# inexpensive alternative to Bradley racks



## caelestis (Jun 17, 2014)

My smoker is too small to hold commercial Bradley racks, but I've been wanting something like them for a while now. The other day I ran across some pierced aluminum grill toppers in the seasonal section of Meijer, our local 'hypermarket' (sells everything from food to clothes to car parts). These aren't the thin perforated foil things that are sold for grilling veggies--they're much more solid. I bought a 3-pack set and experimented with bending one with my fingers to fit inside my smoker. No problem--smoked some boneless pork rib pieces on it just fine. It went through the dishwasher unscathed and came out clean. So today I bent another one to match, and am currently smoking some stewing beef (if you've never had stew made with smoked beef, do try it--you'll never eat stew made with un-smoked beef again!) The two racks stacked pretty well, allowing me to just use one of the smoker racks (less scrubbing cleanup later). The only drawbacks to these are that they probably wouldn't stack well with a lot of weight on them--I think they'd sag--and they tend to pop up some sharp bits on the cut edges when bent. But those sharp spots are easily put back in place with needle-nose pliers. The trays are sold as disposable, but I think they'll last several uses, maybe the whole summer. Not too bad for under $6.













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## worktogthr (Jun 17, 2014)

Great idea! I saw some of those in a similar kind of store but didn't pull the trigger because I was afraid they would be a pain to clean.  Good to hear they can go in the dishwasher!


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## caelestis (Jun 17, 2014)

They came clean really well in the dishwasher. If I'd thought of it, I would have sprayed them with cooking spray before using them. That would have made them even easier to clean. I usually spray all the racks and the water pan with the stuff before smoking anything--it helps immensely with cleanup.


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