OT: Smokers

[temery]

I am looking for a small electric or gas smoker (I'll be cooking for one). Charcoal isn't an option for me - too much work. But I have found my Weber Q320 grill just isn't right for slow cooking.

Suggestions? (And yes, I saw the recent post on grilling. Didn't answer my question)

 

[Deepster]

You're missing the boat. Smoking is a slow process. Get a charcoal chimney, start it in the base of your smoker and it's an extra 20 minutes tacked on to the start of your cook. If you're going to go with an electric smoker, just get your ribs from Applebees.

 

[Strummer]

I am looking for a small electric or gas smoker . . . for slow cooking. Charcoal isn't an option for me

You're missing the boat. Smoking is a slow process. Get a charcoal chimney, start it in the base of your smoker and it's an extra 20 minutes tacked on to the start of your cook. If you're going to go with an electric smoker, just get your ribs from Applebees.

Damn I love the internet. It's like two dudes are walking down the street, they exchange words, they strip to Borat thongs, they wrestle in a muddy puddle for 15 minutes, then they get up and go home.

Dude 1 makes a simple point - I want something other than charcoal for slow cooking/smoking.
Dude 2 comes back with - You want charcoal and you don't understand that smoking is a slow process.

Beautiful stuff there.

Deepster - particularly liked the "eat at Applebees" at the end. Nice touch. Nothing is quite as effective when you are arguing a position as finishing with, "and if you don't agree with my opinion on smoking meat, then you have the culinary sophistication of the average Jerry Springer guest."

By the way, Temery - I raise and slaughter my own animals and my buddy has an electric smoker that we use to smoke the bacons and, really, it's some of the best bacon I've ever had, and I've eaten a piggish amount of bacon. So you can get really good results with an electric smoker. I guess I'll meet you at Applebees.

 

[temery]

Damn I love the internet. It's like two dudes are walking down the street, they exchange words, they strip to Borat thongs, they wrestle in a muddy puddle for 15 minutes, then they get up and go home.

Dude 1 makes a simple point - I want something other than charcoal for slow cooking/smoking.
Dude 2 comes back with - You want charcoal and you don't understand that smoking is a slow process.

Beautiful stuff there.

Deepster - particularly liked the "eat at Applebees" at the end. Nice touch. Nothing is quite as effective when you are arguing a position as finishing with, "and if you don't agree with my opinion on smoking meat, then you have the culinary sophistication of the average Jerry Springer guest."

By the way, Temery - I raise and slaughter my own animals and my buddy has an electric smoker that we use to smoke the bacons and, really, it's some of the best bacon I've ever had, and I've eaten a piggish amount of bacon. So you can get really good results with an electric smoker. I guess I'll meet you at Applebees.

Any suggestions for an electric or gas smoker?

 

[CAHUSKY]

Any suggestions for an electric or gas smoker?

I have a lot of suggestions. How much are you looking to spend?

 

[temery]

I have a lot of suggestions. How much are you looking to spend?

$100 to $150.

 

[CAHUSKY]

$100 to $150.

In that price range i haven't had a ton of luck . My favorite was probably the Masterbuilt. My Smoke Vault made decent bbq but the door fell off and the whole thing started falling apart pretty quickly. Camp Chef is another option. Ive cooked on one but can't speak to their longevity as it belonged to a friend who i haven't seen in a while.

Check out this website for some really good info. You can scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter your query into the google search bar. http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120042

I learned a ton from that website. I know you said charcoal was too much work but, in that price range, you might want to consider building a UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker). I built my own for way less than $150 and it cranks out excellent bbq. It burns charcoal/wood and, once you get it to temp, runs rock solid for 18 hours on one chimney.

Here is a link to the Masterbuilt at Walmart. Not sure if they have the best prices or not. It just came up first in my Google search: http://www.walmart.com/ip/7811422?w...77889550&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=34189012630&veh=sem

 

[temery]

In that price range i haven't had a ton of luck . My favorite was probably the Masterbuilt. My Smoke Vault made decent bbq but the door fell off and the whole thing started falling apart pretty quickly. Camp Chef is another option. Ive cooked on one but can't speak to their longevity as it belonged to a friend who i haven't seen in a while.

