Charlie

Hi Guys, thank you for the advice. I was able to take the wheel off, and after having a closer look the cake tin I could see the actual issue comes from the fact that there is a slight joggle for the wheel, that was slightly smaller than the tin (prevented the tin to sit in properly). I was looking for a solution, thinking of buying a hole cutter or even enlarging slightly one the hole to fit the 3/4 inch adapter. But came across one of my daughter's kitchen toy pan, and thought she would love for me to borrow it permanently. Now sits solidly. I will also try to start the minion on the opposite side next time, makes perfect sense. Cheers. Charlie

Hi All, got my Christmas present early this year. I have installed the smartfire on my Fornetto Basso, I am planning to use the smartfire to run cook through the night, I like doing some of the low and slow stuff. The install went ok, but I find the cake tin to be very flimsy and also it sits well on top of the wheel, it doesnot fasten well (it still moves when I fit the fan on the connector), I am not sure people have had the same issue, any tips would be appreciated 🙂 I first tried to use charcoal, I have used it before and works well for grilling but as you can see through the graph, the temperature stability was not great. was trying to run at 110'C I then started the following day with another trial with Weber briquettes, the result was quite impressive, it was raining on and off, very cold through the day but the stability was much better. I loaded a full basket of briquettes, started with a minion but let the smartfire take the temperature up. It ran stable for 9 hours, had to stop it to go to bed, there was quite a few briquettes left, see below (sorry for the quality) I also checked the probes in a bowl of hot water, the food probe were all quite close but the pit temperature was a bit off, have you guys noticed similar differences. Overall I am happy with this first couple of runs, there should be some low and slow on the menu for Christmas. Cheers Charlie

wow that looks really impressive. have you been happy with your cooks on it? and controlling temperature.

Thank you, Makes sense

Hi all, Was looking at the smartfire, to be able to cook through the night and get better controlled. I have found the kit at 250£ on one website but also at 191£... can't see the difference between the two. Anybody knows why? Thanks Charlie

Yes that was me Saturday night 😆

Thank you, That's good to know!

So put the Basso through its first test. Started with a couple of bits of pork shoulder to make some pulled pork. I loaded my first Minion with too many lit coals ( Will sort that next time), so ended way to hot to start with. But ended bang on 110°C after an hour. So I put the meat on, the recipe I was following was saying that it should be ready in 8 hours but it took me 12 hours (14 for the second one)... temperature was stable for 4 hours until we got some rain a few times... temperature dropped every time. End result was pleasing, nice smokey flavour, tasty bark on the outside but nice and moist. Had some tacos with the pulled pork Today, very nice.... even got complimented by my four years old daughter 😁. I did check my probes and they were fine, I was wondering why it took so long, I had similar experience on my Weber kettle. If I start a cook at 110°C it always seems to take a lot longer than the recipe, when I did a brisket last time it took 15 hours. Anyone getting similar issues?

thanks for the heads up, I will be putting it to use for the first time this weekend. It's my first smoker so can't really compare, but it seems well built.

Hi Chaps, I had used what was referred to as a "snake" but I found the temperature was going up and down, I will try that minion technique, I can see that this would provide more stability that the snake but yet a lower temperature than a full starter of coal. I will likely end up getting a smoker alongside my weber, as often I would like to do some standard grilling, so I end up doing 2 cooks on different days (I would prefer being able to do a low and slow in parrallel of a normall bbq grilling). But your point means that if I had something bigger I could still use my weber with the minion method. Thank you,

Thanks Ice

Hi All, a newbie on here, I have been thinking about getting a smoker. I have been doing some low and slow cooking on my weber kettle, but I struggle holding steady low temperature (bellypork with ribs, pork shoulder, lamb and even a brisket). I was thinking I could keep my kettle for BBQ but get a smoker for the low and slow stuff. I read the reviews of the callow and watch the videos (thanks Wade). I think this would be great to get me started but I am worried about the diameter, my kettle as 54 cm grid. and this is 35 cm. When I did the Belly Ribs or the Brisket the Grill Length was used, I saw that with the 2 grills, I could half the meat but still wondering if it is on the small side normally cook for 4-6 and like to be able to put some in the freezer. So I was wondering if people have experience of cooking this type of cuts on the Callow and if it worked ok. Or if there is something between the Callow and the Weber Smokey Mountain/Pro Q... it seems quite a jump in price. Thank you, Charlie from Solihull