Smokers

[6pakdave]

No, not cigars!

A little off topic I guess... Im looking at maybe buying a smoker [BBQ] when Im in CA. Looking at Lowes/Webber. I love ribs and pulled pork!. I need some feedback as to whats the better unit. Gas Vs Elec size etc.
We dont see them much over here, well not the stand-up barrell types. The 1st time I saw one was at Bakersfield at the drag racing, it was elect but man,it smelled like kerosene or gas [fuel]?
Do they use much gas for the slow cooking?

cheers Dave

[Vern B]

Dave

I just saw your post about smokers. Funny, when you were in CA I was in Australia. Not sure if you purchased one yet, but I'll give you my experiences. I have done a lot of smoking over the years, everything from fish, sausages, all kinds of meats, pork ribs, butts, etc. I used to smoke with a wood fire, but that is really difficult to contro temps. I currently have both electric and propane and use the propane mostly. The electric is hard to get up to temp to smoke a lot of meats, so that's why I use tyhe propane. For slow smoking ribs, pork butts, you want to be about 225 to 250 F. For chicken I run about 350F to eliminate the chance of any botulism. Most of the big box houses here (Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, ?Wal Mart, etc) have propane smokers. I do'nt have the name of mine on hand right now, but I can get it if you want. It stands about 4' high, 18" x 18" deep/wide. It has 4 racks and the burner is in the bottom and has a water pan to fill when you are smoking.

Re Australia:

We had a great time in your country. We were travelling with a tour group. We started in Melbourne, to Hobart, Tazmania, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Ayers, Rock, Cairns, Darwin, Sydney. We were in Melbourne and Sydney for 5 days and all the others for 2-3 days. We had flights between all the cities, except we took The Ghan train from Adelaide to Alice Springs. We had a great time in all the cities and seen an auful lot of your country. We were in Sydney on Anzac day and being a veteran I enjoyed the parade and celebration very much.

I got a chance to see some Aussie muscle whil there also. I saw several Mustangs, some old Chryslers and a pro streeted 55 Chevy.
Also saw one of the new Chevy SS with right hand steer, pretty cool.

While in Alice Springs we went to an evening barbecue in an old quarry pit. We were down in the pit with 100' high quarry walls around us. We saw several kangaroos/wallys up on the top and though we say a dingo which one of the guys video'd a couple hundred yards. He just sent it to me the other day and it was a cougar. Absolutley no doubt.................100%!!

I know there are supposed to be no big cats there, but there is a least one!!

If I can give you any more info on the smokers, let me know.

email [email protected]

Regards

Vern Bauer

[x Baldwin Motion]

we have been doing a lot of smoking the past couple of years, all wood/charcoal units. I agree the smaller units are difficult to maintain temps so now we are designing to build a cold smoke unit. The fire box will be below surface grade and the smoke will travel horizontally below grade also approx 6' to a cedar box at ground level. photos as it's developed [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

it's not likely I would consider gas or electric as I do not like the taste of either [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/wink.gif[/img]

[WILMASBOYL78]

wood or charcoal...use different wood chips for flavor...

Wilma

**we have a Weber unit...very nice

[x Baldwin Motion]

Mike used to bring home this giant towable unit.



we got him this small brinkman a couple years back, great for grilling and smoking, got to watch the heat though.




though you can buy bags of processed chips and &quot;flavored&quot; wood in the store, we make our own.



processing our &quot;designer&quot; wood for smoking


the underground unit we are planning now will also double as a poolside firepit. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[budnate]

we used apple tree chips, run the limbs through the chipper spread them out in the shop fire up the heater and bag them in a week....adds great flavor,