I'm new at smoking. Have cooked on grill for years. Got my Brinkman electric smoker for Christmas and have smoked a pork shoulder and some steaks. They turned out pretty good but improvements can be made. The Brinkmanship doesn't have a temp control and ran on the hot side when I was seasoning it. I got a router variable control switch for about 20 bucks and was able to regulate the heat. I like browsing the site and feel I will be able to pretty well master smoking with help from all the info I read here.