It's hard for me to put into words how happy I am right now. I am new to the Cookshack family. I just ordered and received my new Cookshack SM020 this past week. Last night I started and just now ate my first meat item that I cooked on it. I smoked a 15lb. packer that was out of this world. I have been using a Stick Burner for quite a few years and have recently wanted something that would allow me to do a long smoke without much assistance. Without a doubt I found that perfect smoker with the Cookshack.
Wednesday after receiving the smoker I seasoned the unit for about 5 hours and compared the empty smoker temperature with my Maverick Thermometer. I used the rack TC on the lower rack and the meat TC on the upper rack and was amazed at how well the temp tracked (within 5 degrees of each other and the SM020 TC). Smoke production was perfect as well. And as mentioned in other treads on this forum the SM020 does provide full power to the element for 20 minutes before it starts to regulate to set point. On an empty cooker this does cause about a 50 degree temp overshoot but is a perfect amount of time to get the wood smoking.
For my first smoke on my brisket, I started it at 8:40 PM last night and put in 5 pieces of wood (Mesquite & Hickory) with a combined weight of 5.1 OZ. I also put in 1 Kingsford Charcoal Briquet trying to get a smoke ring. I removed the upper rack and set the rack support to allow the 1 rack to be at the center position (which has the rack right above the SM020 TC on the back wall. I set the smoker for 225 and let her rip. The smokers TC only indicated about a 5 degree temp overshoot and the smoke production was perfect. However, the Mavericks rack TC overshot by 50 degrees during the initial warm up. After about an hour all of the TC's were within 20 degrees on one another. I then decided to set the smoker for 200 degrees and left it there until 9:00 AM and the brisket was at 167 degrees. I then turned up the heat to 220 and pulled it at about 3:30 (190 degrees flat)and FTC until about 5:00. During the FTC period I smoked some fantastic bacon wrapped, cream cheese stuffed, very LARGE Jalepenos which were fantastic as well.
I really didn't get the smoke ring that I was hoping for. There was a little one but not too deep or pronounced. Not that big of a deal since it is only for looks but something that I would like to continue to try to obtain. I think that it was a thread from Smokin Okie that used Morton's Meat Tenderizer to get the ring as well. Perhaps I will try that next time.
Sorry to bore you all with all of the details but I am a little buzzed with the beers that I drank today and the GREAT BBQ that I just got done eating. I honestly think that it was as good if not better than any that I have ever created with my Stick Burner EVER.
Oh, one more thing that I wanted to ask / point out. I ordered my Cookshack SM020 from Cabelas. Only Cabelas had this model for sale. I read a thread from Donna that I believe was from feb. 2010 that indicated that Cookshack was no longer going to produce the black painted Cookshack models. However, they must have struck a deal with Cabelas because my Cookshack had a manufactured date of 8-26-2010. I am very thankful that Cookshack is still producing this wonderful smoker for this price. I was going out on a limb purchasing an electric smoker and almost bought one of the cheaper knockoffs, but I am so glad that I bought this smoker. Like everyone else has said the CS's are built like tanks. The fit and finish and construction of this smoker is incredible. Thanks for reading all of this and I hope to contribute to this forum more in the future with shorter messages.
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