Smokers?

[Parasite]

Any recommendations on a smoker that can cold and hot smoke? Buying my first smoker. Things I like ... smoked cheese, cold smoked salmon, smoked smelt, smoking sausage that will be later cured (not cooked while smoking), brisket, ribs. Was thinking to just buy a hot smoker and adding an attachment to cold smoke. Just curious what your guys thoughts are.

[bigjohn98591]

I have a Masterbuilt 40" cabinet style smoker. For cold smoking I picked up an pellet tray. Fil tray with pellets light it set in bottom and let it do its thing. It only get up to 275 degrees so it is truly a low n slow type o f unit. My only real compliant is that you have to add chips about every 30 min, other than that I love it.

[TommyH]

    I like the masterbuilt also.

[Alchase]

I use two Bradely Smokers, one I keep setup for cold smoke, one for everything else.
The cold smoke unit, has a 5 foot hose (looks similar to dryer hose) from the Smoke Generator to the Smoker, and use no heat.
I have had many smokers of all sorts of configurations. They are not hard to build if you go that way.
The convenience of the Bradelys is what I love. Drop in enough pucks for the time you wish to smoke, and walk away. Come back when finished.
For larger cuts of meat, I use an iGrill thermometer. It sends the temps to your iPhone so you can monitor by temp.

[bearhunter99]

You are somewhat asking a Ford vs Chevy question 

I have a few...I have two Bradleys - One for hot smoking and one for cold smoking with the cold smoke adapter.  Bradleys are great for the ease of use - they are easy to setup and fairly hands off.  Cold smoking in a Bradley (unless it is really cold outside) is tough to do without the cold smoke attachment as the temperature from the hot plate that heats the puck can take the temp up internally high enough to melt cheese (unless you have high temp cheese).  Main drawback is that the pucks are a bit spendy but that evens out a little since you never really open the door and saves time and babysitting.

I also have a Camp Chef Pellet grill and a large smoker we built using a SmokeDaddy pellet attachment.  Both work really well for hot smoking but neither will stay at a low enough temp for cold smoking.

[Wetwoodshunter]

4 rack Bradley's are on sale for $250 on Amazon or Cabelas right now.

[GWP]

I use two Bradely Smokers, one I keep setup for cold smoke, one for everything else.
The cold smoke unit, has a 5 foot hose (looks similar to dryer hose) from the Smoke Generator to the Smoker, and use no heat.
I have had many smokers of all sorts of configurations. They are not hard to build if you go that way.
The convenience of the Bradelys is what I love. Drop in enough pucks for the time you wish to smoke, and walk away. Come back when finished.
For larger cuts of meat, I use an iGrill thermometer. It sends the temps to your iPhone so you can monitor by temp.

Nearly exactly what I would have written! Have run the course of smokers over the years. Settled on the Bradley, put an Auber controller on it and have not looked back. The extension with the hose works good.
If you are smoking cheese lightly you can get away not using the extension and watching the cheese closely. When it starts to get really soft, pull it.

[Stein]

For hot smoking, Camp Chef are the best in my opinion.  Great PID controller holds temps incredibly stable and they have a patent on the ash cleanout.  When you are done, pull the lever and ashes drop out of the bottom into a bucket. With every other brand, they recommend you pull the entire grill apart to vacuum the ashes out after every cook.  Total pain in the rear.

For cold smoking, I added the Bella Cold Smoke Generator which is AWESOME but spendy.  I do a ton of cold smoking as well as wanting more smoke control for hot smoking that you can get from a pellet grill. I can now have unlimited amounts of smoke at any temp from ambient up to over 400 degrees.  It puts out near zero heat, so it's a true cold smoke.  Most other options will increase the chamber temp to some degree.

For a cheaper option, get one of the perforated stainless things that you put pellets in and they smolder for hours.  In Western WA humidity, it often goes out on my and required a relight as well as taking up grill space.  It's ok and will work, but the Bella is on a different level.