First, I’m glad I have it, it does some things very well.

I’ll first comment on what I don’t like. The manufacturer admits that the product does not brown the meat. this affects taste, texture, and appearance. I’ve been able to overcome this in some cases by partially cooking in the Orion and finishing off on one of my grills.

To actually monitor the internal temperature of the meat, which is the ONLY way to truly know the degree of doneness requires running the lead around up and around the lid, you need to be very careful or you will damage the leads. I know. I’ve given a little thought to drilling a small hole for the lead but haven’t really thought through how to keep the temperature drop to a minimum. Monitoring the temperature really is needed as it is VERY easy to overcook the food in this product. This doesn’t dry it out, the texture of the meat just becomes similiar to that of the boiled dinner. While corned beef and cabbage is a great meal now and again, most boiled meat really isn’t all that appetizing.

Keeping in mind the above comments, here is what I’ve thought of using it for different cuts of meat.

The best pulled pork I have ever made, was using this product, it works great on a pork shoulder, bone-in or out. I missed having the crispy ends, but otherwise this was awesome.

Ribs, these I only partially cook in the Orion and finish on the grill, this is just for my own taste, I prefer the texture with that little crispiness that you cannot get using just the Orion.

Brisket, I’ve only done one and it was ok, not as tender as I’ve done with a barrel smoker, I think you really need the long slow cook to really break down the meat.

Turkey, I’ve only done it once and don’t see ever doing it again. It was ok, but no where near as good as I can do by frying. Obviously safer than frying a turkey, but I’ve always been extremely careful and have never had an issue. I didn’t try it with stuffing, which would be the only advantage I could see it having over frying. I can fry it as quick, it is as moist, and it looks great, and tastes even better.

Chicken, again about the same as the turkey, it’s ok about the same as you get by doing beer can method of grilling, except you don’t have the nice crisp browning.

Overall,for my tastes, pork roasts seem to do better than beef roasts in this product. I think the beef does better with the browning you lose with this product.