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That's not the first time I've heard of manufacturers saying that's normal, there's a good YouTuber called baby back maniac who complained to weber because his 1500 dollar weber summit charcoal was leaking smoke and customer service came back saying that it was normal and wouldn't recognise the issue. Mental! If you watch landmanns demo video for a pork shoulder they end up slicing it instead of pulling, presumably because to cook it for long enough to be able to pull they would a) have to use a truck load of fuel to keep the smoker going long enough at that rate of air flow and b) it would be dried out by then due to the high temps. Must be really confusing for those new to smoking to see manufacturers doing this.

In my opinion, unless you're looking for perfect results right off the bat, seasoning isn't worth it. And the point is, unless you're a total pro, you're never going to get perfect results right off the bat with a brand new smoker - especially one that needs mods! Once you've tried a few cooks to get a feel for the thing, your smoker will be naturally seasoned. Just crack on I say, though each to their own. Good luck with your mods.

Ah I suppose thinking about it, as long as you roughly get the size of the perforated circle right, there's no need to fix it down. Very kind to offer to send it but I won't trouble you, I'm sure I'd be able to manage it myself if push comes to shove.

I think a ProQ Frontier for my 30th birthday (next July) might be what I'll opt for, or maybe a weber summit charcoal if I win the lottery. Despite the tribulations I want to get as much use out of the callow as I can.

Thanks for the feedback guys. @Wade Glad it's nice for people to read, was a bit worried I went on a bit! That perforated steel looks like an ideal solution, might be a stretch for my abilities and tools though. Did you weld it on, or solder? And how did you cut the original base off? Wondering if there's any aftermarket charcoal baskets that might be a simpler fix? I could always take a punt with this, might do some measuring up tonight. https://www.macsbbq.com/accessories/charcoal-bbq-baskets/proq-ranger-replacement-charcoal-basket I didn't foil in the smoker, the only letdown to my first brisket was the bark was a little mushy, which I figured was due to wrapping early, so I was hesitant, but unwrapping for a final 30 mins or so is a really good idea, so I'll do that next time. @Justin Going into the oven at a high temp really was a last resort, annoyed at myself yet again that I ran out of time! Night before is an ideal way to do it but I don't have faith in my cooker to set it and forget it, nor do I want to stay up all night tending coals!

So inspired by your achievement of 9 hours with no refuelling, I had a second go at brisket on the callow on the weekend. My first attempt went really, really well (way above expectations!) so I was pretty confident. I actually went in to the butchers Friday afternoon to get some beef short ribs, but they were sold out so I foolishly asked if they had any briskets. The guy pulls a full packer out the fridge and asks me how many kg I want 😧 I said can you please separate the point from the flat, and was met by a blank face. They are a very established an well known butchers, so pretty disappointing, despite the fact that I know it's still not that common in the UK to cook these sorts of joints. I then had about a 5 minute battle trying to show him by leaning over his counter how to cut it, when really I don't know it that well myself. In the end I think I got 80% of the point and a chunk of flat too. Not the end of the world, 4kg of nice meaty brisket! Gave it a trim and looking good As usual, I get the meat on the smoker later than planned (11 month old has hindered my efforts to rectify this), it goes onto the callow at 8.15am. I've 'precooked' my water holder (which I have filled with sand) to 120C in the oven to get to temp ASAP, lit some coals and placed them in the tray with the minion method, handful of apple wood chunks and some other blended chips. Come to put the brisket on the top grate - we're gonna need a bigger grill. From here until the end of the cook, temperatures stressed me the **** out. That picture above is actually after several hours, after a bit of shrinkage. To close the lid, I actually had to press down and compress the meat a little. Not ideal, and the middle grate wouldn't have caused the same issue, but I know my top grate gets hotter, and air flow might have been an issue. Well, it really was. You can see where my ambient probe is above, prior to shrinkage this was a really pretty thin gap, maybe 3-4cm. I had my ambient probe replaced last week because my original wasn't working, and this served to make me very paranoid. I couldn't seem to get past 190F, and I am 20% of the mind it might be an ambient probe issue, 80% that I had air flow problems. Air flow due to the size of the joint preventing air flowing through the cooker, and also due to my charcoal basket, sadly still. I drilled some more holes in my charcoal basked last weekend, on the side, and now think that this may be counter productive. As all us callow users now, on the early versions, the air flowing in from the bottom vents doesn't naturally flow under the basket and up through the coals. The foil around the rim of the basket trick solves this, and drilling additional holes in the side helps too. I wonder though if too many holes in the side means you go back to less air flowing underneath (which is best) and actually hinders things. The temperature of the meat was actually coming on OK though, didn't take too long to get to 140F. Of course then the stall happened. I was aiming to pull it from the cooker by 7pm, which is about a 12 hour cook. My last brisket took 7.5 hours, so I thought I had plenty of contingency. By 6pm I had improved my temps to more like 220-230 (perhaps due to shrinkage improving airflow) but meat was still at 150F, so time for the oven to come in to play. Preheated to 350F, wrapped the meat and whacked it in. Took about 1.5 hours to get to 200F. Really disappointingly, the brisket that was tender was now dry, and the brisket that was still juicy was not tender. This is probably due to the ridiculously hot final stage of the cook, but we didn't want to be eating at 11pm. Aesthetically, it looked nice, I have to say I preferred the tender dry bits to the juicy chewy bits. Was actually quite nice especially with some pit beans too which I cooked underneath to catch some juice Probably best meal from it was last night, wife slathered some chunks in BBQ sauce and reheated and served with mac and cheese, a couple of tough pieces but very tasty So many learning points, and no doubt plenty more to learn still. Key thing is probably, don't try a 4kg slab of meat on a 13" smoker. If I had to do this again it seems a no brainer to halve the joint and put half on the lower rack. I love long cooks, but when the results aren't just right then it can seem like a pretty frustrating 12 or 13 hours! Few other things to mention, the flat stove rope I put around the door kept falling off (more frustration) so will have to try an glue that on. Still a bit of leakage somehow even though it all looks to be treated. The locking clasps seem to be showing some age (smoker is 16 months old), one of each of the top and bottom clasps have had their springs break, so it's still functional but getting harder to use! I imagine once another one break (i.e. I'm left with 2 springless for one of the levels) then this will become really annoying. Otherwise I guess I'm still pretty optimistic about getting some good results this summer off this thing. If I can make it last this year and next year, so 3 years total, I'll call this purchase a success with a lot of things learnt along the way.

