Entry level smoker for brisket
 

I need to smoke some brisket. It will probably be a few pieces of meat to get some ideas out of my system. What smoker, style, brand, should I get to try a few pieces of meat out.

My son picked up one from Lowes. It's electric. He has perfected his technique. It was a well worth it. He's smoked racks of ribs, pork roast and a lot of other stuff that tastes good.

Maybe too small for your meat?

electric brinkmann from lowes. i used charcoal for years. the electric is hands down easier to use with more consistent results. and a hell of a lot cheaper, too.

That's what she said

Shaun, I've always been a fan of the electric smokers. The Smokin tec is built like a cook shack, but considerably less. However, my folks got us a pellet grill for Xmas, and I have to says its pretty awesome for smoking low and slow, Investigate them as well. There is a char griller you can get at some lowes for for around $500 that's about the best deal out there.

Thank you Gentlemen. Lots more to consider than I thought. It's more likely than not my ideas for smoking brisket won't work, I just want to experiment with a few techniques and rubs, so I'm looking at cheap.

What's the difference between these types of smokers? Mike, is this what your son has?

Shop Char-Broil 1,500-Watt Electric Vertical Smoker at Lowes.com

chargriller bbq w/side smoker

Brinkmann Sportsman Charcoal Smoker & Grill - BBQ Smokers at Hayneedle

I have a Masterbuilt electric smoker. Super easy to use, I'd highly recommend one. I also have a charcoal smoker...which since getting my electric smoker I never use anymore.

Which model Nick?

I have a Weber Smokey Mountain. Of all the smokes I have done, brisket is by far the most difficult. Once you master it though......

I have this one and it works well.


Masterbuilt 20070910 30-Inch Black Electric Digital Smoker

$169 on Amazon

The Brinkmann is good, especially if you do the few tweaks you can find online for them. I am looking at an electric for myself and am looking at this one: Amazon.com : Masterbuilt 20070910 30-Inch Black Electric Digital Smoker, Top Controller : Patio, Lawn & Garden

I have the brinkman electric and want to upgrade soon. It is not bad if you are not wanting to get too involved in smoking or want something to make sure you enjoy it enough to warrant a larger investment.

smokingmeatsforum.com and www.bbq-brethren.com are two sites worth visiting if you want to spend more than a few hundred. Weber Smoking Mountain seems to be the most recommended for under $300.

Highly recommend a temp probe like the maverick 732. If you want I could loan you mine. I don't see myself smoking anything over the next few months.

Regarding the CL smoker. I don't have firsthand experience with them, but consider that the metal is going to be thin on budget smokers and will use a lot of fuel and time to make sure it is at temp.

If you are going to go electric, check out Smokin tex. More money up front but they are built sturdy. My dad has been using his for 10 years, and it looks like it will go another 10!

Good stuff, thanks. Thin wall makes sense, I imagine stabilizing temp is also harder.

Thanks for the offer on the probe, I'll let you know when I get a smoker, won't be for a few weeks, probably going down to NC in week to learn from a master, will get a smoker right after Christmas I think.

I'll put in my thoughts from our email convo here for the benefit of the board, and add some thoughts on brisket and rubs:

Yes, it is often extremely economical to seek out local smoke (and cook) wood. You'll simply want to ensure that the wood is seasoned and dry.

The ultra-thin-gauge metal is the Achilles heel of the cheap smoker. At least in a dirt-cheap egg type, you get the advantage of lots of your heat passing up through the water bath and meat before disappearing through the thin walls, which simply cannot carry any kind of thermal load, preserving your fuel and extending your cook time. In a cheap offset smoker, the thermal dynamics are simply disastrous. You end up with food next to the firebox that is dried out and over-smoked, and food to the other side that is flavorless and raw. Further, due to less-efficient layout and massive amount of surface area of the cooker - especially when you compare surface area as a ratio against cooking surface - you just absolutely blaze through fuel. Also deduct from the equation the water bath. The water bath in the egg type cookers really serves to stabilize and smooth the internal temperature of the cooker, while serving the primary function of de-coupling the fire from the meat. This converts it from a kettle-type direct-heat fast cooker (barbecue grill, duh) to an indirect-heat slow cooker/smoker. What that means to you is that it idiot-proofs your cook and makes you look like a ****ing rock star.

