Food Tips & Info > MiscellaneousJune 25, 2008

Build Your Own Smoker

Where we live, the wind blows pretty much non-stop, and we just try to keep fetching things off the fences and returning them to the neighbors. One thing that didn't survive well was the electric smoker. Or the second one. Or the third one.

My husband became very frustrated (read irate and cussing here for frustrated). He wanted to throw the rest of the pieces into the dumpster, but being a packrat...I mean "thrifty", I said, "Baby--don't do it!"

So one day when he was feeling both moderate insanity and also the urge to smoke a chicken (please, no rude jokes here!), he decided to take the electric pan, burner and stainless steel shelf that were left and BUILD HIMSELF A WINDPROOF SMOKER!

HE took cinder blocks, ya know the concrete kind, and built a little rectangular hut out of them, then put the pan and burner in the bottom. He even found an extra shelf out of an old fridge and added more space. A piece of siding that was lying around became the lid, with another block on top to keep the kids and cats out.

Very cool, we had smoked rosemary chicken for dinner and soup the next day. I even got to throw on a little bit of goat cheese, which we found out is completely awesome when smoked.

So, if you have an old smoker whose main body parts have been trashed for one reason or another, FEAR NOT! Just build your own. I'm thinking that if we get a wind big enough to take out this one, then we won't be around to care!

Source: General depravity of entire family. Ok, we're also cheap, I mean thrifty!

By Gina J. from Colorado

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By james (Guest Post) 12/16/2008

People have DIED using old refrigerator racks? I find that difficult to believe. Even if they were coated in a rubber or plastic the taste of the meat would be too putrid to even want to eat.

By
06/26/2008

Great piece--thanks for the laugh!

By
06/26/2008

Anyone making one of these should be aware not to use an old shelf rack from a refrigerator. The coating can become a poisionous substance when in the flames. Several people have died eating food cooked on a refrigerator rack.

By (Guest Post) 06/25/2008

Doubt if I will ever build a smoker (although I love smoked food) but got such a laugh from your style of writing! You tell it like it is don't you? LOL

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