Review of The Smokenator for the Weber Grill
Do you have a Weber Grill and wish you had a Smoker? My wife and I got married recently and got a gas grill as a gift. We already had a Weber kettle grill and the ‘ol lady but the kaibosh on a smoker so it was on her to find a suitable replacement. I can highly recommend the Smokenator for someone who wants to learn the basics of ‘low and slow’ smoking. In addition, you’ll learn how to take care and monitor your smoking because you do need to get really good at temperature management with the Smokenator. There are a few essential items you’ll need, Weber grill, Smokenator, thermometer, and I highly recommend the Competition BBQ Book, it’s full of recipes and techniques for cooking and smoking award winning BBQ. I have other books but there isn’t one that is equal to what this book provides in terms of techniques, the rub recipes are A+ as well. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
So our house has space limitations and we got a new gas grill as a wedding present and already had a Weber grill which we used for BBQ on the weekend. I wanted a Weber Smokey Mountain unit but my wife came up with a better idea, Bam! She found the Smokenator 1000. It has been a great substitute, and hopefully a primer for a full-fledged smoker. So I just smoked some fantastic ribs with the Smokenator and my Weber grill. Go down to you local meat market and grab a rack or ribs. Ribs aren’t the only meat that you can smoke with the Smokenator it’s just what we’ve used a few times now.
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The key to the whole smoke is lump charcoal, make sure you get lump instead of Kingsford if you can help it. I live in the Phoenix area and I was able to grab a 20 lb bag of lump charcoal for $6 at my local Fry’s grocery store. The lump charcoal gives you a longer more consistent burn and a little bit different taste too.
The key to the whole system is temperature, make sure you get a smoker thermometer, instead of the recommended meat thermometer and a clip. The smoker thermometer is slightly larger than the hole in the Weber lid. It does fit nicely at angle or using the locking nut to hold it in place. This is one of those exercises where you DO need to read the Smokenator Manual fully before starting. Make sure you understand the process of controlling the temperature.
I’ve used the Smokenator twice now and I really like it as an alternative or temporary solution to having a smoker. The main thing I need to work on is controlling temperature. I think the area for improvement is in keeping the coals consistently hot and keeping a good flow through the entire 4 hour smoke. Another item you might want if you’re cooking multiple racks of ribs is the Hovergrill for the Smokenator.
If you follow the directions that were provided in the manual, then you’ll have no problem. The biggest thing it to make sure you know your Weber grill through and through. It’ll be very hard to maintain the minimum temperature if you’ve got a leaky kettle. The Smokenator will only be as good as your kettle grill, and of course the leading brand is Weber. As I mentioned before, I highly recommend picking up the Competition BBQ book, lots of great BBQ instruction as well as recipes for rubs and sauces.
Here’s a great You Tube Video about the dry run which is very important, you need to do the test run, I cannot stress it enough!! I did two dry runs before smoking anything. Every Grill has areas that may be imperfect and it’s possible it will leak because of a poor seal between the top and the bottom pieces of the grill. It’s just important to understand how your grill heats up and also holds the heat as well.
Here is a video of the late Smokenator creator, Don Thompson (RIP) explaining the features of the Smokenator and also Cooking Low and Slow with the Smokenator:
Order the Competition BBQ Book today! Click here to download the Smokenator 1000 Manual in PDF.
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