FEC-100 - First Cook on the Fast Eddy

New FEC-100Well, I always cook a whole mess of food for friends and family on Labor Day weekend, and as luck would have it, my new cooker, the FEC-100 showed up Thursday. Just enough time to fire it up for some pellet-smoked BBQ.

First off, I just love this thing. I had done a bunch of reading online about the pellet poopers, so I had a cursory knowledge of the engineering and mechanics of how they worked. But I was still amazed at just how easy it is to operate and CLEAN. Pour the pellets into the hopper, juice the fire cup with a few to get it started, turn on the switch, dial in the temps and times, and in about 15 minutes you're good to go.

Fresh FoilOk, the first thing I did was wrap all the stuff inside that would be in contact with grease. This included the shroud which covers the fire cup, the grease ramp under the racks, and the bottom of the cooker. I made sure to poke a hole in the foil where the grease drain is in the bottom so grease would drain into the drip pan underneath. I had read some online about the possibility of a grease fire if flaming pellets came in contact with grease, so I was a bit scared and used a lot of caution. After using the cooker, I don't think there is any inherently bad thing about this unit, fires are a worry for all most smokers, this one is no different. Fact is if you're going to cook over 50 lbs of meat in anything, there will be grease. Grease and flames don't mix....so don't be stupid. Keep it clean, make sure the grease is draining like it's supposed to, and you'll be fine!

Chicken on the FECI cooked some chicken on it Friday night. Started the cooker at about 3:30 in the afternoon. (Yes, I rushed home early to play with the new toy.) I left it smoking away for about 3 hours before I put on some chicken thighs. I wanted to test out the temperature range, and started it at 180. Let the chicken smoke for an hour, then upped the temp to 325. It ramped up to temp in about 20 minutes. I should have been more detail oriented with the times and temps, but I had to mox the lawn and had a honey-do list a mile long for the party on Saturday. The thighs cooked for about 2-1/2 hours or so, rubbed heavily with the Cookshack "Spicy Chicken Rub" that came with the cooker. NOTE: This stuff IS hot! A friend of ours did the seasoning, and she went really heavy on it. It was too salty and definitely spicy. Great flavor, but you can't rub it on like my normal rub. It packs some heat.

FEC Loaded UpI loaded the FEC-100 with two pork butts at about 10pm, rubbed down with some new stuff I got at Hawgeyes. Kyle Style Rub from the Slabs. First time I used the rub, and I really liked it. Heavy aroma of cumin, and smelled a little sweet for some reason, although I didn't pick up too much sweetness when it was done. It's also got a little kick, maybe a touch too much heat for my taste, and probably won't use it for any bbq competitions. I'll still stick with my custom blend. But it's always good to try new stuff and look at BBQ from a different perspective. Anyway, figured I'd let the butts go overnight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRRCJ9DsSuM