Back in the day we smoked all the Lake Michigan trout and salmon we caught on an old smoker my dad had at the time.
Haven’t done it in years, but thinking about getting one for home use.
Any suggestions as to the best ones these days?
I still have our old brine recipe tucked away, just need the smoker.
Thanks for feedback!
Back in the day we smoked all the Lake Michigan trout and salmon we caught on an old smoker my dad had at the time.
Haven’t done it in years, but thinking about getting one for home use.
Any suggestions as to the best ones these days?
I still have our old brine recipe tucked away, just need the smoker.
Thanks for feedback!
Here’s my home smoker, now what’s the brine recipe?
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Seriously we have this set up also with it being able to have oven racks in for smoking large amounts of fish or meat that we don’t want hung from poles. 
We have all the oven racks fitted for it and use them when needed.
Welcome to use my smoker at the shack here. It’s named “the black box that rocks!”
I had a neighbor turn my old 1950’s fridge into a stick burner smoker and it works like a dream !
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Richsn, budget is a big part of what might be best for you. What are you thinking that you’d like to spend on a smoker? I’ve got 3 smokers ranging from inexpensive to very expensive and they all produce good food.
Richsn, budget is a big part of what might be best for you. What are you thinking that you’d like to spend on a smoker? I’ve got 3 smokers ranging from inexpensive to very expensive and they all produce good food.
That’s a good question. I hadn’t really thought about it, I guess $500??
I’ll do some research and see if that’s reasonable, I just thought I’d ask here to see what people are using and what they seem to like the best.
Really just looking for a reasonably priced, turn-key smoker, don’t want to build anything or do any conversions, etc.
I recently bought a Pit Boss Pro 820 pellet grill/smoker. I used an electric Masterbuilt for the past 10 years. The Pit Boss is very versatile – I have smoked chicken, grilled brats and grilled/smoked a pork tenderloin. It smokes at a low temp and grills up to 500F.
The Masterbuilt is strictly a smoker, although it can heat to 275F. In cold/windy conditions it struggles to maintain 250F. I used this an average of 75 times/year without fail. Used everything from chunked up Peach tree and commercial wood chips to pellets and wood biscuits. Takes ~ 20 minutes to heat to 250F.
The Pit boss was right at $500 – a very good buy IMO – seems to be high quality construction, has a blower that helps the wood pellets to burn – reaching temp in less than 5 minutes. Hopefully will remain reliable for the next decade…..
While I’m an owner and a huge fan of the ceramic grils(Green Egg, Kamado Joe) they are the wrong tool for this job. If you’re talking about cold smoking you need to make sure the temperature range goes low enough for fish. I find on my Kamado Joe the minimum is in the low 200’s.
I have a smokin tex 1400 and love it. I added the cold plate to it so you can smoke cheese and nuts. Its great for holiday gifts.
A-MAZE-in smoker is amazing. Turn any grill smoker into a low temp smoker. Can smoke up to 12 hours. And cheap!
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It also depends on what you need to smoke. The pellet grills are great until you want to hang a bunch of summer sausage or snack sticks or bacon- then you need some sort of vertical cabinet smoker. Just like boats- there’s not too many one size fits all smokers. I guess that’s why I have 3 grills and 4 smokers behind the garage hahahaha. I certainly like gas over electric or charcoal. Don’t have to worry about cold days and maintaining temps. In regards to cold smoking- you can cold smoke stuff in a carboard box if you want if you buy the a-maze-n tray or tube.
A-MAZE-in smoker is amazing. Turn any grill smoker into a low temp smoker. Can smoke up to 12 hours. And cheap!
My favorite for true cold smoking. I do cheese with ease. My heavy duty smoker is a Smokin-It, which is kin to the Smoking Tex mentioned above but won’t get near it for $500. For pellets, I have a Green Mountain Davey Crockett and love, love, love it! It is great for small jobs and under the $500 budget.
I can’t say it’s the best, because it’s the only smoker I’ve ever owned, but I’m very happy with my Green Mountain Daniel Boone pellet smoker. I’ve been using it since December (Black Friday sale) and every single thing I’ve made has been great, including quite a few smoked crappies.
When I smoked fish, most charcoal or even electric are to hot and overcook and dried out the fish more then smoking them. So I started using electric frying pans from Goodwill as heat sources. Fill them with a half inch of water and some smaller wood chips or pellets. It took a few try’s to get the heat right. I used a older dome shaped smoker with racks in it and just sat it over the frying pan. I’d go through a pan a year. But my ability to regulate the temps and get a good low smolder was pretty good.
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