Anyone have an Orion?

On Oct 13, 1:39*pm, "SteveB" <toquerville@zionvistas> wrote:

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Looks interesting, but I wonder if ribs cooked for only 75 minutes
will have the same texture and flavors.

Looks great for some applications though.

The new stainless steel convection cooker from Home Depot? Works on a small
amount of charcoal.

Steve


--
"...the man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere
critic-the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly,
not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done."
Theodore Roosevelt 1891

Tutall wrote:

It looks like it would steam the meat to some degree, and the promo on the
website says its uses heat, convection and smoke simultaneously, if you put
wood chips in it for the smoke.

That might be OK, but a guy I know tried one of these for competition and
didn't fare well. According to him, and also looking at the video, the ribs
were seriously overcooked. He also sasid it never formed a good bark, which
is odd for a convection, but the fact that its sealed and creates steam
probably creates that problem. I might be tempted to punch a couple vent
holes and screw on a cover to allow for a little bit of draft to lose some
of the steam. Or maybe some sort of drip arrangement would work where there
was just enough of an opening to let the liquid drain. Again there would
probably have to be some way to open and close it, otherwise, until liquid
had formed, it would suck cold air, a problem compounded by the convection
effect.

I know this cold air sucking thing is a problem because another friend had a
smoker that a welder built for him from an old industrial tank with an
offset firebox, and the tank got corroded on the bottom. Rust holes formed,
not very big ones, but a bunch of them, which he thought was no big deal,
but controlling temps in it was a huge problem. It was made even worse by
the big flat water pans he put in, like huge cookie sheets. He didn't think
the holes were the problem, because after all, grills have bottom vents, he
figured (venting air under the fire to fuel it is much different than
venting cold air into an offset firebox).

So I stuck some epoxy putty in the holes and proved it to him. It
immediately got much better. Then I told him to take out the water pans, and
it was miraculously cured. He was soon off to the welder to get the bottom
reinforced, and replaced the water with firebrick. It works great now... go
figure.

The Orion might work in combo with a smoker or grill, so you could get a
bark, then put it in the Orion. Or maybe vice versa, and going to a grill to
dry that stuff out and form a real bark would seem to be a good idea, if one
can get the meat out of it without it falling to pieces. In other words use
it to either braise well seared or browned meat, or to crisp meat already
cooked in it. It could speed up cooking and yield moist meat. Whether it
could ever produce anything as tasty as meat from a good stick burner
remains to be proven.

I'll wait to hear some results before I invest, and maybe my buddy will give
his away. He wasn't too happy with it, but he wouldn't spearmint around, he
just followed the directions. Now its just garage clutter.

MartyB in KC