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List Price: $179.00
Sale Price: $135.53
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I am an experienced BBQ'er from Kansas City, with my own smoker. I bought the Orion for our vacation house. In my opinion, the Orion makes BBQ 90% as good as the very best, and it's MUCH easier and faster. We have made brisket, spare and back ribs, turkey, and goat, all with great results. You don't get quite the "smoke ring" of the best conventional bbq, but you get more moisture. A lot of my guests liked "Orion bbq" better. And it doesn't smoke up the neighborhood.
Key points:
1-Follow the instructions exactly, at least to begin with
2-Smoke flavor comes from the wood you put inside; the side of the wood against the outer edge will char.
3-The container is sealed, so the charcoal on the outside is irrelevant to the flavor of what's happening inside. If you use insta-light charcoal for maximum convenience/laziness, the flavor inside will NOT be affected.
4-I don't think you'll ever need extra liquid in the bottom
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This thing ROCKS!! We've used it for a 21 lb turkey, tri tip roasts, ribs, Pork roast, Bratwurst, even our 1&1/2 inch thick pork chops! No need to turn/baste the food, Put your meat on any/all of the 3 grates inside, fill the ring and the top hopper using 1 bag of ready-light type charcoal, light it and walk away (for the recommended times in the included cookbook). This makes an awesome smoker by adding a handfull of hickory or mesquite chips to the area around the drip pan. Since the fire itself never touches the wood chips, they burn nicely making the perfect amount of smoke inside the cooker. Our 21 lb turkey was done in 2 hours and 5 minutes, was moist and had a great mesquite smoke flavor to it.
I got mine at Bass pro shop, and we have had 4 of our friends buy one after tasting food from ours. The stainless discolors with use, but doesn't rust and it doesn't affect the unit's cooking or smoking abilities. Well worth the money.
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With family holidays approaching and a desire for me to feed them without spending 4 days chained to the oven, I purchased one of these suckers.
It was easy to assemble, thankfully normally, my assembly processes are fueled by profanity, bruised appendages, and eventually, whiskey. I had this up and running in about 15 minutes, though.
My first attempt was to really put it through it's paces, with one of the mroe difficult cuts of meat to get right a beef brisket. Worse, it was a cheap beef brisket bought from a grocery, trimmed of fat, a little on the small side, and generally not the kind I normally get before I BBQ things.
I gave it a quick rub, put it on the grate, put the top on, and proceeded to light the charcoal. I adjusted the cooking time by proportionality the instruction booklet lists 5lb and 12lb briskets, I only had a 3lb sat back, and waited.
A little over an hour later, it was done.
At first, I was concerned that it lacked the smokiness I had come to love about a good BBQ brisket. I had loaded the thing with hickory chips after all. I realized that the main difference was that with my normal smoker, enough smoke leaks out that the whole neighborhood can smell smouldering wood, whereas with this thing, it's pretty sealed up. Once I got up close and personal with the meat, it did have a fair amount of smoke flavor and aroma, although not as much as when I actually use my smoker (although I didn't smoke my clothes, hair, and nostrils in the process).
The meat was tender. Not quite the falling-apart, oh-my-god tender a good 12 hours in a low smoker can get you, but it was good enough for some brisket sandwiches and I simply can't argue with the fact that it was done in an hour. Didn't quite get the nice crust on the outside that a dry smoke will give either, but even with my smoker I've never quite gotten that right.
I figured that giving it a small, overly lean, underseasoned brisket would be a pretty rough test on the new cooker a good rub hides a multitude of sins, and a good fatty brisket isn't as apt to dry out and the Orion performed admirably. As mentioned, it wasn't the best brisket I'd ever had, but for an hour of my evening and no constant checking and flipping, I'm well-impressed.
On the downside, it pretty much requires an entire bag of charcoal per run, which can add up after a while. I don't intend to use this for day-to-day grilling, though, so this won't be as much of a problem.
I'm excited to try it out on poultry, which should be an easier task.
Honest reviews on Orion 101 Convection Cooker
works as advertised, only con is using a large bag of charcoal. i have had many store bought smokers over the years, they have all rusted away from sitting outside, a year later the stainless steel orion smoker is still looking good. if your looking to smoke a decent size batch and have near perfect results every time you can not go wrong with this smoker. holds a 20 lb turkey very well, and six racks of ribs fit with room to spare. search google for the owners manual to check out the recipes and cook times.
i have used mine about forty times now, have never had a bad meal yet.
here are a few tips on operation of the smoker.
-use kingsford charcoal if smoking more than an hour and ten minutes. the generic brands do not burn near as long.
-you will want to find a wind protected area to use the smoker. gusting winds will not distribute the heat evenly.
-try using apple, cherry, or another light smoking wood (can be found at lowes), hickory and mesquite can have a very smoky effect in this unit. i usually use a blend of hickory and apple or cherry.
-when doing ribs, i will throw a chicken or two on after the ribs are done, still plenty of coal life to cook them.
-put foil on the bottom side of the turkey or chicken when using the poultry stand to minimize over cooking of the skin.
-water is not needed in the drip pan for most meats. when you pull the lid off one to four hours later, you will get a blast of steam that is the juices of the meat!
-do not peak, leave the lid on the entire time.
please comply with your local outdoor burning regulations, the coals will stay hot for ten to twelve hours, not hot enough to cook with but enough to potentially start a fire.
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This cooker does a great job with most meats, although I would not use it to cook ribs. The people who are saying it does a great job with ribs obviously have never had ribs the way they were meant to be! Case in point, you cook the ribs by hanging them on these metal hangers...ribs that are cooked correctly (SLOWLY) would never actually stay secure on those hangers, they would eventually fall apart and fall off the hangers. In addition to the ribs, I've done chicken wings, whole chickens, a turkey and a pork loin, and they all came out fantastic.
I'm surprised no one commented on the amount of charcoal needed...15 lbs!?!?! I actually use a whole 13.5 lb bag, but even that in my area runs around $10 for the matchlight stuff. So that's $10 alone in just "fuel" every time you want to use it.
Overall, the cooker is very well made, does a great job with meats (just not ribs!), but is not perfect.
