New to the site from MN

[cowhead]

Hey everyone I guess i am suppsoed to post in here too.   I live in West Central MN and I like to do alot of grilling and smoking meat.  I have a Masterbuilt 3 rack Electric smoker I also have a Brinkman 5 burner propane grill.  

We'll I just want to start off by explaining what I have and I'm currently using a gas grill and a small electric smoker. I want a new smoker but I like the idea of a grill/smoker. I have been looking at Traeger and Green Mountain and Louisiana Grill. I noticed the Traeger and Louisiana have a separate cold smoker attachment. I would really like to get into smoking cheese and cold smoke salmon. I also want to get into smoking sausage etc. So what does everyone recommend I do? My little electric smoker doesn't get hot enough when it's below 30 and in the summer it doesn't run the element long enough to create smoke. My gas grill is a large 6 burner and it's only two years old.. We do have a large family so space is an issue we have 5 kids and 2 adults and of course the occasional neighbor kids and our friends of course. 

So lend me some advice I am looking to purchase something new this spring!

 

[gary s]

[h1]

Hello and welcome from East Texas. This is a great site, lots of information and great people that are willing to throw in their two cents worth on about anything.   [/h1][h1]  [/h1][h1]Gary[/h1]

 

[cowhead]

Thanks for the welcome!  So what are your two cents Gary?  What do you think I should do?  

 

[seenred]

Welcome to the group!  You'll find that this is a great place to share ideas on smoking, grilling, etc.  There are plenty of folks here who genuinely enjoy helping one another.  Looking forward to your input, and just ask when you need anything...someone here will surely have the answer.

What you buy depends largely on how much you want to spend.  Pellet smokers start at just a few hundred dollars and run up to several thousand.  I've heard some good things and some bad about the pits you mentioned, but I don't have personal experience with any of the 3.  I own a Rec Tec pellet smoker, and really like it a lot.  Something to keep in mind is that you can easily cold-smoke in your Masterbuilt Electric, so the cold smoke attachment doesn't have to be a deal breaker if you find a pellet pit you like in your price range.

Good luck!  Let us know what you decide, or if you have other questions.

Red

 

[cowhead]

How do i cold smoke in my Masterbuilt?  I have done some looking around and seen stuff like the Smoke Daddy Smoke Generator and I noticed they now make a Pellet grill also.   I am not exclusive to the three brands I listed I am open to any suggestions and any options I just want to make sure I get a good grill and something that will do what I want it to.

 

[mossymo]

Glad you joined us Cowhead, :welcome1: from North Dakota!
First up I went to the AVTI in west central TRF, MN back in the mid 80's!

Your current grill and smoker will work just fine for cold smoking using a A-MAZE-N smoker and just using the cook chamber on either unit for cold smoking.

For sausage smoking I really don't know which direction to guide you... wife and I have a couple of Maverick electric's but use a large homemade propane temp regulated unit for smoking sausage.

With a Maverick electric; first get it out of the wind, second if it is below freezing keep a folded towel over the control board to insulate heat to the control board or it will not function properly in my experience. For smoke in a Masterbuilt electric I would suggest a 5X8 A-MAZE-N maze smoker for a definitely more consistent smoke. With your gas grill I would suggest a tube smoker for cold smoking.

I have a pellet grill, but not one with a smoke box attachment so I have no valuable info to offer.

 

[cowhead]

MossyMo how do you regulate your large propane smoker?  I thought about getting an old fridge just as a smoker but I am having a hard time getting the wife to let me have fridge in the garage lol  I dont mind my Brinkman grill but it does have tons of flare ups and the grease all collects in the wrong spots and than lights on fire so I have to give the grill a full on cleaning after each use or it catches the pan on fire and ruins my food..  So thats the other reason I am sort of looking for a new girll.   

 

[bdskelly]

Howdy Cowhead

Welcome to the forum. So many choices…. Looks like your getting some good advice. I'd also suggest you look in our product review area on this site. 

Typicaly a gas smoker temp is MOSTLY controlled by the gas valve just like you would do on your gas grill. You can also futz with the air vents a bit for final tweaking.

Brian