I am just getting started with many things regarding CookShack, including this forum and just found out how to start a new topic, so here it is. These days of everything NOW for NOTHING it is so refreshing to see the folks at CookShack not only build a product like they do, but to manage a company and stay in business for the time that they have as well. My hat is really off to them for that. I mentioned in a previous posting regarding sausage how I had had trouble with both smoke and temp control. Let's take that one step further with the rest of the "junk" products that are out on the market these days. We all know and have heard of the Char-Broil gas grills and then the slightly "higher end" stuff like Weber. I have owned both of them and even currently own a Weber as I type. I have also known others that have owned the large cast iron monster BBQ smokers as well. I even have owned the a couple of the "water smokers".
I think first of all one has to define what one defines as BBQ. I personally define it as a slow cooked smoked piece of meat, not some thing that is rapidly seared over a hot fire with perhaps some wood thrown in at the last moment for flavor. To me that is grilling or charcoaling.
If you are going to produce a really great piece of BBQ you have to be able to control 3 basic things: 1. HEAT, 2. AMOUNT OF SMOKE, and 3. MOISTURE. All of these units that are made by CookShack, in my opinion, control all of these three things perfectly. The heat is produced by very heavy duty electric coils that don't blow out with the wind or run out because you forgot to have your gas tanks refilled. The amount of smoke and moisture really are somewhat realated when it comes to these units. The reason that I say that is from the aspect of the construction of the housing, or smoke "box". Having used other products over the years that are just stamped out pieces of metal they are subject to the wind, outside temp, etc. The way that this thing is made it seals in the moisture and is insulated so that moisture loss is insignificant and that the smoke is maximized. That is why it seems like you are using so little wood when you start looking at the receipes. This actually has effects regarding the heat as well, because if you have ever tried to cook on a windy day you know how hard it can be to control the heat stability. The closest I have ever come to producing the results from even the first use of the CookShack smoker was a water smoker and that is still a crap shoot with very little that you can vary to affect the results.
Perhaps from my background in science is why I have been so impressed with the CookShack smoker and have taken the time to write two postings within the three days that I have owned it. You have such control over absolutely everything with out having to guess. None of this wrapping the meat in foil and precooking it in the oven and then putting it in the BBQ pit. No maintaining some large bulky thing that weighs as much as your car and consumes as much wood as your fireplace. Being born and raised in Texas where BBQ is some thing that is taken very seriously I will have to admit this smoker looks more like a portable dishwasher than what many down here would call a "REAL BBQ PIT", but if you want someting that is going to produce the best BBQ routinely with out all the hassles of what most folks go through to BBQ a brisket for a weekend get together you can't beat it.
I haven't tried it out for some of the other extended uses yet, but after I do I will try to put futher postings relating to those results as well. Perhaps this is making even an additional point, in so far as when it comes to smoking and outdoor cooking, in general, the CookShack will handle virtually anything, precisely. As of yet, for the money, I have not been able to find anything that comes close.
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