Electric Barbecue for Everyone

Let's consider some of the advantages of using an electric smoker, such as the bradley electric smoker.

1. An electric smoker never runs out of fuel. Thing about this, smoking, by definition is long cooks at low temperature. Even a rack of rubs will take at least 4-6 hours. If you were using a charcoal smoker you'd have to add coals every couple of hours. This may not seem to bad, but consider cooking a 12 pound pork butt. This would be an easy 16 hour overnight smoke. Do you really want to get up every few hours to add charcoal?

2. An electric smoker holds temperature easier. There's no messing with air flow, you set the temperature and walk away. It's that easy. With a charcoal fueled smoker you have to adjust the flu, wait 10 minutes to see the results. Charcoal smokers require lots of hands on attention to get it right. Not something you want to do during a long overnight smoke!

3. Electric smokers are just plain cleaner. There's no coals, lighter fluid or ashes to deal with. They start up fast and clean, and end fast and clean. Just turn off the switch and walk away.

Some would argue, no matter what the advantages of an electric smoker, it's just not real barbecue. Well, barbecue is long cook time under low heat, that's exactly what an electric smoker does. As far as the real flavor, the Bradley uses wood too, it just gets it burning differently.

Check out the picture of the bradley, you can see the wood bisquette hopper on the side. The bradley uses wood disks that are fed, assembly line like, every 20 minutes onto a hot plate, where it produces smoke.

The great thing about this method is you can mix and match wood flavorings quite easily, just by filling the hopper with different flavor disks. Personally I love the Bradley special blend with port butt. For ribs I mix apple and maple wood disks.

My name is Norm and i've been barbecuing for about 10 years now. I've used them all, charcoal smokers, gas smokers and electric smokers. The two best i've ever used is the Weber Smokey Mountain and the Bradley electric smoker.

Don't be afraid to try an electric smoker. I can't stress enough how 'hands off' they are. This comes into play during those 12-18 hour overnight cooks. With any other smoker you'd have to get up every few hours to add charcoal but not with an electric smoker.