I've been using my barbecue as smoker for about 3 years now. Smoking meat with a barbecue is about like driving a nail with a pair of pliers. Pliers will do the job but you'd do better to pick up a hammer. With that thought in mind I bought a Smoking Sidekick last week and on Sunday I decided to make pulled pork. The smoker came with a small selection of recipes and guide to recommended practice.
At $80 the basic sheet metal box is a touch overpriced but it worked very well and is much more economically priced than the digitally controlled models. Fit and finish is just so-so.
I will warn any potential buyers, read the directions carefully. The recipe for pulled pork warned that it would take about eight hours to finish cooking the pork shoulder and it was three minutes shy of eight hours when I took the pork butt out of the smoker.
To demonstrate the plier v. hammer argument when smoking with the barbecue I generally use about a full bag of wood chips to smoke a two pound turkey breast which takes about two hours in the barbecue. To smoke the five pound pork but I used about two cups of wood chips. At that rate I could smoke pork butt every two weeks all summer on one bag of wood chips.
My advice is buy the right tool for the job rather than pounding nails with pliers.
I keep telling you that you should trade in your hammer-like wit for something more rapier-sharp for just the reasons you cite, but you seem to decline, preferring the blunt-force trauma of your sense of humour.... (*grin*)
ReplyDeleteI had a friend had a small smoker unit that was round. You put everythign inside it and let it smoulder away all day outside. I can't tell if it was bigger than your little cube, but I think it might have been.
Made some decent food, though I admit not to being a fan of smoke, smokey tastes, smokey BBQ, etc. I do eat some smokey cheeses and have been known to add smoked bacon to things, but that's about it.
If it counts as a preservative, then it's okay by me. But I wouldn't choose it for the flavour.
I'm still jealous of you lucky folk with a BBQ. That's the thing I miss the most about urban living.