Making a great homemade smoker...

[Brisketexan]

What Ian said. Only in a man's voice.

Hell, whenever I am at a bbq place, I ask the cutter (often hispanic) "por favor, con mucho negro" (I like the outside cuts).

My briskets are plenty black -- that effect is produced by the smoke, not heat.

 

[Steel Shank]

 

[mrjefft]

All right then I can admit when I am wrong, although I said the brisket MAY be burnt or dry, I am obviously mistaken, which several folks have been quick to point out.

I hereby withdraw my comment concerning this matter. The more pictures I see, the hungrier I get for one of those babies....

 

[mrjefft]

O.K. Guys, enough messing around...

Here was my plan....

1) Spend less than $30 to build a smoker
2) Get it done Today

So, I left my house this morning pondering my fate...
I was wandering the neighborhoods in search a smoking vessel.
I was hoping someone would toss out an old grill, and I could snag it for free. No such luck.
However, I did luck upon a garage sale. At this sale, I found a perfect ex- wood smoker,
WITH a thermometer on it, and a grease pan on the bottom, perfect.
I talked the lady down from $15 to $10.

This item= $10

At same sale I found one of those 1 burner cooker things for $5

This item= $5

Then I skipped off to a thrift store she told me about, where I found
a cast iron pan with some little legs on it for $2. I bashed the legs off with a hammer, and had a chip holder.

This Item= $2

Then it's off to Wally Town, where I happily purchase
some Mesquite Grilling Chips for $1.97. I also get a throw
away Grid for $1.

These items= (with tax) $3.24

I had a power cord with me, so, no problem.

Total Amount spent on smoker= $20.24
Total Time spent on smoker= 2 hours hunting down parts + 1 hour set up= 3 hours
Proving it can be done= Priceless.

I got a nice piece of beef and some Chicken legs, and headed out. (this doesn't count in cost, you can easily spend $100 here)

Within an hour of arriving, I had it cleaned up, assembled, and smoking..... See below. I can't wait to taste some of this grub,
but, just started it a minute ago.

I moistened the chips for a minute so they wouldn't just catch of fire, but smolder. No other water in a pan, as I don't think I'll need a
catylst for this small of a smoker. Temperature, 210, just waiting now......

 

[hornian]

That's cute.

I also decided to smoke some meat.

Fired him up:

And threw on a couple of briskets for the tailgate tomorrow (can you fit almost 30 lbs of beef on that make shift "smoker"?):

I'll let you know how much I "burnt" it in about 15 hours.

 

[jimmyjazz]

Kudos to the original poster. The 3 main components of BBQ are meat, heat, and smoke. Fussing over the source of the heat is getting down into the details, and I admire his thrifty nature.

Not that I'd be caught dead working with that thing, but still . . .

 

[El Paso Way]

MrJeff,
Let me know when you have that gerbil and muskrat ready on that cooker. Be sure to let it get good and brown.

Just joking man.

 

[mrjefft]

Gerbil and Muskrat pictures Follow. They are AWESOME, let me tell ya!!
The gerbil didn't last long at all, just a warm up til the muskrat was ready.....
8 hours of smoking for this small beast. (there's only one of me)

I wish you had smellavision right now..........better yet,
tastevision.....

Not my dream rig, but, got the job done, in fine fashion...

 

[celis]

It looks raw.

 

[alden]

Nice. I applaud your thriftiness. This is also a great proof of concept for a larger operation.

Your pictures make me wonder why your brisket is not darker. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with it. Maybe it's just less soot? Maybe it's a steadier, lower temperature. How'd it taste?

 

[LazyEngineer]

This is a great thread. Kudos to the OP. I like the idea for the heat source. My first smoker was a $50 electric Brinkman bullet smoker. I have made pork ribs on that crappy smoker that are better than I've had in just about any bbq joint in Texas. Now, I've moved up to a "real" smoker, but sometimes I wish I had something like this - but obviously executed a lot better.

The main problem I see here is that the heat source is too close to the meat. WAY too close. To do something like this, something large and insulated would obviously be much better. I'm going to have to think about this and possibly make one myself.

Another benefit here is that you could possibly fire something like that up on an apartment balcony where a fire is illegal.

 

[RichUT]

Um, good job MacGruber...