Just been reading through this thread, an interesting read especially following your learning process @goldencrunchs Did you try any more smokes after the charcoal grate incident? 😁

OK I have something to aim for then! I thought it wouldn't be possible to go that long. I've newly fitted some stove rope (the stove you recommended a while back Wade) to the door, and am planning to drill some more holes in my charcoal holder (the non basket weave version, version 2 I think). With some more temp control and hopefully mild conditions on the weekend I'll see what I can manage. Might get some beef ribs.

Is that 9 hours on one load of fuel or did you refuel mid smoke?

We never used to need a name for it, I remember when I was only a diddler about 20 years ago sitting on the 'tailgate' of Range Rovers at point-to-points while having a picnic lunch between races.

Looking forward to reading about your findings, weather is looking up this week!

I love when things are done without any sort of recipe, just bang them in and go with your instinct. Looks like it turned out really good. On a side note, I can't believe how much bigger the 26" kettle looks than the 22"!

I definitely find that bark only properly develops towards the back end of a cook, so while 3 hours is enough for the smoke flavour, the bark won't be there if you go straight in the oven at that point. I would guess you're also going to want to foil it if you put it in the oven. If you don't then it'll probably dry out, and if you do then it might sweat off any bark you do have. What about separating the shoulder into 2? This will mean a quicker cook time and even more bark surface area. Well aware I'm starting to sound barking mad by this point. I guess given the date this might be too late, in which case how did you get on?

Would be well in for this but have a wedding on that weekend. Next year hopefully!

It's a good point Wade. But if we follow that theory to it's logical conclusion, might we as well put anything that is wrapped on the BBQ just into the oven instead at the same temperature? Once meat is wrapped, are we just purely cooking for temperature? Just openly pondering.

You've inspired me to hunt down some proper ribs instead of baby backs

Cleaning a bbq/smoker is a tricky subject, as most of the surface you might want to clean, you actually want to leave well alone, as this seasoning provides good insulation. The grills themselves certainly do want a clean between cooks. I do this at the start of a cook by leaving out the water tray after putting coals in for 10 minutes, and then scrubbing them with a good wire brush. If I was leaving it more than approx. 3 weeks between cooks, just take your grills inside and give them a good scrub with hot soapy water. Worthwhile trying to get most of the grime off outside if you can. The best way is to clean your grills at the end of a cook though, once your meat is off, take the water pan out to get direct heat to your grills, give it 10 minutes and then apply the wire brush treatment. Easy to forget as you are tucking in to your meat or preparing sides as it rests though.

This pricked my ears but one page in and it already reads like it was written by someone still at school. But then again I guess it's free!

That pork looks so juicy and delicious, nice one.

Going to do some pork ribs this weekend and thought I'd have a check on here. I'll be trying 2.5 / 2 / 0.5. I guess 3-2-1 is for a full rack of spare ribs, whereas most of the time in the UK we cook baby backs which at a bit smaller?

Those side vents certainly do look interesting. Though they are above the coals in that position by the looks of it, so I wonder how that will work? I definitely don't have that so yes I'm sure I have the old version, which tallies with what Valve saw on gumtree. Going to find myself wishing away my holiday so I can come back and get cooking. Will be interested to see if I have any of the temp issues some other people have had given it's pretty cold here at the moment. But it sounds like anyone who has made some holes in the side of the charcoal bowl has been able to achieve 110C without issue.

I got a callow smoker for Christmas and built it yesterday, looking forward to getting some use in soon but off on holiday for a week tomorrow. Anyway this thread caught my attention, especially about the new version and the improvements. Mine came in a cook4all branded box, but it doesn't seem to have the improvements listed on the gardengiftshop website as: So that's a bit confusing if they are saying the new ones are branded as Cook4all, but mine came branded as that as certainly doesn't have the improvements. Mine was purchased sometime in early December from Amazon. Got the £69 price, and confident I can make some mods to help it, as well as not relying on the stock thermometer, so not too fussed really, just curious.

I got a callow smoker for Christmas and built it yesterday, looking forward to getting some use in soon but off on holiday for a week tomorrow. Anyway this thread caught my attention, especially about the new version and the improvements. Mine came in a cook4all branded box, but it doesn't seem to have the improvements listed on the gardengiftshop website as: So that's a bit confusing if they are saying the new ones are branded as Cook4all, but mine came branded as that as certainly doesn't have the improvements. Mine was purchased sometime in early December from Amazon. Got the £69 price, and confident I can make some mods to help it, as well as not relying on the stock thermometer, so not too fussed really, just curious.