Don't own a smoker but always thought I needed one. Bought our youngest son one of the fancy ones with the firebox and find it a pain to use.

Had good success once before smoking on our Weber kettle so decided to smoke a pork shoulder on it today. It's still a work in progress but is working fine. For the 10 hour smoke time I figure i'll need to add charcoal twice . . . about every 3 1/2 to 4 hours.



Don't need no fancy smoker!

Russ

Nice. I just did this last weekend. Have had good luck using the snake method with the kettle.

Nothing like smoked meat. We're just finishing up a Boston Butt from our smoker. I elected to go with an electric one from Masterbuilt. Mine is 4 years old and still going strong. Put meat in/fill water pan/add wood chips.........Set temperature/time and forget it.

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S&W Accumulator

For a butt that large a Weber Smokey Mountain is the way to go. Much easier for the long cooks.

This is a subject near and dear to my heart. I'll put this disclaimer up front so you can skip the rest of this response if you want to.

When it come to cookin' outside I'm old school...VERY old school. There is grillin' and there is smokin' and I love to do 'em both. But I cook strictly with wood. I have spent half a century coming up with the technique I now use and I still make changes now and them. I only cook with wood. And I don't use charcoal. You can actually fine tune the flavor of the meat by combing different woods. There is a whole world of different flavors out there and they are all good.

I sometimes just light the fire with kindling I pick up around the yard. You can light it with the fire starters made out of wax but if you use the fluids you are saturating your food with hydrocarbons. You can smell it and taste it when you take the food in the house. After over a quarter of a century working in a refinery I figure I've taken in more than my share of that stuff one way or another. If I want to cook with gas or electricity I can cook in the house.

The only way to get a good smoke ring into meat is to smoke it a long time at a low temperature. I usually keep the temp between 225 deg and 250 deg. The length of time will vary with the meat. It will range from a half hour or so for fish/ shrimp to 12 to 14 hours for a good thick brisket.

You say it's a hassle but you forgot to mention that it also messy and expensive with the cost of good fire wood these days. But it's the way I learned to cook outside and it's what I know. I believe that the quality of my smoked meats is worth the effort and my family and friends will back me up on that.

I enjoy a nice crisp fall day with blue skies and light breeze and temps in the 60s. For a brisket I get up at 0400 and lay my fire and light it off and get the temperature set just right. While the fire is gettin' right I get the meat ready and when I have the temp steady I put the meat on. Then I go back to bed and sleep for 3 or 4 hours.

With properly seasoned wood the fire will not need any attention for that time period. I can control the temperature in my cooker to within 1 or 2 degrees.

when I get up I have a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal and eventually mosey on out to check on the fire. I add more wood and quickly bring the temp back into control.

Then I sit out on the deck and read the paper and play some music on the ghetto blaster. A little later I'll make me a sammich and bring out a cooler with a few brewskies in it and just enjoy the cool fall weather with my tunes and my brewskies, stoaking the fire ever 4 hours until it's time to eat.

I know that all of this will not appeal to a lot of you but it's how I roll and I'll never change. When I get too old to go through all that I'll just head on over to the BBQ hut around the corner.

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Real men love cats!

I'm not a purist when it comes to smoking and I find it hard to use a gas or charcoal smoker. Hard to regulate heat and amount of smoke. I have an electric smoker that holds a large quantity of meat. I can easily smoke 4 or more racks of baby back ribs at a time. The temp is constant and you can load it up and walk away till it's done. Add more or less wood to the smoker any time and add barbeque sauce near the end. They always come out right and never over or under done. They only thing I don't like is the cleanup after.

YUP!!

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SWCA #2306
DAV in honor of POP

Sticking with the spirit of the thread I'm real happy with my Weber. Haven't tried a real low and slow smoke but I can set it up for a 3 hour cook between 275 - 350 deg. depending on what I'm BBQ'ing.
Chicken, ribs, roasts, briskets, butts and shoulders all come out extremely edible. I'm only limited to whatever fits over the drip pan which with along with water has a squirt of lemon juice plus some rosemary and garlic chives growing around the yard.

The pellicle on a small (3 lb.) pork roast is almost formed and it with quartered red taters and onions is going under the dome shortly.

Just last weekend, cooking for only two. This 3lb boneless pork shoulder took 7 hours to reach 190F. Used cherry wood chunks and the snake method but it needed a little push at the end. Overall, it was a low maintenance deal. Shown served on tater tots covered in macaroni & cheese, pulled pork, pickle slices and a little BBQ sauce.

Add chunks of hardwood to the charcoal. Smoking = wood flavor.

That is NEAT AS A BEET!!! Chalk one up for learning something today.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I second the snake method. Very easy this way to maintain a constant 225-250 degree cook for hours. I will normally put a tin of beans under whatever is getting smoked as the drip pan. Did a 10 pound shoulder over the holiday. Took just about a full 13 hours, but it fell apart with just a stern look and the threat of a fork.

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Plastic has no soul

Yep. You can do some very good smoking on a Weber.
I did it for years....this summer bought an Oklahoma Joes offset smoker and I love it.

Crisp fall day. Low and slow. Good eats! What's not to like?

If I had to go back to my Weber I could. It's fine. Just have to pay a little more attention to the fire.