BBQ Smoker

[rykard]

HI,
I am thinking of getting a smoker for my Dad for father's day. I have never used/ heard of one before. Does anyone have any experience of them or can recommend one or tell me what to look for.
Cheers
Rich

[rykard]

cheers
Just downloaded will give a read later

[rykard]

cheers
just downloaded and i will give it a read later

[SwanJack]

I have Pro Q Amigo smoker. It's getting used quite alot. Last weekend did a piece of beef brisket in it, cooked for 7 hrs in a black walnut smoke. Chicken wings smoked in Pecan and covered in Anchor Bar buffalo wing sauce was excellent too. Beer can chicken this weekend.

[rykard]

Where are the best deals at the moment? I am in Leicester...

Rich

[shirt]

does anyone here own one? i read the times article at the weekend, thought it a good idea but baulked at the price [£250+]. they look like something i could probably fashion in a weekend, but i am probably missing something.

[SwanJack]

I bought an entry level one for £89 from here www.forfoodsmokers.co.uk as they had free delivery. You can get this one http://www.forfoodsmokers.co.uk/acatalog/Brinkmann... in Makro for £49 plus vat though.

Edited by SwanJack on Tuesday 2nd June 13:53

[shirt]

thanks for the tip, i'll check out the one in makro!

[theboyfold]

rykard said:

HI,
I am thinking of getting a smoker for my Dad for father's day. I have never used/ heard of one before. Does anyone have any experience of them or can recommend one or tell me what to look for.
Cheers
Rich

You can of course use a kettle type BBQ. The Weber 57cm compact being a good example http://www.wowbbq.co.uk/products/Weber%20Barbecues... and it's a lot less at £90 or so

Paddy_n_Murphy said:

does I need one ?

Yes.

[SwanJack]

If you want to know about BBQ 'proper' and smoking, have a look around here www.thesmokering.com Grilling over hot coals is not really BBQ

[SwanJack]

theboyfold said:

rykard said:

HI,
I am thinking of getting a smoker for my Dad for father's day. I have never used/ heard of one before. Does anyone have any experience of them or can recommend one or tell me what to look for.
Cheers
Rich

You can of course use a kettle type BBQ. The Weber 57cm compact being a good example http://www.wowbbq.co.uk/products/Weber%20Barbecues... and it's a lot less at £90 or so

Paddy_n_Murphy said:

does I need one ?

Yes.

So where's the water pan? Essential for creating indirect heat that hot smoking requires.

[theboyfold]

SwanJack said:

theboyfold said:

rykard said:

HI,
I am thinking of getting a smoker for my Dad for father's day. I have never used/ heard of one before. Does anyone have any experience of them or can recommend one or tell me what to look for.
Cheers
Rich

You can of course use a kettle type BBQ. The Weber 57cm compact being a good example http://www.wowbbq.co.uk/products/Weber%20Barbecues... and it's a lot less at £90 or so

Paddy_n_Murphy said:

does I need one ?

Yes.

So where's the water pan? Essential for creating indirect heat that hot smoking requires.

You create a ring of charcoal and place a drip tray in the middle to catch the juices and use those. (So my book at home says) I'll get my coat if I have the wrong end of the stick...

eta: Linky This was another site that I read before buying the Weber that leads me to believe you can use it to smoke stuff in.

Edited by theboyfold on Tuesday 2nd June 14:27

[SwanJack]

To hot smoke you need to cook away from the charcoal. In the bullet type smokers a pan full of water is positioned directly above the pan full of charcoal and the food is cooked/smoked on top of this. You add large chunks of wood to the charcoal that smoulder away over a very long length of time. I recently read of a piece of brisket being cooked from 10pm on a saturday to 1pm on a sunday. The water bowl is there to keep the temperature down, ideally about 100-120c. The food is never in direct line of site with the charcoal as it would cook to quickly in too high a temperature.
From the site you link it seems that Weber Grills smoke by indirect grilling rather than by hot smoking. I guess only the Americans' obsession with food can create the various layers of cooking in a steel drum Weber do a mean a Smoker BTW.

Edited by SwanJack on Tuesday 2nd June 15:05