Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Damn, you're going all out.

I have a buddy that wants to buy a smoker but doesn't know what to buy so I am going to get him to come over and do a few racks of ribs on the pit barrel cooker and I got a small brisket to throw on the Weber kettle. This way he can see a couple different options, how they work and what it can produce. He originally wanted a pit barrel cooker because he loved the meat I brought to work from it but after telling him I won't bother firing it up for less than a 4 hour cook and 7-8 lbs of meat he is second guessing. For whatever reason he has something against the Weber but I'm trying to convince him that it is probably the best option for him since he could do long smokes on big chunks of meat, short smoke on something smaller like pork chops, tenderloin or tri-tip and then still have the option of dumping a full chimney on and cooking burgers and dogs over direct heat. Not to mention it's half the price and probably has a better resale market if he decides that charcoal is more effort than he wants to put in.

You guys have any other input that I haven't thought of? He says he wants something he can cook dinner on 3-4 nights a week but once he realizes how much time and work it takes to get the desired results I think he will figure out that's not realistic.

Edit: Sorry for the novel

 

from the sounds of it weber would be the best...since you can get a chimney starter and have good coals in 15min. I guess it depends what all he is wanting to cook?

 

Probably should figure out what he has against Weber, some times when people don’t like a brand nothing you say or do is going to change that.

 

I think it's mostly that he had one in the past and didn't really know how to use it. A lot of people I've known don't realize you do a lot more than just dump coals on and sear stuff at which point taking the time to heat up coals seems like an unnecessary hassle compared to just turning on a gas grill.

In fact half of his gripe was that getting the charcoal going was a pain because he didn't know about using a chimney, just trying to use the pyramid and lighter fluid method.

 

might be pointless...tell him to get a propane grill and an amazing smoker...

 

Or just go with a pellet grill/smoker

 

Cut your brick into smaller pieces to increase the surface area of the smoke then package them individually for use to not waste any!

 

Yeah, I was thinking about this too. Budget is a consideration here too and know the startup price on most pellet poppers is higher than he wants to go. I'm also not very familiar with pellet smokers at all so I was hesitant to recommend anything I don't know much about.

 

@Misplaced Nebraskan
Come a running

 

He may be better off with a pellet smoker, electric smoker like a masterbuilt or a propane smoker. Those are about the minimal amount of taking care of things. To be honest though even they take some work if you want a great end product.

 

You can get some decent deals on them if you watch for them. What’s his budget?

 

pitboss is going to be cheaper

 

I think something in the ~$300 range is what he's looking for.

 

I guess the big question is what is he wanting to cook/grill/smoke?

 

Rural King has a few models $299 and under. One of them said it was an XL model. Should be able to do most anything on that.

 

Id vote electric. I enjoyed mine before it broke (i had it for 6 years?). Stupid easy to use. Put some water and wood chips in, plug in and go. No real need to monitor it or anything. Didnt take up a lot of space and i enjoyed everything ive made on it.

I honestly might go with something like this if i dont go charcoal:


https://www.bbqguys.com/pit-boss/bl...ertical-analog-electric-smoker-w-window-77320

Anyone have any opinions on that^

 

How are you going to smoke cheese at meat temps? Seems like you’ll have a pile of goo in the bottom of your smoker? When I smoke cheese it’s in my electric that’s not even plugged up, tray of ice and an AMAZN smoke generator.

 

Alright fellows, went to the only real butcher in this one horse town today to get a tri-tip. Noticed he had pork belly, sadly it was frozen but “supposedly” local. I pulled the trigger on one. Got it opened to thaw in the sink only to find it still had the skin on. After a few choice words I began to trim off the skin. Bottom line, this is my very first attempt at these, all of yours’ look amazing, I’ll keep you posted. This pic is them just hitting the pecan smoke.

 

Lobsters on now