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Mister Coaster · 05-22-2007, 12:52 PM

Hey, I’ll bet that old oil-drum smoker did make some great stuff in her day!

I find it difficult to believe that these traegers will do a full smoke with only 1-2 lbs of the pellets, then again I’ve never used one either, so he may be telling you the truth. Before I got my Weber smoker, I did BBQ on my charcoal grill with indirect heat, with fantastic results. In fact, I still use it for ribs and chicken as long as I’m only cooking for a small group. But like you, I wanted a smoker. I went with the Weber, and I have no need or desire for anything else. I am really happy I didn’t get the cheapest vertical smoker, though.

You’ll be able to find some wood smoking chips/chunks just about any grocery store or Home Depot/Lowes. However, chances are they’ll only have hickory and/or mesquite. Those are the 2 strongest smoke woods, and the most popular for the masses. To find more interesting/subtle woods like cherry, apple, citrus, oak, pecan, alder ect, you’ll have to do some looking. There’s a chain of stores called Barbecues Galore in California that carried all those, and I found a place here in Denver called Outdoor Kitchens that does too. I’d be willing to bet there would be a place near you that’s similar to these places. They’d probably have the pellets as well. Consider that $20 is for 20 lbs, Kingsford goes for about $12 for 43.6 lbs (Home Depot). So that’s $1 per lb versus about 25 cents... You can also try to find orchards that have scrap trimmings. Just about any tree that produces edible fruit is suitable as a smoking wood.

As for the 2 grill issue, that can be a blessing. Unless you are specifically trying to keep Kosher or something, there’s no real “danger” of contamination from drippage. In fact, I’ve heard that cooking pork shoulder on top of beef brisket will produce a fantastic tasting pork-fat-basted brisket. In general, doing fish separately is a good idea anyway, drippage or no.

I hear temperature control on the Traegers is pretty much a “set it and forget it” deal. The Webers do require some care and feeding ( refilling the water pan mostly or adding coals near the end of a really long cook) but once you get the vents set to a specific temperature, it stays very consistently at the temperature you get. Of course there are always other gadgets that you can add to the Weber if you wanted to. I actually like tending to the fire and stuff like that, so there you go.

05-22-2007, 12:52 PM	#5 (permalink)
Mister Coaster Big & Brassy Location: The "Canyon"	Hey, I’ll bet that old oil-drum smoker did make some great stuff in her day! I find it difficult to believe that these traegers will do a full smoke with only 1-2 lbs of the pellets, then again I’ve never used one either, so he may be telling you the truth. Before I got my Weber smoker, I did BBQ on my charcoal grill with indirect heat, with fantastic results. In fact, I still use it for ribs and chicken as long as I’m only cooking for a small group. But like you, I wanted a smoker. I went with the Weber, and I have no need or desire for anything else. I am really happy I didn’t get the cheapest vertical smoker, though. You’ll be able to find some wood smoking chips/chunks just about any grocery store or Home Depot/Lowes. However, chances are they’ll only have hickory and/or mesquite. Those are the 2 strongest smoke woods, and the most popular for the masses. To find more interesting/subtle woods like cherry, apple, citrus, oak, pecan, alder ect, you’ll have to do some looking. There’s a chain of stores called Barbecues Galore in California that carried all those, and I found a place here in Denver called Outdoor Kitchens that does too. I’d be willing to bet there would be a place near you that’s similar to these places. They’d probably have the pellets as well. Consider that $20 is for 20 lbs, Kingsford goes for about $12 for 43.6 lbs (Home Depot). So that’s $1 per lb versus about 25 cents... You can also try to find orchards that have scrap trimmings. Just about any tree that produces edible fruit is suitable as a smoking wood. As for the 2 grill issue, that can be a blessing. Unless you are specifically trying to keep Kosher or something, there’s no real “danger” of contamination from drippage. In fact, I’ve heard that cooking pork shoulder on top of beef brisket will produce a fantastic tasting pork-fat-basted brisket. In general, doing fish separately is a good idea anyway, drippage or no. I hear temperature control on the Traegers is pretty much a “set it and forget it” deal. The Webers do require some care and feeding ( refilling the water pan mostly or adding coals near the end of a really long cook) but once you get the vents set to a specific temperature, it stays very consistently at the temperature you get. Of course there are always other gadgets that you can add to the Weber if you wanted to. I actually like tending to the fire and stuff like that, so there you go. __________________ If you have any poo... fling it NOW!