DIY smoker questions

[drano38]

I've made a lot of deer summer sausage over the years. Smoke it for a few hours with your choice of smoker.
Then put it in an electric roaster to cover the sausage in water that's 160 deg. Seven 3 lb chubs fit in my roaster, and will bring them to final temp in less than 2 hours.
The chubs don't let water in -- I use metal "hog rings" to close them.
I have a Bradley electric smoker I've modified with a higher watt heating element and a PID temp controller. The Bradley company web site had an awesome forum, which is where my electric roaster process came from. Unfortunately, Bradley website doesn't have the forum anymore.

 

[Lefty2506]

It took me a while, but I finally figured out a way to set everything up and keep it all around 100 to 150 degrees. I smoked them for about 3 hours, then put them in the oven at 200 deg to finish them off. It only took about 2-1/2 hrs in the oven to get them up to temp. I was expecting it to take longer since it normally takes 6-8 hrs. I haven't had a chance to sample them yet. Dunked them in some ice water for about 10 min at 1am this morning, and then stuck them in the fridge. I'll package them tonight and take a sample for taste testing They smelled pretty good so we'll see.

 

[WSnyder]

I use my barrel smoker with 18-20 charcoal briquettes and chunks of wood to do my low temp smoke sessions. Any more charcoal than that and it’ll run too hot. I do have to monitor it and add a few briquettes every 20-30 minutes. I do it on days I’m working in the yard or in and out of the shop so I can walk by and keep tabs on it.

 

[Lefty2506]

It's been a while since I bought charcoal. I wasn't paying attention and bought "cowboy" charcoal which is actual chunks of wood charcoal of various sizes. It would have been a lot better if I had been using standard charcoal briquettes.

At this point, I'm a little torn about what kind of smoker I want to end up with down the road. I know that I don't want a propane unit because they burn through too much propane. I'm trying to decide between a vertical electric smoker, and the pellet smokers that look more like a traditional grill with a smoker box mounted on the side. From what I gather, the pellet style burns out a little faster but can be rebuilt pretty easily and the rebuild kits are around $130 depending on the brand. The vertical electric smokers look like they are a lot simpler, and easier to keep operational but I'm guessing they have a noticeable impact on your electric bill if you're running them for 10-16 hrs at a time. Not a big deal for once or twice a year, or if I'm smoking something that doesn't take long, but I can see myself doing a pork shoulder or ham several times per year in addition to regular meals (steaks, pork chops, chicken, ect). For longer burns, I suppose I could put a few charcoal briquets in a metal pan in the bottom to add some cheap aux heat if I need to. Once smoked, I could also finish stuff off in the oven (NG) in the house.

 

[Lefty2506]

Still looking for some guidance on this for a long term solution. I'd like to end up with something I could use for my summer sausage and snack sticks (15-30 lb of summer sausage and 10-20 lb of snack sticks per year) as well as something I could smoke a pork shoulder or ham in a few times a year, along with some occasional chicken breast, drum sticks, pork steaks, and/or ribeye. In other words, something to use for a little bit of everything. Obviously, larger things like hams and pork shoulders are going to be an all day thing, but ideally the smaller stuff would only take 60-90 minutes. Not really looking to smoke a steak or chicken breast and have it come out like pulled chicken or brisket. More like wanting to add some smoke flavor to them that I can't get very well from my current gas grill.

I'm thinking that the 30" and 40" electric smokers would be a good option for me, but I'd love to hear some feedback on them vs an offset smoker or a more traditional charcoal smoker. In my makeshift, red-neck/poboy-need it right now setup, I liked the way the charcoal performed, but having to go out and feed it every 20-30 min on a +10 cook for a pork shoulder seems like it would really suck.

 

[Fast14riot]

Realistically, you can take an old cast iron skillet, fill it with wood chips and put that over any flame or heat source, have some way to contain the heat and smoke, little bit of venting and you'll more than likely get a sufficient product. You can buy bags of fruit wood chips for smoking pretty inexpensive. I've seen actual filing cabinets turned into smokers, lol!

 

[mmcu]

Get a 30 gallon (or smaller) steel drum with lid and turn it into a smoker. Cheap, easy and they work really well.

Check out the Pit Barrel website for design ideas.

 

[Woollybugger]

Get a 30 gallon (or smaller) steel drum with lid and turn it into a smoker. Cheap, easy and they work really well.

Check out the Pit Barrel website for design ideas.

search “ugly drum smokers”

 

[Lefty2506]

I ended up getting a used Pitt Boss vertical pellet smoker off FB Marketplace from a guy who lived about 3 miles down the road. It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but it also had a cover, a new control board, had about 20 lb of pellets in the hopper (half full), and was cleaned up and ready to use. For a quick test, I smoked some venison burgers for about an hour on Saturday night. Everything appears to work just fine. Its plenty tall enough to hang my summer sausage in, and could easily fit 2 or 3 large pork shoulders in it (or several smaller ones). Flavor on the burgers was very noticeable. Even in the colder weather, the unit was able to get up over 300 deg. I didn't run it that hot, but I wanted to see if it would get that hot on a 110V circuit. Seems like the heat mostly comes from burning more pellets and force feeding the fire with air which is fine. There will be a learning curve of course. I've already noticed that above about 250, I'm really just baking and not smoking. I have a pork loin in the freezer that needs to get used. I think I'll try to turn that into pulled pork next and see how it goes.

I do like the idea of a cast iron pan, some charcoal, and a barrel. I may play around with that down the road also. I have a couple of older, VERY rusted cast iron skillets (looks like they spent a few decades in a salt bath) that would work well for this application. Heck, I could probably use one of the largest ones for the charcoal, and then suspend a larger above it for the wood. Also have a few steel drums that I could burn the paint off of and use. Don't really have time to mess with that at the moment, but might be a fun and usefull weekend project when the weather warms up. I did play around more with one of the rocket stoves and found that with charcoal, I could get hickory in an aluminum pan to ignite even if its 6-8" above the coals Seems like that setup will smoke up to about 300 or 350 deg. Over that, the wood chips ignite and the internal temps jump from 350ish to about 500 pretty quick.

 

[ricco1949]

I've had 2-3 electrics. When the elements burn out I just convert 'em to traditional charcoal.

Cowboy charcoal in a tin pan in the bottom makes great smoke and easy to control temp.

It actually works better on cold days when the electrics fail to generate enough heat.....just add more charcoal. I usually add a block of maple too if necessary.

 

[Ringostar]

I’ve used several vertical smokers in the past. I feel this is best for hanging sausage, whether logs, links or sticks. I have an offset for brisket, pork butts, ribs, chicken and stuffed peppers.

 

[DogBuster]

Few years back…welder buddy of mine built a bunch of these

Nearly all recycled parts…air compressor tank…scrap steel

Pieces of rail….spikes for the handle..from an old Uranium mine

Smokestack is from an ole Chevy truck driveline etc

Works as a reverse flow….heat/smoke go under the meat rack then over top

Then out the stack….Firebox holds a nice supply of fruitwood

Slow yes…works well and fun to use

Nuthin like the smell of a rack of baby back ribs and fruit wood smoke

Easily weighs 200#