Best All-Around BBQ Grill/Smoker Combo?

[so lucky]

Since there are so many experienced barbequers/smokers on this forum, I was wondering what you think is a good one to buy? I have never had a smoker, so was wondering if you can get something kind of low priced that will do both. (I'm jealous of you cooks who can do the smoking; that sounds so good) I have used a little cheap gas grill for the last 20 years or so. (Not the same one, as they don't last but about 5 years)

 

[Collector]

We have a Treager pellet smoker BBQ , we enjoy and use it often. Also we have a gas unit we use quite a bit. The Treager is real simple to learn and use, I'm not sure the price is considered inexpensive or not, but sometimes you can find them used for a deal.

 

[majorcatfish]

a offset smoker and a weber one touch gold 26" kettle grill is all you need.


would check out a patio store that sells bbq's... stay away from the bigbox store smokers overpriced and made out of thin sheet metal...

the 3 types of wood chips you can not go wrong with.
apple
hickory
mesquite

edit... my neighbor purchased this from sam club i think he said 350.00 don't quote me on it.
its a smoke hollow 4 in 1 not a bad unit

 

[Jared77]

On your offeset smoker, is the smaller portion where you have the fire at and the larger portion where your actually cooking at? The to be smoked items go there?

 

[majorcatfish]

On your offeset smoker, is the smaller portion where you have the fire at and the larger portion where your actually cooking at? The to be smoked items go there?

yes the smaller is the fire box and you could put a grill in it, but who knows where that went too.....and the other is the cooking chamber it's large enough to put
2 whole rib roasts<prime rib>
or
3-4 boston butts
or
5 roasting chickens
or
6 racks of ribs
or
3 whole pork tenderloins
or
2 whole turkeys

a good rule of thumb if you are going to smoke, plan on smoking all day so why not load it up with a couple different types of meat and freeze it the meat so you can enjoy it another day.

heres a example using a temp of between 220-240
2 boston butts will take 9+ hrs
might as well put in a couple chickens 4 hrs
once they are done put on a couple racks of baby back ribs 4-5 hrs

depending on the outside temp there are times that i will finish the meat off in the oven.
will have to do this during the late fall and winter time mainly.

you can use a weber kettle grill as a smoker as well.... indirect cooking
works great when just cooking small amounts of meats
drool on this
smoked italian sausage links with grilled bell peppers and onions served with fettuccine alfredo

and one of the biggest rule you have to remember is once the meat is done....let it rest 20-30 minutes before curving or pulling into it.
dang i am hungry now....

there are a lot of smoking forums out there, so google them and learn.
also there are some great books on smoking as well. probably have 15+ books on just smoking, here in the south we take smoking very seriously.

will say this your meat is only as good as where you buy it from. look around and find a good local butcher, you will find the meat so much better than the supermarket meats..

happy smoking...mc

 

[Jared77]

We have a really good butcher near us. They sell quality stuff and we go there when we're looking for something special.

drool on this
smoked italian sausage links with grilled bell peppers and onions served with fettuccine alfredo

I like the way you think

Thank you for the tips off to search Google

 

[majorcatfish]

a word to the wise on wood.

when you can purchase your wood local or get from somebody that has a dying tree do it....
lowes has apple,hickory cherry,mesquite wood chips or chunks.

be careful of ordering any type of bbq wood on-line with a credit card, we have in years past been nailed by identity theft because of it. if you feel don't comfortable about the seller use a prepaid debit card only and have it shipped to your work. the less they know about you the better.

 

[MontyJ]

Wow, I can't believe I missed this post.

I'm of a different mindset when it comes to BBQ'ing and smoking. I have an offset smoker/grill very similar to Majors. My friend has one identical to it. You can smoke on those, but you have to very careful. The side nearest the firebox will run hotter than the furthest end. You have to account for this. The other option is to modify it by placing a steel baffle in front of the firebox. I completely removed the firebox from mine.

Personally, I don't believe in combination units. I have never found a grill of any kind that can smoke as well as a unit designed specifically for smoking. Likewise, I have never found a smoker that can grill as well as my Webber.

