Types of Smokers

Thank you for smoking

A meat smoker slow-cooks meat with hot wood smoke. A favorite of outdoor cooking aficionados, the food produced contains a distinct aroma and taste as a result of the process. Normally, chefs using smokers gravitate towards larger cuts of meat, such as slabs of ribs, briskets, loin roasts or butt and shoulder cuts. Beef, pork, chicken and turkey dominate the menu, but more novel foods such as salmon, goat, duck, and wild game produce delicious results as well. Three basic types of meat smokers exist: wood-burning smokers, gas grills, and water smokers.

Anatomy of a smoker

Traditionalists still favor the unique taste that wood-burning smokers provide. Wood-burning smokers use charcoal, wood, or wood pellets to slowly cook a variety of meats. Gas grills function in much the same way, except that the fire powering the process comes from propane or natural gas; wood chips or damp logs are simply added for flavor.

Most smokers are not portable and can weigh upwards of 200 pounds. Whether homemade or top-of-the-line, wood-burning smokers have three basic components: the cooking chamber, the firebox and the smoke chimney.

The cooking chamber is the part of the smoker where meat cooks, generally a simple tube made of metal. The firebox, the source of heat for the unit, sits at the bottom. Located on the opposite side of the unit as the firebox, the smoke chimney draws air up through the chamber, but keeps heat trapped inside. This circulation of heat and smoke within the cooking chamber imparts a smoky barbeque flavor during the cooking process. The indirect heat of a smoker requires much more time to cook meat than the direct flame of a grill, easily four or five times as much.

Water world

A water smoker is organized along a more or less vertical system. At the bottom of the cylindrical unit, burning charcoal and wood chips create heat and smoke. A water pan, situated directly above the flame, boils, thus filling the chamber with mingled smoke and steam. This combination of water and smoke acts to continuously baste the food. As water droplets condense on the surface of the meat, they drop back into the water pan to reheat and continue the process of slowly cooking the meat.

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