Postby Crash » Thu Oct 09, 2014 9:51 pm
Here's my take but please take it with a grain of salt as the wife and I are BBQ/smoking nerds.
Great smoked meat is best cooked over coals with real wood. Sure, the "pellet poopers" work OK, but they just don't impart the same flavor. If you don't plan on smoking often and are really set on the "set it/forget it", go with the Little Chief. Obviously, your yield per cook will be very small as it is a small smoker.
I know I have seen the Traeger pellet poopers at Iwilei COSTCO in the past. They have a good reputation as a set it/forget it cooker, hold more capacity than the Little Chief and many competition BBQ cooks use them. The only issue is finding a consistent source of fuel (pellets) on island.
Personally, we use WSM's, UDS's and Pro Q Excel 20's as our cookers. They work well for us and allow us to make large quantities when needed. We have many more cookers than I would actually care to admit to and honestly Stan, any time you want to borrow one, just let me know.
Oh yeah, one thing about smoking fish to note. Fish will taint the inside of a smoker and leave a fishy taste on anything cooked after the fish. For this reason, we do a high heat burn on our smokers after smoking fish. This helps to burn off the fishiness and "clean" the smoker.
Feel free to contact me for any questions or additional info and fo'reals, if you want to borrow a smoker...can.
Crash