Equipment Review: Bradley Smoker

Original Bradley Smoker - 4 Rack Electronic Smoker System


I love the flavors you get from smoking. Meats, vegetables, even salt can take on an amazing flavor from a little time in a smoke box.


Prior to making the jump into an actual smoker, I had used the inexpensiveWeber-Grill method. Here, you keep a very low, indirect fire on one of the grill with some water-soaked wood chunks to generate the smoke, and place you meat on the other side with the cover on. This is a great method for people who want to hot smoke only a few times a year. For those who smoke foods often, or need more precision this method is much too inefficient, and imprecise.

I first saw a Bradley Smoker at the Culinary Institute of America's BBQ Class at their Hyde Park Campus. Its a pretty simple system, a gravity fed smoke generator heats up a compressed wood disk, which is fed into a smoker box which resembles a refrigerator. In the smoker box, a thermostat works with an electric heating element to bring the internal temperature to a maximum of 275 degrees. It can fit four fill racks of ribs, several pounds of sausage, 4 pork butts, a few whole chickens or a mix of all four! Best of all, its almost completely automated.



Simple Pro/Con List:

Pros:

• Relatively cheap (~$300 on sale)
• Excellent support and forums
• Four well spaced cooking racks
• Automatic feeding system
• Electronic heater (no fussing with charcoal)

Cons:

• Compressed wood pucks get expensive over time (plan your smokes for efficiency)
• Original model uses an imprecise temperature setting (lo-med-hi)
• You tend to eat a lot more smoked food :)
  

After owning and using one for about 7 months, I've cooked 20 pounds of bacon, 12 racks of ribs, 6 chickens, 2 briskets, and countless pork butts. The ease of use and flexibility owning a smoker more than made up for the relatively cheap investment.

Several competitors exist. Most work fine, but are still use charcoal and hardwoods to create smoke and heat. It's almost impossible to cold smoke (good for vegetables, jerky or fish). Others are made with cheap sheet metal and will rust depending on what enviornment its stored in. Still, more are extremely expensive (professional models are $5,000+). Companies or products I would recommend for the amateur BBQ chefs are Traeger, which burns small wood pellets for smoke and heat, Weber has their unmistakable Green Egg. These are similarly priced to the Bradley models.