Along with oldcrafty.... thank YOU for giving all of US a great story, many of us have been the working end of WE, and can chuckle along with the story. When the long winter ends and the days of pride begin, veterens day, 4th of July, Memorial etc, YOU and YOURS will feel the pride and love you have put into that wonderful smoker,... thanks for building it with all those friends and sharing it with us...hugsssss ginnyp

Jim, I raised those 32 ducks last year, we had to do SOMETHING with them, LOL, so I've eaten them smoked and roasted and in cassoulet... mrsmoosepants, Elery used Head Country Seasoning for the rub, he loves the stuff, I've got to get on the ball and order some more, we can't get it here locally. Anyway, here's what he did: If there's a lot of fat on the brisket, trim it to about 1/4 inch. Rub brisket liberally with favorite dry spice rub. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next day, put it in smoker the, fat side up. Smoke at no more than 225-degrees for 5-to-6 hours. Elery uses mesquite, but I think pecan or hickory would be good too. Remove meat from the smoker, wrap tightly in 2 layers of heavy duty foil with 1/2 cup of liquid of your choice. Elery likes beer but I don't, I'd rather he use beef broth. Put the foil package on baking sheet with sides in case of leaks. Finish in oven at 225-degrees for 4-to-5 hours. This was really good, nice and tender and smoky, and it's especially good with some good BBQ sauce. We have only done a couple because I keep making pastrami out of the briskets and a cow only has so many pieces of brisket, LOL. Trudy, the bacon was actually easier than I had anticipated but it has to cure for several days, so you'll have to have refrigerator space. I used the recipe in Charcuterie for the brine, and Elery smoked it over apple wood. Here's the recipe, the instructions aren't mine, I copied from another website posting, but it's just like I did it and it's the same recipe: Maple Cured Bacon One 5 lb. piece of pork belly, rind on 2 ounces kosher salt 1/4 C. pure Maple syrup 2 t. pink salt (a curing salt, not the Hawaiian stuff) 1/4 C. Maple sugar (mine was grade B) Simply mix up all the ingredients for the cure (it will be a sort of yellow slurry) and spread it all over the pork belly, making sure to get under all the nooks and crannies and on the sides as well. Make the coating as evenly as possible on both sides so the whole thing has a nice coating (including the rind). Place in a 2 gallon zip lock bag and sort of fold up the sides so that the liquid that exudes from the belly is in constant contact with the meat (will take a bit of folding, the bag will be much larger than the belly), or put it into a plastic Tupperware container, which is what I do with one, but we did four, LOL. Once you've done that, throw it in the fridge (36-40 degrees) for 7 days, flipping it over every other day. On the 7th day, remove the belly from the bag and wash all the cure off. Put it on some sort of drying rack (I use my baking rack that I use for cookies ) and stick it in back in the fridge for 1 day to dry out (form the pellicle). Put the bacon into the hot smoker and smoke until it reaches 147F internal temperature. We try to do this as slowly as possible, so we get lots of smoke flavor. The original recipe says to slice the rind off after smoking but I hadn't asked Carl not to remove it when he cut up the pig, so it was already gone. After it's smoked, let it cool in the refrigerator or stick it on a tray into the freezer, then when it's firm, slice. It'll look like this: I still haven't tried that oven bacon recipe yet, where you sprinkle on brown sugar, drizzle with maple syrup and bake it, but I'm going to! Annie

I ordered a cover for the smoker (HD does not stock them in stores) from Amazon, and we will probably leave it outside most of the time. It is in a spot that gets a lot of afternoon sun, and so it did not take much energy to get it to temperature. After the sun went down, we had to turn the heat up a bit. The manual says that it will take more energy when the outside temperature is below 65 degrees, but if it is that cold here during the day, it is usually raining, and so we would not be using it then. I think we'll probably use this more in the winter than we do the regular barbeques because it requires less attention. I really like the amount of space inside. Lars

I have silky lace and sassy sister