I've got an Oklahoma Joe smoker grill that I use for everything from brisket or burgers to jerky and love it. It's the horizontal barrel shape with an offset firebox on one end.
When making jerky I use some home made wire racks that are simply wood 1x2's stood on edge and nailed together like big picture frames that just fit my cook area. I then covered one side with 1/4" wire mesh. I take the racks out of the smoker and fill the home made trays with jerky meat and just sit them down inside the smoker body in a stack three trays high. It holds a LOT of jerky. Get the charcoal going well in the fire box, add the smoking wood of my choice and then dampen it down pretty far to drop the temp and walk away.
All the talk of temperatures and keeping things within 1 to 3 degrees just makes me laugh. This stuff is NOT rocket science. I don't even have a temp gauge on my grill any more. Some of the best BBQ joints I've ever eaten in were cooking their BBQ in outdoor pits and the only temp control/sensor was the cooks left hand. Well, maybe his right. Depends on which hand was holding the beer... For all you semi anal types who want to plan all the details and say things like "well, if I put the brisket on at 10pm and set the thermostat at 250 degrees, I can take the meat off at 9:00am and the internal temp should be about 195 degrees..." well, it's all totally unnecessary. You cook it till it's done. If you check it and it's not done, leave it on longer. The temps are low enough that you won't burn it. Just check on things now and then.
People think it's some kind of magic to slow cook a piece of meat and that you need regulators and temp sensors but sheeeesh, I find it a LOT easier to not worry about all that stuff. The basics are learn your smoker, keep the temp low, restock the firebox if/when needed and bring a bib to the table.
I've got a guy I work with who bought a Treggor (sp?) and went on and on for days about how technologically advanced the thing was and how he could just "set it and forget it". Sounded like Ron Popiel or whatever that TV sales guys name is. We both bring in smoked meat for the guys once in a while and his was never as tender and had so little smoke flavor that it might as well have been baked in an oven. He's also had two times where it messed up and he ruined a bunch of meat because he walked away from it and it malfunctioned. Something about a little auger and a plastic fan that melted. In fact, there is so much difference in how our brisket turns out that just the other day he asked me if I would smoke a brisket for him next time I do another one for myself.
No idea if it's the fault of the tregger or the operator and don't care. I'll just stick to my old fashioned wood smoker and keep making happy folks lick their fingers.
Topic: SMOKERS electric or Propane?????? (Read 3855 times)
