Pit Barrel Cooker

I know a lot of members of this sight like cook with their smokers, so I’m looking for a little advice. The Pit Barrel Cooker looks like it gets really good reviews online for being easy to use. Which is a major plus for me since I’ve never smoked any food in my life. I don’t see anything online that talks about how well the PBC performs when smoking snack sticks, sausage or ring bologna. I’m hoping someone on here has some experience with this. The last thing I want is to purchase a smoker that won’t work well with smoking sausages. Thanks for any advice.

Simple smoker….but effective

This may help you.
Link did not work but you can go to page 2 in the recipe section under the heading
“simple smoker…. but effective”

Thanks for the reply. I remember seeing that post last winter. I’m not sure I want to hassle with having build my own. Just hoping to get someone on here who has used the pit barrel cooker to smoke sausages or snack sticks. From what I have read, it appears sausages require a lower temp, and perhaps the PBC is not good at controlling low temps. Kind of hoping to hear otherwise, as I really like the PBC design…no parts to wear out. I hate having to service my toys.

For $300 I would just buy an electric Masterbuilt or other well reviewed cabinet smoker and not have to worry about it. Part of the allure of barrel smokers is making your own for next to nothing.

I own a PBC, I love it but it is not a low temp smoker. More of a power smoker/ cooker, runs around 290-320 degrees depending on charcoal type and your settings on the air intake. Not ideal temps smoking sauasages or snack sticks. Great for power smoking ribs, brisket, shoulders much faster than a traditional smoker. But not ideal when you are trying to slow smoke thick sausage. I use a cheap electric smoker for small batches of sausage or fish, or when I do big batches of venison ring sausage I smoke it in a homemade 4’x6’ plywood box. The coal basket from the PBC pulls double duty as the heat and smoke generator in the plywood box. Not a lot of rack space for snack sticks, but you can hang 8 racks of ribs or 2 full size hams/turkeys. I love it but might not be what you’re looking for if you just want to smoke sausage.

Thanks for the info Tyler. Do you suppose the heat could be reduced by using less charcoal and choking down the air intake? Or will that just be a bad experiment?

Not really a worthwhile experiment in my opinion. Less charcoal just reduces cook time. I’m sure there are guys that try to mod their barrel smokers or PBC’s to run lower temp, but because the meat is sitting directly over the live coals dripping on it, you are more likely to kill the fire by choking oxygen to the point it runs at 200-250 degrees (temp range I like to smoke ring sausage or salmon). Barrel smokers, like all smokers, have strengths and weaknesses. Slow and low is the weakness of barrel smokers. Strengths are reduced cook time, cook capacity hanging on meat hooks, flavor, and ease of use. I’d put them in a different category than smoker and label them power smoker. Doubles as a grill, coal fire pizza cooker, we make cookies on it- it’s a fun toy. Might not be what you are looking for.