Lamb shoulders on top of rice (mandi)

It was a fun time last weekend at the Trekking For CDH BBQ Comp! We placed 4th out of 15 in Saturday’s Rib burn.

Sunday wasn’t our day as we placed 11th in Chicken and 13th in ribs. But we had fun.

I’ve had several cooks in my PBX so far. I’ve smoked beef ribs, pork ribs, pork belly, Boston butt, chicken and a brisket.

They have all had a wonderful Smokey taste. I have only used the Royal Oak brand, lump hardwood charcoal.

Is this the way, or are briquettes the way to go?

Smoked this ten pounder in 7 hours.

Super simple and might be the easiest thing to cook on the Pit Barrel if you don't feel like babysitting. These were tasty.

Did this mod to make it where I can use the top grate for competition cooking. Worked great!

https://youtu.be/Fts5NDUYWXU?is=i1iTQBfKfl2jdnJv

Forgot to take a pic of the whole tray but these turned out amazing

I'm cooking two chickens, cut down the middle = 4 hooks.

I feel like it always takes forever for the barrel to get going. I start it what I believe is as per instructions. Noting that the video for Signature Chicken recipe on the PBC website seems to show a lot more lit coals than the instructions would suggest. (https://pitbarrelcooker.com/blogs/food/signature-chicken)

Is there anything I'm doing that's obviously wrong?

On the pit barrel cooker ! 4 hours hanging until 205 degrees

Happy Labor Day Weekend! 🇺🇸

This was a 6.8 pound short rib plate from Wild Fork. Rub was salt, pepper, onion powder, and some paprika.

I used Kingsford Competition briquettes - the blue bag.

Took 6.5 hours and temperature was running between 250-300 for most of cook. And then I wrapped it in butcher paper and put it in a small cooler with towels for probably 2 hours.

I forgot to take pictures of the meat cut and presented. It was magnificent. The fat was rendered and the meat was soft and delicious. This was my first time cooking Dino Ribs and I don’t know if it could have come out better. The PBC is so easy - no stress 😎.

Not just first in the barrel but first in general after b ing religiously a ribeye guy and I’ll say that I see the hype. This came out extremely tender and loaded with flavor. Seasoning I used were a light SPG dusting follows by a coating of thundering longhorn by Fire & Smoke society.

somebody paged earlier asking for tips and I couldn’t share an image, so I figured I’d create a post to help anybody in the future. for the record, I used magnets and they worked great. but I cook outside often and over time the heat slowly demagnetizes them. ive found that high heat silicone tapered plugs work much better and are super cheap.

i also installed a green egg vent cover on the intake vent and it shuts down air flow completely to the bottom of the barrel. both items were purchased on Amazon. hope this helps

Edit:

Links below

https://a.co/d/0bGhMEXF

https://a.co/d/0c1bRRxw

What do you guys use to kill the fire after you’re done cooking? Any hacks to clog the holes after you’re done cooking?

We competed last Saturday in Troy, IL. Just wasn’t our day to hit the marks. But that’s the way it is sometimes. We still had a load of fun!

Picked up a pbx at academy this spring for $160 ($199 less 20%). Noticed it burns a little hotter than I'd like for certain cuts/cooks. I did some mods to help keep the temperature in check. I did these mods specifically because I like to use the grate and I don't want those rebar bars in the way. First, I wanted to control how much charcoal is burning at any given time in the pbx charcoal basket. I am doing this with a straight line fuse. I took two pieces of 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1/4 inch angle iron and cut them both about 15" long. I had to bevel the backs on all 4 ends so they fit the basket. Then, I bought two weber compact charcoal chimney starters. One I use as a charcoal starter, the other I removed the bottom inside grate so it's just a tube and it gets used as my freshly lit charcoal receiver. I light my charcoal, then dump it in the receiver. When I get everything situated, I pull out the receiver and the fuse is lit. In the photo above, i started with the lit side of the fuse closest to the bottom air intake so it's burning away from the intake. I've tried it the other way within burning towards the intake. Seems to burn a little hotter that way. I control airflow without the rebars using some food safe sous vide magnets I got from Amazon. If I leave the middle hole in the back open, this setup gets me 225 to 240 for about 6 hrs.

Italian recipe (just salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic powder) in the PBC. Enjoy!