How to select a Smoker
Selecting a smoker is key to your experience in smoking meat. The following will help you determine how to select a smoker for your time and budget. There are a few basic types of smokers knowing that cooking great food is possible no matter what you choose:
- Offset Stick Burner
- Pellet
- Vertical Barrel
- Electric
- Kettle
When selecting your smoker, you need to consider the following:
- Budget
- Time Commitment
- Complexity
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OFFSET STICK BURNER
An Offset Stick Burner is a simple concept that will produce remarkable results but is the most effort among the classifications. These are what most of the professional pit masters use.
The concept is simple; the smoker is divided into two chambers, a firebox, and a smoking chamber. You light a fire in the firebox and the heat and smoke is channeled into the smoking chamber to cook the meat.
Offset smokers have significant variation in the cost where an entry level model can cost $100-200 and the top end at $10,000+. However, these types of smokers offer the greatest amount of control over the cooking process by controlling airflow by adjusting the dampers and fuel source. Offset smokers also offer the best smoke flavor imparted on your meat.
A significant drawback of these designs is you will need to monitor the fire more closely and more often to feed the beast constantly. The fuel source for these types of smokers is any type of dried hardwood you desire.
If you can handle the time commitment to keep the fire going at a consistent temperature and are willing to invest the time to master the art of fire control, this is the best option, especially as you go up in the quality of the grill.
The quality of construction of the smoker varies from the low end to the high-end in this category. As the smoker goes up in price you should be seeing an increase in the thickness of the metal. some smokers even offer insulation to further increase the opportunity for a consistent temperature throughout your cook.
PELLET SMOKER
A pellet smoker works like an offset stick burner in that there is a fire offset from the cooking chamber/area except there is a computer controlling the amount fuel in the fire and the airflow to the fire. A pellet smoker is easier to maintain the temperature and airflow than an offset smoker. You set the temperature and forget about the fire until it is time to pull the meat off. If you can run an oven, you can run one of these.
The fuel for a pellet smoker is available at most grocery stores or specialty BBQ supply stores. Another advantage with a pellet smoker is you can easily get exotic with wood combinations. It is critically important when buying pellets, you only need to ensure you purchase pellets marked safe for use with food and not the pellets used in a pellet powered heater for your home. Additionally, you should also ensure the pellets are not made with any fillers and are 100 percent the types of hardwood the label on the bag claims they are.
Finally, pellet smokers are easy to use, but they also produce a lower quality smoke than an offset smoker can produce and for that reason, most competition pitmasters will not compete with a pellet cooker opting for an offset smoker instead.
VERTICAL BARREL SMOKER
A barrel smoker is a smoker where the fire and cooking area are in the same chamber. The chamber usually resembles an oil drum in that the smoking area is vertically aligned with the fire box. Like stick burners, the price range on these is vast ($100 – $2,000+). For the fuel you can use both hardwood and charcoal. One advantage of barrel smokers is they are orientated in a vertical manner thus allowing vertical stacking of meat which can allow you to cook more meat at once vs a horizontal cooker.
KETTLE SMOKER
Kettle smokers are really nothing more than a Weber type grill where the coals are set up in a manner to provide indirect cooking. These are not to be looked down on. Some of the best tasting meat I have ever made has been cooked on a Weber. They are easy to set up, but like stick burners they require constant feeding of the fire. To produce a smokey flavor in a kettle grill you can periodically add wood chips to the charcoal and as they burn, they will produce smoke. Also like an offset smoker, the price varies greatly ($50 – $2,000)
ELECTRIC SMOKER
An electric smoker is arranged in a vertical manner like the vertical barrel smoker described above. They use a heating element to heat wood chips or pellets causing it to smoke. They are essentially an oven you can safely smoke meat in. They provide excellent temperature control and are truly set and forget. Many say the meat is not as flavorful as an electric smoker, but it will be cooked perfectly with the minimum amount of effort. They are pricey compared to charcoal or wood burning manual smokers.
SUMMARY
Finally, there really is no right or wrong answer as to what the best type of smoker is. Most of my experience comes from kettle, offset and pellet smokers. In fact, with enough practice, you can turn out very high-quality meat on any of the options.
You really need to ask, what is my budget, how much time can I invest in cooking, and do I want to fiddle with the fire to smoke the meat?
When I first started smoking meat, I used a Weber kettle style grill. As my experience and budget grew, I bought an offset stick burner. I loved it and made some great tasting meat. As a result, I never really wanted to cook pulled pork or brisket because of the time commitment involved to keep feeding the fire and ensuring the temperature remains constant as possible. Once my offset cooker wore out, I decided to buy a nice Yoder pellet grill so I could make any meat I wanted without camping out all night by the fire. Although I do miss the complex smoke flavors of the offset, for me the time savings cannot be beat.
Be sure to check out my list of favorite tools and resources to use here.