[marlin_james]

What are your opinions? I've smoked with my kettle grill and have friends that have huge smokers, but I don't know if I want to get as involved with tending coals by myself for 10-12 hours if I just want to smoke some hams/pork shoulders for me and my wife.

Can they be as good as a "real" smoker?

 

[oscarflytyer]

Never had an electric. Have had/used a charcoal for years. I am now done with mine, and going to ditch it. From now on, my method will be to do it on a gas grill. I have a wood chip box, and will get another one for smoking.

Using the two smoke boxes, I fill them with chips, heavy smoke the meat for about 2 hrs, then triple wrap the meat with tin foil and continue to cook until done. For a big Boston butt, about 2 hrs hvy smoke, wrap and cool the heat down to a high warm and cook another 2 hours or so.

The beauty of this is - Easy to heat up and smoke the wood chip boxes on the gas grill, smoke for cpl hrs, then wrap and simmer in the foil for desired/required time. The wrap/simmer keeps the meat very tender and moist. And the best part is, you don't have to hover for 10-12 hrs trying to control the heat. The gas grill is EASY to control the heat!

 

[highpower shooter]

I have a charcoal smoker and an electric smoker. I use the electric more often because it's just so convenient. The electric smoker stays at a constant 250 degrees and is not affected by the wind or outside temperature like a charcoal smoker. As far as taste goes, unless you are a BBQ judge I'm not sure you can tell the difference between the two. Hope this helps.

 

[marlin_james]

I think this is what I want to hear. Thanks guys.

 

[wild willy]

I had a electric I like propane better

 

[Pappy]

I do a lot of indirect cooking with charcoal. I don't have to worry about tending the coals. Just light one side of the coals and let burn slowly to the other side and come back about 4-5 hours later and perfecto.....perfect grub. Unless you doing brisket. Then wrap in foil and then throw back on the grill or in the oven for another 5-6 hours. I only use my propane grill when doing a last minute grilling. Even during December I like natural charcoal with some pecan wood or hickory.

 

[marlin_james]

Pappy- do you have a picture? What do you cook it on?

 

[GH1]

I have an electric Brinkmann smoker, it's a red barrel shaped model with two grilling racks in it. it does a pretty good job but what I don't like about it is there's no way to adjust the temperature. Therefore, it's greatly affected by ambient temperature and weather conditions.
On another note I saw a cooking show contest where the contestants had to make a smoker out of a galvanized trash can, hot plate, and grill racks before they could cook they're dishes. The smoker cost about $60.00 to make and with the hot plate there was temperature adjustment. If I had to do it all over again that's what I'd do.
GH1

 

[Pappy]

Okay, marlin_james you should feel lucky cuz I do not do this for just anyone.

In the first pic I have a pretty good size pile of coals that I only light one corner of them so they burn very slow. I also put a small log of peeeecan for flavor. Eventually the other coals with catch and will burn slowly with air control.

In this pic I put out some ribs that will take a few hours but not as long as the smoker. If you are any good at the grill this should be no prob. I t may take a few times to get it down though. Usually I would put a lot more meat but this gave me an excuse to cookout and not have to go anywhere.

I hope this helped you out.

I woulda posted more pics but the batteries died on me. Sorry.

Pappy.

 

[marlin_james]

Thanks Pappy! I've tried smoking on my grill before but never did it like that. I always put a bunch of coals on and then hacked up my wood into chips. Your way looks much easier and looks like it doesn't require as much attention. Thanks, I'm going to have to give this a try!

 

[Pappy]

Hope you will give us good results.