Home made smokers.

Okay, Salvation Army had a "Contempra" Indoor Electic Char-B-Que for 4.99. It's porcelain base is 12" across with a rack cover and a stove element inside for heat. It fits in the bottom of my charcoal smoker (where the charcoal is supposed to be) perfectly. My question is, does one bury the element under a pile of dry wood chips...probably not, suspend wet wood chunk above..below the element? I've never seen any demos of this. Thanks, DJ

It might be easier to buy a brinkman electric smoker. They run about $80 around here. You could also build a smoker using a metal trash can and a hot plate. Plenty of instructions on how-to around the web.

Sounds like you could put the chips on a metal plate and put the plate on the rack. My last smoker before CS had a heating element in the bottom with a metal dish for wood placed about and inch above the element.

Or buy a CS.

Check this out. This is the coolest thing I have seen and I am going to build one for my RV.

Home made smoker

Let me say this though, I highly suggest the one time investment and purchase the best smoker you can buy which is the cookshack.

quote:

Originally posted by BigO'sSmokin:
Check this out. This is the coolest thing I have seen and I am going to build one for my RV.

Home made smoker

Don't bother. Like most of Alton Brown's ideas it only works well on TV. I actually built one of these. The end product sucked and it was outright dangerous.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Thiessen:
Okay, Salvation Army had a "Contempra" Indoor Electic Char-B-Que for 4.99. It's porcelain base is 12" across with a rack cover and a stove element inside for heat. It fits in the bottom of my charcoal smoker (where the charcoal is supposed to be) perfectly. My question is, does one bury the element under a pile of dry wood chips...probably not, suspend wet wood chunk above..below the element? I've never seen any demos of this. Thanks, DJ

Two things to keep in mind.

Temp. What temp will that element generate. Unless you modify it, you probably won't be able to regulate it unless it's "off" or "on" That's why most Cheap electrics are cheap, they don't put temp control in. Oh and consider heat loss, how thin is the metal and how much temp will you lose to the outside temp. Not much in the summer and all of it in the winter

Wood. You're not burning wood for heat (that's the element) you're burning wood for flavor. So you could put a handful of wood on the burner. Too much wood and you'll create flames (and more temp)

Alton made a COLD smoker (better for some fish) out of a wood box and a heating element