The 18" Outrider is a Great Cooker

[MacEggs]

This was my very first time using it since rescuing it late last summer.

I wanted to try the snake / fuse method to see how it would perform.

This is my go-to charcoal when I do a snake.
It provides a nice long, and consistent burn.




I used some apple and cherry wood for smoke.  Also some small pieces of lump scattered throughout the snake.
I made a foil bowl of sorts for the middle.  @MrHoss gave me the idea of also putting some foil by the intakes to help direct airflow.
I lit 8 briquets and started the fuse.








After preheating for about 20 minutes, I put on a 5 lb butt rubbed with some generic pulled pork seasoning from a bulk food store.




I don't normally monitor the temperature of my kettles, but in the case of a trial, I like to see what I'm working with.

After 30 minutes, the reading was at 280°.  I didn't tinker with the vents.
For the duration of the cook, one intake was fully open, and the other was closed.  The lid vent was fully open as always.








For the balance of this cook, the cooker settled in the 325-350° range.  That was fine with me.

After 4 hours, I got an IT reading of 172°.  I decided to let it go for 2 more hours.
After a total of 6 hours, it was reading 210° ..... Yeah, I'd better remove it, now. 






I let it rest for one hour, and then shredded.






This pulled pork turned out fantastic!  Delicious bark.
My wife and I just stood at the counter picking at it .... Okay, I'm full ... Let's tidy up. 

[MrHoss]

That looks delicious Mac. Seems the experiment was a success. That bark is dark baby! In Jamaica they cook fat trimmed half pigs in 3.5 to 4.5 hours....and that is the best pork I ever had so hot and fast does/can work.

[addicted-to-smoke]

Very interesting, thanks. With only a few weird vents and all that foil I would have figured it'd never get air circulating for that warm. But you ran a lot of fuel for such a tight space so maybe that did the trick. What I'm trying to say is I wouldn't have figured all that out, but you did!

[Craig]

Looks like a great setup! I'll have to try this with my Outrider soon. I have the same issue when doing pulled pork, I get full before its plated.

[Hell Fire Grill]

HA! You do the exact same thing I do with the cheap weber thermo in the vent and the who cares attitude. Backyard BBQ is supposed to be a good time not a constant 16 hour fiddle fest where the roast ends up looking like swiss pork from 1000 themo pokes.

Glad your having a good time playing with fire & food on your day off.

JJ looks like its in real nice shape too.

[WNC]

Nice cook, and write up there!

[1buckie]

No "16 hour fiddle fest" with some of it being direct heat, eh what?


Nice rundown & cookup !!!!

[1911Ron]

That butt looks great, we do the same thing we pick as we pull it!

[austin87]

Very cool! That's a great use of space!

[Qreps]

Love your technique. Thanks for the write up.

[Jammato]

great writeup. and a great cook. I have been looking to pick up a 18 inch for when I am away at work. And if I can do that it will be worth it
Thanks so much for the post.

[effinUker]

I just scored an outrider at a flea market this weekend. Can't wait to fire her up & see what she does. This definitely gives me hope. Great post, thanks for sharing it.

[SmokenJoe]

Great technique !!!   I gotta cook with the "horseshoe" method for good luck one of these days.  Right now I'm coming up to speed w/ my new/old WSM.

[pbe gummi bear]

Looking great, Mac. It's the cook not the cooker, right?

[MacEggs]

Alright, here goes my second time using the Outrider for some Low 'n' Slow ....

I was very pleased with the first attempt, but I wanted to tweak a few things.
Mainly, I wanted to reduce the amount of charcoal that was used, plus reduce the cooking temperature a bit.

A rush of blood came, and I decided try a different foil bowl ...

Here is a SJ charcoal grate on a 18" charcoal grate.




I placed the SJ grate on a double layer of HD foil, and then folded it in to create a bowl.




This helped create a tighter-to-the-bowl set-up, and reduced the amount of briquets to be used.




I lit 8 briquets to start the fuse, then did a 30 minute pre-heat phase, then put on the meat.
This happened to be a 9 lb pork shoulder picnic roast.  After trimming the skin, it probably came closer to 8 lbs.




For the first 3 hours it held steady at about 275°.




I'm not sure why, but the temperature dropped off at the 4 hour mark.




At that point, I decided to crack the other vent at about a half to get the temperature back up.




At the 5 hour mark I was reading this:






I closed off the one vent, and kept the original vent fully open.

After 6 hours, both intake vents were fully opened.

At 7 hours, I got this reading:






I let it go one more hour and got this IT reading:




I removed the roast and wrapped it in foil.  Into a cooler with some towels to rest for one hour.








The fuse had barely rounded the corner.






After one hour in the cooler:










I have only used this cooker twice, and both times it was not for grilling or anything as such.

I have to say that it's a great cooker, and I am glad I have it on hand.  It has performed beyond my expectations.