Tomcat

I have used them for olive wood (as it's not so common to get hold of) and the wood seems fine to me. It burns nicely with a think smoke and certainly no different than any other ones that i have used. Just got a delivery from them of cherry and apple and i will be using them over the weekend

The pieces that my local butcher has are also fairly large but they are not the square piece around the scapula and they go "beyond" that point probably because they are cut further out in the ribcage. So normally on the boston butt you can see the scapula from one end to the other, hence more square while on the butcher cut the piece is more elongated. Maybe it's just me or the way i cook the pulled pork, but i find that extra meat a bit "dryer" than the square cut. The below probably can demonstrate better what i'm trying to describe.

Do any of the above do a "proper" boston butt cut? I find that most of the cuts are cut on the 6th rib while i believe that boston butt is shorter? I have tried in the past greatbritishmeat online and i think this is the proper cut and was actually cleaned up nicely although currently is not in stock

Sarsons make some large 1.14 pickling vinegar jars that are listed in sainsburys. I don't pickle but i know the vinegar

Hi there, I cook with heat beads and I had similar issues in my Weber kettle with the slow and sear. It never occurred to me that is the heat beads as i was fighting the vents quite a lot. I got a fornetto to 18'' bullet smoker and I have no problem maintaining temps low or higher with the heat beads, using the modified minion method. Not so sure if that helps, but i never persevered with the weber for the low and slow and long cooks

Hi all, Great to meat other like minded people! I was in the same position a couple of months ago. I was cooking a lot on my weber kettle and a small open fire rotisserie however i found myself enjoying more the low and slow cooks. I had the slow and sear but i was finding that i had to fight the air vents more that i wanted to and temps were not that stable. I tried to stabilise them by getting an ash catcher which helps a bit from the draft (i had the basic version) and although it was better i decided to go for a smoker. WSM was my choice but i didn't want to spend so much money till i get my skills up and frankly testing myself if this is what i enjoy doing. After i rejected the idea of a stick smoker (space + cost for a good one) i decided to go for a bullet smoker. I was looking at cheaper alternatives but still good quality like proq, napoleon and came across fornetto. It looks like it's more widespread in australia. I found the 18'' razzo around £200 delivered in ebay, so i went for it as i liked the stainless steel grates, the baskets for more cooking space and it seemed like a reasonable quality. The 22'' was around £70 more so with the benefitnof hindsight i would have gone for that. Fornetto is a good quality bullet smoker and i found myself using it almost every week in all sorts of weather, and it's great holding temp. I cook with heat beads, only foiled water pan (tried water and sand) and on a full basket with minion doughnut method i will get 6-8 hrs and still have briquettes unlit depending on the weather. When i used water i would hardly have any coals left for the same time. I normally have the three bottom vents just cracked open and the top fully open. However just this weekend i have experimented with having only one bottom fully opened and only adjusting the top vent (Harry Soo method) with great results and far less hassle having to bend and adjust all 3 vents. With water you can cook steadily at 225-250f max, while without water i have cooked at 325f consistently without a problem. Overall i'm really happy with the fire and temperature control. I also like the fact that it's modular and you get easy access to the other cooking grates although this is when for me there are a couple of even better ifs. The baskets are great idea but if you want to rotate your grates throughout the cook is not that easy as you have to move the meat. Also it's more fiddly if you want to top up water as you need to take one ring out and then move the baskets. Another ebi would be if you can rotate the grates like the wsm just in case you have any hot spots in the cooker. Most of the times i smoke one meat at the time and since it's modular i was using it without a ring as a small smoker. However the meat did not have a great bark underneath since it was directly above the water pan and although i don't run with water it looks like heat and smoke is not getting in the bottom grate as well as the top (i guess i expect to be the same in any bullet smoker ?). I have since cooked only on top rack and although i have done only babybacks the bark underneath looked fine although you don't really get much bark n the bone side. On size, i could fit 2 baby backs, a large pork butt (struggling to find small bosrton butt cut in uk) a lamp shoulder, but i couldn't fit easily spare ribs hence uses the bottom rack. I have only done a small two piece supermarket brisket, as during covid 19 my online order of a point end was not delivered, but not so sure that it can take easily a full packer brisket 5-6kgs One think to consider is that fornetto does not have a large online community like wsm so although the principles are the same and the techniques are transferable. I don't think the above are a showstopper however one problem i have is that the ash from the coals is coming out of the vents (not a lot but still) which means that either i overload the basket or the firebox is to shallow and the vents are low. That's the only thing that i can find due to design. Perhaps the 22'' is better In this. Although temp control is good and you don't have to fiddle a lot with the vents (always a good excuse to stay next to the smoker and drink beers) i have in order a basic temp fan control. Now i only use the smoker and weber rotisserie on the kettle for mainly chicken, although lump shoulder is also coming out amazing (but that's a different post:)) Hope that helps