Summer is right around the corner and that means it’s time to get outside and fire up the grill. But, real aficionados may tell you that what you really need to appreciate true BBQ is a smoker. If you’re considering adding a smoker to your outdoor grilling equipment, you are going to run into a lot of options. So, here is a guide to some of the key things you’ll want to consider when buying a smoker.
The first big decision is what type of smoker you will want to buy. You might be surprised that there are so many different types of smokers to choose from. Let’s look at five of the most common types.
Propane/Gas Smoker
The name tells you a lot, as these smokers rely on propane or gas to generate heat. Most gas smokers are designed ‘cabinet-style’ with the burner and vents at the bottom and the chimney and dampers toward the top. Gas smokers don’t actually produce smoke, so wood chips are typically used to create the smokey flavor you expect from anything you cook in a smoker (which can indeed be more than the typical BBQ meat options).
Gas smokers are relatively simple to use, with easy temperature controls and are often fairly cost-effective. However, you will need to have propane tanks (just like for a gas grill), unless you have a rare situation where you connect your gas smoker to a gas line from your house. They are generally easy to clean up and produce some powerful combustion, lending a lot of flavor to the meat.
Charcoal Smoker
These smokers can come in a wide range of designs and work a lot like a traditional charcoal grill. Charcoal is used as the fuel source and, unlike gas grills, they do produce natural smoke to flavor the food you cook. For many pitmasters, a charcoal smoker is the gold standard for delivering deep smokey flavor.
On the downside, these grills require a lot more oversight and babysitting during the smoking process. They take more practice to manage the temperative effectively and the setup and clean-up processes are also more time-consuming than other options.
Offset Smoker
This is what a lot of people think of when they picture a smoker. The design is based on using an old oil drum attached to a firebox on the side. They are big, bulky contraptions that can be made large enough to feed the entire block. While charcoal smokers may be favored by many pitmasters for their smokey flavor, the offset smoker is really the go-to for award-winning smokers around the world. They are also used extensively at BBQ restaurants. They can use either wood or charcoal as their fuel source, making them fairly versatile.
The advantages of the offset smoker include the ability to smoke large quantities of food at the same time and the fact that the firebox is offset means you can add fuel to the smoker without opening the cooking chamber and changing the temperature. On the downside, a good offset smoker is likely to be expensive. The cheaper options tend to get poor reviews. Like charcoal smokers, offset smokers also take a lot of set-up time (getting the temperature up) and they require constant supervision. If you’re smoking brisket, this can mean a very long 14+ hour day/night tending your smoker.
Pellet Smoker
The pellet smoker is a bit of a high-tech version of the offset smoker. They often look a lot like offset smokers, but the firebox is designed to use compressed pellets made from sawdust that are fed into the firebox automatically to maintain the desired temperature. These smokers offer a great mix of the advantages of an offset smoker with some of the convenience of a gas smoker. The pellets tend to burn without leaving much residue, so cleanup is fairly simple compared to some of the other options.
Like offset smokers, a quality pellet smoker can be expensive. Typically, the heating coils, timers, and feeding mechanism run on electricity, so you’ll need access to power nearby.
Electric Smoker
The eclectic smoker behaves more like an oven. You set the temperature, as you would on a wall oven, but then add wood chips on top of a heating element to fill the cooking chamber with smoke. So, the heat is actually created from a more typical oven-style heating element. Electric smokers are seen by many as more of a set it and forget it style of smoker. However, in reality, they can require a fair amount of tending, unless they come with an automatic wood chip feeder.
These may be the easiest smokers to use, which makes them a good choice for newbies who want to test their skills at cooking with smoke. The temperature control makes it easier to deliver consistent results. On the other hand, it can be tricky to get a real traditional smoke ring in your meat with an electric smoker (but not impossible) and the generally moist cooking chamber can make it tricky to get a good char on some foods.
Any of these types of smokers can deliver delicious results.
