In the Backyard BBQ Cook’s Bible, it’s almost blasphemous to give an electric smoker even an honorable mention in the “Best Smoker Category.” For many of us, a smoker or grill connected to an electrical cord is an insult to all of us who have smelled wood smoke for a week because we stuck our heads too close to the fire while adding charcoal.
However, I have recently become a proponent of the electric smoker, even if it seems like a daring way to cook a turkey, pork shoulder, or beef brisket. Electricity was invented to power light bulbs, turn on appliances, turn on the television, and dry hair, not to cook meat outside on the patio.
Cooking the barbecue was always a chore for the manliest men, those who could lift a 20-pound bag of charcoal without hurting themselves and then toss it into the bowl at the bottom of the smoker. Only the toughest men could withstand the fumes from the smoldering charcoal lighter without getting dizzy or having an upset stomach. Only a real man could live up to these criteria!
I did not start using the electric grill voluntarily, but out of necessity. My daughter-in-law had a barely used electric smoker in her garage that got in the way of more important things, like last year’s Christmas decorations. When he offered it to me, I initially refused, but then relented when he said he would throw it away if I didn’t take it off his hands.
The second Saturday in May last year was supposed to be a beautiful day; Because that was the day I had planned for our first neighbor barbecue of the spring! I woke up to find the rain falling from the ceiling in full buckets. My focus had been to light the charcoal smoker and cook Boston Butts for about 10 hours, but this didn’t seem possible now in all the rain. I was about to cancel the barbecue when I remembered the electric grill that I had hidden in a forgotten corner of the garage.
All men, at decisive moments in their lives, have to make difficult decisions. Mine was on me. If I tried to use my old loyal charcoal smokers, the embers would soon drown due to the heavy downpour that threatened to sweep away my boat that was on its trailer. I couldn’t put the smoker on the porch because the possibility of a fire with smoldering charcoal is a possibility anywhere I’m cooking!
The electric smoker would have to do. What was the worst that could happen? You could cook the meat and if it didn’t taste like it should, you could finish it in the kitchen oven. The barbecue would probably be something that tasted like wet cardboard,
but I could blame my wife for that, saving my barbecue reputation.
With a feeling of dread, I dusted off the electric smoker and carried it to the covered back porch. I filled a coffee can with walnut chips and water and placed it between the rods of the heating elements. Rain was pouring down from the roof when I plugged the grill’s power cord into the outside outlet. In just a few minutes, the item at the bottom of the smoker was red, illuminating the bed of lava rocks on which it rested. It would have taken a lot longer to get this kind of heat from a charcoal smoker.
By the time I had salted and seasoned two large Boston Butt roasts and placed them on the grill plate, the smoke from the wood chips was beginning to flow from the bottom to the top of the smoker. Putting the smoker lid in place, I marveled at how much this grill acted like a true charcoal smoker. If you were blind and walked at olfactory distance from the electric smoker, you wouldn’t know the difference between that and a real one.
The barbecue was delicious! I added more wood chips only once in the seven hours the meat was cooked. The rest of the time I would watch a baseball game on television and oil and grease my fishing gear. I didn’t have to add charcoal three or four times like I normally do. When I lifted the top of the grill, the meat was juicy and completely fell off the bone. Fantastic!
While I’m convinced of the ease and time-saving of electric smokers, it still doesn’t seem like something John Wayne would do while camping out on the prairie!