I'm sure this has been discussed, buuuuuuut. School me on smokers

I've got a Kamado, green egg knock off from Costco that I love. Doesn't have a lot of room if you want to to a lot of meat. Smoke ribs/shoulders etc, grill steaks and make pizza. Don't need to add any charcoal for rib cooks nor did I for the last pork shoulder either. Not a true offset smoker though. Ease of use I'd get a pellet like a traeger.

 

Not if you are cold smoking. I use a Bradley 6 rack. My experience is that hanging foods while they smoke is very different than on a grill.

 

Bradley, once you use one you won't go back. Super easy, and works awesom. I love mine

 

I will say my Green Egg is great for smoking. It holds temps really well even in cold weather. I personally struggle with holding the temperatures as steady as I would like on long smokes. (I am a little anal) I use a DigiQ wifi controlled which was a pretty expensive extra but it made all the difference in the world for my peace of mind. I also use a good charcoal, it makes a huge difference in burn length, consistency of temperature and overall ease of the smoke.

 

anyone notice flavor differences? my reverse offset gets great taste, I control the smoke, i can mix woods, ramp up heat to push through a stall ect, it is a JOB to watch it, but once you learn it, its easy, for me 2 small logs and its good for 1.5hrs, so every 1.5hrs i toss 2 logs of the same size on. easy. pellet feeders.........meh... no smoke flavor. super easy, need to have power supply, cant do big amounts of meat. Kettle.... great tool, you can get too much smoke going though. grill or do long smokes with snake method with coals or lump, keeps stead temps for up to 10hrs on mine, can only do like a 7lb shoulder though., coals are taking up all the space. you need to figure out what taste you like and how much you want to cook at one time. The kamodo style cookers i have not tested but I dont see how you can impart good smoke taste over 10-12 hrs of cooking and not add more wood than what was there at the start.

 

I use a handful of cherry/apple wood chips and a couple large chunks, lasts plenty long. The meat is only going to take on so much smoke flavor- after the first couple hours you're just using it as fuel. On my electric I fill the chip tray every 45 minutes or so (so probably 3 times) and get every bit as much flavor as my old offset. It's a tight squeeze, but I can do 2 butts in the electric. 3 will fit on the Akorn.

Nothing wrong with a gas grill, but as mine was pretty roached it made no sense to buy another one when the Akorn works so well for grilling. If it seems like a pain...you're doing it wrong. Use a charcoal chimney to get your coals/lump red hot, dump them in the Akorn, within about 5 minutes you're ready to rock. After cooking, close the vents to kill the fire and you'll have most of that fuel left over for next time.

 

I always found that the key. About 2-3 hours was pretty much about as much smoke flavour you could get into the meat. After that you just need heat.

 

Komodo, Kamado, Kimono....let's call the whole thing off!

 

Exactly and there is a scientific explanation for it.

The bible of smoking is here: http://amazingribs.com/

 

We learned that the hard way doing a turkey one time with hickory. it was....interesting. The best turkey I did was one I smoked with apple chucks soaked in apple juice, for about an hour and a half then into the deep fryer to finish it off. Nice smokey flavour, good smoke ring, but tender and juicy with crispy skin. It was phenomenal.

 

Except that guy punts on cold smoking. Holy grail of the smoke art.

 

Pretty happy with our Treager. I started with Weber kettle - great flavor but lots of work and inconsistent temps
then got a box charcoal smoker- about the same as the Weber - too much process and still have temp issues.
Then got a Treager pellet smoker and it gives great flavor IMO and is super easy regulate temp.
I also like that I can do all my other grilling on it as well. We cook burgers, steaks, fish, shrimp, pizzas, sides too - like baking in an oven but not heating up my house to do it. I used to think charcoal was the only way to get great flavor, pellets are so much better.
The only downside is buy in cost but I'm over that now. Amazon can bring pellets when I run out and there are a lot of different varieties to try out.
Get an electric if you want in on the cheap.

A good meat thermometer helps more than just about anything.
Ive got about 5 different kinds, my go to is a cheapo corded one from Amazon thats very simple.

 

A lot of the bitter flavour also come from burning the wood too completely. That releases a lot of the resins in the wood (depending of the wood itself). That is why I love my Bradley. The wood pucks go for 30 min, then get pushed off into a bowl of water. You can easily mix the woods too.

 

I've got a masterbuilt electric, new was $170.oo bucks. This is my 2nd one, the first one lasted about 3 years with pretty regular use but shit the bed. Then I got a Treager and it sucked, took it back and got another master built.

 

I cold smoked a bunch of cheese this spring and it is awesome! Bought 5lb blocks of cheddar at Costco and used the A-maze-N pellet smoker in my green egg for about four hours then vacuum sealed it for at least two weeks. Even makes cheap cheese taste great.

http://www.amazenproducts.com/product_p/amnps5x8.htm

 

Chaotic is gonna hit you up for a good smoked Velveeta recipe.

 

every time I start thinking how great a pellet smoker would be I read of another one with feed or electronic issues. Analog FTW!
I wish I could find remote thermometer probes that'll last more than half a season... I ended up with 3 fancy units before figuring out it was just the probes taking a shit.