BBQ Temperature Control Systems

[Grandpa's Spells]

We had a party over the weekend and people were surprised about the existence of barbecue thermostats. These are awesome and make BBQ much less labor intensive.

The nutshell is you have a thermostat that has a thermometer probe in the smoker/big green egg/etc., and a fan that connects to the only open air intake. Start the charcoal, set the temperature on the thermostat, and it'll maintain the temp you want until you run out of fuel.

Doing long cooks without these, controlling pit temperature is challenging in weird/windy weather conditions, and can make for a fair amount of monitoring and adjusting. Keeping track of things overnight is no fun unless you have a drinking problem.

They have ones that will also connect to your wifi network so you can monitor/control from your phone, but mine is about 16 years old and predates that stuff, and those bells and whistles are pretty unnecessary.

Anyway, I thought these were common knowledge by now but it appears not. Combined with techniques to get longer-cooks like brisket and pork shoulder down to the 7-9 hour range without affecting quality, this is a lot easier and accessible and easy to feed a crowd.

bbqguru.com has been doing this the longest, ThermoWorks makes really good digital thermometers and got into thermostats in the last couple years.

[nafod]

How hot can they go (asking for a friend with a pizza oven)

[Shapecharge]

Spells, dang the world is really changing. Yet another post by you that I agree with and find no reason to fuck with you about. I got the Digi-Q from BBQ Guru three years ago for a Christmas present and that thing is just f'ing awesome. As you said, if you need to cook something over 6-9 hours this is the way to go and it's spot on. They are expensive but if you do a lot of "big" stuff like shoulders, brisket, short ribs, raw hams etc. this thing will make your cooking experience much more relaxing and virtually trouble free. I did a raw ham the Thanksgiving before I got the device and stayed up all night fucking with it...that shit is over. But still, I think Spells is a closeted gay cheating his family out of the love a hetero father would actually give.

[Grandpa's Spells]

How hot can they go (asking for a friend with a pizza oven)

The probes don't go above 475 or so unless there have been recent improvements. The big benefit is precisely controlling temp over a period of hours, so it may not be appropriate. I am guessing though. BBQguru answers the phone and they make charcoal ovens. They may have guidance.

They are expensive but if you do a lot of "big" stuff like shoulders, brisket, short ribs, raw hams etc. this thing will make your cooking experience much more relaxing and virtually trouble free.

Yep. Big stuff is also way cheaper. I would do way more ribs than pork shoulder or brisket if I didn't have this, which would be way more expensive, so if you have it a long time I think it probably evens out. But the relaxation factor is the big one. Smoking over night or all day, even if you have a remote thermometer, still takes up way too much attention, and if there are guests, stress.