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That’s how it happened for Tim. “A friend of mine got a Big Green Egg and I went over to his house the night he first got his, and it was great. I said, ‘I have got to get me one of those,’ and my wife bought me an extra large one!” That was quite a few years ago, he says. “Now I have three — an extra-large, a medium and a small one as well.” Believe it or not, you can even prepare your charcoal grill in such a way that it can be used as a smoker, though it takes a little effort up front, and for best results, sometimes requires you to brine your meat in advance. HOW TO MAKE A SMOKER To get the effect of a smoker without the expense of buying one, the first step is to soak wooden smoking chips in water. You’ll want to use a good amount of said wood chips for this — at least one cup. You’re doing this because the water that the chips soak up will create more smoke than if they were dry. Meanwhile, get your charcoal grill going as normal. Once they’re good and hot (it takes about 30 minutes), spread the charcoal as you normally would, but leaving half the grill with no charcoal at all. Because you do not want to cook your meat directly over the coals, when you spread the charcoal, do so off to one side, leaving half the pit bottom clear. Next, get a fireproof metal pan — a thick, disposable pan is perfect — and fill it with warm water. To regulate the heat of the grill, you’re going to place it carefully, wearing fireproof mitts, on the clear side of the grill, adjacent to the coals. After they’ve soaked for an hour, drain the water from the wood chips and enclose them in an envelope or sachet made from heavy-duty aluminum foil. Poke some holes in the aluminum pouch and set it directly on the coals. Note that you can use a propane grill as an improvised smoker as well. The process is pretty simple: Only turn on one half of the burners, let the grill get good and hot, don’t worry about the pan of water, and set the wood chip packet on the hot side of the pit, beneath the grill. In both cases, you want the grill to be at the appropriate low tempera ture, so be sure to get a grill thermometer if you don’t have one. When those wood chips start smoking and the heat is just right, you are ready to begin cooking by placing the meat on the non-flame half of the grill. Bear in mind that smoking can take all day, and the packet will have to be replaced every

Department of Agriculture, steak, lamb and pork should be cooked to an internal temperature of 145◦F. Poultry should be 165◦F. A meat thermometer, which is usually stabbed into the interior of meat, will take the guesswork out of all this, and can save you from the bracing thrill of botulism. As for choosing the meat you plan to cook, Rouses team members who work in the meat depart ment are trained to help you find the perfect cut of the perfect animal at the perfect price, and can give you advice on seasonings, sides and cook times to turn out the best backyard grilling experience imaginable. SMOKING 101 At its simplest, a smoker is a type of grill that uses a relatively low, indirect heat to slowly bring out the fullest flavor of a meat, and different types of smoking woods to imbue flavor into the meat. (See the sidebar on Adding Flavor to Your Smoker for tips and when to use them.) Grills excel at cooking flavorful foods quickly, and for getting a good, strategic char on certain meats, fruits and vegeta bles. Smokers, though they take time, have historically been the domain of backyard kitchen connoisseurs. The low heat of a smoker allows ample time for smoky flavors to insinuate themselves into meats being cooked, and for the tissue and collagens in meats to soften and tenderize into gelatin. The fat in the meat keeps it from drying out. All this makes smokers the best way to cook particularly tough meats. (You aren’t limited to tough meats, of course! It takes about an hour to smoke hot dogs, and 30 minutes to smoke hamburger patties.) Tim recommends using a Big Green Egg for smoking meats. This kind of grill looks like a big green egg. As the company’s website explains its success: “In the beginning, there were wood, dry leaves, lightning and eventu ally, fire. Early man soon learned the flavor benefits of cooking meat over this exciting discovery, which quickly gained acclaim as far superior to gnawing on raw Tyran nosaurus ribs!” While I would dispute the sentiment overall — tyrannosaurus tartare and stegosaurus sashimi are no-brainers, quite frankly — you cannot argue with the popularity and proliferation of Big Green Eggs. Their advertisement style is word of mouth. You go to a friend’s house, sit outside, smell the meat smoking slowly, and then finally taste it…and the next day you go to the store and buy your own.

ADDING FLAVOR TO YOUR SMOKER

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT When it comes to using your smoker, natural lump charcoal is going to give you a good smoky flavor, but you can really up the ante by adding smoking wood chunks to the heat to complement and highlight the flavors of the meat being cooked. If you are smoking pork, add chunks of applewood to imbue the meat with a certain sweetness. Smoked chicken, meanwhile, is just begging for pecan wood. Smoked beef does best with a heavier smoke and hickory wood chunks. Smoking a boneless leg of lamb? Get yourself some cherry wood and cook the lamb low and slow for six hours. The goal is to tinker with your flavor profiles to enhance the taste of meats. Flavored woods come in chip and chunk varieties. Chips are great for any grill, but if you are cooking with a smoker — which can take all day — consider using the chunks, which burn (and release the flavors within) a little more slowly.

two to three hours. Soak more chips while your food is cooking so that you can replace the packet at the appropriate times.

COOKING WITH SMOKE For beginners, says Tim, pork spareribs are a great meat to start with if you’re going to use a smoker. The key is to first lock your smoker into a low temperature — somewhere around 225◦ to 250◦F — and understand that, unlike with a grill, you will be cooking on indirect heat. (Different smokers have different ways of getting your temperature dialed in for the long haul. If you threw away your instruction manual, Google can help.) Flavor- and texture-wise, says Tim, “The longer period of time you cook, the better off

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