Check out this website for some really good info. You can scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter your query into the google search bar. http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120042

I learned a ton from that website. I know you said charcoal was too much work but, in that price range, you might want to consider building a UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker). I built my own for way less than $150 and it cranks out excellent bbq. It burns charcoal/wood and, once you get it to temp, runs rock solid for 18 hours on one chimney.

Here is a link to the Masterbuilt at Walmart. Not sure if they have the best prices or not. It just came up first in my Google search: http://www.walmart.com/ip/7811422?w...77889550&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=34189012630&veh=sem

What do you mean, "on one chimney?"

I understood charcoal smokers needed to be refueled throughout the cooking process.

 

[Deepster]

What do you mean, "on one chimney?"

I understood charcoal smokers needed to be refueled throughout the cooking process.

For a small smoker and just you or a small party, you're talking about an initial chimney of charcoal and maybe another one 1.5-2.0 hours in, depending how windy or cold it is outside.
You can also use the "minion method" where you just gradually add small amounts of new charcoal throughout the process:
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/fireup2.html
Or you can go to Applebees.

 

[Revrat]

I use a Master Forge gas smoker from lowes that I got for $80 on sale. I think Fishy called it a bomb waiting to go off. I have had it for 4 years now and it works great. Just had to modify a water pan for it to get the right temp.

For real advice go to http://amazingribs.com tells you all you need to know about BBQ and equipment with reviews and lots of advice.

 

[LIuconn]

I think this topic was brought up way back on here - that's how I learned of the Big Green Egg. Not cheap, but all I've read about it says it's the Big Green Egg of smokers

 

[SWHuskyFan]

I just got into the smoking thing, I have a Webber Smokey Mountain smoker. It uses charcoal, and I've smoked for long periods of time without adding any charcoal. If you're smoking something for 3-4 hours it's not an issue at all. The only time I've added any charcoal is when I smoked a Boston Butt for pulled pork, that needed 13 hours of smoking. I only added charcoal to that once.

Generally I've found the charcoal process to be easy and not a hassle. I bought a chimney started and some starter cubes. I light the cubes with 1 match and put the charcoal filled chimney over them. I add a base layer of charcoal to my smoker and put the lit coals from the chimney on top of them ( once they are fully gray ). That's the minion method that deepster mentioned and people have cooked for over 10 hours without additional charcoal that way. It does take about 20 minutes to do, but it's pretty much no work, just waiting for the charcoal to be ready. The chimney starter is a pretty big game changer from the way my dad started his grill. He used a lot of lighter fluid and a pretty fair amount of profanity.

In summary, charcoal is no big deal and as others have mentioned, you can get a decent charcoal smoker for much less than a decent electric / propane smoker.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I think this topic was brought up way back on here - that's how I learned of the Big Green Egg. Not cheap, but all I've read about it says it's the Big Green Egg of smokers

On a $100-$150 budget you might be able to buy a replacement lid handle for a Green Egg.

 

[CAHUSKY]

What do you mean, "on one chimney?"

I understood charcoal smokers needed to be refueled throughout the cooking process.

As Deepster explained, I was talking about the minion method without actually explaining the method. I use about 3/4 of a bag of charcoal in the bottom of my UDS along with some wood chunks and then start it with one chimney (15 -30 briquettes) and it will burn for hours without adding any charcoal the remainder of the cook.

 

[August_West]

Electric smokers are for ultra low temp smoking ( like 175 degrees and lower even) of cheeses and fish. I have one strictly for bluefish. It's the only way I can eat it, heavily peppered and smoked until it's almost like a jerky.
You can use them for meats., but I really think that if you want to smoke meats from the 225-250 degree range that you will do much better with charcoal and wood. I know that you already said no, but that's my experience and opinion.

