Smoking Meat

Fabien · June 10, 2025, 8:11pm

1-year-update on the Weber Smokefire… TLDR: it’s a piece of trash

The pellet screw jsut broke after only 4 cooks, total junk…

Weber support just blame it on using the wrong brand of pellets… well… count me out as a Weber customer from now on…

In the meantime, I bought this little beauty

The “Ninja Woodfire Pro XL”, an electric smoker, oven, grill and air-fryer…
I just bought it out of frustration and… well… it just blew me away o_O

This thing is absolutely insane!
As a smoker, that’s the easiest/quickest solution I’ve come across
It does both cold and hot smoking, with a minimal quantity of pellet

No-fuss, no complication, put the food in the basket, add a scoop of pellets, start and wait, done!

Once done smoking, remove the basket, turn on the grill, done!

It generates quite a lot of smoke actually, pretty awesome…

Whole smoked chicken? No problem… Just put it in the smoker for 50min, switch to air-fryer for the last 10 minutes, quick and easy…

Spare rib? no problem… under 2 hours…

And it still has a nice smoke ring too…

No need for a smoker? Just need some air-fried french fries?
This one’s got you covered…

Just need an oven tha can reach 200°C (400°F) in under 3 minutes because you forgot to turn on the kitchen’s ioven
Sure… Macaroni and cheese for the win…

Sincerly, I know it looks like an advertisement, but I was just amazed by the amount of possibilities this grill offers
It may not be as rewarding or pleasant as other “non-electric” grills, but it… just works…
I find myself using it once or twice a week, it’s just convenient and quick…

While I was at it, I also built a marquee to house allf of my bbqs… (also installed the pavement under the staircase, built an arch, leveled the ground and seeded some grass, but well… that’s another story)

… and a custom cabinet for the Ninja grill

staffordj · June 10, 2025, 8:19pm

That’s interesting. I have been disappointed in the amount of smoke I get on my Campchef pellet smoker, even with two smoke tubes compared to my smokey green mountain with charcoal and wood chunks. Since this is electric, it may be way better because they do not care as much about the fire going out like a pellet grill does.

Fabien · June 10, 2025, 8:24pm

TBH, the amount of smoke and flavour you get won’t compete with what you get on a kamado or a charcoal kettle
But for the amount of time and effort you provide, it’s a clear winner…

And if you have the time and want to put the effort in, well, you can always use the charcoal bbq that’s just an option…

Just like air-fryed french fries …
it will never beat a two-stage oil cook, but just 15min in the airfryer with no fussing around will still get you a nice result…
Sure you’ll pull out the oil-fryer when you really crave for some “real” french fries", but any other day, you’ll go for the airfryer…
Same with the Ninja…

Waspjr · June 12, 2025, 4:30pm

Ss gurney from cutoffs it worked great.

probrwr · June 12, 2025, 7:12pm

My Grilla Silverbac just had the same thing happen. They are sending me a new one. Mine looked like the weld was tacked and never finished. We shall see what the new one looks like.

My Pitt Boss vertical has been running with no issues for almost 5 years now. Including one fire in the cook area. A good cleaning out and it started right up.

Fabien · June 12, 2025, 9:06pm

Same, it just had 2 tack welds and nothing more… -_-

niget2002 · July 11, 2025, 3:52pm

Another Friday. Another Pork Shoulder. This went on earlier this morning. I’ve started playing with using a smoke tube on longer smokes. My dad started using one first and said it helps add more smokey flavor. I’d have to agree that it does.

I ended up replacing the controller on my Pit Boss with an aftermarket one on Amazon. It’s been working well. Same basic features as the stock controller.

Not sure if I mentioned this in here, but I did build the DIY controller and used it quite a few times. I haven’t used it in a while. I think I’ll turn it on and update to the latest software on it. I also think I figured out why the WiFi kept dropping on the device, so I’ll see if I can fix that too.

timonjkl · July 12, 2025, 9:57pm

I just made 45 lbs of BACON Wow 20 lb of pork belly and 20 of pork sholder backboard bacon and a 5 lb tenderloin. Then s slice and dice session.
.

probrwr · July 14, 2025, 3:53pm

This was a game changer last week. Molasses Bacon.

2.25% Salt
0.25% Cure #1
1% Coarse ground black pepper
10% Dark Molasses

Mix spices, throw it all in a bag and massage around. Vac pac if you can. Cure for 2 weeks.
Rinse clean and let stand uncovered in the fridge for 1 day.
Smoke at 175-200F until 150F internal.

I usually do Brown sugar but this made something that is amazing. Tried it with a 1/4 belly I had after doing belly bights. Wife says make two full ones now…

timonjkl · July 14, 2025, 5:12pm

There are so many wonderful flavors to use. Bacon is the best no matter what and only gets better

timonjkl · September 11, 2025, 5:14am

How has your pit boss stop the test of time?

niget2002 · September 11, 2025, 1:26pm

I’m on my second controller because the LCD on the original was no longer readable. Probably because of being out in the blazing early morning sun it’s entire life.

