re: HELP me choose a Smoker

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What are the pros and cons on a wood pellet vs ceramic?

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I can't speak to pellet smokers. I've had a XL BGE for about 7 years. Ceramic smokers are versatile (smoke, grill, bake from low-n-slow to near quadruple digit temps) and efficient (hold temps for long smokes).

Most of us who cook on them have little incentive to depart from them.

Disadvantages
Mine has a circular grate. There are other ceramic cookers that have an oval grate. For equi-area sizes, the oval shape will have a larger major dimension which may help with ribs and briskets.

In general, smokers come in two types: 1) chimneys (smoke source directly below the meat) and 2) tunnels (e.g., offset, where the smoke travels through a tunnel over the meat). Typically, this won't be a big problem, but when the drippings from a brisket fall directly onto the coals/wood below, it can alter thee quality of smoke. This won't occur in an offset. I compensate by placing a drip-pan on a "plate-setter" below the grate.

Mine is essentially for small-scale smoking (max 1 brisket, 2 shoulders, 3 yard birds, 4 racks of ribs).

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Money is of course no object.

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Get both. Small pellet and BGE

Another BGE user. Very versatile piece. Great for Steaks, Tuna, Pizza, or Smoking.

If you want the best and money is no object research a Klose pit made in Houston. Several years back I was asking the same question as you. I researched for months and decided on a Klose pit.

Each one is custom made with the features the customer wants. Go visit their factory or you can come look at mine. I live two hours south of Baton Rouge.

LINK /

Get a stick burner.

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or you can come look at mine. I live two hours south of Baton Rouge.

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You better have protection and backup on standby if you're going to invite Tiger Ryno to your house.

I have this one.... The Good One: Open Range
Open Range

Think I paid $1100? Bought it online and had free shipping.

They have several models to choose from both bigger and smaller. It's kind of an offset in the way it's set up. I can do a full packer brisket and 2 butts on it at one time. It burns better with lump (rockwood).

A Plus of it is you can grill on the fire box as well. It comes with a grill for the fire box. You can completely shut off the smoke box from the fire. Temp will get down to 125deg or so with a full load of coals if you shut it off.

Brief story I entered into my Q journal from over the weekend. It helps to keep a journal, I find, when it comes to Q. We get bogged down in life, and often forget to keep a log of what's most important.


Earlier this year I'd become a trained CBJ in GBA and shorly afterwards obtained my GBA certification as well as my MIM/MBN certification after judging 2 competitions. As I've done more competing in the last few years, it had been a while since I've judged an MBN event. My first draw today was on-site whole hog. This IS by most any stretch of the imagination the holy grail of judging.

My first draw in this event was the recent Memphis In May rib champion, Bubba Grills. Of course, Lonnie & team are amazing, but their hog this morning was simply over-the-top. Lonnie was burning his hand and fingers extracting the meat for me. I sat there listening to his spiel, the whole time I was taking in the aroma of the Q, squeezing it for moisture and tenderness, and of course eating freshly extracted pieces from the back, ham, loin, shoulder, ribs, etc. 15 minutes of judging heaven.

While their presentation is simply awesome, I’m not one to favor larger teams, or money (there were teams with even more impressive rigs here today than Lonnie's).

My next draw was another very accomplished team and a great hog cooker, Jurassic Pork. Not nearly as impressive a presentation, but worthy of a perfect score none the less. Another wonderful hog there, an equally amazing aroma, bark that was very impressive particularly for a hog, and just wonderful meat. The team made one small mistake that cost them slightly; they’d chosen to use smaller pieces of meat pulled from the hog, and literally the distance from the hog to the table was longer so it took another minute to get it over to me. It was slightly breezy this morning and still a little chill in the air, so the meat wasn’t nearly as hot and had just begun to dry out a tad. It wasn’t nearly as tender as it could’ve been, so that got my 9 there and my overall 9.9 vs. the 10.0 for Bubba Grills. Tight competition and a wonderful draw to be a judge.

My third draw for the day was a local-only team who cook a pretty darned good hog, but honestly not in the league of either or the two other’s I’d sampled.

At the end I had a tough time deciding whom to give my overall 10, but the tenderness and freshness of the hog from Bubba won my 10.

This is a long story but I actually am getting to a point, one that surprised me a little, and I’m reminded of why on-site is so much different than blind judging. I don’t know the final standings, but Jurassic Pork made it to finals in whole hog, and today Bubba Grills did not. MBN weighs blind judging significantly higher than on-site so that folks enamored with glitz of larger teams don’t unduly penalize smaller teams who might make better barbecue. I like this part (the higher weighting of blind). Obviously the blind box was the difference. I didn’t get to see their blind boxes, but I know these two teams, I’m certain they both got 10’s in appearance. However, whole hog can dry out quickly if allowed to cool. I’m certain that the product the judges who opened those blind boxes was very different than the barbecue that I was allowed to sample straight from the hog.

30 minutes later, after all hog judging was complete, I wandered over to the grazing table and was able to pick out these two teams barbecue by the sauces that were presented with them. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to recognize either, as they were VERY different than what I’d judged.

The lessons to draw from this are probably many. Cooks need to know that from the time they close up that clam-shell box to the time it’s opened by judges can be 10 to 20 minutes some times, and they’re not necessarily stored in warm conditions, so the barbecue has had lots of time to cool. When testing their recipes, test how they taste 20 or 30 minutes after pulling them and allow it to cool. What may be AWESOME when hot and steaming may not be nearly as impressive after it’s cooled.

For judges, well, more than anything else, if you ever get the chance to judge MBN on-site, please do so. Not for the impressive “show”, but to get to sample award winning competition barbecue HOT, straight from the smoker, pulled right there in front of you and almost immediately to your mouth. Truly, THAT is something else!!!! As good as the barbecue can and often is in our tent at the table when judging blind, it’s a whole different story when it steaming hot freshly pulled… Seize the opportunity!!!


There were lots of great rigs there that day. Is one better than the other? Who's to say. "It's the motion of the ocean, not the size of the ship," a now deceased pro smoker once told me. I tend to agree. If there's one thing I could tell you, as embark on this quest for the grail, don't skimp on the Chackbay when it comes to doing a dry brine. You think about that.

I have owned the 18" for close to 10 years. You can fit quite a bit of whole cuts on this thing, and having two levels to smoke meats give you that much more room. You do have to get creative when trying to do full racks of ribs. They do make a 22" model that should more than suffice. They are charcoal fuel fired only, and are very accurate and consistent at holding temps for the long haul once you have vents properly adjusted. Definitely not for indoor use.

I've always been a proponent of vertical smokers. They don't take up a lot of room and you can put a ton of meat on them. If you plan on doing beef jerky you need lots of rack space