Hi Roberta I built a smoker from a a new steel barrel, and use charcoal to heat it with. Things I have learned, are that I would like to have a steady source of heat like gas or electric to make it easier maintain the nessary low heat to smoke meat, and this is a very time consuming cooking method so be prepared to watch your smoker for many hours. The last pork butt that I smoked was cooked in the oven for 10 hours before I put it in the smoker for the last 2 or 3 hours because its much easier to maintain the low heat nessary to cook the meat, but thats because my smoker is real low tech. Also I saw a show on the food channel where the chef used a cardboard box with an electric hot plate and a cast iron pan to smoke salmon, with the point being that you don't have to spend a fortune to have smoked food. I looked at the ads for the Bradly smoker, and they look like they would do a good job, but you would have to smoke a lot of meat to make it worth that sort of money. Here is a recipe site to help to get your mouth watering for some good smoked food; www.cookshack.com Bill
We bought the Bradley Smoker and like it. I don't know yet if the use justifies the cost. We have smoked salmon, pork chops, sausage and chicken. We are finding that things come out a little dry, so we need to adjust the timing, etc. I love stuff smoked, however and this is a project in progress!!!
As far as the pit thing, I don't know what you mean. Once we smoke meats, we grill them. With the salmon, it is just smoked and slowly cooked.
I have a bradley & have made some great stuff on it mainly Ribs, brisket & pork butts, but if i had to do it all over again I would have definately went with the cookshack smoker.
backyardbill
cajun_cat
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