smoke generator

Well! The cheap SOB. How about an aluminum pie pan with a smoldering piece of Hickory?

Hmmmmmmmmmm. Maybe Andi has a point. My daughter has an incense burner. Smells like a den of hippies when she lights it off. I bet you could find a doohikie like that, replacing the hippie smoke with faux-que smoke. i2bbq.

LOL! I resemble that remark, Chuck! I'm cracking up cuz this Old Hippie has a cool incense burner that looks like a Trapper Cabin and the roof comes off. Ya stick in some cone incense and it looks like smoke is coming out of the chimney. Complete with a Meat Cache, I might add. Mini...made with sticks to look like logs. Windows and everything. Wouldn't that be a fine display with a little chunk o`hickory?

Andi,

My money saving suggestion was that he go to the Salvation Army and get an old electric skillet for a few $$$ and toss some wood in that. I don't think he liked it. He is threatening to start manufacturing them. LOL I hope he does and he can find out just how stress-free (NOT) the manufacturing business is! Hear that, Steve?

Donna

All the above are pretty close.

Get one of those cheap 18 inch grills that set on the ground and burn a few pieces of charcoal.

Go out about 30 mins. before peak serving time and add a handful of damp hickory chips and about 2 oz. pork grease.

That'll drag 'em away from the fast food places.

Sorry to be a wet blanket on this issue Donna, but from a professional standpoint, I have to disagree with "ole Steve" What he's attempting here is pure and simple deception.

I have no problem with preparing a product in a central commisary, but if someone asks, be up front about it. I've been a Q fanatic for years but I've never offered it on my menu till I was able to do it right...and to that end I bought a Cookshack Smokette...which I'll be upgrading to a 150 shortly. Bottom line is I'm willing to spend the $3K cuz I'm putting my name and reputation behind the product and I want it to be 110% right.

Smoldering a few chunks of wood to create the illusion that the product being bought by the customer was made on premise is, to my way of thinking, just plain bogus.

I realize that your simply trying to help out a customer, Donna...which is much to your credit, but IMHO Steve should either pursue an honest approach, or none at all.

Sorry to work up a head of steam here folks, but I started out 30 years ago in this business when "chefs" used to pass off Cod cheeks as Scallops. This kind of chicanory really pi$$es me off.

Good on ya, TC!

I wish your attitude were more pervasive . . . and not only in the restaurant business. Too often we forget that the little 'white lie' that serves our own interest is still a lie. Even though I suspect that Steve's intention was ambiance, why resort to tricks? If the barbeque is outstanding his customers will order it . . . even without the smoke and mirrors.

They make BBQ pellets. For about $5.00 you can have enough of these little smoke generating things to smell up the neighborhood. Put them in foil and place in a insense burner and - wow......BBQ Smoke

For what it's worth, being able to smell the wood burning outside of the restaurant seems to be a very important part of the BBQ customers experience, regardless of the food quality. I faced a similar situation in the small town that our restaurant is in. I got comments along the lines of "Your food tastes great, but since you don't have a smoker here, where do you do the cooking?" When told that we cook on site, the usual response was something along the lines of, "Well, my friend/neighbor said you don't have a smoker on site, so it must be cooked somewhere else." Gotta love small town rumors. Anyway, our cookshack is in fact, on site. Our restaurant is in the middle of a strip center, and the smoker is located in a shed in the back alleyway. You can only smell the smoke if you are driving down the alleyway and then, you still can't see a traditional style smoker. We have had some luck dispelling this rumor by advertising on our readerboard that we smoke our meats on site. Currently we are looking at possibly buying a trailered wood fired smoker to place out in the parking lot. While I intend to use the cookshack to cook most of our meats due it the ease of its use, I would use the trailered smoker to do the relatively easy items, such as sausage. I like the cookshack for more complicated (subjective) items because I can train employees that don't have years of BBQ experience to turn out a good product. I also think to just place a smoke burning device out front for the sake of fanfare is somewhat misleading. That is how I arrived at my sausage smoker compromise. Of course, if asked, I would tell the guest that most of our cooking is done on a seperate smoker out back. --Just my thoughts, you got what you paid for!

I applaud your resourceful and honest approach to this issue. It's too bad one must go to these lenghts though it's easily understandable...people want the real thing...which means smoke. How many times have you ordered BBQ Ribs only to get a slab of steamed, soggy meat infused with liquid smoke--sitting in a puddle of generic sauce?

Best of luck to you!