Cranked up the CTO this afternoon

Pit Boss · Posted: Apr 24 2009 Post subject: Cranked up the CTO this afternoon

I finished my exhaust setup yesterday. It's not pretty, but I hoped it would work ok.

The gas man came today just before noon. By 1:30 I was plumbed and ready for action. I don't have electricity for the pit yet so I drug a drop cord. Turned the thing to "ON", cranked the thermostat up to 225, and waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing.

Crap...left my book at home so I gave Ole Hickory a quick call. Kevin suggested I bleed my new gas line and give it another try. I pulled the line from the pit and turned the valve. It smelled like gas, but I still gave it a good minute or so. After a minute it smelled even more like gas so I reconnected the line to the pit. I gave everything five minutes or so to clear the gas fumes before I hit the switch!

This time I turned the thing to "ON", cranked the thermostat up to 225, and waited. About a minute later I heard the tale tale click and the burner sprang to life. Didn't take too long for the pit to make it up to 225. I let it go through a couple of burner cycles, turned the temp down to 160 so it would stay preheated, and I headed to Lowe's for a bag of hickory chunks. I don't have any wood yet so this was a quick option.

On the way back I went by the grocery and picked up some chicken thighs & legs, and a link of Hillshire Farms new HOT sausage. I tried this sausage at home a couple weeks ago (under the broiler) and it wasn't bad. It had a good kick of heat and decent flavor. I was really looking forward to trying it smoked.

So I get back, crank the pit up to 250, season up the chicken, and get that and the sausage on the pit. I put several hickory chunks in the wood basket and load it in the smoke box.

I can say one thing for certain...the CTO doesn't need much wood! The manual says not to use much and the video I saw on the Ole Hickory web site only used two chunks. Of course "I" knew this couldn't be enough wood...so I had put five or six chunks in the basket. WOW was the chicken smokey. It wasn't TOO smokey, but you did get that bitter flavor that comes with over smoking. I learned alot this first smoke.

I really don't have anything at work to cook with (no ingredients) so I picked up some sauce while at the grocery. People seem to like Sweet Baby Ray's so I got a bottle. I assumed that this sauce was going to be pretty thick and sweet...and I like my sauces a bit thinner than most, a bit tangier than most, and a bit spicier than most. I was going to get some vinegar to thin it and give it some tang and some pepper to spice it up a bit. BUT low and behold the grocery I was at had Scott's BBQ Sauce! I was very excited! Scott's is made in my home town and is the absolute best Eastern NC sauce that is commercially available. I ended up doing an approximate 50/50 mix of the SBR's and Scott's. It wasn't bad at all.

So the chicken ended up pretty good for the first run of the smoker. A bit bitter from too much smoke, but good flavor otherwise. The sausage...it wasn't as good as I had hoped. It seemed too hot (especially for public consumption if I were to serve it at the restaurant). It's good, but maybe too spicy for most folks. It's also fairly oily. I think I'll stick with the other sausage flavors when it comes to a menu item.

The CTO held temperature darn well on this short three hour cook. Learning the proper smoke levels for the different cooks (long pork/beef cooks & shorter chicken/rib cooks) shouldn't be a hard task at all. I look forward to future experiments.

Oh...my makeshift chimney worked pretty well. There were a couple whiffs of smoke around the two upper corners of the pit door and an ever so slight similance of smoke around my chimney...but walk outside and you could see that the VAST MAJORITY of smoke was rising to the atmosphere through the roof. I'll try to get pictures up sometime.
_________________
Somewhere in Kenya...a village is missing their idiot.

corndog · Posted: Apr 24 2009 Post subject:

Thanks for the update....been hearing good things about the CTO...might have to look closer. If you don't mind me (us) asking, what's the going price on that thing minus delivery? Did your HD have you install anything extra for inside use? Thanks again,
_________________
Kevin "Corndog" Cameron

Dang it boy, that's some mighty fine eatin'!!!!

BBQMAN · Posted: Apr 24 2009 Post subject:

Thanks for the review!

I know Gordon loves his OH for that very reason (fuel efficiency)- wood is a scarce commodity out West.

Looking forward to the pics.......................
_________________
BBQMAN
"I Turned A Hobby Into A Business".
Providing "IMHO" Since 2005.

Pit Boss · Posted: Apr 24 2009 Post subject:

CD, I'm actually cooking "outside" in a bbq pit room. This is nothing more than a shed attached to the outside of my building. The bottom 2/3 of the walls are solid (just wood) and the upper 1/3 is screen wire. The pit room was already in place (former bbq joint) so I didn't have to do one thing to it myself...except clean the nasty place up.

Price minus delivery is just over $4k. Call OH direct and they'll cut you a fine deal.
_________________
Somewhere in Kenya...a village is missing their idiot.

marvsbbq · BBQ All Star Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 6186

marvsbbq · BBQ All Star Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 6186

Had I a chance to do it all over again, I would buy a CTO instead of the FEC-100 that I purchased. Sad

Jeff Hughes · Posted: Apr 26 2009 Post subject:

marvsbbq · BBQ All Star Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 6186