Having said that, I'm sure there are some units that can do both. I don't know which Treager Collector has, but I'm sure it's probably pretty good at both. Treagers are the Cadillac's of the grilling world. I don't own one, but would love to!

If budget cooking is what you are looking for, there are two things you can get to have the best of both worlds without breaking the bank.

First, for grilling, get a Webber Kettle. The One Touch Gold (OTG) and One Touch Silver (OTS) are both excellent units. The OTS will run you about $130, the OTG a bit more. There is also a One Touch Platinum. I priced one at the local hardware store...$399! I'll pass.

For smoking, you can't beat the Upright Drum Smoker (aka the Ugly Drum Smoker...aka, the UDS) The UDS is simply a 55 gallon steel drum that has been converted into a smoker. It will hold temps extremely well and is very stable. You can build one for about $100. It doesn't take a lot of skill, but a working knowledge of an electric drill would be handy.

Here are a few pics of my UDS during construction. The trick is to find the proper drum. There are several theories on this. You first must decide which type of lid you want before you get your drum. The lid from a webber kettle will fit most drums, but not all. If you have a spare lid, or can get one, take it with you when you get your drum. If that is the lid type you want, you will want to buy a closed top drum and you will have to cut the top out. The only advantage this style has is that it gives some extra height in the smoker. Personally, I have never needed the extra height.

The other option is getting an open top drum. This style uses the existing, removeable lid from the drum. This is what I have. It's less work, and the lid seals tightly.

Another thing a lot of people debate is knowing what was in the drum previously. The drum I bought had an unknown substance in it. It looked like old goopy white paint. The drum also had what is known as the dreaded liner. That's why I didn't care what was in the drum. That liner is impervious to everything. If you remove the liner down to bare metal, whatever was in the drum is also gone. I don't buy into the food grade drum only argument for that reason. Removing the liner is the hardest part of the entire project. There are no chemicals that will remove it. It must be removed by hand with a lot of grinding and sanding. It won't even completely burn out. That thing is tough!!!

I have more pics of the building process somewhere if anyone is interested. I can also provide instructions for building one.

Here is the firebox I built. The ash pan is an old 16 pizza pan. The coal grate is the coal grate from a webber kettle grill. You can buy replacement grates, both coal and grilling, for the webber kettles. The coal box is simply expanded metal bent into a circle and bolted together:



This is the interior of the drum after I removed the liner and installed the parts. Heh, it didn't stay shiny for long :



And here is the finished drum smoker. The total cost was about $100 which includes the cost of the drum and all brand new grates and hardware:



Here are a few notes on versatility, and why I have so many grills.

I baked this bread in the Webber OTS. I like the OTS for baking because it gets hotter than the smokers. That's not to say I can't get the smokers to 325 or higher, but it takes much longer. The OTS is much more efficient.



I use my large offset for grilling very large cuts or large quantities. It is also the only grill fitted for the rottisserie:





Here are the two smokers in operation at the same time. The large hose you see going to the bottom of the UDS is from a homemade tempreature controller I built. You do not have to do that! The 3/4" ball valve works great. I built the temp controller for very long cooks like slow brisket so I could get some sleep:



And just for Baymule, bet you can guess what this is Bay



So, after all of that, I would recommend two things. First, decide what you want to cook, but beware, it's addictive. Second, decide how many people you will eventually be feeding. You can't really go wrong with an OTS and UDS combo. Neither will do everything well, but having both will do nearly everything perfectly.

Just remember, cooking with these does have a learning curve. It takes a time and practice to get used to how your gear cooks.

 

[meatburner]

MontyJ, we have 3 barrel smokers we made usually called UDS (Ugly Drum Smokers), 3 webers, and an old NF Bandera upright smoker. Love all of them!

 

[majorcatfish]

monty, will agree with you on the heat differance front to rear on a offset smoker, have been thinking like you said ,fabricate a baffle system and move the stack to the other side.
but again noboby has ever had a bad word about what has come out of there...

to all that smoke...happy smoke ring to you this summer...