Smoking - help me pick up the habit

No, not smoking cigs or pipes, smoking meat! I'm planning on taking full advantage of black Friday or cyber Monday deals and picking up a smoker so I can make some scrum-diddly-umptios meats and cheeses. I could use some knowledge bestowed upon me in this regard.
I want an electric one because I don't want to have to tend to a fire all day. Adding wood is fine, but taking coals out, putting them in, rearranging them just ain't gonna happen. I don't know what size I need, but I'd like to be able to do a rack of ribs (whole or cut in two) and such. I'd like to keep it to around $200, I'd spend a bit more if there was a reason to do so.
Any advice?

Do you promise to get really annoying about your delicious smoked tenderloin, and send me a link so I can watch the temperature in the smoker from my smartphone?

Arrgh.

My wife got me a Brinkman electric a few years ago for about $50 on Black Friday, it's got no controls, just a plug but it makes a fine meat. A few lessons I've learned are

1. Don't use too big a piece of meat. I love turkey and do a few a year. The temptation is to throw in the big mutant birds grandma gets for thanksgiving. They don't cook well. Two 12-13 lb turkeys come out much better than one 20lb bird.

2. In the winter especially below freezing it won't get hot enough to finish anything but it will give it good flavor. I will put the meat in for about three hours then put it in the slow cooker for the rest of the day on low. No one has noticed a difference yet. This is also helpful for big parties. We had about 100 people at our anniversary and I was able to smoke a few pork butts, move them to crock pots and smoke a few more saving time. I hardly had to try to pull them apart. Just reach in and shake the meat off the bone.

I used to have a Masterbuilt electric, that did a pretty good job until the thermostat died. The last couple of times, I just used my grill, and it does a pretty good job as well.

Whatever you end up with, make sure you season the machine before plopping that high dollar piece of meat in it. Cook a couple of cheap pork butts to get a good layer of smoke and grease on the inside surfaces.

If you use wood, don't wood smoke it the entire cooking time. It will end up bitter. I usually wood smoke it for the first hour or two and that's all.

If the meat has a fat layer, start with it on top so the meat will self baste.

Other than that, don't be afraid to experiment. Some of the strangest combinations taste amazingly good. Try grape jelly on something, you might be surprised. Google is your friend as well.

I've built a couple out of antique hump-top refrigerators. Earlier = less plastic. I smoke, and freeze for latter.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/85462/how-to-build-a-fridge-smoker

Steven Reichlen's TV show and books are a great source for recipe and cooking technique ideas.

Get a remote thermometer. Its good to have one where you can probe the meat and run a wire so you don't need to open the smoker each time you want to check the temp.

Start with a pork shoulder because its very forgiving. You will find instructions all over the net for these. I'm a big fan of wrapping the meat up in foil and blankets and letting it rest in a cooler for a while before pulling. Even though they're easy, they're goooooood.

"Country Style Ribs" aren't ribs at all, but sliced up pork shoulders. Smoke em quickly and they shred apart. Real pulled pork is better of course but these are surprisingly tasty and easy too.

Another favorite at my house is a beef tri-tip roast.

@Gasoline, The bacon wrapped "fatty"... I haven't done one yet. Are they really all the rage that the SMF crew has you believe?

I have a brinkman barrel like this:

I used to have an electric model and it finally dented, rusted, and died. The new one I have is the same thing but charcoal. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but my nephew bought it for me.

Smokers don't need to be fancy. Some guys will tell you that heavy steel or sidebox fires are the best way to smoke. Its BS. Two things are happening. There is heat to cook things and smoke to flavor things. The meat doesn't care if its in a cardboard box. It will taste the same. I had one of those fancy sideways barrel smokers with the side box and it made fantastic meat, but tending a mesquite fire for 12 hours isn't my idea of fun.

I agree that smoking huge chunks of meat aren't the best. I keep my cuts to 10 lbs or so. That also makes more surface area to absorb smoke.

Upsides to the one pictured above:
- multiple layers to hold lots of meat - vertical arrangement means all the meat can have equal temps (sideways barrels tend to have hot and cool regions because of how the heat flows through left-to-right)

Downsides to the one above:
- difficult to access meat on the lower levels for inspection - made of thinner steel so it tends to squish easily - unless you have it in a pan, the top meat will drip on the bottom meat. That is fine, unless the top level is teriyaki salmon and the bottom level is butternut squash. Fishy squash. Ew.

In my opinion, the best way to do it right is to modify whatever you get if it doesn't suit. My first smoker was like this:

It did have hot and cold spots. The heat from the firebox came into the smoking chamber and rose right away. Hot spot on the right, cool spot on the left. I screwed some sheet steel inside it to make a "shutter" that I could bend up or down to direct the heat more centrally. The other thing I would do is install a gas burner in the box. Not only does that make lighting the fire easier, it means I can walk away from it for more than 30 minutes knowing it will maintain temperature even if the wood runs out for a bit.

Another tidbit. Don't worry about going nuts with lots of smoke. If you smoke (for instance) a brisket for 12 hours and you keep putting wood on it, you'll have a brisket that tastes entirely like smoke and nothing else. Just a few hours of smoke is brilliant.

