Top 5 Smokers for Beginners

hey guys welcome to mad scientist barbecue i'm jeremy yoder and today i'm going to answer a question i get all the time basically every single day and that question is what are the best smokers for beginners now to keep things simple and give you a list because i like lists i'm going to give you the top five smokers that i recommend for beginners now this list is not the top five greatest smokers of all time it's not even the top five smokers i use most often right behind me is the one i use most often it's a 500 gallon custom built offset smoker for most people who are just beginning that is the wrong answer so this list is going to be things that are affordable that are effective and that are easy to use let's start off with number five the weber kettle now these things are everywhere and if you're just wanting to dip your toes in the water a barbecue well a weber kettle is a great place to start number one it's not that expensive you're not gonna have to spend 10 grand on a weber kettle number two they're fairly easy to use so you dial in the vent on the top you dial in the vent on the bottom and you get your fuel set in place and you can use it to cook barbecue you can also use it to grill it's not that heavy it's just a very very good way to get your introduction to barbecue without having to get a dedicated smoker or spend a lot of money it's just a great entry point for barbecue now it doesn't make the world's greatest barbecue but it can make very very good barbecue certainly a lot better than you can get at most restaurants across the country and one final point about the weber kettle is there are so many accessories it is mind-boggling so there are a lot that are used specifically for barbecue i'm thinking of one i don't remember the name right now but it's got kind of a water trough in the middle and then it's a divider that separates the hot side from the cool side of the kettle and you can use the cool side for indirect cooking low and slow barbecue and then you could use it for say reverse sear on a steak you bring it up slowly to temperature and then sear it directly over the coals it is incredibly versatile there are so many accessories i don't even know of them all there's rotisserie there's probably something that will even launch you into space if you want to look for one of those they're a lot that's the point so a great place to start is weber kettle all right number four on my list is the green mountain grills daniel boone it's not too too expensive it's about 500 bucks and the control system works really well it's a good pellet smoker now it's not going to be the rolls-royce of pellet smokers but it's not a dog either it's something that will work well and you don't have to spend too too much money now the reason i included a pellet smoker on here is because ease of use is incredibly important especially if you're just starting to get into barbecue maybe you feel intimidated you don't want to get in there and manage a fire you don't want to have to deal with lighting charcoal or anything like that you don't want to have the fear of runaway temperature spikes what you get with a pellet smoker is peace of mind and ease of use so you're probably going to get better smoke flavor with other smokers on this list but if you're just trying to get into barbecue you're not trying to you know make the world's greatest brisket of all time and go compete with aaron franklin for the championship of brisket a pellet grill is a great choice also when you're at work a lot of them have kind of a wi-fi connection so you can see what's going on with your brisket in the smoker you can see what temperature the pit is you know it's just a very easy and convenient way to do barbecue and it will allow you to experiment with different rubs and seasonings things that you like or don't like you can kind of get it dialed in and if you find that you've been bitten by the barbecue bug and you just want to cook barbecue all the time well then you can upgrade to something more expensive maybe just a top of the line pellet smoker maybe you want to get a custom offset but at that point you know that you've been making great food for a long time on that thing and you know how to make great barbecue then i would say it's time to upgrade number three the old country barbecue pits pecos this is an offset smoker now that means it's not going to be that easy to run another issue is the smaller the offset smoker the harder it is to keep consistent temperatures so it might seem counterintuitive but it's actually much easier to run this 500 gallon pit than it is to run a small offset so the degree of difficulty is a little high for an introductory pit but for those people who are enticed by the idea of having a real fire burning real wood and that's what you want to do when making barbecue i would say this is a great place to start because it's not too expensive and my backyard pit the old country brazos right there is essentially the exact same smoker but made with thicker metal but it also comes with an increase in price so what you get with the pecos is relatively easy to use and it's it's well enough constructed that it's not going to fall apart it's not going to be like one of those chinese made sheet metal smokers that are really really difficult to use well but you get something that will work and if you're diligent about managing the fire the pecos will provide a