You can find everything you need to build this smoker at just about any discount store in the country. As I purchased the items to make this one, I kept a tally and find that currently, it costs about $12 and all items may be recycled once you are finished.
You will need the following things:
2 aluminum roasters – like you cook a turkey or ham in during the holidays. Make sure the roasters, will fit in your oven.
2 aluminum vegetable trays – you can find these beside the aluminum roasters. They have perforated bottoms.
8 empty and cleaned tuna or cat food cans with labels removed. I run mine through the dishwasher.
Paper towels.
Aluminum foil.
Wood chips for smoking.
Tap water.
Directions:
1. Place one of the roasters on a sturdy baking sheet on the counter.
2. Tear off 10 paper towels. Using half, fold over until they are only about 5 inches wide – length should remain normal size – and wet both folds of paper towels liberally, really soak them. Then place one set of paper towels at each end (short side) of the roaster.
3. Put 4 of the empty tuna cans upside down (opened end of can should be facing down) on top of wet paper towels.
4. Take some heavy duty aluminum foil and make a “bowl” that will fit in between the tuna cans.
5. Inside the “bowl”, put the water-soaked wood chips that have soaked in water for at least an hour and then add some more water.
6. Set one of the aluminum vegetable trays on top of the 4 tuna cans in the roaster.
7. Place the final 4 empty tuna cans upside down in the corners of the aluminum vegetable tray.
8. After spraying with non-stick cooking spray, set the second aluminum vegetable tray on top of those tuna cans and in that pan, you can put whatever you want (I’m going to show you how to smoke ribs in this one).
9. Prepare the food items and place in tray.
10. Fit the second veggie roaster on top of the entire thing making a “dome” shape. You may have to clip the ends to make it fit over large food items. Then place the big roaster over making a bigger dome shape.
11. Crimp heavy duty foil around the fit-together edges of both large roasters to prevent as little smoke as possible from escaping.
12. Set the cookie sheet with the roaster on two burners on the stove top and set the flame or coils to medium high. Allow to heat up for 30 minutes. You should begin smelling a tiny bit of escaping smoke in about 10 minutes.
13. In the meantime, open the oven and put one of the racks on the very bottom rung, taking the other one out completely. Set the oven on 375 F (190 C).
14. After 30 minutes, turn the stove-top off and put entire smoker, including cookie sheet, into the oven.
15. As in the case of the ribs you will want to smoke them in the oven for about 3 and ½ hours, checking the ribs and adding water every hour or so.
16. After the allotted time, pull the cookie sheet and roaster out of oven; remove the aluminum foil from around the middle edge of the roaster.
17. If the item is meat, allow to sit covered for 30 minutes, then remove and allow smoker to cool.
18. If the item is not meat, remove the item tray and allow smoker to cool.
19. Once cooled, you can recycle the aluminum and paper by separating and placing in the recycle bin, or bag it up and throw it all away.
You will need these things for the Rib Rub I used.
Spare Rib Rub Recipe
2.5 Tbl. Brown Sugar
½ teas. Cumin
½ teas. Dry mustard
½ teas. Garlic powder
½ teas. Salt
½ teas. Black pepper
1 Tbl. Tony’s creole/Cajun seasoning
Put in a shaker and rub all over the spare ribs. Wrap in saran wrap and marinate for at least 2 hours – preferably overnight.
How to prepare the ribs:
1. Rinse and pat dry the ribs.
2. Peel the membrane off the ribs.
3. Put the rub all over the ribs and allow to marinate for at least 2 hours.
4. Place on smoker rack and allow to cook.
5 Let the ribs rest for at least 30 minutes and serve!
