Buying a smoker

B

Baboso

Guest
Recommendations? I've gone through several of the Brinkmann water smokers and am thinking about upgrading. Don't need anything huge, but I use it to smoke turkey, hams, brisket, etc.. Enought to feed 3 to 4 people at a time - the Brinkmanns have provided ample capacity for what I need it for.

I've looked at the Oklahoma Joes/New Braunfels smokers with the rectangular and vertical meat box. Kudos or curses for it?
 
You can do good things with them, but they are not the same beast as the water smoker. The water smoker is actually much better suited to smoking than your average smokey joe if I am thinking about the same deal. They tend to "micro manage" the smoking process and the margin for error is high. They just aren't big enuff.
 
This is more along the line of the Brinkmann, I think, but it came up the last time there was a smoker discussion. I think it may be my next outdoor cooking purchase.

Weber Bullet
 
I will plug my big green egg. It's been voted best smoker by several recent publications. It's also versatile I can smoke a brisket or ribs one day and then the next day get a good 700-800 degree fire to sear some steaks, which turn out better than most restaurants here in town. In between, you can make pizzas (though I'm still trying to perfect that). The Link
The only negative is that it doesn't have the capacity of some other offset smokers (although they are supposedly coming out with an XXL size sometime this year).
 
Thanks, guys. I haven't seen that Weber Bullet before. The New Braunfels smoker I was talking about was the "Bandera." First pic on the page in the link:The link.
I'm going to do some research on the Weber and a Big Green Egg.
 
The egg is in a league of its own, but it's spendy. One of the guys on the old deer lease had that Bandera model and it was a piece of ****. It is not made with very heavy metal and it wouldn't hold heat very well and when you got some good mesquite going it would distort. The door of the smoking compartment would not close after a few sessions because it had warped. That may not be par for the course, but that's a real first hand experience.
 
The egg is expensive, but it's still comparable to a good gas grill. It's just better. I also think it has a life time warranty, but you might want to check on that.
 
Nick, that's exactly what I was looking for in a response. Thanks. Weber, big green egg, one or the other it is.
 
If you're serious about researching the egg, check out the bulletin board on the BGE site I linked above. I also have some other links that might be helpful. If you're interested PM me. But don't rely on dealers. I'm not sure what the problem is, but at least the dealers in Austin are fairly clueless. For example, I tried to order an accessory, and both dealers in town said it didn't come in the size I wanted. I knew it did. I finally got around to ordering it from the Egg headquarters without any problems. While I ordered it, I mentioned that I had broken another part (by dropping it) and asked what I should use to glue it back together to stand up to the heat. They said no problem, they'd just send me a new one free.
 
I would tell you Nick's experience is more the exception than the rule. I have had a Bandera for several years and have had several friends acquire one since. I have had no problems with it all, though I have modified a few things to make it more to my liking. You can check out the following site for more info:

Bandera Brethren
 
I get the impression that the egg is just a whole nuther beast. cbs is the only person I know who has one and he is obviously a fan. I'd like to know more about them, but this weekend is not atypical and I just got back from Costco with 20 pounds of NY strips. I will cook 15 pounds on Saturday nite to be served at the same time. I don't think the egg can do that. I get the impression from looking at it that it will do 4 steaks or burgers at once. Is that way off?
 
Nick

The answer is "I'm not sure." I have medium version. I know I can cook far more than 4 steaks or burgers on it at one time, but I also couldn't get 15 pounds on it. There is a large size that has a bigger grill (wish I would have gotten that one), and a new Extra Large is supposed to come out around November. I just don't know if either of those will have the capacity you need there. For smoking, I do have a raised grid set up where I can put a brisket on the bottom grid and throw some 5-6 racks of ribs on the top rack (and you could probably get more on there if you rolled them). But you're right, capacity is the biggest downside. The upsides are (1) versatility --- it can do several things and do them very well---not only what I mentioned, but I know some people use them for other things like using it as a tandoori oven, etc; and (2) ceramic retains heat really well making it very easy to control temperatures from as low as 200 to up around 700. As far as volume, I understand there is another ceramic, Primo, that comes in an oval shape and says it has more grill capacity. I don't know anything about them, but I'm guessing they're fairly comparable to the egg.
 
Thanks for mentioning the Weber ya'll. I got on that virtualweberbullet.com site and now I feel like I am fully schooled on smoking all types of meats, and the bullet seems like a great little smoker. Matched with a BBQ GURU I learned all about on that site also, it seems you can setup the bullet to start smoking some pok butt and brisket Sat. evening and not have to worry about heat for the following 15 hours since the GURU will regulate the heat for you.

