So you want to smoke some meat... part 2.

In my last post, I talked about the start of my smoking journey from foil pouches on a gas grill, to the purchase of my first electric cabinet smoker.

My BBQ journey then led me to my first BBQ competition which was an amateur event called Smoke on the Water in August of 2013.  That day, I packed up the truck and competed using my good old electric smoker and it did the job.  I won 1st place chicken and 2nd place ribs and won the Grand Championship that day.  The prize was a Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5 inch cooker.

The WSM as it`s also known is a bullet cooker.  Charcoal basket at the bottom and a cooking chamber up near the top.

These cookers provide plenty of room to cook any type of BBQ meat.  A well loaded charcoal basket will give you an easy 12 hours of constant heat allowing you to cook Pork Shoulder or Brisket.  I can easily place 6-8 racks of baby back ribs on the 2 cooking grids.  

There is also a water pan that helps regulate the temperature and to increase moisture in the cooker.  

Weber makes 3 models of this cooker, 14.5 inch, 18 inch and 22.5 inch.  

This is a great cooker to work with.  It comes apart easily for transport to and from competitions and cleans off easily with my pressure washer.  

Here is an interesting article that talks about the advantages and disadvantages of a WSM vs an electric cabinet cooker.  

Some people already have inexpensive charcoal grills.  These can also be used to smoke meat.  It`s a bit more word as you have to keep the fire running, but if you have time, it can give you great results.  

Here are two examples of charcoal grills set up for smoking.  In both examples example, you see the coals on one side, with wood chips or chucks on top.  Place your meat on the opposite side, away from the heat..  This is indirect grilling. You can also put a drip pan in place to catch all the wonderful meat juices, or to add flavour to your steam by adding juice, beer, broth and herbs and spices to the liquid.  

If you`re looking for more information on Weber smokers, there is a great discussion board called the Virtual Weber bulletin Board where you can read up on using charcoal grills.  

In part 3 of So you want to smoke some meat, we look at Ugly Drum Smokers and how you can build one, what they look like!