Some great tips -- thanks, everyone! I do use the lump charcoal instead of the briquettes -- I think they burn much cleaner as well. And, I actually have two of those cable probe devices. I could easily use one for the meat and one as a general temperature gauge. Which could be especially helpful since I don't think that I'll get my husband to drill a hole in the lid in time. ;) I'm still concerned about how cold it's going to be -- we won't break out of the teens this weekend, so I may do this tomorrow during our heatwave of 30 degrees with a 50% chance of snow. I'll just have to really keep an eye on the fire and probably build it up more -- and if all else fails, I'll finish it in the pressure cooker. Good idea! I've thought about an electric smoker, but I really like smoking this way. Call me a purist or someone who just likes a challenge. LOL Saw this on the Epicurious site and may use it: For dry rub 3 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper 3 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar 3 tablespoons paprika 2 tablespoons coarse salt 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 untrimmed boneless pork shoulder halves (also known as Boston butt; about 6 pounds total) For mop 1 cup apple cider vinegar 1/2 cup water 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper 1 tablespoon coarse salt 2 teaspoons vegetable oil 8 pounds (about) 100% natural lump charcoal or charcoal briquettes 6 cups (about) hickory wood smoke chips, soaked in cold water at least 30 minutes Thanks again for all the help and tips! I"m so hungry now!

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

Not sure what the OP meant by "only uses a few of woods to smoke the cook," but for very small quantities of smoked food, you can use tea-bags or sawdust/chips, a coil-burner-hot-plate (for using it outside), and one of these Cameron stove top units. If you already have a hot plate, the Cameron smoker will set you back about $50 at the likes of BB&B. Never seen the Little Chief models, so I can't comment on them beyond noting that Amazon has them on sale now for less than $100. Might be a good deal. For larger capacities, the cheapskate old timers around here used to DIY smokers by combining a coil burner hot plate, a cast iron skillet (to hold the woodshavings/sawdust for smoke), and a corded probe thermometer in one of those old steel fridges from the 50's that had steel racks. They fabricated (punched) venting through the top. of the fridge and used bricks over the holes to regulate the smoke outflow. Those old steel fridges seem to be very hard to find these days, though, and may be much larger and more cumbersome that what the OP is looking for. So, for capacities larger than the Cameron thing but in a more manageable size, I can second KatieC's recommendation of a Masterbuilt Electric model. One of my old-timer friends bought Masterbuilt's "30-inch Analog Electric" model few years ago when he could no longer find a decommissioned steel fridge. Apparently, Home Depot has them priced currently at $145. (A link is here but there are plenty of other places that seem to carry them these days, though some charge a lot more.) My friend has been well pleased with his purchase which he uses mainly for smoking fish and small-batches of sausages. His daughter has used it to make beer-butt/vertically roasted chicken, too. Seems to take a while to reach proper heat but also seemed to be well enough insulated to work here even on days when the winter temps were not much above 0° F. What I would recommend against is one of the less expensive Masterbuilt "Electric Bullet Smoker" models. Home Depot seems to be selling new ones for about $80 these days, but my friend found one at a thrift store for $5 and decided to try it out. Our conclusions on that model: did not seem to work very well even on warm days; the usable capacity was smaller that my friend wanted; the heat levels shown on the external thermometer's face were way off; the unit very quickly lost a lot of heat and smoke whenever opened to check anything; and the unit seemed somewhat unstable in breezy conditions. Another, younger friend found one of these Masterbuilt "Portable Electric" picnic-table-top models at a yard sale. He has been happily smoking one or two fillets of salmon and steelhead with it. It does not do cold-smoking like my Bradley but not everybody cares about cold smoking and the results for his small batches of hot-smoked salmonids are good. Of course, for the really seriously frugal and/or chronic old farts, there is always Alton Brown's improvised (jury-rigged?) ceramic-flower-pot kludge of which there are youtube videos such as this one. If memory serves, AB had an even cheaper version which used tinfoil, a cardboard box, and a table-top fan. and a hot plate and skillet. Worth searching out just for the entertainment value, if nothing else.