Homemade smokers

Using a homemade smoker is a very common and old fashioned method of cooking, and is becoming increasingly popular with barbecue enthusiasts, outdoors people, campers and so on.

Maybe you already have a smoker, or have thought about buying a commerically manufactured one, there is a better solution though if you have even the slightest sense of D.I.Y. .. build your own custom homemade smoker.

You can smoke almost anything in a homemade smoker, and just as efficiently if you follow a few simple steps.

Please do not rush into building your first homemade smoker, take some time selecting the components you can viably work with, the size of the smoker that you require (are you cooking for 4, or 40?), and paying consideration to transportation and a safe location for your smoker to sit in.

You can smoke any type of meat such as turkey, beef and especially fish, but to build your own smoker is a feat all in its own. A smoker will give you a great sense of accomplishment now because now you can go hunting or fishing and come home and smoke your own meats without paying money to have it done for you.

When you smoke meats, you use a lower temperature then if you were trying to grill or bake whatever it is you are trying to cook. Here are some ways to build your own homemade smoker and save some money doing it.

Starting out building a homemade smoker

There are many ways to build a homemade smoker, using old parts such as oil drums, freezers(!), steel office cabinets and even small wooden garden sheds. Creativity is the key, and DIY enthusiasts all over the world have used their ingenuity with great effect in building their own smokers. You are really only limited by your own imagination, and by keeping parts and the design as simple as possible is the key to producing a useful, functional smoker that will give you years of pleasurable service.

There is little better than cooking your own food on a barbecue or smoker that you have build yourself, and the best part is that it takes relatively little effort and cash to do it. In some cases, none at all.

They also remain some of the most popular options as they are simple to work with using basic tools, and should you have an electric grinder and a welder, you can construct a custom smoker that your neighbours will envy against theirs that have cost hundreds of dollars. 

Building a homemade smoker from a portable cooler

With a homemade smoker, you don't need a grill to cook genuine barbecued ribs and chicken. Take a portable cooler and a hot plate, add some wood chips suitable for smoking food, a pie tin to burn the wood chips in, and a rack to put your meat on, and you've got a homemade smoker large enough to smoke ribs and chicken at the same time. The hot plate will cycle on and off, so the temperature in the cooler will stay in the perfect range for smoking, about 200 degrees. It would have to get much hotter for the plastic cooler to melt, so there's no danger of that. You'll need a full-size cooler, the kind you would carry with you on an outing. Don't bother with a small lunchbox cooler as there is far too little internal space to be of any use.

How to convert the portable cooler to a homemade smoker

1) - Place the portable hot plate into the unit, adjacent to one side. Place the power cable over the top of the cooler so the plug is situated externally.

2) - Place the cake pan or cookie sheet on the floor of the cooler, near but not touching the hot plate. Make sure the cake pan or cookie sheet is large enough so the rack can sit inside of it. Put the baker's cooling rack inside the cookie sheet or cake pan. Place the rack so it is not touching the sides of the cooler or the hot plate. The meat goes on the rack, and the cake pan catches the drippings. At this stage, your homemade smoker is well on its way.

3) - Now place the food you want to smoke on the shelves of the rack. If you're smoking multiple items, put the smaller items on the top shelves. When they're finished, you can easily remove them without taking everything out.

4) - Put the pie tin on the burner of the hot plate, fill it with wood chips, and plug in and turn on the hot plate.

5) - Close the cover of your homemade smoker, but don't close the latch.

6) - Be patient and prevent opening of the homemade smoker for at least three hours. If the smoker chips are almost all charcoal or ashes after three hours, just throw in a small handful to top it up. Otherwise, close the cover and then check again in another 45 to 60 minutes, and your homemade smoker should be ready to serve your food.

Try these invaluable plans to build your own smoker!

You may also like to try this other DIY BBQ conversion.

Our best-selling BBQ Smokers