New Braunfels Black Diamond Smoker 99204800

Pros: Versatile cooking and Easy to use
Cons: None

My husband fancies himself as an expert in the art of barbecue and grilling. (It's a macho-man thing in Texas.) He can't boil water in the kitchen but can barbecue and grill with the best of the them.

We've owned various smokers and grills...

Pros: Large cooking area, dual temperature/smoke controls, dual cooking areas
Cons: wood shelf not wide enough

We recently had to replace our Brinkman grill due to a theft. I searched high and low for a suitable grill and settled on the Black Diamond Smoker manufactured by New Braunfels. This is the same company that makes the "Oklahoma Joe" smokers...

Pros: Ease of use, Professional looks
Cons: Assembly

I chose the Black Diamond because I did some research on the 'net and the New Braunfels name kept popping up when reading about smokers. Also, my friend has the El Dorado model and he raves about his. I wanted something larger so I decided I would go...

Pros: Huge cooking area (2 20lb turkeys no problem), grills and smokes
Cons: It's damn heavy! Not for the casual bbq'er

I'm not quite over the edge when it comes to BBQ's. You know I don't chain the thing to the back of my pick-up and head out to Nashville to spend my vacation debating the merits of oak vs hickory at the great Pork Roast. But, if you were to fire up all...

Pros: Barbecue correctly. Great food. Large cooking area. Well built for $. Fun for the serious.
Cons: Fire needs baby sitting. Uses lots of fuel. Smokestack not sealed against cooking chamber.

My Weber was great for grilling, but just to small to try and barbecue anything bigger than one slab of baby backs. That's why I'm glad I finally got a barbecue with a large cooking area and an offset fire box. Now I can barbecue four slabs, no...

Pros: With easy to make adjustments, this is the perfect Texas style smoker.
Cons: There are no cons for me and my preferred style of smoking.

I moved from Texas in the Big Mosey of '92 from Texas to the Pacific Northwest. I brought my Black Diamond with me.

To make it a perfect smoker I made two adjustments. I used aluminum sheet metal to make and install (1) a heat baffle between the heat chamber and the smoking chamber attached with metal metal clips from Home Depot, and (2) a roll to extend the bottom of the chimney to the grill level. As constructed, the smoke exits too high in the smoking chamber and should linger longer at the food level in the smoking chamber.

I love to wake up early to begin a 12 hour smoke of pork butts and brisket.

I use an electronic temp gage that displays the temp at grill level inside the smoking chamber and the temp in the food being smoked.

Boy howdy; all of my smokes are finger licking good

I use a combination of briquets and water soaked hard woods. I have perfected a NW Trio; salmon smoked for 90 minutes; shrimp for 30 minutes and scallops for 20 minutes, all of it seasoned in a special dry brine.