nancy3•4d ago

Crossed 500 hours on my offset smoker and it feels weird

I hit 500 hours of cook time on my Oklahoma Joe offset last weekend according to the timer I rigged up. For some reason that number hit me harder than when I did my first whole hog or even that brisket that actually turned out perfect. It's like the smoker and me have this bond now, every scratch and weld tells a story from a cook. Has anyone else ever kept track of their cook hours and hit a number that surprised them?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_lewis924d ago

Honestly I never thought about timers on smokers until I hit 300 hours on my stick burner and realized I had become way too attached to a piece of metal lol. What hit me hardest was when I noticed the heat pattern on the firebox door changing after a bunch of long cooks. That spot where the paint peeled first tells a story about that time I tried burning mesquite in humid weather and it just fought me all night. It's like each hour logged is a memory that got stamped into the steel one way or another. I sit and look at mine sometimes and can remember exactly which scratch came from that windy brisket cook where I had to adjust the damper with my foot.

the_ray4d ago

@joseph_lewis92 is out here reading his smoker like a palm reader with heat patterns. 500 hours is just the point where your offset starts judging YOUR cooking decisions right back at you. Pretty soon you'll be apologizing to it for that one time you used too much lighter fluid.