Cookshack versus Southern Pride

My little opinion is to go with the CS. I dont even have mine yet, and I still say get a CS. I looked at several different brands CS has the BEST customer service of anyone. as far as size and jerky, let someone answer.
David

500 pounds of butts at a time in a convience store? Must be one hell of a store.

The CS can cook at night and hold.

The units venting requirements are minimal, but your locality may have other requirements.

I'd talk to John in sales and ask about your usage.

He'll hook you up with the right equipment.

Wood chunks are no problem,and we can help with

There are a bunch of jerky folks on here and they'll address that side. that.

Diffently Cookshack!
500 lbs of butts at a time! That's a lot of meat!

While I don't own a SP, I stayed in a Holiday Inn once, and the guy at breakfast said he owned one.

Now, my only caveat to my thoughts are that I am not paid by CS, so my views are my own. I know most of the guys at SP and everyone at CS. Both companies make great products...but I AM partial to Cookshack and the Customer Service..exceptional.

Like Tom said, call John. He's great and can talk about your very questions. I have more questions than answers, so I'd just say call John. For example, are you looking at the 150, 200 or 300 or the FEC2000?

For me, questions I would ask is can how much do I plan to smoke and how do the units operate? You have two options with CS, electric or pellet. With SP you have electric and gas.

You've found a friendly forum, we'll help you decide.

Smokin'

wdunn,
while we are getting our business off the ground i am working part time in a bbq joint. i use southern prides there. they are very fine units if you pay attention to them, if you don't they can bite you. let your water jacket run dry and welcome to an interesting product. and after watching the manager turn 3 cases of canadian boneless pork collars into jerky trust me an sp will make jerky!!!!!
tom and okie's advice is spot on!!!!
give john a call he can really help you.
from personal experience last march we went to the nbbqa convention in atlanta. i went there specifically to buy either a southern pride or backwoods smoker. john was set up out doors with both fast eddy's models. he talked to both me and peggy and impressed us with his honesty. over a 4 hour time span we kept coming back when a new question dawned on us. i know he must have gotten tired of our questions but he never showed it!! on about our 3rd trip back peggy said she was intimadated by the fe and john pointed her in the direction of SM which was inside and even told her to to talk to. long story short peg fell in love with the SM (especially after tasting the ribs that had just come out of it) i loved the FE100 and john saved us enough that we have both models and we were able to bring our rig in at well over 6 grand under budget!!!! and i still get to compete which i couldn't have with the sp.
as far as service goes due to 4 hurricanes my trailer was delayed by over 3 months. i called cookshack and explained the problem to them and was told "call us when you get the rig and we will start the warranty then" i asked if they wanted me to fax them a copy of the delievery papers and was told "no just call us". my latest escapade in competition cooking caused a fire which thankfully only damaged my door gasket. i called cookshack to order a new gasket set and talked to jan. to his eternal credit he didn't laugh while he was on the phone. gave him my credit card info and placed the order. got it 3 days later but it is missing the amount due!!! this fire wasn't their fault!!! heck i used to think that zippo lighters had the only warranty worth anything but tell you what cookshack really cares about it's customers!!!!!!!
sorry if i rambled but wanted you to get the straight skinny on both units
jack
ps. man i thought we were doing well with an order for 40 pounds of pulled pork but 500 pounds sure is great!!!!!

WDUNN,

The largest true bbq outfit in Seattle has 4 or 5 trailer mounted Southern Pride's that they load from a central location each day and pull to the appropriate outlet. These of course are gas units. It is said that you can taste the combusion by products will gas. It the case of this particular enterprise, it is tough to taste the meat for the sauce, so this is a mute question.

At the size units you are looking at availabity of power and other matters concerning your location may influence your choices. This includes how much operator time it will be required to produce, and/or hold acceptable product. When you are looking at units with cost of $10g and above there are other units available other than CS and SP without getting into true stick burners.

As far as jerky, I am still working my way though my own particular style, (I have a standing list of willing samplers) but one thing to think about is how low will it go well. Historically jerky is similar to kippered fish, or hot smoked. But this is not the same as smoked cooked, or cold smoked, 'tis in between.

I hang my jerky from jerky rods and my CS 105 (early model 150) will do about 20 pounds of raw meat at at time without crowding (Yield about 10 pounds of finished product, using special trim as the meat in about 8 hours in the CS.) You could probably do more laying flat on racks, but I am trying to emulate a jerky my dad used to buy from a local smoker when I was a kid. Do a jerky search on the forum for jerky and jerky 101 for more information.

Jerry

I own a small Cookshack 50 model that I smoke cheese in, a Cookshack SM150, and a Southern Pride SP280 trailer mounted smoker for use at my restaurant. Email me at Pitcherjlt@aol.com with any questions you may have. Both companies make exceptional products and, in my opinion, both have had execeptional customer service.

Jeremy Telford
owner, Dowling's Smokehouse
Ruston, LA 71270

Mr. Dunn, where are you in Arkansas? I am in Batesville. My little Cookshack makes the best jerky ever.

WDUNN,

I hope you will call John Shiflet at 1-800-423-0698 and talk with him. He has over 40 years experience in barbecue and he is a straight shooter.

Donna

for what it si worth, smoking with gas is just the wrong thing to do. when gas burns it creates water vapor which prevents smoke impregnation.

skythor,
not to be argumenitive but a southern pride or a holstien or any well made gas smoker will turn out a fine product. from my experience with them the problem you are talking about is because of one of two things.
1- the fool operator turns the unit on and doesnt have any wood in it!!!!!!
2- there is no backup product available so they crank that sucker to 375 and let it rip.
even though i own both an FEC100 and a SM150 i do have a lot of respect for southern pride or anyother manufacturer that turns out a quality product and i simply will not bad mouth a different heat source. my own personal feeling is it is the cook not the cooker and for this reason i am a firm advocate of any cooker whether it is gas, electric, stick, or pellet fired any cooker should be allowed in competitions.
sorry i kinda ranted but i have had it up to my eyes with people bad mouthing other styles of cookers.
so in closing i dont work for cookshack. i love their products and service. i own two of the things. and everyday i use a southern pride. would an sp be my choice? no!!!! but it is still are darned fine unit
just my 2 cents
jack

Good myth busting prisonchef.

A local chain here has the BEST bbq and ribs I've ever had in a restaurant, and they cook all their meat in a Southern Pride. It's notable for restaurant BBQ because it has great smoke flavor and a very nice smoke ring.

Also, when I used to use a bullet type smoker, as did many of us, I never had any problem getting all the smoke I wanted even though those smokers are more like steamers until the water pan runs dry.

Amen Todd. I used an ECB for years with it's water pan. Never had a bit of trouble getting smoke and a smoke ring. The ECB served me well. The only complaint I ever had was tending the fire and keeping a steady temp on a long smoke. Not knocking anything or anybody. Water vapor never seemed to be a problem when it came to smoke penetration.