The Texas BBQ Forum

I'm getting up in age and recently moved into a townhouse in Austin. Currently there is a burn ban in effect, but on top of that I would not feel safe using a charcoal smoker or grill on our patio. Any future smoking of briskets, butts, ribs, etc. will have to be done on my gas grill or in an electric smoker. Have any of you used a small electric smoker, such as an Old Smokey electric smoker? If so, how would you rate the the barbecue that it will produce? Any replies will be greatly appreciated.

sorry Im no help....never used one...

My dad had an electric ECB and I had a neighbor who used an ECB in conjuction with an electric charcoal starter. The later used a chunk of hardwood from time to time and the former used hardwood sawdust. They seemed happy with their respective results.

A good friend of mine uses the Cajun Injector Electric Smoker (http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/store ... =578824977). He puts out pretty decent que. He likes to brag about the amount of sleep he gets. The only complaint I've had when trying it is that the smoke flavor is not as pronounced because he has to use the chips.

I have used the old smokey smoker with some success I was very excited to try one when I saw them (I'm a big fan of the old smokey grill ) But after using it a few times I came to the conclusion it is to sealed up the meat more steams than smokes and because of that cooks very fast with no bark formation and a steamed texture to get around this I have tried cracking the lid and that has helped some. I have a cookshack that does a better job but is allot more money.If I were you I would build a UDS they seem as safe or safer than most electric smokers.

I've been reading what I can find on the internet about electric and gas smokers. One review said a pork butt doesn't do very well in an electric, can't get a good crust/bark, and the taste is different. Says smoke just lays on top, does not penetrate into the meat. His opinion was that gas does a better job of smoking than electric. I'll keep reading, but all comments are welcome and appreciated.

What you said squares with other things I've been reading. Thanks for the reply.

I have an older model of the electric Old Smokey called the Redi Smok.

I like it for times when the weather doesn't permit fire building or times when I am just too lazy. Works fine for me.

Stan