Expert: John Langenfelder - 7/18/2010

Question
Hi John,

First off, thanks for your time! I'm just getting into smoking meats and currently in the market for a smoker.  Do you have any suggestions about what to look for(brands, types etc.) or are they all pretty much the same once you get past the electric vs. wood aspect cooking surface area and price of course?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

Answer
Jay,

Welcome aboard.  It really depends on your preference.  A charcoal/wood fed cooker will probably give the best flavor vs gas or electric, but generally is difficult to tell.  I have an electric by smokintex  www.smokintex.com that I like a lot. It does a real good job smoking all kinds of meat.  I have had it for about 5 years now.  Masterbuilt makes a nice electric, cheap but it is not well insulated so I can't attest to how well it cooks. Bradley is a big seller, a friend of mine has had one for about 4 years and likes it.  I don't care for it because it uses specially made wood pucks.  Both mine and the masterbuilt use wood chunks. Gas units work well but they are difficult to control the temperature, similar to charcoal/wood smokers.  You have to adjust the air and depending on the outside temperature that can be trial and error.

For wood/charcoal smokers, you can't go wrong with a weber smokey mountain smoker.  Big Green eggs are good also. You can buy the bbq guru, which is an air flow device to regulate the temperature for both of these cookers.  They work very well. I use them on my big charcoal/wood cookers.
For my money, I would try the masterbuilt as it is cheap ($170.00).

Unless you are a real purist, in my mind, electric is the way to go.