BBQ Smoker Basics

You Don't Have to Be MacGyver to Build Your Own BBQ Smoker

Real Barbecue: The Classic Barbecue Guide to the Best Joints Across the USA --- with Recipes, Porklore, and More!

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Two decades after barbecue kingpins Vince Staten and Greg Johnson published their ode to the top 100 barbecue joints around the United States, they have logged thousands more milesand at least as many rib racksin their quest to monitor, taste, and even create the very best. Part travel guide, part recipe book, REAL BARBECUE is really a celebration of a way of life, peppered with such sage advice as, A man that won't sleep with his meat don't care about his barbecue” (Early Scott). This update of the classic has a completely new design with photos, trivia, detailed locations of great eating joints coast to coast, sidebars about sauces and sides, columns about cook pits and shack architecture, sections devoted to Texas ribs, Cowboy-que, lowcountry pulled pig, California-que-zeen, and real-man reviews of rib joints such as Allen & Sons in Pittsboro and Vince Staten’s Old Time Barbecue in Prospect (he put his money where his mouth is). Secret recipes and mail-order finds are also included. This is your guide to the best barbecue across America, often identified only by a thick black column of smoke in the distance.

A syndicated columnist and author of ten books, including Kentucky Curiosities(Globe Pequot Press), Vince Staten has appeared on such media as "Late Night with David Letterman," "Dateline NBC," "Today on NBC," and NPR's "Morning Edition." His varied career encompasses writing, lecturing, teaching, and co-owning Vince Staten's Old Time Barbecue in downtown Prospect, Kentucky. Greg Johnson is the Features Editor for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky.

"This book is to barbecue what Rand-McNally is to maps."Playboy magazine

"What Masters and Johnson did for sex, Staten and Johnson do for barbecue."Willard Scott

"This is a helluva readable book...There's as much flavor in the writing as in the Rev. Noble Harris' sauce at House of Prayer Bar-B-Que in Fort Lauderdale...Toss this on the dash and hit the road."Gannett News Service

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Tags: BBQ Smokers, Big Baby Smoker, Build a BBQ Smoker, Build Your Own Smoker

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What's the Difference Between BBQ Smoker and BBQ Grill Cooking?

So, you want to cook better slow-cook barbecue Thing is, you’re wondering whether you should use your outdoor gas grill for this, or purchase a smoker. Let’s take a look at some of the trade offs?

The BBQ Smoking vs. Grilling Question

There’s some confusion as to what constitutes BBQ Grilling vs BBQ Smoker preparation. In short, grilling is the quickest method of cooking meat over a direct source of dry heat. Think sizzle and searing… and those restaurant style grill marks. That’s BBQ Grilling. Smoking – on the other hand – is a slow process, where the food is kept away from direct heat or flame, and is instead cooked by being bathed in hot, smoky air.

BBQ Grilling

Using a standard charcoal, gas or (blech…) electric grill allows you to apply direct heat, indirect heat, or a combination of the two.

Direct method is a high heat method and is used for cooking relatively small pieces of food. Steaks, chops, chicken breasts,etc are some of the typical foods that can be grilled directly. In indirect method, as you might guess, the food is kept to the side of the heat source. What’s going on here is that you’re effectively using the grill as an oven – such as you would in your kitchen.

BBQ Smoking

Smoking your meat is really the only way for you to achieve that true “smoked” flavor. Larger cuts of meat like roasts, ham, ribs, brisket, and the like are great examples of what you should consider smoking. One must maintain a constant, even temperature, so that you wind up with awesome, smoked food. On average, you’re shooting for a temperature between 200-225 degrees F.

There are a lot of choices out there for BBQ smokers – including water smokers and the traditional drum style. One of the main things to understand is that you need to choose the right type of wood.

Feel free to experiment with all sorts of wood to find out which one is the best. Smokers can vary in shapes and sizes.There are smokers running in gas and charcoal. But just remember, the heat coming from any type of smoker is a cooler one, so you need to plan for extra time.