My First Smoker

[Ka Honu]

I guess we've all come a long way.  Smoke had an entirely different meaning to me in the 60's and most of the 70's (Do any of you other Vietnam vets remember why dopers always wanted the Salems in the sundry packs?). 

About '78 when I lived on the Big Island (Island of Hawaii), we had some kind of homemade upright POS (piece of sh!t) with a hot plate that someone left at the house I rented - used it mostly for smoking marlin we got cheap whenever there was a fishing tournament.  When I moved back to Oahu in '80, I bought a water smoker but marlin was too expensive in the big city so I tried a few chickens and an occasional turkey.  About 10 years later I finally bought a house and could do what I wanted to (more or less) so I used both grill and smoker a lot more and expanded to cow and pig parts.  Nothing big, but got to play around with it all. The results were actually edible about half the time (got better as I understood a bit more of the "science.").

Now the technology (and lot of advice from this forum and maybe a bit of experience) makes it all more fun and the resulting food is better.  I do spend more time prepping and such (and make a bigger mess) but at least I'm retired and usually have time to both make the mess and clean it up before SWMBO gets home.  Her reaction to a smoke day mess is not pretty - you'd think she'd be a bit more tolerant since she likes the product. She also thinks it strange that I insist on taking out-of-focus photos of dinner.  Oh well.

[Habanero Smoker]

I started around 1979. My first smoker was a Meco water smoker. I loved that smoker, and I was able to use peach wood which went well with poultry and pork.

[tsquared]

Nepas, I still use the same Luhr Jensen model that you have. I inherited it from my dad and have made it into a cold smoke adapter for my Bradley when I do Scotch smoked salmon or cheese. It makes me feel good to think about my dad and all the salmon he ran through that box every time I use it.
T2

[oguard]

I started off with the little chief as well. I got the bradley about 6 or 7 years ago. I have given the little chief to my dad who only smokes salmon once or twice a year. The old cardboard box is now held together with duct tape but the smoker is still going strong.

Mike