Digital Electric Meat Smokers & Fish Smokers Reviewed

Smoking and the use of smokers is the process of cooking food on indirect heat using the smoke to flavor and simultaneously cook the food.  Smokers are mainly used for  meats like beef, pork, chicken and seafood.

Some splendid examples are:

- Brisket
- Salmon
- Pork Ribs
- Turkey
- Lamb

Why is Smoking so widespread?

Quite simply because smoke cooking is a long slow process and lends itself to producing fabulous tasty food which doesn’t dry out while its cooking. It’s a lower cooking temperature but the meat or fish cooks for a far longer time period. This will ensure that what ever you cook will be juicy, succulent and will literally fall apart as you’re eating it.

Most people who start smoking their own food never look back and they often wonder how they managed without one, we know we do quite often.

How do get I started with Smokers and Smoking?

A question we get asked a lot on this site, and you really need to ask yourself a few questions like the following and that will steer you in the right direction.

The main options when it comes to smoking are charcoal, electric or gas. Which one is the best for you depends on how involved you want to be in the process and also just where you plan to smoke your food.

With a charcoal smoker, you will need to pay quite a bit more attention to the smoker on a regular basis as you will need to watch the temperature and add or remove coals to raise or lower the temperature.

With an electric smoker, you can set it and simply check it at the end of the cooking time, for the novice smoker and electric smoker is really the best option, as they are inexpensive and more or less foolproof to operate.

If you have a covered area in your backyard then you can use just about any smoker you’d like, if you need to keep in the garage or a shed then you will want to consider how portable the smoker is. Check here for a list of the more portable food smokers.

One of the main points to consider when using a meat or fish smoker is whether to use wood chips, pellets or briquettes. You should check your specific smokers user manual as to which is recommended but in most cases the use of wood chips is easiest and readily available. Using wood chips also gives you a fantastic choice of woods that you can use, all of which give a distinctive flavour to the meat, allowing you to experiment and come up with that “secret” recipe to wow you friends and family at your next get together.

There are many types of BBQ Smoker woods available:

- Apple
- Alder
- Cherry
- Hickory
- Maple
- Mesquite
- Oak
- Pecan

To name just a few, just click here if you’d like some more detailed information on smoking woods.

Hickory is probably one of the more best known and most used smoking woods, followed by Mesquite. The choice is yours as all of these woods produce their own characteristics which also depend on the meat you are smoking.

To marinade or rub, what is the best?

This really does come down to your personal choice. Why not try both using the same joint of meat and see which you and your family prefer ? It’s a great experience and lets all of you get involved in what can be a very enjoyable, practical and very addictive pastime.

You can always check our Rubs and Marinades section for some inspiration.

We wish you the best of fun and some fabulous happy eating with your new electric smoker.

To check out the various specifications and some great user reviews just use the menu on the right hand side, and don’t forget to check out the free recipes and why not join up for the mailing list, we get notified of some great bargains around and we love to pass them on to you when we can.

Happy Smoking !