This morning was my neighborhood's annual community yard sale, and I came home with five succulent houseplants, 138 Gillette razor blades (yes, new) and this thing. I can't decide whether it's a smoker or a barbecue, and since my grilling experience has been limited to propane for the last 20 years or so, I'm not at all sure of the differences. It was made by a company in Texas, called "Tejas Smokers," which still exists and seems to sell fairly high-end rigs. The woman I bought it from thought it was about 15 years old. It's made of heavy (mostly 1/4") plate steel, has a shutter on top of the chimney and an air inlet shutter on the fire door. So, what can I do with it?
It's a BBQ rig. But could see some limited action in the smoking section. If you burn the coals to the right and keep the meat to the far left... Congrats with that heavy of metal you ought to be set...
So to attempt smoking with this, I take it the idea would be to build a charcoal fire, scoot the coals over to one side, top the coals with a few bits of wet/greenish hardwood, and cook on the opposite side? I know it can't be complicated...
Right. Then let meat cool. Freeze. Then send to my house to make sure it is okay before you try any. I don't want you to get sick or anything. Bout 4 lbs should do.
Pretty nice grill you picked up. That's pretty much how it would work. Put the coals on the right side and food on the left. This is just my opinion but it will probably work well for grilling and maybe smoking some things but you may find it harder to control then something built specifically for smoking since it is missing an offset fire box. That being said I used to smoke stuff on a Weber grill and managed to get it done.
Thanks. It's okay if it's not a great smoker; I'm not sure my neighbors would be happy if I were pumping out woodsmoke at ground level for hours on end, anyhow. Houses are very close together in my neighborhood. If I can fake it once in a while, that's enough.
Thats a nice little rig there. You should be able to impart a good smoke flavor to food Im not sure if you will be able to actually smoke stuff with it seeing as how as others have said it doesnt have an offset fire box but it sounds like your not really going for the full blown smoking thing. I would like to get something like that for myself it would be very versatile you could sort of smoke meats or just flip it open and throw some burgers and dogs on it.
NO! That doesn't happen. Don't cook your food in heavy smoke unless you like the taste of ash trays. The wood smoke is a subtle spice, used sparingly. Best method is to wait until "good smoke" happens. Good smoke is is thin, blue, almost invisible smoke. It takes a bit of time to get there.
