What’s The Best Barbeque For Slow Smoking Foods Like Beef Brisket?

Choosing a great pit is definitely a matter of taste in style, and perhaps even matching the decor of your yard. However, there are two popular designs that dominate barbeque, and each brand is unique in their features and quality.

Barbeque Design # 1 – The Offest Smoker

The image you see above in an example of an offset drum smoker. Offset smokers are by far the most popular design around, and is usually the "image" people get in their head when they think of smokers. There are three main characteristics that identify an offset smoker.

1. A firebox that is mounted towards the bottom of the main chamber. Having the firebox mounted below the main chamber allows smoke and head to be pulled up and across the grill grates. The firebox has some type of adjustable venting on the outside of it to adjust the amount  of air (and thus heat) flowing through the firebox and into the main chamber. The firebox should have at least the following features:

• A charcoal basket or tray for holding ample amounts of fuel
• Grill grates for direct grilling up small amounts of food such as a couple of steaks, etc.
• A deep, removable ash pan. Slow cooking produces quite a bit of ash, and sometimes it needs to be removed to keep from suffocating your fire
• A tightly sealed lid
• Optional – A heat deflector on the lid (helps prevent the paint from peeling and rust)

2. The Main Chamber – This is the primary grilling and barbeque area of the pit. Inside, there should be the following components:

• Removable grill grate(s) which are used as the grilling surface. I prefer cast iron or stainless steel grates.
• A heat baffle which helps even and spread the heat and smoke coming from the firebox across the grilling surface
• An extremely tight sealing lid
• A hole for grease to exit

3. An Exhaust Chimney  – The chimney is what enables the air (heat and smoke) to flow from the firebox, across the grill grates, and up and out of the main chamber. It should be positioned somewhere between just below the grill grates and just above the grill grates. There should also be an adjustable vent on top of the chimney which allows you to control the amount of smoke in the main chamber.

Other handy features include:

• Wheels for moving the pit around
• A handle on the main chamber opposite the wheels
• Shelves for staging food
• A charcoal grate or box below the main chamber
• Grate level (not in the lid) thermometers

Back To Grandpa Murrays Brisket Recipe

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.