Temperature stability is key to great, world-class meat. Stabilizing temperatures in a cheap, thin-wall offset smoker is nigh-on impossible. This is the voice of experience talking - I have bought and tried both. Not just blowing smoke - pun intended.

Brisket - there's a comment above that it is super hard to do a brisket. I disagree - I've found all meats equally easy to cook up, if you keep a couple things in mind:

There are two 'secrets' to getting good results from any smoke: 1) Temp control, temp control, temp control. This is really hard to do on cheap smokers, but see above re: egg-type smokers. For short (3-6 hour) cooks, you can make do on a cheap smoker for years. Doing brisket on a cheap cooker would indeed be tough - just for all the time you'd spend diddling with the fire and adding coals, and for all the money you'd spend on fuel. You could smoke for 3-6 hours, and transfer to an oven for the rest of the night, though. I've done this countless times with stellar results on my cheap Brinkman.

2) Know the meat. Each cut and animal is different, and you need to study up about fat content and connective tissue. I actually find brisket to be super-easy, because the excessive fat cap and fat marbling really idiot-proofs the cook and self-bastes the meat. This, even after trimming several POUNDS of fat from a whole brisket before starting the cook. On the other hand, one of my favorite smokes is deer ham, which is almost completely lacking in fat while having tons of gristly connective tissue and silver skin. Fatty cuts are more forgiving and come up to 'done' temp slowly and more smoothly. Cook sessions for lean cuts often go "raw raw raw raw raw raw OVERCOOKED" with no warning. For lean cuts, simply monitor the meat militantly and pull it off as soon as the temp hits the desired internal temp, period. Fatty cuts with lots of connective tissue, like brisket - the art is in giving the connective tissue time to heat up and melt, yet without overcooking and burning the meat. How to do that, you ask? Go back and read trick #1. Most everything you can imagine has already been covered at the Virtual Weber Bullet site. Anything they haven't covered, you can extrapolate once you've got some experience.

Rubs - for brisket I played around with concocting the perfect rub for months, then tossed it and went with 55/45 salt/pepper. Texas BBQ - and brisket is quintessential Texas BBQ - is all about simplicity and letting the meat do most of the talking. Take it easy on the smoke and rub, and just let the meat shine. Now for short ribs, I still show off quite a bit with the rub. I do 1/2 C salt, 1/2 C dark brown sugar, 1 tbsp each chili powder, fresh ground coffee, cumin, mustard, black pepper. I buy un-cut beef short ribs that can exceed 1-lb post-cook weight (!) and hang off the sides of the plate.

Ask on the Meat Smoker Forum: How to build a fridge smoker



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1418270943.jpg

I have this one too.

I've had a Weber Smokey Mountain for years....my only complaint is I don't use it enough :D. I'll defer to Dave (DTW) for all other input...his posts always make my mouth water...

My experience on the WSM....I can load it with one chimney of glowing charcoal, pour another chimney of unlit charcoal on top of those, and never touch the fuel source again for an easy 14+ hour smoke. Take the lid off for mopping, etc. replace lid, and the temp will almost immediately return to 225. Just like the Weber Kettle grills....well built, well designed, and well....delicious brisket ;)

ps: Gotta have an additional thermometer with temp probes for both the smoker temp and for the meat for monitoring and control, but it's really just monitoring for all practical purposes.

ok one word Traeger look it up

:p Nice! .....but not what I'd call "entry level" :p

Came back to this thread to add:

thesmokering.com

That was my go to place many years ago....I'd forgotten about it.