Easiest & Smokiest?

R

rdsbucks

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 16, 2015
Location
Buford, GA
Name or Nickame
R.D.
What, in your opinion, is the easiest smoker to use that also provides the best smoke flavor?

When I speak of easiest I mean the easiest prep before the smoke, the easiest to manage during the smoke, and the easiest to clean up after the smoke.

When I speak of the smokiest, I mean the closest in taste to a stick burner.

I have a high-end pellet smoker. I have had a cheap pellet smoker, a Weber bullet, and a Pit Barrel Cooker in the past. I have not had a cabinet electric/propane smoker or a kamado. I do not love the taste from a pellet smoker.

The best taste to me is a stick burner. But I want ease of use and great taste...so what tastes better than a pellet smoker but is still easy to use? Thanks!
 
I've had an MB560 for about a year now and it's become my go-to. Super easy to use. Great smoke flavor. Yes, I replaced the controller and now use an FB2Drive, but that only refines the process.
No one was more surprised than I, how well the MB560 performs, but what can I say. It's easy and produces great smoke flavor.
 
I’d agree that my MB 1050 is the easiest and smokiest that I own. I think a true gravity fed would be a little better due to heat retention?
 
My reverse flow cabinet from Cascade Smokers is about as easy to operate as it gets and the results in my opinion are equal if not better than a stick burner.
 
My Weber Smokey Mountain with a BBQ Guru temperature controller is basically set and forget. I can get pretty close to my stick burner quality wise with it. Slightly different flavor profile - a bit of the charcoal taste on it.

My family and friends can’t tell the difference between the two.
 
MB or Char-Griller gravity smoker, hands down. Fill the hopper with charcoal and wood chunks, light, set the temp, forget it. Doesn't get much easier than that and real smoke flavor.
 
Might be an unpopular opinion here buuut…..you aren’t going to get stick burner flavor from anything but a stick burner. You can chase that dragon all you want but until you are using a wood fueled fire it isn’t happening. Been there, done that. Probably not going to even be your “smokiest” option depending how you run your wood fired smoker but there is character missing without it that you don’t achieve otherwise. I like the food that comes off my drum a lot, it’s not overly smokey, but it isn’t close at all to a wood fire. Nor is my pellet pooper. Or kamado.

Convenience, affordability, authentic wood fire flavor - choose two.
 
Last edited:
Get a decent, cheaper stickburner like a Brazos, let your brisket/ pork butt, etc. smoke on it a couple hours for the smoke flavor then finish it off in the pellet grill. That way you don’t have to babysit it all day if you don’t have the time.
 
Bob C Cue said:
I was going to say a Pit Barrel Cooker but it looks like you already had one. Did you not like it?
Click to expand...

I did not like the clean-up and you had to lean over and reach inside the dirty barrel. And if you ever had to move it, it was heavy and awkward.

I made good food on it though.
 
sudsandswine said:
might be an unpopular opinion here buuut…..you aren’t going to get stick burner flavor from anything but a stick burner. You can chase that dragon all you want but until you are using a wood fueled fire it isn’t happening. Been there, done that. Probably not going to even be your “smokiest” option depending how you run your wood fired smoker but there is character missing without it that you don’t achieve otherwise. I like the food that comes off my drum a lot, it’s not overly smokey, but it isn’t close at all to a wood fire. Nor is my pellet pooper. Or kamado.

Convenience, affordability, authentic wood fire flavor - choose two.
Click to expand...

well said
 
KBQ. No question about it. I've owned an electric/propane smoker, horizontal offset, Hunsaker drum, and now content with the KBQ.
 
I'm a WSM man.
One brother cooks on a pellet grill.
The other brother cooks on a Shirley.
I can run a WSM for 10-12 hours with no intervention and get smoke flavor that rivals what comes off the Shirley and better than what comes off the pellet grill.
If you cook with a dry, foiled water pan cleanup isn't all that bad either.
 
It definitely won't be the best smoke flavor wise, but I think it's pretty darn easy to turn out great BBQ on a Weber 22.5" kettle with just an indirect fire (I use a couple of thin pavers turned on their side to bank the coals). Setup and cleanup is a breeze, and when one of the pavers breaks, it's only a buck or so to replace it.
 
Look at the ironside smoker with pellet assist, you can run it anyway you want. Start with all wood and then switch to charcoal or pellets.
 
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