BBQ Smokers

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I am far from being a guru but I have several friends that fancy themselves to be. :lol:

All of them are unanimous on their endorsment of Masterbuilt electric smokers. You simply set them to the desired temp and make sure you keep enough wood in them to get the desired amount of smoke.

If I used my smoker more often, I would buy one.

I have a Brinkman propane unit that works well. The only downside to it is having to monitor the temperature during the process. Factors such as an increase or decrease in wind during cooking can make the temperature swing fairly substantially.

The one that we used at our weekend gathering was a custom built competition unit. It was the real deal where the heat source is actually the logs that you feed into it. You can't beat one of those but it is fairly impractical for home use.
 
I am on the cheap side, but managed to procure 3 smokers - 2 of them I actually use. One is a modified cheap brinkman gourmet charcoal smoker. I can Q some really great ribs and brisket in that little guy. It holds heat for 4 hours before it needs any tending. Not quite a Weber Smoky Mountain (the premier charcoal bullet smoker) but close enough for 1/4 the price. Here's a link to my mods....

https://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9287&highlight=brinkman+gourmet

The other one is an offset upright New Braunsfels smoker. It takes a lot of heat to keep the offset side at 220 so I only use it for faster smokes like ribs. Works pretty good for that, but not like my small one. It looks like this, but mine is the old version where it weighed a ton!

https://www.academy.com/index.php?page=content&target=products/outdoors/grills/smokers&start=0&zoom=1&selectedSKU=0263-02219-5609

Man I love good Q!
 
I have a few different smokers but my 2 fav. are the Big baby
https://www.thesmokering.com/pits/metalpit/bigbaby/default.jsp
and I have a " caja china " set up with a cold smoke gun The caja china is a modefied cajun microwave it will cook a 100 lb hog in 4 hours I use that bad boy at least 5 times a year
 
wasilvers said:
I am on the cheap side, but managed to procure 3 smokers - 2 of them I actually use. One is a modified cheap brinkman gourmet charcoal smoker. I can Q some really great ribs and brisket in that little guy. It holds heat for 4 hours before it needs any tending. Not quite a Weber Smoky Mountain (the premier charcoal bullet smoker) but close enough for 1/4 the price. Here's a link to my mods....

https://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9287&highlight=brinkman+gourmet

The other one is an offset upright New Braunsfels smoker. It takes a lot of heat to keep the offset side at 220 so I only use it for faster smokes like ribs. Works pretty good for that, but not like my small one. It looks like this, but mine is the old version where it weighed a ton!

https://www.academy.com/index.php?page=content&target=products/outdoors/grills/smokers&start=0&zoom=1&selectedSKU=0263-02219-5609

Man I love good Q!

Thanks for these links. Just got married and we're hosting Thanksgiving for both families :shock: We definitely don't have enough oven space and my grill is too small to do a decent bird. I've been looking into the flower pot smokers, but a used Brinkman Gourmet is cheap on Craigslist.

Now I just need to see if a bird for 8 people would fit in that smoker.
 
Do 2 birds. One in the oven and one in the smoker. Or get one whole bird and a couple turkey breasts and do the bird in the smoker and the breasts on the grill or in the oven.
 
I was wavering between propane and electric and had finally decided I wanted one of the Masterbuilt electric ones. I told my wife I was going to go buy one and she said to wait a week or so. This was just before my birthday a couple of years ago. I knew she bought me a smoker. She did, a Great Smokey Mountain propane one. I stupidly mentioned when I unwrapped it that I was going to get the electric one. After she huffed out of the room saying "Do whatever you want, I'm going to bed" I decided to keep the one she bought me. I like it well enough but will get an electric one when this one wears out... in like 20 years. I just wish I could remove the chip box to dump and refill without having to open the door.

This is what I have.

smoker.jpg
 
stinkynathan said:
Now I just need to see if a bird for 8 people would fit in that smoker.

I'm sure it would fit upright - like beer can chicken - not sure about laying down. I did two packer briskets once. I put foil on the sides that touch the smoker side - once they cooked down, the fit was fine. A whole chicken layed flat fits fine.

Someday I'm going to do a Turkey. I'll be sure to brine it first. You can't beat that juicy taste! Might like to fry one too - done very fast and stays moist.

If you do the Brinkman, be sure you can control the airflow and thus the temps. I'd recommend practicing on chicken (it can take some extra heat and is cheap). I found the sun in day vs night, the temp can drop 40 degrees in the little smoker. As long as you know what is going on, it's fine. My vents are ususally only open 1/4 to 1/2. Very rarely are they full open - if so, the temps will reach 300. A themometer is a must. I use a remote one found at wallyworld. I leave it in the 'air' to check the cooking temp. Occacsionally checking the meat with it. Once beef reaches 140 -145 it stops taking smoke and smoke ring, so you might as well just use the charcaol without smoke. It is possible to oversmoke meat - I've done it... very bad for the rep!

BTW, chicken on the smoker is ok, but on the grill with a suger coating... MMMMmmmm - can't be beat! I like it sweet!
 
Popeye said:
I stupidly mentioned when I unwrapped it that I was going to get the electric one. After she huffed out of the room saying "Do whatever you want, I'm going to bed"

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