Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I almost never use anything but just lump charcoal on chicken....and I don't do much smoking...just grilling at 350. I want crispy skin.

Poultry absorbs wood smoke like crazy.....in my opinion it's very easy to overdo it.

Another thing to consider, too.....was the wood nice and dry? If it's the least bit green you can expect an off flavor.

 

You caught me. I soaked the wood chunks in water to prevent then from burning because I let them get too dry.
Rookie move, I should lose my Weber for a month as punnishment.

Maybe that was a culprit too.

My previous chicken I’ve done on just coals. I might stick with that.

 

I don't think wet aged wood vs green wood will yield the same off flavor. But like others said, just cut back on amount of smoke time for poultry and should be good to go.


and if you need to put your Weber in timeout... watch out for @itzyoboipaul ... he may try and get it from ya

 

That's a big Bluegill filet!!

 

Oh lord. I've spent the better part of last night and this morning looking up designs.

It's looking like $2,000 will get me really far with a gravity fed cabinet smoker, provided I do a lot of the work, call in some favors, compensate others for their time/expertise in assisting.

This site will cause your imagination to start running wild:

http://smokerbuilder.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=149

@Misplaced Nebraskan , let's split the cost of the cut file, maybe save ourselves a few bucks buying all of the sheet metal together, then throw something in the pot for @Bigdaddy4760 to host us for however many build weekends together it takes to get two of these built :

 

Wonderful, another site to spend hours reading. One poster is supposedly selling complete kits for gravity fed smokers!!

 

how much is it?


I do like em a lot!

 

That site is awesome!

But a lot of pics aren't public which sucks...

 

$1,500 for parts + whatever it takes for a real welder to help guide the build.

 

Damn... this or reverse flow smoker?!?

More importantly... which one would classify me as a pro?


I know I said I was done... but I'm trying...

 

Just what I needed, something else to want to spend money and time on.

Gravity fed looks pretty cool.

 

I think to be a pro you need to learn how to use 3 large rocks and a hollowed out tree.

 

There were probably a few more offsets among the real pros this past weekend, but it was pretty close. The team cooking next to us last year (won Grand Champion) cooked on a cabinet smoker. A few years ago, the team next to us had an Assassin. That's when I fell in love with the style.

I'm definitely going to a cabinet style whenever I get something other than a drum and I really like the fuel loading capability of a gravity fed unit.

 

or this...






https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/the-worlds-largest-bbq-smoker-is-for-sale-in-brenham/

 

That probably just makes you a poser. Have to look back through the thread to figure it out.

 

It is an awesome design for sure. and more portable in a sense. Capacity vs footprint is impressive too...

oh! I just got a great idea!

I still have my old 50's style fridge in the garage... Could fashion up a gravity feed box on the side and make that into a gravity fed smoker cabinet

 

so confusing

 

Seems like a cool design. Looked at their site where they sell the plans. Now if only I could weld worth a damn.

 

exactly... was thinking it'd be a fun project to learn on.