Smoker Recommendations

[BentRod]

Anybody here ever watch the show Good Eats on the food network? The host of the show, Alton Brown, has made a couple of smokers on two of the episodes (one was for smoking fresh caught salmon). One of the smokers was made out of two large (unglazed) ceramic planter pots a another was made out of just a large cardboard box. The heating element was an electric hot plate and he placed the soaked wood chips in a pie tin on the hot plate. Used a standard oven/grill rack held in place by various means and monitored the temp with a digital corded oven meat thermometer. Not fancy, but worked and the cardboard box could be recycled afterwards. Pretty cool idea. Of course if you're going to do a lot of smoking then it wouldn't be practical, but it was neat seeing simple ideas in action.

[Dave]

I use the Masterbuilt Grand Mac Series Triple Crown charcoal smoker. It works great and maintains a steady temp of right around 170 degrees which puts total smoking time at about 5 hours. This smoker can hold up to 4 average size pink salmon cut in to fillets. I am not a “cold smoker” because its so time consuming and requires the frequent feeding of wood chips throughout a 12 hour smoke. I have also used the electric smokers and have had the elements go bad on them twice after 5 or 5 applications which is why I switched to charcoal. The Masterbuilt smokers are also inexpensive at about 60.00 I think. Unless they have gone up. Definitely an inexpensive method of smoking fish in a reasonable amount of time. The finished product is great. JMO.

[Bodofish]

Anybody here ever watch the show Good Eats on the food network? The host of the show, Alton Brown, has made a couple of smokers on two of the episodes (one was for smoking fresh caught salmon). One of the smokers was made out of two large (unglazed) ceramic planter pots a another was made out of just a large cardboard box. The heating element was an electric hot plate and he placed the soaked wood chips in a pie tin on the hot plate. Used a standard oven/grill rack held in place by various means and monitored the temp with a digital corded oven meat thermometer. Not fancy, but worked and the cardboard box could be recycled afterwards. Pretty cool idea. Of course if you're going to do a lot of smoking then it wouldn't be practical, but it was neat seeing simple ideas in action.

To build on that, I've made quite a few smokers over the years. Currently I'm using a Big Chief because it was a gift.
I've used old referigerators, burned up old smokers, Bent my own metal or screwed pieces of wood and I always seem to come back to the same heat source. I use an old electric skillet. You just need to open the thermostat and give it a little tweak so you can get past the 400 degree temp for smoking. Heat control = insulation and ventilation
Rock on guy's you can have a smoker made out of anything you can scrounge and $5.00 for a skillet from a thrift store.

[MikeFishes]

Anybody here ever watch the show Good Eats on the food network? The host of the show, Alton Brown, has made a couple of smokers on two of the episodes (one was for smoking fresh caught salmon). One of the smokers was made out of two large (unglazed) ceramic planter pots a another was made out of just a large cardboard box. The heating element was an electric hot plate and he placed the soaked wood chips in a pie tin on the hot plate. Used a standard oven/grill rack held in place by various means and monitored the temp with a digital corded oven meat thermometer. Not fancy, but worked and the cardboard box could be recycled afterwards. Pretty cool idea. Of course if you're going to do a lot of smoking then it wouldn't be practical, but it was neat seeing simple ideas in action.

To build on that, I've made quite a few smokers over the years. Currently I'm using a Big Chief because it was a gift.
I've used old referigerators, burned up old smokers, Bent my own metal or screwed pieces of wood and I always seem to come back to the same heat source. I use an old electric skillet. You just need to open the thermostat and give it a little tweak so you can get past the 400 degree temp for smoking. Heat control = insulation and ventilation
Rock on guy's you can have a smoker made out of anything you can scrounge and $5.00 for a skillet from a thrift store.

Well, since we're on the subject, here's another one that Alton put together using Terra Cotta flower pots. Notice, the guy lives here in Seattle, so all the places to get stuff at are in seattle. It uses a 17" pot, which is big enough to smoke a pink in.

[MikeFishes]

I decided to go and pick up the Little Chief smoker. Mainly because it's electric, it's small and easy to store when not in use, and tons of good reviews all over the internet. Also, I got it for $79 on sale at Fred Meyers. They had the Big Cheif, but I didn't want to deal with the top load. They also had an electric Binkmann, but I decided to stick with what I read.

I almost went for the Masterbuilt, but decided I wanted my first to be under $100. I can upgrade later once I feel that I have a good hang of smoking. Looking forward to smoking lots. Got 10lbs of spare ribs in the freazer just begging to be smoked.

[MikeFishes]

I decided to go and pick up the Little Chief smoker. Mainly because it's electric, it's small and easy to store when not in use, and tons of good reviews all over the internet. Also, I got it for $79 on sale at Fred Meyers. They had the Big Cheif, but I didn't want to deal with the top load. They also had an electric Binkmann, but I decided to stick with what I read.

I almost went for the Masterbuilt, but decided I wanted my first to be under $100. I can upgrade later once I feel that I have a good hang of smoking. Looking forward to smoking lots. Got 10lbs of spare ribs in the freazer just begging to be smoked.

Scratch that. After reading the instructions and recipies that came with the Little Cheif I realized that it's not what I wanted. The Little Chief doesn't maintain the heat to cook as well as smoke. It's just a smoker. From what I read at various grilling/smoking sites, its electronics are made to heat to 160 - 170 only (which will translate to lower temp in the box). So, if I want to smoke some ribs (and I do) I can smoke them for 3-4 hours, then finish them off in the oven or grill. It's not that bad of an option, but I want something that will smoke and cook.

I picked up a gas powered smoker from Lowes at a clearance price ($119, reg $159). It's the Perfect Flame 36" smoker. Same amount of smoking room as the Little Chief, but can maintain temps up to 400 (according to various reviews). Should be good for what I need. However, I'm missing the thermometer. Which isn't too big of a deal, just insert my meat thermometer where the missing one is supposed to go and I can tell the temp.

So far, I can get the temp pretty low, so I'm fairly confident that I can get what ever temps I need. Nice thing about gas, instant heat.

[Rich McVey]

Right on, keep us posted on all the kick'n grub you pull outa that thing :chef:

The new part for my masterbuilt is supposed to arive Monday. I cant believe Im jones'ing to smoke up a rack of ribs. =p~

[Gringo Pescador]

Im jones'ing to smoke up a rack of ribs. =p~

RaMcVey - Would you be willing to share you're recipe for that??

[Rich McVey]

Im jones'ing to smoke up a rack of ribs. =p~

RaMcVey - Would you be willing to share you're recipe for that??

Yea, I use the basic recipe Masterbuilt has on their "Recipes" webpage for smoked ribs. With a few changes.

2-4 lbs Pork or Baby Back Ribs

½ tbsp Salt
¼ cup Brown sugar
2 ½ tbsp Chili powder
1 ½ tbsp Ground cumi
2 tsp Cayenne pepper
2 tsp Black pepper (freshly ground)
2 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Onion Powder

Suggested wood for smoking: Hickory Chips

Directions

Mix ingredients and rub mixture on meat for 2 hours before cooking. Allow meat to reach room temperature. Cook ribs for 5 hours at 180 degrees in preheated smoker using hickory chips during the first 2 hours. 1 hour before removing from smoker, generously coat the ribs with your favorite BBQ sauce.

I like Stubbs brand sauces, Sweet Baby Rays is also good.

I have the recipe and pics on this thread (Page 2): http://www.washingtonlakes.com/forum/ya ... okers.aspx

[Mike Carey]

Justed posted a smoker review from our 2009 "Fish Camp"

The video is posted on my Blog:

Camp Chef Smoker Review Video