# Orion Hack - For those out there who like to play



## ronrude (Jan 7, 2012)

I saw the Orion cooker and with my curiosity, it was killing me to not having a way to check one out.  (My wife says if I come home with another cooker, There will be an intervention!)  Time to get creative.

Dying to try an Orion, I started thinking about how I could make a test unit.  Being a recently new dutch oven cook, I knew it was easy enough to try hack.

Having dabbled with brewing beer 15 years ago, I knew I had a 3 gallon stainless pot gathering dust.  With the purchase of a Weber Smokey Joe Coal Grate and using an old Pie Tin for a drip pan and a Basket from a deep fryer as a support, I was able to bodge one together.

Since doing this kind of thing is more fun with friends, I got together with a buddy testing his ceramic Avocado komado cooker at the same time.  I used his old Weber to put the pot in for the cook.

With this rig, I was able to !Overcook! a 7.5lb Boston Butt in 3 hours with Pecan chips.  My buddy smoked a 12lb turkey in 2hours on his Komado and 2 chickens in 1 hour and 15 minutes.  His turkey and chickens were great and my pork was delicious.  Just burned.

Lessons Learned for the next trial. 

1. Get a deeper drip pan and add water or apple juice.  My flat lid with bricks doesn't seal in the moisture as well.  This should hold down the heat and keep it from overcooking.

2.  Play with the water level to have it run out at just the right time to crisp up the outside before I pull it out.

3.  Completely close the bottom vents on the Weber.  I was at half.

4. As much fun as I have playing with a hack, I need to figure out a way to have someone give me an Orion cooker as a gift.  I call that "Intervention Prevention". 

Just because I was able to do a hack for fun, I believe that the makers of the Orion cooker deserve a sale for a great idea and a superior product.


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## chef jimmyj (Jan 7, 2012)

Looks like a good plan and the changes  for the next attempt should work...JJ


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## adiochiro3 (Jan 7, 2012)

Interesting Idea.  Looks like it worked out really well.


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## ronrude (Jan 8, 2012)

It worked well, but you can see a layer of brown meat that was just too well cooked.  

If anything, I don't want to have this take away from the Orion guys.  I actually think that if people out there try it out like this, they may end up selling more cookers in the long run.  It doesn't have the deep smoke that I enjoy from low and slow, but if you can consistently cook a big juicy and tasty piece of smoked meat in a short time, you have some serious options for last minute get togethers.  I will keep playing.


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