Smoking and BBQ equipment review

[minesamojito]

Hey Folks,
Have been testing a lot of BBQ and smoking kit over the summer and here's the reviews...
countrywoodsmoke.com/equipment/
Cheers
Marcus

[cannyfradock]

Marcus

Very interesting review of smokers and grills. especially for someone like me who wants to do a lot more cooking with grills in 2014....Cheers.

Terry

[rivergirl]

I love my primo , which is the oval ceramic oven. Well worth the money ( thank goodness) we had the barrel charcoal a friend made it from an oil drum , it was fantastic and big enough to make indirect cooking easy. Have you tried the Cobb?? Am angling for the oval when my round one dies ( it's been going for over 10 years so I live in hope!!)

[Gaelceltic]

Thank you Marcus. My next stage is cold smoking, so food for thought there, although will definitely be beginner stuff for me, to see how it goes.

[minesamojito]

Thanks guys, not tried a cobb, but they look great. There's lots of great gear out there.
Cheers
Marcus

[tonyb]

Just to add a couple of comments.

I've found the Pro Q cold smoker to be excellent over the last couple of years that I've owned one. I'm not so sure about the comment on the volume of smoke it produces possibly being too little particularly for a home smoker, provided you can control the exhaust of the cabinet, I've never had a problem. My gut tells me that all other things being equal, less smoke (density) over a longer period is preferable, but maybe that's just me.

The main problem with the Bradley which I also have is the cost of the briquettes, which are about 40p each so £1 per hour. Not particularly a problem for hot smoked where te advice seems to be only smoke for the first couple of ours or so but for cold smoking salmon say 12 hours, the cost is substantially more than the other cold smokers.

Incidentally, when I'm cold smoking, I use a Pro Q inside the Bradley and remove the smoke generator to allow air into the cabinet. A much better and cheaper solution that the Bradley cold smoker set up.

[minesamojito]

Tony,
thanks for your excellent comments, yes I totally agree that a small volume of smoke for longer is better, I found the volume of smoke just too slight for my 44 gal oil drum smoker, but yes it would be perfect for a bradley, and as you say a whole load cheaper, I guess once somebody such as ourselves are able to find a cheaper way of doing it then that's great, but I think as I said for chefs who need the repeatability and beginners who need simplicity then it is ideal, us more experienced smokers like to tinker
I like a good flow of air through my smoking chamber so the stale smoke doesn't sit too long, and the proQ struggled to keep up with larger cabinet volumes.
The volume from the smokai was easily enough to fill a small room with fresh smoke.
Hope you found the post useful?
Have more reviews coming up.
Cheers
Marcus

[tonyb]

I first started cold smoking with a modified dustbin and a Smoke Daddy imported from the US smokedaddyinc.com/ Interesting that they look very similar and both claim patents

I found control of smoke output wasn't as precise as I thought it might be, the inlet air valve wasn't sophisticated enough and it was very easy to burn through the wood quickly. I also occasionally found that the the wood chips would bridge across tube and not fall onto the smoking embers so the fire went out, maybe because of the tar that was produced.

Looking forward to the future reviews.