Orion Cooker / 70 Minute Spare Ribs

I got the itch to try another cook on the Orion cooker and decided to smoke up a couple of slabs of 2.25 and down St. Louis cut spare ribs on this very unique cooker/smoker. It is advertized to cook up great "fall off the bone" baby back ribs in just and hour and ten minutes. Of course, most real bbq cooks would know that "fall off the bone" is nothing more than an overcooked rib and I sure didn't want that in my first try with ribs on this cooker!





As you can see, I did get some nice looking ribs cooked up in this first try on the Orion cooker.

I started out by setting up the cooker for the rib cook by installing the rib hangers as the ribs are cooked hanging upright in the cooker. I then wrapped my drip pan to make for an easier clean up after my cook.



Next step was to select my smoke chips and I decided to go with some sugar maple for my smoke flavor for the ribs.



I then packed in around the drip pan about 2 cups of the smoke wood which should be more than enough for the cook.



I then placed 11 of the Matchlight Briquettes in the top part of the cooker and the balance of the bag was poured around the bottom charcoal holder of the cooker and I was ready to cook.

The ribs used for this cook came from Gordon Food Service and they were the non-injected, 2.25 and down, St. Louis cut spare ribs. I started my prep by removing the membrane off the back of the slab. I then trimmed up some of the fat off of the ribs and got them ready for the cook. I rubbed them with a generous coat of Cimmarron Doc's rib rub and then cut a small slot between the 2nd abd 3rd bone so I could hang them in the cooker. The ribs going into the cooker.



I then fired up the cooker and just let it do it's thing for about 70 minutes.



I checked back after the correct time and found the cooker with plenty of the charcoal left and I was wondering about this as even the longer cooks like pork butts and beef briskets are suposed to cook with just the one bag of Matchlight charcoal for about 3-4 hours and from the looks of the remaining charcoal, it looks like it will go this long for those meats.



I pulled the top off of the cooker and other than a kinda ugly color on the ribs, they did look like they were done judging by some pull back on the bones and the flexibility of the racks. Sure would have been nice to have been able to glaze the ribs on the cooker but the cooker design doesn't lend itself very well to that kind of finish for the ribs so I came up with something that did work for this cook.



I quickly brought the ribs in the house and applied a generous coat of Blues Hog mixed with some clover honey to the slabs and then let the remaining heat in the slabs to kinda set the sauce on the slabs and after about 15 minutes, it looked pretty good.



I then cut up the ribs for serving and they did come out looking very good.



Ok, let's critique my first cook of ribs on the Orion Cooker as compared to what I can cook on my other cookers. My normal rib would have cooked for about 5 hours verses the rib on the Orion cooking in just 70 minutes.

Color...the outside color came out great as I love that deep dark red color on my finished ribs. However, the inside looks pale white and not pink showing a smoke ring like my normal ribs. The ribs were perfect in smoke flavor so I sure can live with a little more whiter inside color rib.

Tenderness...very close to what I can get off of my other cookers although I found them slightly rubberie if that is a word. They were tender enough but the texture was a little different.

Moisture...these ribs are probably as moist as anything I get off of my other cookers. Very Juicy!!

Taste...just as good as anything I can cook on any of my other cookers.

Ease of cooking...you know, light it and forget it....what could be more easier??

As a competition cook, I feel that I can cook a pretty good rib and if my best rib would be judged as a "9" off of my other cookers, I think the rib off of this Orion cooker would be a solid "8" with the method I used on this first cook.

Tailgating...what could be better?? Six, count em, 6 slabs of very tasty ribs cooked in just 75 minutes at your favorite sporting event??

In closing, I am not a shill for this cooker but just a cook that can see some applications for this very unique and inexpensive cooker. I like it!

Orion Cooker

Several months ago, while cruising the web early one morning, I found the Orion Cooker for sale on the "Woot" website for just under $100 dollars and decided to purchase one and see how it cooks. I had read about them a time or two and some of the claims did interest me so why not??

This is some of the hype from their website...

Smoke and steam and the same time-no flame ups
No oil-extraordinarily fast cooking times
Low cooking maintenance-moist tender meat

The Orion Cooker is a new, innovative outdoor convection cooker that uses three cooking processes simultaneously: convection, steam and smoke (if desired). This cooking process couldn't be any easier and yields incredible results every time. Using 100% indirect heat to create a convection current, there is absolutely no cooking maintenance with drastically reduced cook times. When compared to traditional smokers, the Orion Cooker is unmatched in cooking speed. Smoke six racks of ribs in 1 hour and 15 minutes, or a twenty pound turkey in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

The Orion Cooker includes 3 rib hangers to accommodate 6 racks of ribs, 3 cooking grates providing 398 square inches of cooking surface, and a poultry stand and lifting handle which holds a 24 pound Turkey. Fantastic prime rib, beef brisket, boston butt and seafood. Just fill it, fire it and forget it!

You know, it's that last sentence that sold me..."fill it, fire it, and forget it". That is my kind of cooker!

The cooker came well packaged and was much heavier and somewhat larger than I expected. It is made out of all food grade Stainless Steel and seems very heavy duty. It was very easy to assemble and everything fit together well and all the parts were there which made for a short assembly time.



For my first cook, I decided to do a whole chicken on the poultry stand.

I just followed the directions in the manual when setting up this first cook and did the following to get the cook ready for the fire...

Lined the drip pan with foil and placed it into the cooking chamber and then put my wood chips that I used for smoke around the outside of the pan which keeps them right up against the side of the cooker so they will burn and create the smoke for my cook.

I then prepped the chicken with some rub and placed it on the poultry stand and then placed it into the cooker on the lowest grid and put the top section on the cooker.



I then counted out 12 briquettes from a bag of the "Instant Light" charcoal and placed them into the top charcoal ring and dumped the balance of the 13.5 pound bag around in the lower charcoal ring and spread them out evenly.

I then lit up both the top and bottom charcoal rings and like the manual said, I just forgot it until it was supposed to be done which was 70 minutes from the time I lit the charcoal and I came back and got the chicken out of the cooker.



The chicken looked great, was very moist and tender, had a nice light smoke flavor, and was every bit as good as if I would have cooked it on one of my other cookers.

Some observations from my first cook on this unique cooker...

Bought the chicken on sale for .99 cents a pound which came out to just under $4.00 dollars for the meat and then I got a bag of the Instant Light Kingsford which is the required charcoal for $12.95 so this means I have invested about $17 bucks in this first cook. I could have bought a completely cooked rotisserie chicken from Kroger which is about as good for $4.99!! It don't compute!

I will need to figure out a method of using the regular charcoal in the cooker.

The cooker is not very safe around anything combustible with the open fire and a fellow sure wouldn't want any kids around the cooker.

I am anxious to try some other meats on the cooker so this will be a work in process as I test this new cooker to see if any of the hype is true!

Six racks of baby back ribs in 1 hour 15 minutes ? ? We'll see....stay tuned