and our other comp bretheren will weigh in on this.

Take a ride over to Cookshack...maybe Stuart will cut you a deal on one of his mobile kitchens

i saw that .

We always found it better to have two FEC 100s for our competition efforts. This is due to different cooking methods on butts and briskets during the night. And the cooking methods on chicken and ribs are different too. So you can see why we used two. In fact, I think we were one of the first teams down here in FL to compete with two FEs.

I've gone to a cheap charcoal grill for my chicken. Since we don't cook PB's down here in IBCA land, the FE only sees brisket and ribs.

Hmmm... let me clarify...

I already have the PG1000... so I'm considering adding a FE100 and using them both at comps. Honestly I can cook a pretty decent brisket or butt on the pellet grill. I just don't think there's enough real estate to cook a whole comp on one. (I know a guy on this board who does it all on a modified PG1000, but I'm not thinking I want to do that!)

Only added expense of having both is hauling the grill around.

There's other options out there expense wise (other brands of pellet cookers etc) that are cheaper than the FEC100. Just trying to justify the FEC100 Seems like a good match for comps... if for nothing else but to cook meals on...

Thanks for all the input.

+1 for the Q-Kitchen comment

Yep,

I'm not a comp cook yet, but it would seem that IF I was gonna cook 3 briskets, 4 PBS, 6 slabs of ribs and some chicken. I just might need something to complement the PG1000 and I would say that you're on the right track with the FEC.

I'm sure if you JUST wanted to turn in the 4 meats, at the appropriate times, you could get by on just about anything.

Too bad you don't live closer to me, oh well!

You could make it work.

Do the briskets/butts in the FE. When those come off or near coming off the ribs can go in. I would do 2 briskets and 3 butts and have room for ribs. typcially would put the ribs on at 6 to 7 and B/B off around 10 for holding.

The FEPG would give you great options for chicken. I knew you had one, Max didn't so that's easy enough. It's just big to travel around with.

There are more come ideas here in the forum. Lots of info, so have a read, some great posts for new users, checklists, etc.

If you're thinking about an FEC I'd go for it. We only use one FEC at comps and it always serves us well. We cook two butts, 1 brisket, 4 racks of St. Louis ribs, and 10 thighs on it. We start the brisket and butts at 10 add the ribs on one rack around 8, brisket and butts are usually done around 9am. Our chicken goes on the top shelf in a pan around 10 while the ribs are still on the smoker. We do not cook our chicken at a high temp nor do we grill it. Our goal is bite through skin with skin losing most of it's fat content during the cook. Cooking all 4 meats in an FEC is really easy to do after you have thought it out a bit.

How are

What temps do you cook at. Brisket& Butt? Ribs & Chicken? If you don't mind.

Thanks Slim

The short answer to your question is YES.
We do the brisket, butts, and ribs in the FE100; Friday supper, Sat breakfast, cooks choice and chicken in the FEPG. We have a 20' trailer so hauling is not a problem.