That cross-country adventure had an inordinate amount of smoked meats, with another barbecue joint in Farmington, New Mexico also quite memorable.
I already had an inexpensive water smoker, given to me from a former coworker's husband over a decade ago. I've used it a few times, but it has terrible temperature control and the charcoal tends to extinguish itself after the ash reaches a certain level.
A few times over the last couple years, I've looked at pellet smokers, and golly some of those things are expensive. But one of the 10 Rules of Life is that the cheapest bid is almost never the best deal.
Traeger used to be the only game in the pellet smokin' town, but once their patent expired in 2007, many competitors came on the scene greatly accelerating improvements to the overall design and features available in pellet smokers. Around the same time, the original Traeger Company was sold to a conglomerate, and has been resold a few more times. Now pellet smokers are available below the bargain basement price of $300 with seemingly no upper limit to fully customized units. Sadly, it seems the entry-level Traeger smokers have cost saved themselves into second tier.
Reading reviews of smokers is much like reading reviews of lots of other products. There are lots of good grills and smokers available; I use the term smoker since for actual high heat grilling, I still prefer a raging-hot charcoal grill. People are more likely to complain than they are to praise, and many reviewers give very low ratings for things that others might find trivial, or will give one star solely due to something being made in China.
Off shore manufacturing doesn't necessarily equate to low quality. There may be a tendency for Asian manufacturers to have issues, but quality is still something that can be controlled regardless of where it is made. There is one pellet smoker which is manufactured in the US that I didn't want to touch at even half the price - mostly because of inadequate support for some real observed issues. Witness what happens when poor quality and lack of support combine.
What I really wanted in the pellet smoker was small size, good build quality and I definitely wanted a solid temperature control system since that is the heart of the smoker. The cheapest units' slow/medium/fast augers wouldn't cut it. PID controllers would be best, but not an absolute necessity since it sounds like some of the intermediate options actually worked pretty well.
I finally had the choice narrowed down to three units, each with strong and weak points. These were all smaller units in the middling range of price and features. I probably would have been happy with any one of them, but eventually narrowed it down to the REC TEC Mini. While still deciding, I had started to create an order only to second-guess myself on it and think a little more. REC TEC happily sent me an email reminding me I had an unfinished order. Shipping was much cheaper when ordering directly from REC TEC so I went that route instead of Amazon. The smoker arrived quickly although somehow the FedEx driver got up and down my driveway in the evening without me seeing him. The smoker arrived in great condition. My starter box of hardwood pellets ... not so much.
Even if the box had been bumped around a bit, the smoker is packed very well. In addition to a functionally brief manual, there was a business card including the direct contact information for the REC TEC owners, should it be needed. This was a nice touch and is evidence they stand behind their products.
REC TEC advises that an initial burn be used to give the powder coating a final set, as well as burn off any manufacturing effluvia. Once that was complete, I was ready to smoke.
When done right, ribs are probably my first choice for meat. Even mediocre ribs can be pretty good as long as they are not boiled. Pre-smoker, my typical method of cooking them was to wrap them loosely with aluminum foil and bake them for a few hours, finishing them on a charcoal grill with sauce as a glaze. Some sauces are OK, but I've always believed that really good smoked meat needs, at most, a very small amount of sauce. My first meal on the smoker had to be baby back ribs with a simple dry rub.
I made a dry rub from sea salt, paprika, fresh ground pepper and brown sugar. Setting up the smoker, I smoked those babies for four hours at 230F, spritzing them at hour two and three with a mixture of cider vinegar, olive oil, garlic and just a touch of soy sauce. The REC TEC smoker worked very well, holding temperature rock solid as long as I didn't open it up for too long. Given that this was the first use of it, it was hard not to frequently peak inside.
The results were very good. I was really surprised how much honest smoke flavor was well-incorporated into the meat. I probably had a bit too much salt in the rub, and that demonstrates the fun I'll have in the near future as I tweak the ribs ... and eat them all.
The following day I tried boneless country style ribs - really just a smaller version of pork shoulder. I had to start these before I started to mow the lawn, so I smoked them at a slightly lower temperature of 220F for five hours. I frequently caught a whiff of the smoker when I got near it while mowing, and they continued to smell better and better through the afternoon. As with the ribs, the smoke flavor - good smoke flavor - made these extremely tasty.
With only two meals made, I'm not sure I'm ready to pronounce the smoker a total success nor myself a pitmaster, but it is an excellent start. I can only assume that it will get better with time as I explore new meats, rubs, sauces and ways to use these.
Two things that I'm not enamored with: I like the digital PID Controller and it works great, but it can be hard to see in the bright sunlight.
The wheels on the REC TEC Mini work great when moving the smoker around in my pole barn where it is stored, but my driveway where I use it is gravel and the wheels are pretty useless there. I had an old piece of scrap barn siding and I employed this to easily roll the unit to where it will sit when I'm creating smoke magic.
Both of these issues are minor with solutions easily found. I'm quite happy with my choice of pellet smoker.
I'm not sure I'll be trying to make a burnt ends and pieces sandwich anytime soon. The memory of that lunch is seared in my brain and I don't want to try to compete with it. Besides, food tastes better on vacation and food after hundreds of miles on the bike is even better. Still, as I was eating leftover REC TEC ribs at lunch at work I remarked, "I bought one of those pellet smokers and I'm not sure my life will ever be the same."
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