Smoker Recommendations

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Originally Posted by Species8472

Thanks all for the responses so far.

So primarily i want to smoke sausage and pepperettes (bear, deer, turkey) plus make jerky (bear and deer) and smoke fish. Budget wise i am willing to pay whatever is necessary to ensure quality, reliability, decent capacity and ease of use - if that means $500 or $1,500 so be it. Not a fan of buying junk but also don't want to spend foolishly.

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So for your needs a Bradley will do what you want it to. If you think you might do briskets or pork shoulders than something that can get to higher temperatures would be better suited. TC

I have a Pit boss and would recommend it for ease of use, just turn it on to the desired temp and leave it. I have a Weber charcoal and would recommend it for flavour but it needs babysitting. I had an older traeger but the temps were not as variable as the pit boss, maybe the new models are better.

Bradley digital. Set it and forget it! :)

The best smoked meat I've done was using an offset smoker burning charcoal and wood. Depending on what you are cooking it can be an all-day effort and then some. Prep the meat the night before and fire up the smoker at 6am for dinner at 7pm. It helps to have two people to do the work. More times than I'd care to mention the cook and helper were three sheets to the wind by dinner time. LOL.

I've held back on a pellet smoker. I'm reluctant to buy the pellets when I have an abundance of hickory and apple wood on my property.

Good point.
I use the green egg charcoal and wood

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Originally Posted by Badenoch

The best smoked meat I've done was using an offset smoker burning charcoal and wood. The challenge is depending on what you are cooking it's can be an all-day effort and then some. Prep the meat the night before and fire up the smoker at 6am for dinner at 7pm. It helps to have two people to do the work. More times than I'd care to mention the cook and helper were three sheets to the wind by dinner time. LOL.

I've held back on a pellet smoker. I'm reluctant to buy the pellets when I have an abundance of hickory and apple wood on my property.

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I agree with belleriver, Bradley all the way for me, but has to be the digital one. So nice to load it up with what meat you want to smoke set them temperature, set the length of time you want the smoke on, set the time for smoker out to max. you know the meat going to take at least 6 hour, so you can go and do what you want for 4 or 5 hours come back. I use wireless temp probs so I know what the internal temp is.

Like a lot of things...it depends...

On the level of involvement you want, on what you're smoking and how much...etc.

I have an older digital Masterbuilt smoker, which has never let me down. It keeps consistent temps, and uses wood chips, so I can use a variety of woods.

I also replaced my gas grill two years ago, with a Kamado Joe ( think Big Green Egg, only in Red). And it's a delight for smaller smoking jobs.