From Derrick Riches,
Your Guide to Barbecues & Grilling.
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So maybe you're thinking about getting into the world of smoked foods. Well I should hope so. You don't know the joy of cooking until you've tended a fire all day to get the perfect smoked brisket, or pulled pork. After all, smoking is the process of Barbecue. Certainly grilling is a lot of fun and can make a great meal. But if you are serious you really owe it to yourself to get into a smoker.

But where to start? I recommend to those of you with little or no experience that you start with an inexpensive vertical water smoker. This trash can looking thing has a fire pan in the bottom and two cooking racks toward the top. In between is a water pan that adds moisture to the smoking process and creates a kind of thermal regulator. This class of smoker (the most noted is made by Brinkmann) is easy to start out with and can produce some really good Barbecue.

Don't be fooled about these water smokers. A vertical water smoker can start as cheap as $40. But just because it's cheap doesn't mean you can't make world class Barbecue with one. There are several top level Barbecue prizes given to people using these kinds of smokers. Vertical water smokers range anywhere between the basic Brinkmann in the $40-$50 range to the Weber at about $200. The biggest problem you'll probably have with the low end models is the lack of heat regulation. There are no vents to adjust, but with a little practice you should be able to get a good fire and hold a steady heat for as long as 8 hours. The Weber model has adjustable vents and gives the user a lot more control.

Regardless of the controls or the quality of the smoker you get, if you rely on a real fire to smoke then you'll need to tend the fire. If you want to eliminate almost all the duties of smoking you can opt for an electric smoker. Plug it in, add pre-moistened wood chips add your dinner and turn it on. You might need to add more chips once in a while, but you can smoke something for a month if you wanted to. An electric smoker is to barbecue, what a microwave is to fine cooking, convenient, but not a lot of fun.

If the electric smoker is starting to sound good to you then you might the kind of person who doesn’t want to hover over a smoker all day to get the perfect smoked brisket. This is okay. You might also want to look at a number of propane smokers on the market. These units are much easier than the charcoal or hardwood fired kind but still deliver good barbecue.

If you want to jump up to the level of serious barbecue, then you might want to look at a log burning barbecue pit. It's called a pit, though it has nothing to do with a hole in the ground. There are many manufacturers of these kinds of smokers but few have much in the way of a large marketing area. This is partly due to the fact that these kinds of smokers weigh over 400 pounds and can cost as much and $2000 or more. If you are serious about buying one, you'd be best to look in your local phone book for a local maker. Though there might not be a dedicated maker in your part of the world, many metal fabrication shops have the plans to make them and could whip you out one in a day or two. If you want to go to a real serious maker of pits then you might want to look through a Texas phone directory.

A log burning pit looks a like a large metal barrel, like an oil drum. On the side, usually on a lower level than the drum is a large metal box. This is the fire box. In here you build a good fire with hardwood logs (like hickory or oak) and the smoke rises into the drum. In the drum you keep the meat and a large water pan. Here the water acts to keep the meat from drying out. Built into the pit is a series of vents. By opening and closing vents you control the amount of smoke in the drum and the overall temperature of the pit.

Tending the fire in a large smoker pit can be time consuming. To make good barbecue with one you'll need a lot of practice and time to get to know your smoker. But it will be time well spent. Once you have mastered the pit you'll be making barbecue that will bring neighbors from other towns. Most people who have these kinds of smokers started with a simple and inexpensive vertical water smoker and worked their way up.

Another thing to remember about buying a smoker is that Brisket and Pork Shoulder are not the only thing you can cook. You can smoker any type of meat, fish or poultry, you can smoke, cheese (yes you can but you have to be careful), nuts, vegetables. You can make your own bacon, ham, or any type of smoker foods, so be prepared to experiment and to use your smoker a lot.