The Harvard Smoker : for a better Brisket

[Dave W]

I think oxygen control is just a fancy way of describing fire dampers.

[dcarch]

true

 

soooooooo :   Kickstarter ?

 

My smoker can cold smoke ( on a hottest summer day) , hot smoke, with an ultrasonic humidifier. It is PID controlled and can operate over 24 hours unattended.

 

dcarch

[joiei]

If the students want to really test the ability of their smokers, then I agree that they need to compete in a KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) and/or MBN (Memphis BBQ Network) competition or 10.  Having judged over 150 KCBS competitions and cooked in some, there are cook teams producing quality bbq on all manner of smokers that do not cost $1200.  I suggest y'all go over to The Smoke Ring and ask some questions about smoking from professionals who do it every weekend.  Also, attend a competition or 3 sanctioned by either organization and spend some time talking with cook teams.  Those folks love to talk about their smokers, trust me on this.  you can find a list of events at the kcbs.us web site.  As for those can smokers that offended that engineer,  they work.  

[dcarch]

If the students want to really test the ability of their smokers, then I agree that they need to compete in a KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) and/or MBN (Memphis BBQ Network) competition or 10.  --------------------------  

 

They can't compete.

 

This smoker is only designed and tested for one meat, briskets.

 

No chickens, no ribs, no fish, no sausages, no bacon, no pulled pork, no turkeys, no steaks no ----------

 

dcarch

[Norm Matthews]

A contestant may enter only one or two categories.  There are 4 categories that they must enter only if they want to be considered for Grand Champion or Reserve Grand Champion. 

Edited July 20, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[dcarch]

A contestant may enter only one or two categories.  There are 4 categories that they must enter only if they want to be considered for Grand Champion or Reserve Grand Champion. 

 

Not true.

 

You can't compete in a MBN (Memphis BBQ Network) event.

 

dcarch

[Norm Matthews]

It is true for KCBS contests.  MBN is for pork so they would not be able to enter beef brisket since it does not fall into the official meat categories of those contests unless the contest sponsor had it as an additional category.  I don't know if MBN allows additional categories but KCBS does. Memphis in May does have an Everything But (pork) category or did the last time I checked. 

Edited July 21, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Dave W]

I've never seen a KCBS contest that allowed a la carte registration within the main four categories.

[dcarch]

In any case, it would be interesting to  see if there is a market for a smoker which only does briskets.

 

dcarch

[Norm Matthews]

Information from

 

http://kcbs.us/pdf/YourFirstCookoff.pdf

 

Under heading

 

 What To Do Before Your First Competition

Paragraph 4

 

"Consider entering only one or two categories at your first cookoff. You won't be in the running for Grand Champion and Reserve Champion this way, but you will be able to relax and focus on the one or two categories you've chosen..."

Edited July 21, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Dave W]

You just take 0.0 scores in the categories you don't submit. You can't choose to pay less entry fee for fewer categories.

[Ashen]

My take reading between the lines, is that they are just trying to build a  product similar enough to the Big Green Egg , to  pull in some of there high value customer base. The talk about studying BGE patents  is a clue there.  They will change the shape enough  add a few bells and whistles that supposedly make it a flatter learning curve to use ,  tout the Designed by Harvard angle and sell for a premium at Williams and Sonoma .  There are quite a few people who have bought BGE for the cache of owning them but  don't want to put the time in to really get the best use from them. A easier to use right out of the box ceramic/komado cooker  probably does have a decent niche client base  willing to spend  $$$ , for something that will give them half decent product with minimal effort. 

[Norm Matthews]

It is possible that KCBS would disqualify the Harvard if it does not fall into their permitted list of accepted cooking media, but from what I've read about it, it sounds like it would be OK.  It's correct that there is only one entry fee price. It isn't prorated by the number of categories you enter. 

 

http://www.kcbs.us/pdf/2015_rules.pdf

 

2015 Rules and regulations, #6 describes the types of cookers admitted.  The Harvard may be permitted if does not use gas or electric sources for the actual cooking.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[rotuts]

just in case you missed it from another thread :

 

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365518630

 

I like the CkTh skin prep.

 

being a student of the CuisiSB, removing the fat makes sense.

 

ive seen this technique on several BBQ Pitmaster shows.

 

re: " One Bite " skin :

 

again, an artificial standard.   

 

I wouldn't do well as a BBQ Judge,  id need " several bites, if not more " to decide

 

[slkinsey]

My take reading between the lines, is that they are just trying to build a  product similar enough to the Big Green Egg...

 

Okay, here's what I don't get.  I always thought of the BGE as fundamentally being for high temperature grilling over direct heat rather than low temperature smoking with indirect heat.  Is the BGE considered to be a smoker?

[Norm Matthews]

slkinsey, I have no first-hand knowledge, but have heard BGE's can maintain low heat for a really long time with a very small amount of fuel.  I think they can do this especially well when equipped with PID control.

 

rotus

I have really enjoyed the Franklin PBS series.  I think I have watched them all more than once.  Thanks for posting the links.  I also enjoyed the book. I expected it to have a lot of recipes with a little content about BBQ. Instead it was almost all talk with very few recipes.  It gave me a lot to think about and challenged some things I had thought were truths. 

 

In the one about competitions, I enjoyed John Marcus comments, especially  concerning KCBS when he said "I 've vever been in a car wreck, but that doesn't mean I want to do it" and "I never worry about overcooking ribs when I have people over because they don't think like BBQ judges." 

 

 

PS "one bite" isn't a standard, artificial or otherwise.  It is something that judges should learn to do because they will have so many entries to taste.  They might get jaded or sated if they eat too much. People who enter such contests are well advised to think judges will evaluate their entire effort in each category based on just one bite. 

Edited July 21, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Toliver]

Okay, here's what I don't get.  I always thought of the BGE as fundamentally being for high temperature grilling over direct heat rather than low temperature smoking with indirect heat.  Is the BGE considered to be a smoker?

Sam, you should PM Kerry Beal about this. She has one and even started a discussion about the BGE here. It seems to be able to do both styles (low/high) of cooking. 

[Kerry Beal]

Okay, here's what I don't get.  I always thought of the BGE as fundamentally being for high temperature grilling over direct heat rather than low temperature smoking with indirect heat.  Is the BGE considered to be a smoker?

Like Toliver says - I use my BGE to cold smoke, hot smoke, long low cooks, high heat grilling - our favourite thing to do at an eggfest is to bake in it. You set it up with various bits of kiln furniture in there for more indirect cooking. 

 

I have a PID controller for it - but never use it. A bit of adjusting of the top and bottom dampers gets pretty rock steady temperatures without it.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Kerry Beal (log)

[slkinsey]

Okay, so that's cool, but it's not really optimized for smoking, is it?  Compared to, say, an offset smoker?

[Dave W]

the BGE can be configured for indirect heat smoking using an accessory called the "plate setter"

As far as optimized I need my smokers to use computer modeling for optimal digital brisket cookery.

Edited July 24, 2015 by Dave W (log)