Mods, this may be better suited for IMHO, so move at your discretion.
I’m considering getting a beginner smoker. I really like smoked chicken wings, turkey breast and brisket. I’m looking for the pros and cons of electric vs. charcoal.
I’m leaning electric, because of temperature control and ease of starting. The flavor will come from the smoke anyway, right? Or is there a big benefit of charcoal that I’m missing? Anyone with experience with either or both?
Electric is easy, but not as much fun. Had one in college and impressed my friends and family. Very functional all things considered.
Charcoal takes more work (though not much more). I have a cheap smoker (referred to on the internet as an ECB - El Cheapo Brinkmann, although mine is not a Brinkmann). I modified it heavily - adding air controls, sealing it to prevent smoke loss, etc. Lots of ideas, samples, and material on the internet. Honestly, that was a lot of fun.
Finally, http://amazingribs.com/ is a site you should be aware of if you are not. I have lost many an hour there.
Wow, thanks! Can you share how you modified it to prevent air leaks?
Sure, I used stove gasket rope stuff. I don’t know the technical term for it, but I basically glued it around the top of my smoker to tighten the seal. I also used a special metal tape to totally seal off the little door that comes on the smoker.
Here’s a discussion that might illustrate it: Essential ECB Brinkmann Gourmet Smoker Mods - The BBQ BRETHREN FORUMS.
If you are intrigued by that, google “modify ecb smoker” and go nuts.
If you look on amazing ribs, they are recommending a vertical gas smoker as a good value. I’ve never used one, but I do trust that site and its recommendations. Here’s the direct link: http://amazingribs.com/bbq_equipment_reviews_ratings/smoker/char-broil-vertical-gas-smoker
Thanks. I would think that propane isn’t the most efficient method for long smoking times? Seems like you’d burn through a tank pretty quickly.
You might, but I think what you get is convenience. Especially if you already have a gas grill. You just put a full tank of propane on the smoker when you want to use it. When you’re done, move that tank over to the grill and put a full one back on the smoker.
The “production” (for lack of a better word) involved in charcoal is both a benefit and a curse. It’s fun, but it takes time to use a chimney starter, lay out your charcoal and wood (I use a sort of modified Minion method)… There are times I don’t smoke anything just because I have to do all that and I have a tendency towards laziness! I can see the advantage to the propane/electric at those moments!
Thanks for the links and notes. I just picked up one of their Bronze award combo smokers, which is an even better buy now that Amazon has them for ~1/2 off the price mentioned at Amazing Ribs. I figure by the time I wear it out, I’ll know which better-made bbq cooker to get.
Looking forward to trying out their techniques and tips
Which one did you get?
I would say get a Weber Smoky Mountain. It’s what I started on about a decade ago, and it’s still all I use at my house. (Although I’ve used other smokers elsewhere and even built make-shift smokers out of cinderblocks and other materials.) It’s a charcoal “bullet-type” smoker. It requires no hacking around or modifying to make work correctly–it’s low stress cooking, built well, and should last you a lifetime if you want it to. Costs about $300-ish these days. I think it’s the perfect smoker for anyone wanting to start out on the right foot and wants to do charcoal smoking (which is my preference.)
Out of curiosity why is charcoal your preference?
To me, I like the charcoal layer of flavor, plus I can do styles that take advantage of charcoal flavor with no smoking wood. There’s a style of barbecue I do where I don’t use the water pan in the Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM), and just let the fat drip into the fire, which imbues the meat with a particular smoky flavor that is not wood smoke. Or sometimes I mix the two together, doing barbecue over charcoal and smoking wood directly. (My favorite ribs I’ve ever had, at Cozy Corner in Memphis, are made in what’s called an “aquarium smoker”–typically only seen in Chicago barbecue–over charcoal and no smoking wood. I believe Payne’s Barbecue in Memphis, who are well-known for their pulled pork, also use a charcoal-only fired pit, but not an “aquarium smoker”.)
Plus, I don’t find it inconvenient, and I like making fire, learning about fire control, and having more cooking options. Learning on the WSM the theory of barbecue and fire management, I’ve managed to translate those lessons into improvised smoking situations, where I didn’t have a proper smoker available, but had to MacGyver something together.