I’ve also modded it so I can hook up a DIY controller when I want to play with that, which honestly hasn’t been in quite a while once I got the new controller installed.

Otherwise, it’s ran well. One or two failed overnight cooks, but that was because the pot filled up with ash before the brisket was done. The easy fix for that is to smoke at 250 instead of 225 so the brisket finishes sooner.

Every 2-3 cooks or right before a long cook, I pull out the innards and vacuum out the pot and any ash in the rest of the bottom of the pit. Every 6 months or so I do a good scrape/clean of the heat diffuser and anywhere inside the pit that’s collected grease.

The paint is doing OK. You can tell it has some age on it, but not rust holes.

I do wish the smoke chamber had thicker steel. It’d take longer to warm up, but would maintain temp easier and would run more efficient.

I have started using a smoke tube on longer smokes to help get more of a smokey flavor in pulled pork, ribs, and brisket. Chicken, fish, and hamburger I don’t bother.

I’ve also pretty much given up on running it in ‘P’ mode. I just set a temp to smoke at and let it go at that.

I also still use a v1 Fireboard for monitoring pit and meat temp. This thing is really starting to show it’s age and one of the probe ports doesn’t work anymore, but otherwise it’s still running strong too. Technically I guess I’m on my second Fireboard. The USB port stopped charging on the first one. I sent it in well past it’s warranty period and then sent me a new one. Probably because I sent my v1 in after they started selling the v2’s and they had leftover stock of the v1’s.

We bought my dad a newer pitboss a few years ago for Christmas. He’s really enjoyed using his. Some of the upgrades from the older version are nice like being able to open up the fire gate without having to pull the grates off.

I do wish they had some way of cleaning the fire pot without opening everything up. I don’t remember which brand, but I thought one of them has a chute you can open that will dump the pot out.

I’ve never had any of the burn-back or flame out issues that others have noted unless my cook goes longer than 15-ish hours. Which, again, is only when doing a brisket at 225F. The Firboard saved me both times as I have pit alerts for both low temp and high temp. When the flame out occurs, the pit temp dips too low followed immediately by a too high heat. What happens is the pit temp starts to drop because the flame out, so the pitboss keeps dumping pellets into the firepot. When the temp dips low enough, it turns the igniter back on. The igniter heats up the ashes until the pellets finally catch and the ‘now full’ pot of pellets ignites and produces a fireball shooting the pit temp way above the high-temp mark.

Most overnight brisket cooks I’ve gotten to where I put the brisket on at 8PM, then around 7AM I get up, take the brisket off the pellet smoker, wrap it, and finish it in the oven.

probrwr · September 18, 2025, 5:54pm

Mine is going strong. I have the original Pro4 vertical. Had one fire in it. Cleaned it out and it has been working fine ever since.

I have built a PiFire controller for it but just never have gotten around to putting it in. Mostly wanted finer temp control and wifi connection for it.

niget2002 · September 18, 2025, 7:15pm

My PiFire ran well while I was using it. I just didn’t get enough value out of it to continue using it. And the pizero didn’t play well with my access point in the shop. It’d keep dropping connections. Now I think I’ve finally figured out why, but not sure I’ll bother fixing it.

timonjkl · September 18, 2025, 7:40pm

I have thr pro4 also and love it lots of butts and ribs just recently 45lbs of bacon .

Fabien · September 22, 2025, 6:35pm

The ninja is still going strong, and I’m using it pretty often

For French frites though, an air fryer will never be good enough
So I bought a propre oil fryer

As you can see, the bbq cabinet is just a bit too small to fit both appliances, so I need an extension wing

Quick drawing at lunch break

And I did the cut after work tonight

Still need to glue/paint/screw it but it was a nice quick “side project” (pun intended)

Tokoloshe · September 22, 2025, 7:54pm

Man, can I give you my wife’s number so you can tell her? She won’t believe me…

Fabien · September 22, 2025, 8:19pm

Yeah I know… 2 bath deep fry is where it’s at…

If that can help, putting the fryer outside for smells, and having a model that easily cleans and can store the oil is a big plus for waf
I bought this one, and the cleaning system is pretty awesome, it automatically empties the oil, and you can put everything in the dishwasher

barry99705 · September 22, 2025, 11:11pm

damnit. Prolly not going to be doing much of that anymore either.

niget2002 · September 23, 2025, 1:32pm

I have a similar fryer. It does OK, but it sucks in comparison to the fryer I grew up with.

Dad has a commercial 220v unit he got from a Sonic that he was a manager at. It went out, so they replaced it and they let him keep the broken one. A $5 thermal fuse later and it was working again. He’s had it as long as I’ve been alive. Light’s in the kitchen dim when it first powers on, but man it makes some good food.

My sisters and I are looking forward to seeing who he leaves it to in his will.