Smoker Grills

Smoker grills are a modern update on one of the oldest methods of cooking and preserving food. In settler days before refrigeration, smoking was a valuable way of preserving meat for journeys or keeping through the winter. The food was either preserved with cold smoke or cooked and preserved with hot smoke.

Whilst smoking isn't needed for preservation these days, the many different ways of introducing great flavours that were discovered means that smoking will never die out.

Charcoal, Propane and Electricity

Traditionally, the cooking is done with smoke from burning charcoal and many smoker grills still use this method. Essentially, there are two compartments in the cooker. In the first compartment,the charcoal burns and produces the smoke. The smoke them passes to the second compartment where the meat sits on racks or hangs from hooks and is cooked.

With a propane-fired smoker grill, gas is burnt to heat a tray of wet wood chips. The chips get hot enough to smoke and the meat is cooked with this smoke.

Electric smoker grills use a similar approach except that electricity is used to heat the wood chips and produce the smoke.

Low and Slow Cooking for Great Flavors

An ordinary barbeque grill cooks with the heat given off from burning charcoal or propane directly. This means that the meat cooks at a high temperature. In a smoker grill. the cooking is slow and cooking tempertures are much lower. The special taste of smoker grilled meat comes from both the smoke and the gentleness of the cooking which preserves more of the meat flavors.

Because smoker grills are closed cookers rather than the 'open to the air' grills used in ordinary barbequing, it is important to have a well designed cooker that allows air to move freely around the meat. If the air flow is poor, creosote-like chemicals from the smoke are deposted on the meat giving a bitter flavor.

If you cut a piece of smoker grilled meat in two it will show a pink ring below the surface. This is the area where the smoke has infused the meat and contains the unique flavors created by cooking with smoke.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Cookers

Charcoal

Advantages: The cooker itself is often cheaper to buy and simpler to move around. There are no gas bottles or electrical connections needed. Its much easier to take one of these on a camping or fishing trip.

Disadvantages: The charcoal can be tricky to light and needs more looking after than a gas or electric cooker. There is more messy ash and dirt to deal with. Temperature control is an art that takes a while to learn- there are no microprocessor controlled knobs and dials on these babies!

Propane:

Advantages. Quick and easy to light. Easy to adjust for the best smoke output.

Disadvantages-: Large pieces of meat can take a long time to smoke and you might find yourself changing more gas bottles than you like. The gas bottles can be awkward, especially for older people.

Electric

Advantages: Clean and easy to use. You won't run out of gas.

Disadvantages: For home use only. There are no electrical outlets in those woods.

This is just a quick guide to prices for the different kinds of smoker grill available. If you are looking to buy a smoker grill online there are links to web stores at the foot of the page.

Charcoal Smoker

Weber 721001 Smokey Mountain Cooker 18-1/2-Inch Smoker

Weber is one of the best known and reliable producers of barbecue and smoker grills.

The smokey mountain cooker is a porcelain enamelled charcoal smoker grill that can accommodate a whole turkey and an entire ham at the same time on its 2 nickel plated 18 and half inch wide cooking grates. There is a ten year limited warranty.

List Price:$349,00

Prices online start around $260.00

Propane Smoker

GrillPro 31845 Heavy-Duty Vertical Propane Smoker

This is a mid price propane smoker with a heavy duty construction.

The burner is stainless steel, the smoker box cast iron. There are 12 hooks and 3 chrome racks with a total interior cooking area of 543 square inches.

Prices online range from around $230 to $270.

Electric Smoker

Bradley BTIS1 Original Fully Automatic 4-Rack Outdoor Food Smoker

This fully automatic electric smoker that has a good sized stainless steel interior cooking space of 2288-cubic-inch.

It can be used to cold smoke or hot smoke food using bisquettes with a range of wood flavors to complement your food.

The whole thing will run for eight hours without any attention, after which the bisquettes need changing.

Full size: 14 and a half by 17 by 31 inches.

List price $400

Prices online from around $250

It's worth looking at cookers that will cook in different ways if you think might only smoke food occasionally or might want a quicker way of cooking while still getting a smoky flavor.

Smoker Steamer

Orion Charcoal Holiday Turkey Cooker/Smoker

This cooks with smoke and steam. It is inexpensive, it can accommodate a whole turkey and the cooking times are very fast.

List price $150

Online prices start at around $100

An all-in-one Smoker, Grill and Fryer

Brinkmann 810-5000-0 All-In-One Outdoor Cooker, Black

This cooker has components that can be rearranged to either fry, grill or smoke. It can use either propane or charcoal as fuel.

List price $189.00

Prices online from around $140.00

Buy Online

A few places to start if you want to buy smoker grills online

barbecue-grill-guide.com: A lot of products to browse through, from trays and utensils to complete cookers.

Traegers Grills and Smokers

For serious grill and smoker lovers, the Traeger range is near the top of the must-have list. Traeger designs evolved from scrap oil well castings which were converted to grills and smokers way back. Now they feature automatic wood pellet feeds which can set the temperature at one of three levels without any worry. Needs 50 A, 120V electrical supply,

The standard Texas Style model has a list price of around $900, but it can be found on ebay for a lot less from time to time.

Check the complete range here traegersoftexas.com/

Yahoo shopping

shopping.yahoo.com/smoker grills. This search query will bring up a huge range of appliances for you to chose from.

Amazon

/www.amazon.com smokers. Another search- this time of Amazon which has some of the best prices on the net and useful reviews of popular smoker grills.

Smoke Ring;

The Best Forum for all BBQ and Smoker Issues. (has a buy and sell section)

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/index.php