England has delicious sausage - and Texas has delicious BBQ. It is our national cuisine. So I can speak with some authority, having grilled and smoked meat for over 40 years.
NB: The term "BBQ" means smoked food, not grilled food. See Robb Walsh's excellent book "Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses" ISBN: 0811829618.
http://tinyurl.com/5q253The recipes in the book are worth the price. Try the New Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church rib recipe - you will never cook ribs differently again.
I just bought a smoker from Wal-Mart a few months ago. It is listed in the catalog but the local store was willing to pay the freight to fetch it, which saved me $50.
http://tinyurl.com/6ey7dhttp://tinyurl.com/4kpccThere are 2 styles - I recommend the larger one. It is not much more expensive and gives you a lot more volume. Also the hardware is much improved. But the most important consideration is that the heat is more uniform in the larger unit. The cooking chamber is uninsulated so the center is hot and the sides are cool. That's not a problem if the center is a large enough area.
The design is that of an upright cabinet, which is like the smokers used in Kansas City. Texans use horizontal pits for BBQ, whereas KC uses vertical cabinets. Since I lived in KC for a couple years a long time ago, and sampled a lot of the BBQ there, I can attest to the unique flavors that come from vertical smoking.
The chip basket is large, and you can use anything from hickory sawdust (which I get in 45 lb. bags from Allied Kenco in Houston) to large wood chunks. The choice of wood is based on the gas setting. If the gas flame is low, you should use mostly sawdust but if the flame is high, you should mostly large chunks. When I am smoking salmon with alder chips I use an aluminum baking pan wrapped with heavy duty aluminum foil because I am using the lowest flame possible.
I talked to one of the principals at the factory in Joplin, Missouri, and he says they are designing a much smaller less-expensive model in terms of height. The people who run the company are ex-Sunbeam grill people so they have the right experience.
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:46 pm