re: Need a Smoker / grill combo

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When meat heats up a lot of liquid evaporates from its surfaces, and the more airflow the more the meat dries out. Since ceramics have low airflow, meat remains juicier. Other smokers have thinner walls and many leak a lot so they require more charcoal and airflow, which means that airflow out the chimney and the leaky doors carries away more moisture than the ceramics. It is not unusual for a pork shoulder to lose 30% of its weight in an offset smoker. Water loss on a ceramic is often under 20%.

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I have cooked BBQ my whole life and have ate off of almost any rig known to man. I've never once associated airflow with lack of moisture in meat. I've had dry meat come off them all and great moist meat come off them all. It is the over or under cooking of the meat that results in dry meat.

I've perused BBQ forums for years and literally not once, have I hear anyone say that a ceramic retains moisture because of the decreased airflow. I feel that any air flow conducted by any standard smoker isn't enough to make a difference in the end product.

Dehydrators need fans to get the oomph needed to dry out meat. Smokers can't create that kind of air flow on their own.

Airflow is why stack size is so important. If the stack is wrong for the chamber you can get too little or too much airflow. Too much or too little airflow creates temperature issues inside the smoking chamber.

The amount of draw created by the stack is a critical item.

ETA: Too little airflow doesn't allow heat to escape which causes temperature spikes and higher temps. Too much draw and the smoke doesn't linger over the meat long enough to have an impact.

GOAT charcoal grill

LINK

CharBroil 940x.

It is an old, old model that the WC Bradley Stove Company started making in the forties or fifties.

It is heavy duty.

I got one in 1989 that lasted 17 years uncovered in my back yard. I got another one a few years back and it is even better.

I have a big offset smoker I never use any more. I gave up my gas grills.

I have cooked on ceramics and they are worth the time and money IMHO but do not have the capacity of the 940. (You have to have a big one just to get an entire slab of ribs across the rack.)

Get you a 940 and build a fire on the side when you want to smoke and build it all the way across when you grill. You can open the front door to add coals and you can raise and lower the coals as you need too. The grates are cast iron.

It is a great all around grill. I bet I have cooked 10,000 lbs of meat on the two I have since 1989. I can do several slabs of ribs and probably 4 butts if I fully load it.