Another thing. Invest in one of those remote digital meat thermometers. You can put the probe in and leave it there so you can monitor meat temps without opening things and repeatedly stabbing the meat.

And one last tidbit. You might want to consider some kind of chimney. The black smoker above was really good at one thing. Take a bundt pan (the kind with the hole in the middle) and put it on top of the chimney. Then take a mixing bowl just a little smaller than the bundt pan and put it on top. Smoke goes up through the bundt pan, hits the mixing bowl and condenses. When you're done, the condensate in the bundt pan is the best liquid smoke you've ever known.

i have a 4 year old char griller that's about to die. building the next one on a trailer.

oak is good smoker meat as are pretty much any of the fruit trees, lilac, etc... most things that make nice fruit or flowers make a slightly sweet smoke.

you don't need to smoke for 8 hours. you need to smoke for the first (x) minutes/hours based on the meat and then keep the heat consistent for the rest of the time.

In reply to patgizz:

I've tried other woods and had mixed results, but it definitely is a matter of taste. I was all excited to smoke some venison over oak once and ended up hating it. I have used apple and liked it a little. I used some Mulberry once. It tasted like burnt coffee.

DrBoost, feel free to try all kinds of woods, but I might suggest sticking to Mesquite and Hickory to start with... at least on good meats. I would hate for you to spend all day smoking a $50 standing rib roast only to find that you don't like the wood.

Having said that... what other woods should I try?

I normally use a combination of apple and hickory.

In reply to curtis73:

Use them all, but remember to use the stronger woods sparingly. Something like oak is good for a 30 minute smoke but 4 hours will turn the meat bitter. Smoke time is as important as the type of wood.

Big Green Egg

for oak i toss on a chunk and let it go for the first 30-40 minutes on a large load of pork, then just keep the heat right the rest of the way. oak is very strong and you don't need a long time.

lilac was one of the more rewarding experiments, it had a light sweet smoke flavor in a turkey. my sister had a huge lilac bundle by the house and i cut it out and used it all.

I picked up used 21.5" weber kettle at a moving sale about 5 years ago that I modified for smoking. I agree with just a few hours of smoke and I enjoy wood from fruit trees, cherry, pear and peach comes out fantastic. Pecan and walnut for pork belly is amazing. Hopefully Jeff will chime in as he has done some amazing things with his as well.

There needs to be a smoked meat and BBQ competition at the challenge. Or maybe the rallyx challenge.

I'm curious as to how electric smokers work. My father will smoke anything small enough on a standard coal Webber.

I have a Brinkman, think I paid about $50 for it.

I also have an apple tree so I whack a limb off and sliver it up. Soak the chips in water (makes them smoke, not burn). Keep the water bucket full and Do NOT use liquid lighter fluid to get it started, it will permeate the meat with an odd flavor.

Last year for Thanksgiving I did an 18 pound fresh killed turkey in the oven and a 10 pounder in the smoker.

Dan

Thanks fir the feedback. I'd like to try lilac, sounds interesting. Hopefully I'll be smoking in a few weeks!
Where do you guys get your wood, besides chopping it down on your property? Are there any benefits to thise wood pucks you can buy?

In reply to DrBoost:

Most places that have charcoal will also carry smoking wood.

How about size? I know a 30" smoker is 30" inside, but I don't know how much useable space is that really, by the time you have the pan on the bottom and the other stuff that might eat into that space.

Brian wrote: I'm curious as to how electric smokers work. My father will smoke anything small enough on a standard coal Webber.

I prefer them. Plug it in and walk away. Most don't have thermostats which is a bummer; you only get one temp. Fortunately, most things do well with one temp; low and slow. My electric brinkman (red kettle) would stay about 275 in the summer and 225 in the winter depending on the wind, etc. If I wanted it cooler in the summer I left the side door cracked open a bit. It did require a little active monitoring, but an inline thermostat would have been a nice addition.

I thought about pulling the heating element out of an electric griddle and mounting it in my base, but the wattage wouldn't have been adequate to heat the kettle. I also thought about using a gas thermostat from a water heater or furnace and hooking up propane, but it was too much headache.

On the soaking wood thing... I soak chunks overnight and chips for an hour or so. Then I make foil sachets. The wood will just burn after the water cooks out of it, but I put a few chunks in foil packets with a couple holes punched in them. That way when the water runs out, it doesn't get enough oxygen to burn up as quickly. More consistent smoke that way.

Toyman01 wrote: In reply to curtis73: Use them all, but remember to use the stronger woods sparingly. Something like oak is good for a 30 minute smoke but 4 hours will turn the meat bitter. Smoke time is as important as the type of wood.

Knowing me, I probably just overdid it.

Brian wrote: In reply to DrBoost: Most places that have charcoal will also carry smoking wood.

Yup. I'm currently living on about 8 acres in PA so I have pretty constant access to hickory, oak, maple, walnut, apple, pear... lots of stuff to try. But I usually chicken out and stick with hickory.

Anyone ever use sassafras? I thought it might be good with BBQ but I don't know if the sassafras flavor would transfer with the smoke.

I also have a large area with horseradish. I have this crazy idea of smoking with a horseradish root.

In reply to curtis73:

I used to do the same thing. It took me several tries to figure it out.