I’ve never even had a charcoal grill. Always natural gas or propane. If you’re smoking something that takes many hours, do you need to refresh the charcoal?
Frequently. Bon Appetit’s Texas Brisket recipe warns you that you’re going to need at least 3 to 4 chimneys of charcoal for the 10-ish hours it’ll take to cook the brisket. Being able to more add more coals easily is consequently important. I’ll go through 1 and a half chimneys just grilling at the local park’s firebox, and using the stovetop smoker I have.
The Masterbuilt M7P 7 in 1 cooker. It was 99 + tax a few days ago. Now it’s 133 + tax. Still better than the 180 amazing ribs said it costs. We’ll see how it works this week.
No. If you have a good, efficient smoker like a WSM, you don’t. I’ve done brisket several times on one load of charcoal. Two is the absolute most I’ve ever used. You can get about 6-8 hours from one load of coals, 10 if you’re really pushing it.
On a shitty smoker with lots of air leaks and poor airflow? Yes. Constantly. This is why I recommend something at least of the level of a WSM, although you can probably get a Brinkman with a number of modifications to be similarly efficient. And, of course, the Big Green Egg is an efficiency monster, but it’s also a giant, heavy, expensive monster and not something I would recommend to someone who is just playing around with the idea of getting into smoking.
Looking online here, people are claiming even longer smoker times on a single load. I do use sand in the water pan instead of water. I can imagine possibly going 12 hours on briquettes, but some of the reports of regularly getting 12-16+ hours seems a bit optimistic to me. But, all in all, I’ve never had to smoke anything that long. I tend to prefer smoking at a slightly higher temp, so a 12 pound packer cut of brisket is done in about 10-12 hours, and a Boston butt in about 8.
My 22.5" Weber Smoky Mountain will hold a full 18 pound bag of the Kingsford competition charcoal briquets. I can start pork shoulders at around midnight and still be maintaining a 225 deg F temperature 14 hours later without adding additional charcoal. I usually have to rattle the coals after 10 hours or so to knock the ash off and let the air get to them.
I have a vertical gas smoker and love it. You have to remember that, even though you may be smoking for 12-14hrs, you’re doing it at a very low temperature, and that translates into very low gas usage. I can easily get 3-4 12+hr smokes out of 1 tank, if not more. In fact my last smoke barely moved the needle and it was about 7 hrs.
The other nice thing about vertical gas smokers is you can put ALOT of meat in them. Like 4-5 pork shoulders or 3 chickens. There’s a ton of space and they don’t cost much at all. I think mine was like $125 or something. Love it.
The main downside for me though is that the chip box is pretty small so you’ll be adding chips every half hour or so. It can be annoying because every set of wet chips takes 15min or so to start smoldering. Plus you have to open the door and let the smoke/heat out. It’s basically sheet metal though so it’s not like your opening your oven in the house. I have made 7-8 foil packs of wet chips and that works ok but sometimes the flames will eat through the foil and catch the wood on fire which is bad. They also tend to dry out if you make too many packs at once.
I want to get a ceramic smoker ala Big Green Egg but can’t justify the cost. Yet.
Everybody and their mother in Atlanta has an Egg (they are HQed and got their start here) and they’re stupid easy to use. I’ve had one for about a dozen years now. However, they’re also stupid expensive.
I actually came in here to recommend this smoker. It’s called a Char-Griller Akorn, and it’s being made by a guy I know, also here in Atlanta. The price tag is more in line with a WSM.
I’m dying to play with one.
Ooo, that looks like a nice and affordable toy…
Another vote for the Weber Smoky Mountain here. I had the El Cheapo Brinkmann and did a lot of smoking with it but it was hard to keep the temps under control and I was never really happy with the results.
Then I bought a WSM a couple months ago and did pulled pork and beef brisket together and they both turned out amazingly good. Had family over for Mother’s Day and they devoured it. The last time I used it I tried the minion method and it worked great! Took 9-10 hours to smoke a pork shoulder and I hardly had to do a thing after starting it up.