Interesting thread. Kind of reminds me why it took me so long to buy my first smoker. Too many friends had too many issues with their smokers and I just didn't want a steep or expensive learning curve that involved a lot of trial and error until I found something that worked for me. Started with a
Weber Kettle I had and a Smokenator. Loved the results then moved up to a
WSM for more stable temp control and greater capacity.
Once you have your
WSM "procedure" down, it's a breeze to set up the
WSM. There's a little bit of a learning curve there, but once you have it down you can do complete cleaning, charcoal/wood loading, probe set up, chimney dump, reassembly, and water load in about 20 minutes. I actually enjoy the whole procedure. The longest part of the process is waiting for the white smoke to start changing to blue so you can load the meat.
I always use the roasting pans or paella pans with cooling racks described below as drip pans because I HATE cleaning a greasy grill or smoker. Just a personal preference and it makes no difference in the taste of the final product.
Stuff I bought or had on hand I could probably use with any smoker.
Large cooler for resting smoked meat.
Heavy towels for resting smoked meat.
HD aluminum foil.
Long grill tongs
Silicone gloves
Heavy leather gloves
XL Nitrile sterile gloves
Maverick ET-732 with two short probes.
2 six foot aftermarket chamber probes.
2 six foot aftermarket food probes.
Rib racks
9x13 aluminum disposable roasting pans
8x10 cooling racks to put in the roasting pans to keep the meat off the bottom of the roaster while smoking.
15" diameter paella pans (2) with 13.25" round cooling racks (2) to use for larger cuts of meat or more cuts of meat.
Double beer can chicken rack.
Turkey cannon.
Aluminum half bakers sheets (2) for prepping meat.
Home Depot buckets with lids to store charcoal and wood close to outdoor cooking area.
45 gallon Sterilite snap lid container to keep things close and dry to the outdoor cooking area
Stuff specifically for WSM
22.5" WSM with cover.
Briquette charcoal
Lump charcoal
Wood chunks: Mesquite, Hickory, Apple, Pecan, and Cherry.
Charcoal chimney
Weber ash shovel (makes cleanup a breeze!)
6 gallon Behren's snap lid metal bucket for storing/smothering used ashes.
Extra charcoal grate for 22.5"
Weber Kettle to set at 90 degree angle to charcoal grate that came with WSM to prevent lump and small briquettes from dropping through grate.
I'm sure there's more, but it's time to get ready for work. A lot of what I have is "optional" personal preference kind of stuff, but to me the stuff is like tools, and you can never have enough tools.
I'm contemplating a BBQ Guru DigiQ2 but I haven't convinced myself yet I need it.