Bought a new smoker

[johnes50]

I bought a propane 36" Great Outdoors "Smokey Mountain Smoker" yesterday.

My old homemade plywood smoker was looking a little rough so I started checking for good smokers on the internet. Didn't want a Bradley cause I didn't want to be tied into their "you have to buy our biscuits" system. I saw a few favourable reviews about the propane "smokey mountain smokers". Started looking around and found one for sale locally at about half the price of a Bradley with more interior space.

I put two chickens and about 5lbs. of ribs into the smoker at 11:00am and took them out at 4:00pm. They were tender and very tasty. I took the ribs to my friends lamb BBQ party and we had a great time eating roasted lamb, deep fried turkey, and my smoked ribs. I'm gonna try and smoke a ham next weekend. And if I can only scrounge some salmon off my buddy for the smoker I'll be in hog heaven.:grin: John

[Geo.338]

Everybody seems to like the bradley but they are pricey and i'm with you on the biscuit thing.Thinking that there must be a better way I built one out of an old curbside mailbox with a hot plate .Works great.Gotta love those smoked ribs !

[johnes50]

Everybody seems to like the bradley but they are pricey and i'm with you on the biscuit thing.Thinking that there must be a better way I built one out of an old curbside mailbox with a hot plate .Works great.Gotta love those smoked ribs !

A fellow around here was selling those old mailboxes a few years ago as smokers. They looked liked they'd work good with lots of shelf space. I didn't buy one cause his were a little pricey. I made one out of plywood and a hot plate and it did the job for years. I even rigged up a couple of dryer thermostats to cut out at different temperatures so it was semi-automatic. But it's always nice to have a shiney new toy.:grin: "Yesssss Dad, your smoker is really nice.":grin:

I'm not knocking the Bradley's, my friend has one and they do a good job, I just didn't want to spend that much and I really didn't want to be stuck having to buying their biscuits.

Yea, It's nice to have company over and pull out a rack of home smoked ribs or a chicken. You've got friends for life after that. John

[Ozone]

Your making me drool!!

[ruger#1]

my god man, invite us already , im starving.

[Archive]

Funny, my coffin smoker was making me mad too. I gutted a fridge last week, just looking for hot plates now.

[Fred]

Archive, do you want electric or gas? I have an old built in gas stove top you can have if you can use it. Fred

[Archive]

:-D
Mail sent.

[Fred]

And replied to! :mrgreen: Fred

[lip_ripper00]

Funny, my coffin smoker was making me mad too. I gutted a fridge last week, just looking for hot plates now.
take all the plastic out of the fridge!

[johnes50]

I had the outlaws over last night for dinner and decided to try smoked pork chops and souvlaki. I wanted to try the new smoker as kind of a smoker/grill and see how the chops would turn out on high heat.

I brined the chops with a mixture of water, brown sugar, sea salt, garlic powder, for an hour. Then sprinkled with a homemade brown sugar, salt, and spices rub called Memphis rub that I got from the net, put some soaked hickory chips in the smoke box and cranked it up to 350 degrees for about an hour and a half. The inside of the chops were juicy and very tender and the outside was nicely smoked and a little carmalized.

The souvalaki, or satay as my wife calls it, was just sprinkled with the Memphis rub mixture and taken out as appetizers when they looked done. It went well with potato salad and a couple of beers and I was pleased with the results. Even my brother-in-law, who is a chef, thought the results were very good.

If I get lucky and get a bear I'm going to slow smoke a fresh ham and see how it turns out. John

[ratherbefishin]

smoked bear hams are the biggest threat to any bear you see in the future-try it and the next bear is in serious trouble

[Ian F.]

A new smoker is high on my list once we get settled in BC. I sold my little chief in our yard sale recently that I've had for almost 20 years.

The last post remined me of the buckboard bacon I made last fall using the cure from High Mountain Jerky (http://himtnjerky.com/), I thought it might work well for a bear ham, which is one of my favorites, but I've only had it commercially made. The jerky stuff from Hight Mtn is good and too easy, a friend in the NWT put me on to it, the pepper one is top of the list!

Very best,

ian

[huntwriter]

Everybody seems to like the bradley but they are pricey and i'm with you on the biscuit thing.Thinking that there must be a better way I built one out of an old curbside mailbox with a hot plate .Works great.Gotta love those smoked ribs !
The biscuits are exactly what puts me off on that smoker. Clever busyness move on the part of Bradley, if you use their smoker all you can use are the bisquits they offer. Their smokers are so good that once you purchased one it will last a lifetime so bradley has to make money on the bisquits.;-)

Personally I prefer home made smokers made of wood, bricks or even an old oil drum, because I like to make my own smoke mixtures for various different meats.

Building a smoker is very easy and cheap to boost.