Buying Guide and Reviews of Commercial Indoor Smokers
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Product Reviews and Meathead's Hot Stuff Awards
 These are highly recommended products that I have tested personally or that have been tested by reliable sources. Awards are based on features, quality, and value. Rest assured that when I recommend a product, it is really because I like it, not because someone has paid me to say so or because the company is an advertiser or sponsor. I purchase most products I review although occasionally suppliers send me samples.
Manufacturers: Contact Meathead for permission to use this award medallion and to get a high resolution version.
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Ready to open a restaurant or give Famous Dave a run for his money? Here are some major manufacturers who will be glad to sell you what you need.
Ready to start a catering biz and drag a smoker to picnics, ball games, and horse shows? Many of these manufacturers will mount them on a trailer.
In addition, I have listed trailer mounted units on another page. Because I have never owned a commercial unit, I have listed them below with little or no comment, and no "Meathead's Hot Stuff Awards."
If you are curious as to how they work, here's a really cool Flash movie from the website of Super Smokers in Eureka, MO, just outside of St. Louis. They are among my favorite rib joints. To view their illustration of how their smoker works, click here.
This company has a full line of charcoal fueled smokers that are very popular with top competition teams. They are described in more detail on the page devoted to charcoal and wood fueled cookers.
Famous for high end, high quality, medium capacity, electric smokers that use wood chunks, chips, or pellets for precise temperature and smoke control. Perfect for small to medium operations. Highly regarded.
Cookshack's Fast Eddy (FEC) models, designed by Ed "Fast Eddy" Maurin, winner of scores of BBQ competitions, are the best commercial pellet burners. The FEC100 is a refrigerator sized cabinet that is suitable for small operations. The others are much larger rotisserie commercial units. They are so good that, in 2004, a team from England used one to defeat the best American teams at the Jack Daniel's World Championship International Barbecue. England!
This North Carolina company is one of the oldest and most experienced at making smokehouses, roaster/smokers, smoke generators, and emission control systems. They make a wide range of units for small restaurants and caterers to custom systems that will smoke warehouses full of meat. Their Max Flavor 400 is their most popular restaurant unit. It is noteworthy because it has several innovations among them a novel self-cleaning system. This is a major asset if it works as advertised. Max Flavor 400 uses woodchips. That means no stacks of wood and the bugs they bring, and no running outdoors to bring in logs. This also means that regulating and repeating wood flavor should be easier by measuring the amount of wood you feed. There is also a blower to keep the air moving and prevent hot spots.
They have two commercial models.
Charcoal fueled rotisserie commercial units. They also make a number of trailer mounted units.
Makes four wood fueled ovens used in some of the best restaurants. Especially popular in Texas.
Pioneers in the high quality BBQ world, this manufacturer started as a restaurant in Missouri. "To make a long story short, the third time the fire trucks came to put out the fire at the restaurant, it dawned on us that there should be a better way," he said. Their solution was to develop a line of large cookers for restaurants that is highly regarded. Some are also available mounted on trailers.
A large range of units - small, medium, and large - for any size restaurant. Some are wood burning, some are electric, and some are gas fueled. You'll find them in such famous restaurants as Famous Dave's, Smoky Bones, Sonny's, and County Line. Some are also available mounted on trailers.
This page was revised 10/8/2008
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