SMOKER MACHINE for BBQ

A gas or charcoal grill can be substituted easily and with good results. It's mostly about keeping the heat on one side and the meat on the other. Add some wood chunks or chips and you're smoking.

Or you can look at getting an inexpensive electric smoker. A 30" Masterbuilt Electric Smokehouse can be had for a bit over $100. You have to feed it wood chips every hour or two but then it's pretty much set and walk away after sufficient smoke.

Not the most reliable as they have had some issues with terminal connectors with the burner but if the connectors go south it's an easy fix. I have one and after reading a couple of reviews I replaced my two wires with better connectors and higher gauge high temp wires. Still going strong after 4 years

Not the regular oven, no.

Because I have no idea of what your circumstances are, I can't make a well informed recommendation. The best way to smoke food depends on what you want to smoke, your resources, what equipment's available to you at a reasonable cost, whether you want to smoke inside or out doors, etc., etc.

A lot of pits made to make Southern style American barbecue are made in China and other parts of Asia. I don't know about local availability, though.

Say something about what you want to do, being as specific as possible. Ask lots of questions.

BDL

since you mentioned DDD... 

 

- old refrigerators, oil drums, and boxes of course!

 

tbh - I really don't understand  your original question... what do  you want to BBQ and what can't you find to do it?

Are you trying to set up a restaurant or smoke for personal consumption? I really have no idea what you are referring to with DDD. I watch the show but I've seen just about every thing under the sun being used so that's a really big question. If you can narrow it down to the episode or better yet the establishment you are referring to.

If your trying to keep costs down at home you can go a very long way with a webber smokey mountain. IIR they are around $100.

 

Dave

Ugly Drum Smoker http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13224 can be built from locally sourced materials.
 

A UDS is easily made, WSM are avail on line, Kettle can be set up with 2 zones easily with a couple fire bricks and foil. Just cook indirect and add some chunks of fruit wood to the coals for that smokey flavor. Keep kettle and others covered and shoot for 250-300 cooker temp measured where the meat sits not over the coals.



Mark

The smokers in the picture include both sizes of Weber's Smokey Mountain and two Weber Kettles. Barbeque guys and gals refer to the Weber Kettles as either the WSM or the Weber Bullet. I doubt if Mark is selling them, but there are no shortage of venders.

UK Amazon sells the smaller WSM for around 370GBP and the larger for around 430GBP. In addition, there is a Smokey Mountain clone made for the UK market called the "Frontier," which goes for around 180GBP. Not all bullets are good, but the WSMs most definitely are. And while I'm not speaking from personal experience, the UK clones have the same reputation.

I suggest staying away from very inexpensive bullets, specifically those made by Brinkmann. They are drafty and their fires are difficult to manage. It's not that you can't do good barbecue, it's the amount of trouble they take to do it. Also, I suggest staying away from Landmann offsets. You can make them work fairly well, but at the expense of a lot of extra work.

There's an awful lot of good things to say about the WSM type of cooker, and for someone just starting out, it's one of the few very best choices.

The generic alternatives are (a) using just about any mid-size or large covered grill, and cooking by indirect heat with the addition of smoke (usually via a "smoke bomb" of some sort. If you already have a grill or think you'll be doing a lot of grilling and not that much smoking, it's a good way to begin exploring "low and slow" cooking; and (b) building your own. The other alternatives are too expensive for someone just starting out -- especially in the UK

Finally and fortunately, ribs are relatively easy and doing a good job without taking a lot of trouble doesn't require a lot of special smoking equipment. If you're not planning on doing a lot of brisket, pork shoulder,and other large projects, any decent, large-enough, covered grill -- gas or charcoal -- will do.

BDL
Edited by boar_d_laze - 6/3/12 at 8:56am

 

 

You can adjust the upper and lower vents to control the temperture by slowing the burn of the charcoal. The more those vents are closed the slower the burn.

If your looking for a place to start with out spending a lot of $$$ the WSM's are hard to beat.

 

Dave

probably the most inexpensive route(under $20 bucks) if you already have a grill is a smoker box in which you just put wood chips in and place inside your grill

joey

Joey save yourself the $20 and just wrap your wood chips in aluminum foil and make slits in the foil. Works just as well as any of the grill smoke boxes I've tried.

 

Dave

 Nope, just a few of my work horses.

 

Mark

 If you have a 22.5 Weber Kettle or even larger,26.5 it is easy to make a 2 zone smoker. I just helped teach a class yesterday and I was the pitmaster for the beef module. One of the kettles was set up the way I will describe. You can cook on it forever and a day just by adding coals when needed.

Get 2 fire bricks, layed end to end they will divide the coal grate chamber about in half. Cover 1/2 of the   coal grate with HD foil. Leave the other half of the coal grate uncovered. You will build your fire on the section of coal grate not covered. It is nice to have a hinged cooking grate, avail from Weber . Your meat will go on the cooking grate over the foil covered coal grate, not over the fire. Set up a thermometer next to the meat, cheapest one is an oven therm, but nicest is a remote probe, Maverick makes good ones. So you light your coals in a chimney, add to the non covered coal grate, which now has a wall of 2 fire bricks. When you get your cooker to the temp you want, you control the temp with the intake vents, put your meet on the not heat side of the cooking grate. Keep the kettle covered at all times while heating and cooking, removing the hood will drop the temp temporarliy. "if your lookin', you aint' cookin'".

 

Here is a website for WSM and BBQ enthusiasts:http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/index.html

 

If you are interested in what I have described let me know and I will take picks, it is easy to do and a very good 2 zone cooker/smoker.

 

Mark