 

[August_West]

Damn I love the internet. It's like two dudes are walking down the street, they exchange words, they strip to Borat thongs, they wrestle in a muddy puddle for 15 minutes, then they get up and go home. Dude 1 makes a simple point - I want something other than charcoal for slow cooking/smoking. Dude 2 comes back with - You want charcoal and you don't understand that smoking is a slow process. Beautiful stuff there. Deepster - particularly liked the "eat at Applebees" at the end. Nice touch. Nothing is quite as effective when you are arguing a position as finishing with, "and if you don't agree with my opinion on smoking meat, then you have the culinary sophistication of the average Jerry Springer guest." By the way, Temery - I raise and slaughter my own animals and my buddy has an electric smoker that we use to smoke the bacons and, really, it's some of the best bacon I've ever had, and I've eaten a piggish amount of bacon. So you can get really good results with an electric smoker. I guess I'll meet you at Applebees.

Bacon is great in an electric because you are smoking it at a way lower temperature then your normal 225-275 range of ribs, pork shoulder and Brisket.

I haven't had time in the last few years, but I'm a registered kcbs competition cook. I'm very passionate about smoking it's a science and can suck up inordinate amounts of time as an obsessive hobby. ( money too ) I just do it at home now.


By the way the Big Green Egg is worthy of the hype and price tag, I have 2. An actual one and one one was bought at Costco for a few hundred less called a Vision Kamodo grill. They are virtually the same with the difference being the BGE lifetime warranty. Kamodo Joes are right in there too but pretty much same price as BGE.


In addition to being killer smokers, they are the best pizza grill out there IMO.


Revrat has it right, amazingribs.com is the place to learn. I've met meathead a couple times at comps.

 

[August_West]

Bottom line with smokers:

The less you pay the more you work.

My BGE will hold temp on one load for over 12 hours.

My Weber smoky mountain about 5 hours ( and I modded it)

I have a 75 dollar master forge it will hold for 120 min. I could mod to get better.


It's nice to be able to throw a packer brisket in at 10 pm at night and go to bed and know you can wake up at 10 am the next day without touching the smoker.

 

[8893]

I have one strictly for bluefish. It's the only way I can eat it, heavily peppered and smoked until it's almost like a jerky.

I can't add to the smoker conversation because I only enjoy eating smoked food, not smoking it myself; but I wanted to chime in re bluefish preparations. Like you (and most people), I am not a fan generally because it tastes too fishy. I have had it smoked and like it, but the family secret I was taught for bluefish otherwise a long time ago was to smother the fish with mayonnaise before broiling it in foil. The mayo absorbs a lot of the fishy taste, and then you scrape it off before you serve it, resulting in a considerably milder and more palatable (imo) fish.

 

[CAHUSKY]

I haven't had time in the last few years, but I'm a registered kcbs competition cook. I'm very passionate about smoking it's a science and can suck up inordinate amounts of time as an obsessive hobby. ( money too ) I just do it at home now.

.

What cooker did you use for competition?

 

[August_West]

What cooker did you use for competition?

My partner and I had a gatorpit custom on a trailer.
I used BGE and and WSM too. Always had a few going. You had to. Never knew which one would p My best showing was in the rib category ( top 10) at a kcbs event in upstate NY. And the ribs that day came out of the WSM!

 

[breezy]

Thought this was gonna be a thread about quitting smoking...

 

[Chin Diesel]

I don't have a scorecard but has anyone in this thread provided a recommendation for an electric or propane smoker in the $100-$150 range?

 

[jleves]

I don't have a scorecard but has anyone in this thread provided a recommendation for an electric or propane smoker in the $100-$150 range?

I think the general consensus is that the original question would be like Kevin Ollie asking his staff to find a one star recruit who plays like Ben Gordon.

 

[SWHuskyFan]

It's against my better judgement but this grill seems to review pretty well and it's going on Amazon for $174.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...RCY&linkCode=as2&tag=bestgrillsforthemoney-20

 

[Fishy]

I have a great recipe for smoked bluefish.

You need one bluefish, a smoker, an ocean and any other kind of fish.

First, as soon as you catch the bluefish, unhook it and immediately throw it back in the ocean.

Then, run home and smoke the other fish.

I find that really helps remove the oily, gamey, crappy taste of the bluefish.