Time to get serious about a new smoker.

[Pelado]

I dunno. The guy at Costco gave us one of those shakers of rub for a chicken and told me that they give those to their new customers so they can have a happy and successful first cook, etc. (and to get us to want to buy Traeger rubs, no doubt). It'd be a simple thing to try out, I think-- as likely as anything that we do that.

Sounds very familiar.

[Green Monstah]

Just throwing this out there: I've never had board or auger issues with my WSM.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Just throwing this out there: I've never had board or auger issues with my WSM.

I bet you have never had mechanical problems with your Porsche either.

[Moliere]

Just throwing this out there: I've never had board or auger issues with my WSM.

[hostile]

I bet you have never had mechanical problems with your Porsche either.

I've never had problems with my feet but I still drive to work every day. Weird.

[Shaka]

Just throwing this out there: I've never had board or auger issues with my WSM.

It was my fault.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I've never had problems with my feet but I still drive to work every day. Weird.

You should get rid of all of your electrical devices. Think how simple your life would be!

[Jeff Lebowski]

Just your electrical smokers. I'd keep most of your other things.

That makes zero sense.

[Green Monstah]

Enough smoker smack.

My brother and I are going to build a smoker out of an old 250 gallon propane tank. I'm pretty excited. The only thing I'm a little worried about is the firebox. I'd like to insulate it without getting too technical.

[LVAllen]

I succumbed to peer pressure.

Awesome. I picked mine up from Costco on Monday. Last Traeger Jr. he had there.

[The_Douger]

I'm kind of starting to want to get a bigger traeger

[Drunk Tank]

Rookie question, but how do you do this while maintaining temps?

Fire control. A small hot fire works better than a large smoldering fire. Also need to seal any air leaks.

[Drunk Tank]

At Home Depot, I noticed bags of Kingsford Professional (as opposed to Competition) briquettes next to the regular Kingsford blue. I didn't see any info on the Internet, but I assume it's just rebranding of competition?

They are the same. Not everyone needs competition briquettes, but everyone wants to be a professional. It's all marketing.

[All-American]

I just finished the first seasoning burn a few hours ago. It was fun to light the thing up. It generated a ton of smoke out the gate-- I was worried that the neighbors would call and shut us down before we ever got started. I guess we'll have to ask them over for dinner sometime soon to generate some good will. But then it stopped smoking. I checked the temperature thinking that the thing had somehow broken, but sure enough, the temperature was still going up. That surprised me-- I hadn't made the connection before that higher temperatures don't cause smoke. (For those of you with Netflix, I recommend Michael Pollan's documentary "Cooked." Among other things, it had a segment explaining how smoke conveys flavor from the wood that I won't try to summarize here except to say it was interesting and helped me figure out the temperature-smoke connection.)

Firing it up was very simple; it's all maybe a shade more complicated than using the oven in the kitchen. In fact, I've noticed as I've looked over recipes and other suggestions of how to operate the thing that in my mind it is becoming less of a grill and more of a second oven. It will be interesting over the next few weeks as we start experimenting to see what things we would normally have baked in the kitchen oven taste like when cooked by a wood fire.

I see what some of you guys were saying about the size of the thing and wishing you had more space. I was leaning toward the Junior at first, but even my wife agreed that if we are going to all the trouble of smoking and grilling we might as well get something that will reward us for our effort (read: leftovers). I ultimately went with the one I did (century, the Costco equivalent of the Lil Tex) thinking it will be adequate for most of what we do as a family of four and that if I ever got so popular that I am regularly hosting gatherings large enough that I wished I had the Tex I should just count my blessings.

In any event, the Century is a nice model. It has a hopper big enough to hold an entire bag, a good-sized shelf over the hopper, an extra warming rack on the inside, double-walled interior, and a storage bin instead of just legs, all at the same price of the Lil Tex at our nearby Home Depot. Not bad.

We picked up two whole chickens from Costco for our first run on Saturday. This should be fun.

[Moliere]

I've never had problems with my feet but I still drive to work every day. Weird.

The ignorance in this post is palpable. Granted I'm a WSM guy and don't mind anyone using one of those plug in smokers (or as I call them, outdoor ovens) but I'd venture a guess that my WSM is less work than a Traeger.

I did pulled pork last Saturday and it consisted of maybe 10 minutes to get the smoker setup and coals lit song with the meat trimmed, rubbed and on the smoker. After the initial setting I didn't have to touch any vents or add any more fuel for the whole 12 hour cook. During the cook I slept 8 hours and went for a run not worrying once the whole time that the thing broke or that the temps were flaring up.