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I have a Brinkmann 810-5290-C electric smoker that is so old that I cannot remember when I bought it. I long ago discarded the center section (the longest cylinder) -although you might want to keep it if you think you will ever want to smoke two different meats (say a turkey and a pork loin) at the same time---and here is how we get PERFECT smoked meats.
Rub the meat with your favorite seasonings. We find that all of the seasonings are good, just different. So, don'tbe afraid to use poultry seasoning on pork, etc. Be generous. It will stay on the meat using the system I am describing.
We use a deep flat pan, 15 inches long, and put water in it ... almost full of water if it is a big meat such as a big turkey, less than half full if it is only a 1.5 lb to 2 lb loin. The juices from the meat will fall into the pan and the mixture will make wonderful gravy base. The water will, of course, steam off over time and you want to avoid letting the pan run dry. But you do not want too much water or your gravy base will be too watery.
The water moisturizes the meat during smoking and, very importantly, helps keep the meat temperature down, so that the smoking time is increased. With longer smoking times you get increased smoke/barbeque flavor. A 2 lb loin cooked well done in, say, 35 minutes, is not going to have the flavor of one cooked to the same doneness in 2 hours.
Put a meat rack (a wire grill on legs) in the pan to support the meat out of the water. Wrap the meat loosely in aluminum foil. This will MAGICALLY prevent the meat from getting too black on the outside. The foil gets carbonized coating but your meat just cooks/smokes to a beautiful color.
Use LOTS of wood that has been soaked in water for at least an hour. Any reasonable wood will work fine. You do NOT have to buy mesquite or apple wood chips. Nothing wrong with them but I also use chips and chunks that I cut from a fallen pear tree. We use a cast iron wood box that we place on the lava rocks, but we supplement that with more well-soaked wood chunks or fine pieces wrapped in aluminum foil. The result is the same. After you finish smoking the charcoal from wood in the cast-iron box is identical to the charcoal from the aluminum wrap. There is a temptation to toss in soaked chunks without wrapping them and that is OK until you lift the cover to check the temperature of your meat at which point it probalby will flare up as a fire.
Just put the smoker's wire grill on the base unit, put the pan of water and meat (on the meat rack) on the grill, add the domed cover, plug in the Brinkmann and check the internal temperature of your meat with a meat thermometer. Go by the many published tables of recommended internal temps for meats and seafood. Smoke pork until it is tender (155 160 degrees). The water and the aluminum foil will keep it moist. Listen to the cook in your family regarding internal temperatures and cooking times.
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This smoker makes food taste great and is so easy to use. This smaller size is perfect if you don't want to have another full sized grill in your collection and it holds almost as much food as the big ones. Electric smoking is the way to go because it doesn't add any charcoal or gas taste to the food. The steam makes everything moist and tender. This is a great smoker for the price.
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My smoker, received as a wedding gift in 1992, looks exactly like this, thus my review here even though my smoker model ends with a C. We have been very pleased with this smoker over the years. It has turned out succulent smoked turkey, chicken, fish, and pork roasts. Sadly, this morning, as I proceeded to smoke a brined turkey, the plug kept tripping the breaker. I think that may be salt related as we've been near the ocean the last two years. I cannot complain. We got our use out of it and I would replace it with the same one if Brinkmann cannot sell me a replacement heating element first, as the rest of the smoker is still in good condition. I actually prefer smoking over grilling because my food does not ignite.
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Technically, of course, the RIGHT way to smoke is to use real green wood in a real large pit smoker. However, here in the suburbs good green wood's hard to come by, and a large pit smoker costs a lot of money -and you'll go through quite a bit of potentially expensive wood, too. Gas smokers, if you use them for proper long-term smoking (12-18 hours) will suck down one, maybe two full tanks of propane; that's $40 for one long cooking session. This device has a 1500W cooking element; even over an 18-hour cooking session, that's 27kW-h, and at the price of 17 cents per kW-h (high) I'm spending less than $5.00 in electricity. Plus in both the case of wood and gas smokers, someone's got to really keep an eye on it all the time.
So I went for the cheap and simple; set it up, plug it in, let it go. The question was... would it work?
Initially it's somewhat daunting; the smoker comes disassembled and the instructions are not as clear as they might be. It's also apparent that the electric element is a retrofit (you could still use charcoal or wood in this thing, if you wanted) and this fact isn't incorporated into the instructions. Lava rocks were also not included -I had to buy a bag of them. This isn't a huge problem, except that the assembly instructions mentioned them and thus implied strongly that they should have been included in the kit.
Once assembled, however, it looks quite nice -aside from the cheesy and probably ultimately unreliable temperature gauge in the front, which just gives a vague indication (low, "ideal" high) of the temperature inside. I got a few-dollar oven thermometer that I put inside the smoker when I use it. The stainless-steel exterior is very pretty and gives confidence that the device will survive for a while.
Operation of the Brinkmann is quite simple: soak some wood chunks (choose the right wood for the job -mesquite is great for things like ribs, chili, etc, but hickory, apple, etc., are the way to go for hams) until they're as wet as you can reasonably get them (if you think of it ahead of time, dump them in the water for a day or two, but an hour or so will do all right). Note that due to the way the water pan fits into the smoker, you have to use SHORT wood pieces; chips are probably too small, though, they'll run out fast. So if you have large chunks of wood, split 'em down.
Put the wet chunks of wood on the smoking pan and place that directly on the heating element in the center; it's designed for this. Fill the water pan and then place that on the bottom supports, plug the smoker in, and you're ready to go. One grill fits right over the water pan, and there's another that's a goodly distance above that; you could easily fit a turkey in the bottom and a full sized ham on the top, or vice versa, so for any reasonable sized family this puppy will handle your smoking needs.
So far, I've smoked turkey legs, ribs (beef and pork), and a full-sized ham. Note that I had NEVER smoked anything before I got this, and I am having excellent results; the ham I smoked this weekend (July 4th weekend, 2011) looked cooking-magazine perfect and tasted absolutely wonderful (maple marinated/glazed with hickory smoke). It's EASY to use; just make sure the water pan is **FULL** before going to bed if you're planning on getting your full 8 hours rest!
It's also fairly easy to move around, and if you have a wooden deck you should get one of the insulated burn/grill pads. The vinyl cover is a nice touch too.
Overall, I'm very happy with this Father's Day present, and my family seems happy too! :)
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If your interested in grilling and smoking, but only have limited yard/patio space, then this is the grill to get.
I also bought the Brinkmann "Smokeshop Electric Converter" and I use that for smoking my meats. Its significantly easier than charcoal for smoking because you don't have to constantly adjust the coals. Then for grilling I use charcoal so I can get the high temps I want. I've been using it for over a year now, and its been great. The stainless is the way to go because it wont rust out. I feel like I have the best of both worlds with electric smoking/charcoal grilling.
The only negatives are these minor issues:
1) The temp gauge doesn't show the actual temp. Its just a meter of Cold, Ideal, Hot. Get a good digital thermometer.
3) Doesn't come with the cover. It may be worth buying ones of the Brinkmann "Value packs" instead. I think it comes with a bunch of the accessories that you'll probably want regardless.
