Orion Cooker

[Mr Tony]

schmitage
The spambuster thinks your postings are spam due to a link to a picture and just a few posts. I got it taken care of but in the future the best thing to do is add it as a thumbnail. When you reply there is an option for "manage attachments" and you can upload it to our server. Then there wouldnt be any issues

 

[schmitage]

Ah, thanks for the info

 

[rockymtnhigh]

well, I do have to say that I'm a bit disappointed. The meat is fall off the bone and all that, but it's rubbery. I guess they'd be better if I tossed them on the grill and seared them for a while. I don't know. The meat's texture was all in big chunks, not pulilng apart, rubbery, etc. I used the recommended amount of charcoal because you can't fill up the ring sufficiently if you cut back (see first pic below).. and I put in about a handful and a half of chips. They cooked for 1hr 20min, from time of starting the charcoal. It's basically steamed meat (i didn't add any liquid to the cooker and I didn't soak the chips). It is browned and they "look" great... but it's lacking texture.

http://my.voyager.net/jzanti/start.jpg
http://my.voyager.net/jzanti/done.jpg

I am surprised. I had no problems and thought the ribs I did last week were darn near perfect. I'd suggest you just keep playing with it.

You are not supposed to soak the chips, that will slow things down with the smoking.

I wonder if you got a bad cut of meat - as rubbery is not what I would call what I have seen from this.


Oh, you can get 2 21 lb. bags of Kingsford Charcoal for $12 at Sam's Club. Its not the ready-light stuff, but the price is right.

We are marinating the brisket right now for the cook tomorrow afternoon.

 

[dfergie]

Hey dfergie, g' morning. How much mesquite do you use, the same as rocky? (fill the gap?).

I may consider using regular charcoal in the future w/ a couple chimney starters. It may be a cheaper way to go in the long run. Thanks for posting all of your experiences.

I had to go to work ... no chimney use charcoal fluid, as the cook with these begins with ignition... (the food is sealed away from the fluid)

 

[dfergie]

My very first cook (in this thread) was done with pork and beef ribs along with a chicken, no water in the drip pan and the ribs were melt in your mouth good...

 

[schmitage]

You are not supposed to soak the chips, that will slow things down with the smoking.

I wonder if you got a bad cut of meat - as rubbery is not what I would call what I have seen from this.


Oh, you can get 2 21 lb. bags of Kingsford Charcoal for $12 at Sam's Club. Its not the ready-light stuff, but the price is right.

We are marinating the brisket right now for the cook tomorrow afternoon.

The chips were straight out of the bag, no soaking. The cuts of meat were from 2 separate purchases, all 3 were like this. The film was pulled off too if that matters. O'well... I emailed Orion asking about it and they said they'll call me today. I don't know.. I know I did everything right. There was zero added liquid into the chamber. The ribs were patted dry.... no soaking of the chips... I used the correct amount of charcoal (Its an 18lb bag and i have just about 3lbs left in the bag), I went slightly over on the time, the chamber was never opened... etc.

Thanks for the charcoal suggestion at sam's club. Unless I can find a way to make good ribs off of this thing, it's going back to home depot. We'll see what orion says today.

Good luck with your brisket. It sounds good! Btw, did you take a look at my pictures? Did the ribs look like I cooked them long enough according to your past experiences? I'm thinking if I added another 30min to the cook, they may have turned out better? Who knows..

 

[rockymtnhigh]

The chips were straight out of the bag, no soaking. The cuts of meat were from 2 separate purchases, all 3 were like this. The film was pulled off too if that matters. O'well... I emailed Orion asking about it and they said they'll call me today. I don't know.. I know I did everything right. There was zero added liquid into the chamber. The ribs were patted dry.... no soaking of the chips... I used the correct amount of charcoal (Its an 18lb bag and i have just about 3lbs left in the bag), I went slightly over on the time, the chamber was never opened... etc.

Thanks for the charcoal suggestion at sam's club. Unless I can find a way to make good ribs off of this thing, it's going back to home depot. We'll see what orion says today.

Good luck with your brisket. It sounds good! Btw, did you take a look at my pictures? Did the ribs look like I cooked them long enough according to your past experiences? I'm thinking if I added another 30min to the cook, they may have turned out better? Who knows..

I thought your ribs looked just about right. I still think you got a bad cut of meat.

I just had the most amazing meal -- the BRISKET was in the words of dfergie,... "OMG, melt in my mouth" out of this world.

I am really a pork lover, never been big on beef brisket, but this was the best beef I have had in years, Absolutely amazing.

And to add to the BBQ, my wife also used the Weber today and smoked three pork roasts; they were timed to finish about the same time as the brisket. While the pork was equally good, I still give the brisket the win by far. Just a taste of apple cider vineager; a great rub (although Julie used a different one from Don's -- he didn't provide amounts of the stuff in it) ...

I need to go exercise to work off dinner.

