Nothing says summer like BBQ – with platters of smoked ribs, and sliced brisket, and pulled pork. Traditionally, real BBQ meant s l o w c o o k i n g - hours and hours of very low heat, usually at 200 degrees or slightly less. I prefer a wood fired cooker. Over the years I have tried them all. I started many years ago with a small Brinkman “smoker”. Wet wood chips were added over burning charcoal. The chips provided the smoke. The coals provided the heat. The issue with this type of cooker is that the fire must be tended to constantly to provide a steady temperature. Some larger pieces of meat, like a pork butt or brisket, would require up to ten hours of cooking, and a half dozen changes of charcoal, and constant additions of wood chips. Air vents in the box would allow for a certain degree of control over the temperature.
When I started to get serious about slow cooking, I graduated to the first of a few electric cookers. The singular advantage of this type of smoker is that the heat can be regulated by a thermostat, so your cooking temperature is more consistent. My last unit was the size of a small bar refrigerator, and had two components. The cook box cabinet contained the heat element which could be regulated. A companion smoke generator was attached to the heat chamber. The smoke generator used hockey puck size discs of compressed wood chips, which you could buy from the manufacturer. The wood chip “pucks” were loaded, a dozen at a time, in a chimney column server, which fed in a fresh puck every half hour or so. With this system you could disappear for hours at a time, since the device pretty much took care of itself. It did however have one problem. The heating element sits in the bottom of the cooking chamber. The meat sits above it in the cabinet. A few pork butts weigh approximately twenty pounds, much of which is fat that is rendered out during the cooking process. The fat drips down on the heating element. Did I mention I had a fire? Actually I had a few fires, the last one almost taking out the garage. It did take out the wiring in the smoker which now sits in my friend Bunny’s garage, waiting for new switches and wiring.
My next adventure was to have a wood fired smoker built. The problem with wood smokers is that you have to feed the fire and pay attention, but if you build one big enough, the fire will keep going for hours at a time. My new cooker has two components. The meat cooking chamber is made from a 300 gallon propane gas tank. The attached firebox / smoke chamber is cut from a 100 pound gas tank. The firewood chamber is basically a woodstove, which is attached by a horizontal chimney to the cooking chamber . I pick out the wild cherry from my annual deliveries of firewood. This wood is common in the Adirondacks. Donations of pruned apple branches from friends with apple orchards make up the balance. I use the apple for smoking fish. Wild cherry adds a wonderful flavor to pork or beef. The total unit is on wheels, allowing for the BBQ to come to you if you can’t come to the BBQ. It’s big enough to do eight pork butts or briskets in one set, and small enough to tow behind the truck. I am told that the portable smoker is considered a “tool”, like a wood chipper, so no brake lights or licensing were required. I’ll keep you posted on that rules interpretation. My friend Scott Clark, who built the smoker, assures me of this. I suspect that someone in a funny hat might see things differently at some point.
