Creating Your Own Barbeque Smoker To smoke foods yourself, you could use a bbq smoker box that is designed specifically for this purpose. However, all you really need is something to contain the smoke, a source of smoke, and something to smoke. In fact, you can transform your charcoal grill into a barbeque smoker very easily. Here's how to do it: Remove the cooking grate and build a fire on one side of the grill with charcoal, hardwood, etc. Airflow is very important when smoking so be sure the fire is on the side that any wind will blow against. Place a drip pan in the grill, opposite the fire, and replace the cooking grate. When your fuel source is hot, you are ready to add the meat. Place a water pan, about 2/3 full, directly over the fire to keep air inside the grill moist during the cooking process. Place your meat directly over the drip pan and a thermometer next to the meat. Shut the lid to keep the smoke inside. The ideal temperature for smoking is 200-250 degrees, so you will need to adjust the vents on your grill to achieve this. The airflow needs to come in under the fire and exit through a vent above the meat. The air needs to be drawn through the fire, over the water pan and over the meat. Keep an eye on the temperature and the fire as you will need to add more fuel periodically, but keep the lid closed as much as possible.

Let's see - in my thermometer collection I currently have 1 freezer, 3 or 4 instant read, 2 wireless Oregon scientific (both dead), 2 oven, 3 candy. I've discarded about 6-10 Taylors, Polders and various others - some basic, some fancy, some wireless, some wired. None of them is worth a d*mn. They are inaccurate, take too long to come to equilibrium, fail unpredictably and fatally. The only thermometer which I have found to be reliable is the thermopen. Having typed this I am afraid that it's going to die tomorrow when I have to smoke a huge load of ribs and chicken. I had high hopes for the Oregon Scientific units which are very nice wireless thermometers. They have silly presets which can be ignored. The first one lasted the longest of all this sad lot - perhaps 3 years? Then it failed Thanksgiving eve and I was forced to use the instant (not!) thermometers to roast my turkey. The replacement Oregon Scientific lasted a year. I kept all the pieces thinking I would get a third, but I can only be suckered so many times! As I understand it, the problem is the thermocouple, the most expensive part of the thermometer. Making one that can stand up to regular abuse in home kitchens just isn't that reliable. The maddening part is that once in a while someone gets a gem and tells the world how wonderful it is. Perhaps you can tell this is a fetish with me. I am a scientist by training and nature. I like my data to be precise, accurate and repeatable. Right now I have a probe thermometer which is a feature of the Electrolux oven. It plugs into a socket inside the oven at the top so can't be kinked, twisted or otherwise mishandled. So far (8 months) it's been reliable and reasonably accurate. I check on it with the thermopen because I'm obsessive. BTW dcarch, the thermopen works perfectly well when used in a pan over induction. I used it to check how long the cooktop took to bring water to a boil. It's pretty cool (sorry to sound so geeky) to watch the rate of temperature change as the water heated (2 minutes and change to bring 1 quart of water to full rolling boil). Cheryl

I agree with Alexa. A thermometer is worthwhile. I have had both electric and charcoal smokers. The electric is more convenient, but the charcoal gives better flavor IMO and is worth the slight amount of fussiness it takes to maintain the right temp. Best piece of advice I can give is to avoid the temptation to look at the food cooking. You may need to do so a couple of times during the cooking, but every time you take off the lid the system cools dramatically and it takes a good while to get back up to cooking temps. As far as wood goes, I really like pecan. You can use pecan shells if you have access to them. Hickory is good, but a little stronger than pecan. I used to live near an apple orchard; apple wood is great, too. I don't care too much for mesquite, but that's just me. Another trick is to put something fatty on the top rack and something that needs basting on the bottom rack. My dad used to do a pork roast on the top rack and as it cooked it dripped fat onto a turkey on the bottom rack. I've done ribs on the top rack dripping on to chickens on the bottom. Delish. I found I could smoke about 6 whole chickens at once. (They make little wire racks that make the chickens sit upright during the smoking, and that does make for a more efficient use of space. I found them worthwhile.) What I would do is smoke them, and then store them in individual freezer ziploc bags. Use a soda straw to evacuate as much air as possible, then seal them and freeze them. When you wanted a quick and yummy dinner, just take a frozen bird in its plastic bag, open the bag and put a couple of ounces of water or white wine in the bird's cavity, and microwave it in the bag for a few minutes till reheated. If you take the smoked chickens and take the meat off the bones, the meat makes a fantastic chicken salad; save the skin and bones, though, and you can make an incredibly rich and flavorful chicken stock that would jack up the flavor of many dishes like beans, soups, etc. What's really nice is that the cooking times are not written in stone, and slightly overcooking the stuff will not ruin it since it's a very moist environment. Another plus is that most of the work is done 3 or 4 hours (or more) prior to serving food. Once you load the smoker and get everything going, it really doesn't take much attention at all--in fact, most of the time it's better to leave it the heck alone. That means that if you're entertaining a bunch of people, you have time to check on everything else without worrying about the main dish. Much less stressful than, say, grilling a bunch of steaks for a crowd.

Both my main grill and my small smoker are on my deck but I'm very careful. all I have to do is look over the the next door neighbour's melted siding to remind myself. I lay one of those cheap hardware store mats down. They are black/charcoal coloured and generally come three sizes stapled together. Hope I'm describing them, ribbed, made from some kind of recycled poly pop bottles or something. So, on top of the mat I place concrete patio stones, those square or rectangular concrete blocks that are used for walkways or patios when you are first married and can't afford rock work. So, the mat protects from grease drips, the concrete is a bit of fire/heat protection for the deck boards. The smoker is out, away from the house and siding even tho we have Hardie board and even tho the smoker doesn't run hot (the grill does!) When I'm done the concrete and the mat go into a deck box and the grill or smoker get covered and put up against the railing on the far corner, out of the way. Usually the grill gets left set up all summer but I move the smoker because its used not as often and you want it out of the way because after you use it a while it smells good and smoky. Whenever I'm either cleaning the grill or using the smoker I bring the fire extinguisher up from the workshed as well. Never had to use it in 50 years but I still have it on hand.