Apartment/El Cheapo Smoker

I live in a townhouse and have precious little space for much in the way of additional room to put stuff, however I would like the ability to smoke meat. I have an El Cheapo Home Depot propane grill out back, and an electric range inside.

I saw someone's apartment style smoker, but I lost the link. I went to Kitchen & Co and saw an Emeril indoor smoker but it seemed mucho expensive just because of the name on it.

Does anyone have any good links to good apartment style smokers? If it's something I can put on my prop grill, or use in my electric stove, that would be great. Electric would be good too, but I'm poor, so keep that in mind - I'm not spending $500 on something until I get a house and a big custom smokehouse we're going to build.

Here is a thread discussing this topic for you. Looks like an indoor smoker will set you back about 50 bucks, but from these pics, I'd say it might be worth it.

AHA! That's the thread I mentioned losing. Thanks McK!

Anyone else have any other models/brands to look at? That one looks a bit big and requiring 2 burners. I'm also not sure if it would fit sideways on my grill to keep the lid closed, although I do see a $30 'smoker for two' which might work.

For a gas grill, you can buy smoker boxes that just hold wood chips and cook on your grill as normal You can also wrap the chips in aluminum foil.

The only trick with a grill is heat regulation and keeping things from overcooking. If you have a dual burner grill, you can keep one side on and smoke on the opposite side once you get a system figured out.

I've been looking for smokers as well to smoke fish now that the season has rolled around... (plus it wouldn't hurt to smoke some pork, etc. as Brewtopia's looks delish)

Check out Cabelas.com and Basspro.com... They both have electric smokers that are small and affordable in the $50-80 range. They got good reviews also. I'm in the same scenario as you and am considering one of these.

I think the BassPro one ($80) may be a little large for an apartment, but I didn't see dimensions when I looked. It looks like it would be great if you have a garage or something, but a little large for apartment only (1500 watt element, smokes up to 50lb meat)? Either way, I think this one would work better due to the more power and more capacity...

The one from Cabelas only has a 250 watt element I believe and smokes 10-20lb max, but I think its only like 12"x12"x24" and only $40-50. I think its called the little chief smoker or something like that. The reviews make it sound like it works great except if you try to smoke outdoors in winter, then it can be tough getting the temp way up. They make a thermal cover for it to keep temps up in such a scenario.

Maybe something like that would work for you...

The little chief/big chief smokers are an OK starter smoker, but like Roaring Brewer said, they don't work well in cool weather unless you buy a cover, or you can drop a large heavy cardboard box over the top.

I have an older version of this one. It might be a bit big for your needs, but I think there are some smaller versions out there.

McKBrew said:

I have an older version of this one. It might be a bit big for your needs, but I think there are some smaller versions out there.

Click to expand...

Home Depot's got a 2 shelf version of it on sale for about 70 bucks....

But I'm like the OP, I live in a loft and don't have any yard or outdoor space to smoke in anymore (or do allgrain), I'm kinda stuck at looking at doing indoor smoking as well.

Yeah, those are too big, even at the 2 shelf version. Plus, I'm really liking the idea of the stove top one that I can do inside, outside, etc. I'm never going to smoke more than 5-10lb of meat at any given time, just really a 'dinner on sunday' sort of thing...although I will try to smoke homemade cheese in it as well.

It's even smaller than I thought:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...mode+matchall&N=4808&trueNum=32&redirect=true

11x11x14 and can smoked up to 15lb. with 250 watt element

However, for the same $80 you can get this larger one from BassPro (like I said no dimensions so hard to judge):

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/s...r=16264&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults

1500 watt element and up to 50lb. meat.

I'm leaning towards the second and while I'm in the apartment just keeping it at my parents or girlfriends parents if its too big. For the same price its hard to pass up 6 times the power and 3 times the capacity.

RoaringBrewer:

Check out the ones at Cameron's website. THey have a shelf model like the ones at BassPro and Cabelas that folds down and fits in a bag. Says it sets up in minutes with no tools.

If you're looking for something bigger than stovetop, that might be the way to go for you. I, however, am really trying to stay small and light. I like the Cameron's one because it looks durable enough to use inside on the stove, outside on the grill, out at a campfire, etc.

I've seen some stovetop smokers that are huge and made out of enamel coating that just wouldn't make it in my kind of environment.

I got one of these for Christmas:



Don't think it'll fit in an apartment though...

You can try going with this instead:
[youtube]_Ka2kpzTAL8[/youtube]

Interesting idea with the whole alton brown thing. Again, it's the space that causes me trouble, although 2 pots out in the back yard probably wouldn't be too bad. Although, for the cost of a hot plate, 2 pots, and a replacement grill surface - I might as well buy a premade one instead of a ghetto rig.