Stick burner vs pellet grill - I went old school and nearly quit

After a year on my Traeger, I was tired of that same clean smoke flavor. I swapped to a used Oklahoma Joe offset I found for $200 on Craigslist and figured I could handle the work. That first brisket took 16 hours of fiddling with dampers and adding splits every 45 minutes, and the bark turned out better than anything I ever got from pellets. But my wife said she missed the ease of set-it-and-forget-it, and now I'm stuck having to convince her to let me fire up the smoker at 5am again. Anyone else make the switch and regret it or feel like it was worth the extra hassle?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_anthony17d ago

Tell your wife how many hours that bark actually saved you on cleanup?

gibson.sarah18d ago

Yeah the offset smoke is worth it but your wife has a point though.

ryan36917d ago

Your wife has a point though" - wait, what did she actually say? I need the full story here because I'm genuinely shocked that someone would push back on an offset smoker purchase. Those things are like the holy grail for barbecue guys. But honestly, I've seen wives win this argument before. My buddy Mark's wife shut down his offset dream because she said the fire management would take too much time on weekends. And you know what, she wasn't totally wrong. Those offsets demand constant attention and if you've got kids or a busy schedule, it can really mess with your whole day.