We have our barbecue bunker

 

It shields our cooking from the South Texas wind.

 

We’ve had the Charbroil infrared grill for quite a while now.

 

It will sear steaks, slow cook ribs,

 

…and grill chicken without flaring up.

 

We’ve tried brisket on it a few times though, and can’t get it to cook slow enough to come out tender, even on the lowest setting.

 

For real slow cooking, it takes a smoker; the new weapon in our culinary arsenal.

 

We got a Bradley digital smoker.  It has a feeding tube for the pucks of wood.  You can get a whole variety of different wood types for different flavors.  I find myself using hickory a lot, but cherry was good with the chicken.

 

The digital controller lets you set the time, temperature, and amount of smoke.

 

There is a burner to control the chamber temperature.  You can see it glowing in the background in this picture.  The wood pucks get fed out onto the smoke burner; it’s at the end of that line of wood pucks.

 

For as long as the smoke is set to run, every 20 minutes the burned out puck of wood is pushed into the water bath by the next one in line.

 

I use a sensor to monitor the meat temperature without having to open the door.

 

I thread the wire up through the smoke vent to the sending unit.  I put the sending unit on a block of wood to insulate it from heat of the smoker, just in case.

 

The receiving unit goes with me where-ever I go for the rest of the day and keeps me informed.

 

I was concerned that the smoker might produce enough smoke to be a neighborhood nuisance, but it turns out to be pretty light.

 

Plenty smoky inside though.  If you open it up while it’s in-process, it looks like this.

 

We’ve been doing chicken and ribs, working our way up to brisket; tonight’s challenge.

 

Low and slow; steady all the way.  A 10 hour cook.  The results?  Tender and juicy.  Yes!  Finally!  We did brisket!