It’s funny how I mention the same things over and over and then all of a sudden, I get bombarded with requests for more info. The smoker picture seemed to get a lot of attention yesterday so here’s the info:
Here’s what a brand new one looked like before it had been used probably at least three times a month for 2 years.
The smoker we have is from Cookshack. This is the model we have: http://cookshack.com/index_product_record.php?product_id=101
If ever we get somewhere that we think we’ll stay, this is the one I want.
Based on CJ’s recommendation, I got it for Vince for Christmas in 2005 and we use the heck out of it. When I smoke chickens, although we won’t even eat a whole one, I smoke several at a time and then freeze the meat. It’s great in gumbo, chicken salad, burritos. The pulled pork is the best!!
It’s electric and we generally put about 2 oz. of wood in there. My least favorite woods are hickory and mesquite. I love using apple and cherry woods. I’ll smoke chickens for a couple of hours and then put them in the oven because the skin doesn’t get crisp in the smoker. Ribs take maybe 6 hours. A big butt will take 12 or more hours. We truly love this thing and if something happened to it, we’d order another one that very same day.
We talked about ours so much that mom and dad bought one. When they were here for Christmas, I smoked a fresh ham from the local meat market. Mom has always loved honey hams from the Honey B Ham shop but they went nuts over the ham I smoked. And . . the best part was that when all the ham was gone, there was a bone leftover! Soup, beans . . yummmm!
Several have asked about where to keep it. You can get a cover from Cookshack. In Kentucky, I had a fenced back yard but no covered patio at the house in town . . which is where I did most of the cooking. For a year, the smoker just sat out in the weather with the cover on it and it’s fine. Here, we don’t have a fenced yard so we bought one of those rolling stainless steel carts from Sam’s and the smoker sits on it. I keep it in the garage and just roll it out in the driveway when I use it .. roll it back into the garage when I’m done.
I love this smoker!