Thank you ORION COOKER!

 

[schmitage]

congrats on your brisket! sounds delish.

the guy from orion called me today and said it appears i cooked them too long and this is why they were rubbery and such. I got another 3 racks of ribs that I'm going to try tomorrow w/ their suggestions.

I don't know, the way these came out, I don't see how they were over cooked. But, as he said, they weren't under cooked if they were falling off the bone. O'well, I don't have my hopes up, but I'll give it a shot. I'll post more about it tomorrow when they're done.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Just logged in again; have been reading 750 pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows....

Good luck with tomorrow's cook. Like dfergie said, no chimney starters; just use instant lite or regular charcoal with starter fluid. And limit it to 1h15 minutes, and you should be good.

 

[dfergie]

Use a Thermometer, hard to do on ribs but... and go for the 1:15 mark and pull. I gave my Boss, a co-worker and our Hoistman some of the brisket, they liked My Boss bought the last cooker at Sutherlands and traded for some 4-wheeler tires with one of his buddys plus a little cash...

 

[dfergie]

Like that Cajun cooker from a few years ago, a liittle bit of dis, a little bit of dat... dis be good I garruntee

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Use a Thermometer, hard to do on ribs but... and go for the 1:15 mark and pull. I gave my Boss, a co-worker and our Hoistman some of the brisket, they liked My Boss bought the last cooker at Sutherlands and traded for some 4-wheeler tires with one of his buddys plus a little cash...

Got it at Home Depot for $129. Its out there if you look hard enough; although the sales guy had no idea what I was talking about. It was just on the shelf, waiting for me to find it.

 

[schmitage]

well, my 2nd batch of ribs are in the cooker. Pulling them in about 15min. I got a chicken going in afterwards. I'll let y'all know how it went.

 

[schmitage]

I think they needed another 10min.. they weren't completely falling off the bone... about 80% falling off the bone, 20% stuck on the bone. I don't know.. The texture is still the same. Not really a good pull apart/flaking/pulled meat.

I'm not going to say anything further about the cooker. I'm only posting the facts of what I personally experienced. Maybe I had 6 bad cuts of meat? Who knows. Chris from Orion has been very helpful and his customer service is a huge selling point.

I got a chicken in now to use up the rest of that heat as everyone has experienced. According to other postings, it looks like this will take just under 2hrs. I'll check it at 1hr45min (recommendation for a 3-4lb bird is 1hr10min). This is a 5.5lb bird. We'll see..

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I wouldn't say that the ribs I had completely fell off the bone; I mean they are ribs, you gotta do a little bit of work - but the meat I had was very tasty.

 

[schmitage]

the chicken was good. good smoked flavor from the apple chips. i'm a crispy skin eater (espeically when i use a rub), but even though it was very dark in color, it still didn't crisp the skin that much. I put oil on the bird and used tons of apple chips. I cooked the ~5.5lb bird for about 1hr 50min. It was prolly done around 1hr 35min.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

the chicken was good. good smoked flavor from the apple chips. i'm a crispy skin eater (espeically when i use a rub), but even though it was very dark in color, it still didn't crisp the skin that much. I put oil on the bird and used tons of apple chips. I cooked the ~5.5lb bird for about 1hr 50min. It was prolly done around 1hr 35min.

When we did chicken, it did not make the skin crispy; but that makes sense, as it is a convection cooker, and all of the steam from the dripping.

We ate leftover Brisket. Just as good today.

 

[schmitage]

ya, i'm not sure if i'll get a chance to do a brisket. i'm considering a return of the cooker. the ol' lady likes it because I can cook up tons of food. For me, I'm about quality, not quantity. That's not to say the orion doesn't make good food. The flavor is good. It is only my preference that doesn't match what the orion produces. I like crispies on my food/the fat cooked down and the orion doesn't produce that. I guess I could toss stuff on the bbq after they were done. We'll see..

 

[dfergie]

New Cook started at 4pm
Ingredients: 1 rack of ribs cut in half and soaked in apple cider vinegar for 24 Hours.
1 whole chicken soaked in a brine solution with rub sprinkled on chicken before immersion(1 cup salt) for 24 hours.
Homemade Rub mixed together:
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Seasoning Salt
Paprika
Italian seasoning
Black Pepper
Lemon Salt and Pepper
Lite Salt
Sage
all sprinkled with rub before cook...
1 bottle of Home Brew made with dark malt sacrificed along with the apple cider vinegar in the drip pan...
Used Mesquite chips up to the top of drip pan
1 Hour till pull time

 

[schmitage]

ahh, a fellow homebrewer. Sucking on an IPA right now.

Chris from Orion called me today. His service is great. I have nothing bad to say about him, the company or their service. Again, my preference of food doesn't match what the orion produces. That doesn't mean it's a bad product. The flavor of the food was great. The texture it produces doesn't meet my expectations.

Enjoy the brisket ribs or chicken. *burp*