CS Cabinet Smokers vs. the PG Series

That's my setup. I have a SM-066 for smoking and a Weber 3-burner grill for grilling. Just a couple of thoughts. Weber's new designs (at least in the model series I have) are not very good for rotisserie cooking since the design only allows a small piece of meat, nothing as large as a turkey or even a large chicken, so look at different models if you are into rotisserie. Also, if you lke your grilled food to have some smoke flavor, it's a bit of a pain to set up chips or such on the grill. I use an A-maz-n tube smoker, which works ok for light smoke.

The only thing I can't do easily in the SM-066 is hang and smoke sausages. It is hard to produce much smoke at the low temps required, and the cabinet is so tight that the sausages don't dry well unless you periodically open the door, which creates its own problems. Just my $.02.

Apologies up front, this isn't going to be a definitive reply just some ramblings...

I used to have a vertical propane smoker and a propane grill.  A couple years ago I went to a PG500.  Haven't used the smoker nor the grill since.  No regrets, I don't see a scenario where I would ever go back.

I hear ya about grilling on the PG not being ideal.  Hard to see and a bit cramped.  But I LOVE the flavor of things grilled on the PG.  Way better than on the gas grill.  I also believe the PG gets hotter and gets there way quicker than my gas grill.

I truly believe my PG provides just as good smoke flavor as the old vertical smoker.  I have also been surprised that meat smoked on the PG is just as moist as what I got out of the vertical smoker which had a water pan.

My situation now I only have to maintain and keep 1 rig clean.  Only 1 rig occupying patio space.  Etc.

I also always hated filling propane bottles.  Man do I love not having to deal with that anymore.  May be trivial to others but was a PITA for me.

Jay and Jobie thank you for your responses. I will be using natural gas and am thinking of having a traditional outdoor kitchen setup. That is part of what is prompting this also and the PG500 does not really work well in a built-in scenario. Additionally, my PG500 is difficult to keep clean and is a bit of an eyesore on the patio.  Jobie, I am surprised to hear your gas grill takes longer to get hot than the PG500.

Jay as for a rotisserie I have never used one so I had no plans for that. As far as smoke flavor on grilled foods goes, I would use the smoker for a little smoke and then move the food to the grill. Have you tasted smoked food on a PG500 or any pellet smoker vs. food from your SM-066? Did you prefer one to the other? Thanks!

I don't know that I have tasted food from a pellet smoker, but I've had a lot of restaurant BBQ so maybe. I do know my 066 produces a lot of smoke flavor, so you have to be careful with how much wood you use. I rarely use more than 2 - 2 1/2 oz of wood chunks. Also keep in mind that the meat will not absorb smoke flavor after about 140 IT, so any additional smoke just plates out on the surface and causes bitterness. Good luck!

Thanks Jay!

I have a SM025 and a PG500. Since I started using the PG500, the SM025 has seen only limited use. To me, the taste is similar for smoked foods. Both make tasty, juicy BBQ. Admittedly, the PG500 is set up on the patio year round while the SM025 has to be wheeled out from the garage so it's not as convenient to use. One advantage of the PG500 over the SM025 is purely esthetic, the electric smoker does not produce the smoke ring that the pellet grill does and the smoke ring gets so much attention on the TV shows that many people come to expect it with "real BBQ" whether it affects the taste or not. The SM025 definitely gets brought out when I need more capacity than can be comfortably handled by the PG500. The SM025 was also my choice when smoking a whole 15 lb turkey and is great for things like half trays of beans. Of course, this doesn't answer the question about the small grill space of the PG500. But, for items like steaks or burgers, I usually start them on the smoker side, then finish on the grill side so it's mainly just to use the reverse sear technique and add the expected grill marks (and that takes just a few minutes on each side so multiple steaks don't take too long on the grill). If I were to need a bigger grill for a big cook of something like shish-kabobs, I'd probably opt for something like a Weber Kettle, relatively low cost, but offering the added taste of cooking over charcoal rather than with gas. JMHO.

Jay1924:

I went to the local machine shop and bought some 1/4" stainless steel rod.  I had them cut the rods to length so that they would fit between the walls of my O66 and ride in the channels of the side racks.  I ground one end of each rod to a point.  I was doing jerky at the time but discovered that they work great for hanging sausage.  Stronger and less expensive than the Cookshack jerky rods.

Thanks, Mike. I had put together a similar system using wood dowels, but I got frustrated with the lack of smoke at the temps I wanted to smoke sausage at and the difficulty of drying the casings while smoking due to lack of air flow in the 066. I will probably try again, but the solutions I've seen consisting of opening the door periodically just go against the consistency of operation I want from a smoker. I guess there are not a lot of people as CS who smoke sausage. My old, old SausageMaker uninsulated electric-coil box produced great sausage.

I don't do sausages. But I do a lot of jerky.  I use  a homemade jerky dryer fan (23cf/m) on the exhaust vent and I can keep my box temp down around 110-120 and still get smoke when using it.  That might dry your sausages too fast, don't know.

Thanks, guys for the info...anyone else have an observation about the difference in the taste of cabinet smokers in general that use electricity and wood chips vs. pellet smokers?