Hello,
A Mak 1 Star is my current leading candidate for a future pellet smoker purchase. I'm quite concerned about the capacity however. The main reason I'm looking at a pellet cooker is because I have physical issues that hamper me at times and during the past holiday season, tending and cleaning my current smoker was difficult and this led to a slightly diminished Christmas dinner. Still great, but not what I planned or wanted to do.
And that, it where the capacity issue rears it's head. Holiday meals around here generally involve a fair amount of food being barbecued. Average is a couple of full racks of pork spare ribs, a beef item which on big holidays is a full rack of plate short ribs but on smaller cooks may be a chuck roast or smaller short ribs, a Hillshire Farms/Smithfield type 16 ounce sausage, and a side generally in a 9 inch pie plate iE: beans or mac and cheese. Occasionally some type of potato side too. The biggest cook I've done was a 10 lb. brisket, two 5 lb pork spares, a 6 lb pork butt, two sausages, 9 inch pie plate of beans, 9 inch pie plate of mac and cheese, and some sauce is a 1.5 quart sauce pan. The beans, mac, and sauce went on after the brisket was pulled and resting.
Ultimately, what I'd like to be able to cook at once on the 1 star would be four full racks of pork spare ribs WITHOUT using a rib rack or replicate the meat combo from the previously mentioned biggest cook I've done. I plan on purchasing the full upper shelf with the unit already and have no problems doing the sides and say sausages as the large meats are resting.
So, Mak 1 Star owners, do you think this is possible or have you done cooks of similar/larger size yourselves? And do any of you have pictures of cooking St. Louis cut or spare ribs on the 1 Star? I've seen many on the 2 Star and the Mak video, but 1 Star rib pics are a bit hard to find.
Thank you.
A Mak 1 Star is my current leading candidate for a future pellet smoker purchase. I'm quite concerned about the capacity however. The main reason I'm looking at a pellet cooker is because I have physical issues that hamper me at times and during the past holiday season, tending and cleaning my current smoker was difficult and this led to a slightly diminished Christmas dinner. Still great, but not what I planned or wanted to do.
And that, it where the capacity issue rears it's head. Holiday meals around here generally involve a fair amount of food being barbecued. Average is a couple of full racks of pork spare ribs, a beef item which on big holidays is a full rack of plate short ribs but on smaller cooks may be a chuck roast or smaller short ribs, a Hillshire Farms/Smithfield type 16 ounce sausage, and a side generally in a 9 inch pie plate iE: beans or mac and cheese. Occasionally some type of potato side too. The biggest cook I've done was a 10 lb. brisket, two 5 lb pork spares, a 6 lb pork butt, two sausages, 9 inch pie plate of beans, 9 inch pie plate of mac and cheese, and some sauce is a 1.5 quart sauce pan. The beans, mac, and sauce went on after the brisket was pulled and resting.
Ultimately, what I'd like to be able to cook at once on the 1 star would be four full racks of pork spare ribs WITHOUT using a rib rack or replicate the meat combo from the previously mentioned biggest cook I've done. I plan on purchasing the full upper shelf with the unit already and have no problems doing the sides and say sausages as the large meats are resting.
So, Mak 1 Star owners, do you think this is possible or have you done cooks of similar/larger size yourselves? And do any of you have pictures of cooking St. Louis cut or spare ribs on the 1 Star? I've seen many on the 2 Star and the Mak video, but 1 Star rib pics are a bit hard to find.
Thank you.
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