That's what I want, a smoker solution that I can make great meat and not have to worry about it except flipping and mopping the meat.
 
I hace the LongHorn model.. second pic in the link. It's a friggin monster...heavy gauge steel all the way around. Rip told me if I ever move again that I have to leave the pit ..it took three of us to lift it into the back of the truck.

I've only been able to fill the cooking space up a couple of times.
 
Holy batshit. That is a LOT more capacity than I thought it had.

BTW, I have about 20 pounds of NY Strip from Costco and I suspect 10 pounds is inedible. It's really hit or miss with them.

I have a Lammes grill with an offset firebox and a wagon wheel that raises and lowers the grill that is 2 feet by 4 feet. There are two firebox drawers underneath the grill. I would consider donating it to a good home. If it weren't such a ***** to move I'd think Hornfans Katy and Robert would take it for the tailgates.
 
To get you a better answer Nick, I went over to the BGE site and asked the guys who have the large size what they could fit on the large. One of the gurus said they get 4-6 big T-Bones or Porterhouses, 8-12 NY Strips, and 8-10 boneless ribeyes, obviously depending on size. Another couple of guys said they get 10-14 filet mignons on there. The guru guy had also seen a prototype of the upcoming XL size and said that he saw it hold 55 large sausages at once, and that he thinks the grill could hold double his estimate on steaks, except for the T-Bones or Porterhouses.

Some of those guys are from the NE so they do the pulled pork thing, and I saw a photo where one guy had about thirty pounds of pork butt (4 butts) on a large smoking at the same time --- 2 on the main grate and 2 on a raised grate.

You have to be creative and lay things close to one another, but you can make stuff fit.

Your grill's a great machine also.
 
That is really impressive. The problem with my beast is that you have to kill 4 trees to heat it up. I once cooked 24 cornish games hens at once, but who the hell needs to do THAT? I have to spend $10 on charcoal to cook a burger. It just doesn't fit my needs anymore. I have an awesome homemade job out at the ranch made out of a sort of metal tupperware bowl that used to contain a helicopter rotor back in Korea. I actually have 3 of them and a 4th and 5th that are in storage. I do my Q out at the ranch and it's just grilling at home these days. I own an inexpensive Brinkman and am not unhappy.

The Egg has always intrigued me and you have only made it more intriguing. Damn you.
 
One of the beauties of the egg is that it's fairly conservative on fuel. I use hardwood lump and it doesn't burn at nearly the fast rate. If I fill my firebox, it will usually last 2-3 high temp cooks, and you can smoke a brisket for 15-20+ hours on one load. You can start out with a smaller model such as a small or a mini and try it out when you need a burger or two, and then use your monster for the big cooks until you fully convert to a larger egg. You can never have too many grills (unless you ask my wife).

And couldn't you also use a smoker at the house. Put a brisket on when you get home, attach a new Barbecue Guru (which is a high tech fan that regulates the airflow and thus temperature so you can dial in your temp like an oven) so you can sleep all night, pull the brisket off before you leave the next morning, wrap it in foil and a towel and stick it in a cooler until lunch. Start slicing it right during the middle of a deposition after the hourly paid defense atttorneys have spent three hours asking your client about his education background. That wouldn't suck too bad.
 
Nick,

I'm pretty sure I've seen an egg at the Sunset Ridge ACE Hardware, if you wanted to see one up close and personal.
 
Uh oh. Have I been identified?

I've seen them at the BBQ Galore. I didn't know that David carried them. Wouldn't suprise me since they have china for sale in the hardware store.
 
Not that Nick or anyone was going to rush down there, but I was mistaken about Sunset Ridge having one. I walked down for a lightbulb this morning, and didn't see any there. I'm pretty sure they had one in the past, but I could be wrong. My memory is terrible.
 
I've had my big green egg for a couple of years and love it. Sear a steak at 750 degrees or smoke a brisket for 10-12 hours at 200 degrees with little attention.
 
I have a massive smoker from Pitts & Spitts, and like Nick, I frequently spend more on fuel than on meat. I bought a charcoal accessory that fits under one side of the grill, and now one chimney of coals cooks a couple of ribeyes pretty well. I can cook 12 whole chickens at once, though, so I've got that going for me.

On the educational background front, I did that on a plaintiff in one case, and we determined he completely fabricated his education, all the way including high school. That lead us to look into work history, including his claim he was an Army Ranger. I typically would never look at this, especially in a commercial case.

The cross at trial lasted for about 4.5 hours, and they settled for $35k after a $6.5 million demand, which wasn't that crazy of a damage model.

Sometimes you get lucky. Man his lawyers were pissed. They had no clue, as it was all impeachment evidence and not disclosed.
 
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