better smoke flavor than you can get on any of the other smokers on this list all right number two we have the pit barrel cooker now these cookers are incredibly easy to use if you just follow the instructions you're going to be able to make pretty darn good barbecue because it's a kind of a set it and forget it type of thing you're not adjusting vents all over the place you're not worried about runaway temperature spikes it is just simply a way to cook barbecue without having to worry and you actually are using a real fire you're not worried about a pellet smoke you don't have to plug it in anywhere it's just using charcoal and wood chunks and because of that it produces really really good flavor now the pit barrel cooker isn't going to be the fanciest smoker in the whole world but what it does give you is ease of use it gives you a low price tag and then the thing that's most important to me is it gives you great flavor so in comparison to most pellet smokers and things that use propane or electricity to do the cooking the flavor you get on a pit barrel cooker is going to be phenomenal and i would wager that you can cook barbecue with one of those about as well as any restaurant in the country that's not you know in austin or kansas city or memphis most of the places that you're going to go to i'd say 98 of all the barbecue joints that i've ever been to don't make barbecue that's as good as what you can make on one of those next we have our honorable mention and this is the kamado joe now it didn't make the list it's not because it's not good it's simply because it's very expensive in comparison to the other smokers that we have on this list now you could spend a heck of a lot more on smokers but for a beginner who's just getting a first smoker i wouldn't necessarily recommend this unless they just have the money lying around in which case it's a great choice so with the kamado joe you get a very efficient smoker because it's ceramic it doesn't use a bunch of fuel you don't have to worry about breaking the bank going to buy charcoal and wood chunks it's not going to use that much fuel more importantly i think is that it's incredibly versatile you can get that thing up to 800 degrees if you want to and just steer the heck out of stakes if you need you can do it low and slow cooking at 225 degrees for a long time you can use it for myriad different purposes also they have about as many accessories for the kamado joe as they do for the weber kettle you can install a rotisserie you can do all kinds of things with kamado joe i would say it's probably the most versatile pit that i know of it's really really good if you have the money go for it now downsides of course are the price and also it's very very heavy so unlike the weber kettle it's going to have some heft and you're going to have to put in some effort to move it around but if you have open space you have the cash and you want to go for something like that it's a great choice but it just doesn't make the list finally number one the weber smoky mountain there has probably been more barbecue cooked on weber smoky mountains than anything else on the list except for maybe the weber kettle there might be more more briskets that have been cooked on a weber kettle than any other smoker period just simply because they are everywhere but the weber smokey mountain is a dedicated smoker so it's not something you use to grill it's not something that you would use for steaks or anything like that it is specifically for smoking that's why it's called the weber smoky mountain and it's a bullet smoker a side benefit is it doesn't take up a whole bunch of space also it doesn't weigh a lot so it's easy to move around but here's the thing it cooks phenomenal barbecue because it produces great flavor now if you don't know what this is the way it's set up is essentially you put charcoal and wood chunks in the bottom there's a water pan that goes over that and then you have two racks so you could cook two briskets or you could cook a few racks of ribs and then a pork butt on top of that whatever you want to do it has a small footprint but cooks a lot of food and then if you just dial in your vents then you can walk away for hours and not have to worry about what's happening to your barbecue there are also a ton of accessories where you can you know install a probe and then there's an automatic fan that feeds in air to make sure the temperature stays rock steady right where you want it it is a very convenient way to see if you want to get into the process of barbecue and all those reasons are why i often recommend the weber smoky mountain as the best choice for a first smoker unless you're willing to spend a whole lot more okay i hope you guys enjoyed the list i really like lists and i hope you guys do too if you want to see more of them just leave a comment down below tell me what kind of list you want and i'll try to break those down for you and put out some more videos if you did enjoy it hit the like button down below comment and subscribe to the channel you can also turn the notification bell on so you get notified every time i put out a new video finally you can follow me on twitter and instagram mad scientist barbecue i'll see you guys next time

Channel: Mad Scientist BBQ

Views: 694,234

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Id: OpUcN-UljCI

Length: 9min 23sec (563 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 16 2020