Tried a $20 propane burner from a gas station and it out-cooked my $300 Camp Chef

Picked up that no-name burner on a whim while grabbing snacks for a tailgate, used it for 6 straight weekends doing pulled pork, and it held a steady 225 degrees the whole time while my expensive one kept fluctuating what gives?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.simon1mo agoTop Commenter

Yeah but 225 on a propane burner with no controller... that's not really 225. Those cheap burners dump heat in cycles, they don't regulate worth a damn. I bet if you put a probe on the grate you'd see it swinging from 200 to 250 or more. Your Camp Chef has the temp swings too but it's probably tighter than the gas station special. The real trick is how consistent the heat is at the meat level, not just what the built in gauge says.

felixw681mo ago

...actually I was reading something from this guy Meathead on AmazingRibs.com about this exact thing. He did some tests with probes all over the smoker and found that the temp at the grate can swing like crazy even on expensive units. The built in gauges are usually mounted in the lid or the side, which is way hotter than where the meat sits. So even if your smoker says 225, the meat might be cooking hotter or colder depending on where it's located. Really makes you wonder how many butts have been overcooked from just trusting that gauge without a separate probe on the rack.