Electric Smoker

JagTider · May 1st, 2009, 02:26 PM

Yeah, I know, many of you will consider this to be blasphemy, but I'm considering an electric smoker. I saw one at Sam's Club by Masterbuilt for $300. Customer reviews were all over the place when it came to quality but all agreed that it cooked some good food.

Any of you have any experience with these?

derek4tide · May 1st, 2009, 03:11 PM

I wouldn't do it. If you have that kind of money to spend, go with a Big Green Egg. I'll let Bayou or any other BGE owner chime in here, but from all I have read and tasted the BGE is the only way to go when it comes to top of the line smokers.

bayoutider · May 1st, 2009, 05:02 PM

You won't buy even a small BGE for $300. I think the question here is about the electric smoker. I have seen some in action and after the learning curve is met they do a fair job. For a real live smoker I like the ones built by David Klose in Houston, Texas but those aren't $300 rigs either.

JagTider · May 1st, 2009, 09:16 PM

I would love to have a real smoker, but they cost a couple grand. I don't cook enough (quantity not frequency) to justify the cost ~ I could have many BBQ dinners out for my family of five to justify that cost. I'm more so looking for the set it and forget aspect of a digital electric smoker because we stay so busy on the weekends with three kids. When life changes and I have the time to tend a true smoker, I will definitely make a request to the CFO for some serious capital improvements to the grilling/smoking machinery around here! Grilling is great on my Weber and I can do an ok job of slow cooking, but just wondering if anyone had any real experience with any of these units.

JagTider · May 5th, 2009, 10:10 AM

I went ahead and bought it. Super easy to use and I had good results considering it was the maiden voyage. I cooked 3 racks of pork spare ribs (14 lbs) and two chickens all at the same time.

Used a rub out of the manual that came with the smoker for the ribs which looked pretty standard. I cut the amount of salt it called for in half - and glad I did. Also, a little too much red pepper for the younger kids, so I'll back off of it next time. It didn't call for paprika but I added it anyway. So, with those three changes, I think it tasted very good.

Seasoned the outside and insides of the birds with a premixed seasoning, then stuffed the cavity with apple wedges, garlic, celery, and onions. Then tied the legs together.

Put all of this in the smoker and punched in a temp of 225 and a time of 5 hrs. I added a mixture of hickory and apple chips about once an hour. That was it. Chicken turned out very good. Ribs were surprisingly good considering it was my first time. I don't like my ribs "fall off the bone tender" as I think that makes them hard to eat with my hands. Rather I like for the meat to cleanly pull away from the bone with very little effort when bitten into. I actually nailed that part. Other than using less red pepper in the rub, the only thing I think I will change is to back the time off by about 30-45 minutes and try wrapping the ribs in foil after about 3 hrs of cooking in smoke like the manual suggests (I decided to skip that step as I was repairing the sprinkler system and was too dirty to be handling the food).

Overall, I would consider the purchase a success after the first cooking. The fact that I could get my honey-do's done and still put some fine food on the table in the evening got me some brownie points.

JagTider · July 17th, 2009, 04:50 PM

Update....

I'm really liking the ease of using this smoker. It doesn't produce a smoke ring in the meat but the taste is pretty much the same.

Chicken and ribs are very easy but what I've fell in love with is the pork butt. I put them on in the evening and keep the smoke on them for the first 3-4 hours. Then I turn the temp down to 190 and leave them on there over night (usually about 12 hrs). Once the internal temp gets around 180 it completely falls apart. All of the racks and pans fit in the dishwasher which makes cleanup a breeze.

I have since cut all of the salt and red pepper out of my rub and I think that helped. Last time I tried sprinkling a small amount of liquid smoke on the ribs before I rubbed them down. It really reinforced the smoke flavor as the unit doesn't create massive amounts of smoke on its' own.

Anyone have a good rub recipe they would like to share?

bayoutider · July 18th, 2009, 09:00 PM

	Quote:	JagTider
	Update.... I'm really liking the ease of using this smoker. It doesn't produce a smoke ring in the meat but the taste is pretty much the same. Chicken and ribs are very easy but what I've fell in love with is the pork butt. I put them on in the evening and keep the smoke on them for the first 3-4 hours. Then I turn the temp down to 190 and leave them on there over night (usually about 12 hrs). Once the internal temp gets around 180 it completely falls apart. All of the racks and pans fit in the dishwasher which makes cleanup a breeze. I have since cut all of the salt and red pepper out of my rub and I think that helped. Last time I tried sprinkling a small amount of liquid smoke on the ribs before I rubbed them down. It really reinforced the smoke flavor as the unit doesn't create massive amounts of smoke on its' own. Anyone have a good rub recipe they would like to share?

Glad you are liking the smoker. If you can try to get that temp up to at least 225F. At 190 there are still some bacterias that can grow on the food.

JagTider · July 20th, 2009, 05:33 PM

	Quote:	bayoutider
	Glad you are liking the smoker. If you can try to get that temp up to at least 225F. At 190 there are still some bacterias that can grow on the food.

Getting the temp up is one of the things I love about it - it only takes a few pushes of the buttons. Good to know about the bacteria thing. I was turning it down to ruduce the thickness of the bark, but 12 hours is a long time if bacteria can still grow. Especially seeing that we hardly ever finish all of it at one meal a finish it off a couple of days later. Thanks for the info.

2003TIDE · July 20th, 2009, 08:18 PM

Just curious. What brand did you go with? I've seen other people use electric smokers with good results. I was thinking about maybe getting one in the future.

JagTider · July 21st, 2009, 01:43 PM

	Quote:	2003TIDE
	Just curious. What brand did you go with? I've seen other people use electric smokers with good results. I was thinking about maybe getting one in the future.

I went with Masterbuilt. Many places carry them, but there is a model that is only sold at Sam's Club that is much larger than the standard model sold every where else. The standard model costs around $200 and the larger model costs aroung $300. I would recommend the larger model. It has four shelves and I can easily put a whole rack of untrimmed pork spare ribs on one shelf/rack. I have been very happy with mine - mostly with the ease of use and clean up.

thetideinmd · August 1st, 2009, 10:06 PM

i use a propane smoker, i like alot.

2003TIDE · August 2nd, 2009, 10:07 AM

Here's a rub with no salt or red pepper if that's what you like. It's good on chicken and pork

1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp brown sugar

I usually rub a little olive oil on before I put the rub on.