Stainless Steel Roughneck Smoker

After what some would call an excessive amount of research I landed on the roughneck from Hasty bake. I am not a fan of their laser cut stainless steel grill grates but customer service was great and able to accommodate me with a set of the cast iron grates. So far I have no complaints on the smoker it works great.

Observations from a Kamado user who wanted to level up.

Temperature control is excellent. Firebox and lighting a fire are excellent. Be prepared to sit on the ground a lot though. Airflow is excellent. I cooked some cheap beef back ribs to start out. After seeing the airflow and smoke I can see that things are going to cook quicker. This can be good and bad depending on the bark creation and how slow you want to go. Build quality is excellent. Lots of sharp edges so be careful grabbing things and wiping things down. Stainless steel seems like it will be very easy to maintain and it looks excellent. Heat deflector is very good. After the first cook I’ve noticed there will be a lot of cleanup required in this cooker vs my kamado which just accumulated and evaporated fats and smoke. Excited to try some better meats in here. Hopefully I will be able to achieve better bark than my kamado which was lacking due to minimal airflow. For a backyard cooker I don’t know how it can get much better. Small footprint, easy to use, built to last and air tight. I gave up on an offset to go to this. Hopefully the quality of food will be close and operstion will be cheaper and easier.

Oh, shutting of the air sniffs the fire and temp very quickly.

This thing is built exceptionally well, it exceeded my expectations on build quality. I’ve only smoked a turkey breast so far, but it was the best turkey I’ve ever done.

Great design, handcrafted to the max. Fit and finish is exemplary. Done a couple of cooks on it, delish. Tweeks are using a Vortex sitting on the lower grates. While inverted I grilled a bunch of hamburger patties on the top grates. Small cone up and it becomes a searing station. Will be adding a Thermoworks Billows rig, mounted using their 1.5" adapter and locked into a 2" hole on a S/S dog bowl. 3.5" S/S bolt replaces one existing daisy wheel/bolt.

Bought corteen steel roughneck barrel smoker for my husband. He loves to smoke and has always made his own barrel smoker. They worked good but the one from Hasty Bake is amazing. The meat smokes beautifully and moist. He's smokin..best gift I have ever bought for the man who deserves nothing but the best.