Pit Barrel Cooker Classic Review
A 30 gallon drum that hangs meat vertically over the coals and self-regulates near 135°C (275°F) to 150°C (300°F). You set one vent by altitude on day one and essentially never adjust it again.
- Genuinely close to set and forget
- Hanging gives large capacity in a small footprint
- Distinctive drum flavour from drippings
- Very hard to get a bad result
- Effectively one temperature band
- Not a searing cooker
- Fixed vent means limited fine control
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Hanging changes the cook
Meat on hooks drips straight onto the coals, which vaporises and rises back through the food. That is a different flavour mechanism to a water-pan smoker, closer to how a whole hog cooks, and it is why ribs off a drum have a distinctive taste. Hanging also means every surface is exposed, so nothing needs turning and you fit far more food into a small footprint: eight racks of ribs is normal.
The honest limitation
It runs at one temperature, roughly 135°C (275°F) to 150°C (300°F). That is hot and fast barbecue, which is excellent for ribs, chicken and pork butt, and less ideal if you want a traditional 105°C (225°F) brisket. There is no meaningful low end and no searing high end. In exchange you get a cooker with almost nothing to learn.