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Having to host a cookout for the almost-in-laws in a few weeks, I was purchasing parts to turn a steel trash-can into a smoker, when I realized that the total came to twice as much as the Brinkmann Smoke ‘n’ Grill, which could at the time be bought on sale at Wal-Mart for $28.88. I returned all of the bits, the trash can, and the replacement grates, and took what’s known (usually affectionately) around the Internet as the ECB, or “El Cheapo Brinkmann”, home for assembly.

Assembly was easy and took about an half hour; those who can put together flat-pack furniture should have no trouble with this. One of the split dowels that make up the handles was miscut, otherwise, everything was in good condition and neatly packed in the box. Brinkmann made the obnoxious (and somewhat quaint) choice of square nuts and slot-headed screws, meaning that I had to use pliers instead of a socket wrench and further contend with the usual lateral slip of a flat-bladed screwdriver. Hex on both sides, allowing use of a ratchet on one end and a combination wrench on the other would’ve been more intelligent, but as the ECB only has to be assembled once, it’s not that big a deal. The instruction manual directs assembly in a fairly logical order, but it’s otherwise fairly useless, containing recipes and cooking times which should be taken cum grano salis and a very bad suggestion to cook vegetables in the water pan.

The Smoke ‘n’ Grill is a rather simple design: an enameled steel cylinder with legs, a pan of charcoal at the bottom, a pan of water above this, two cooking grates, and a somewhat loose-fitting lid with a vague temperature gauge. Water is something we don’t usually associated with barbecue, but it’s there for good reasons: keeping the temperature reasonably low, efficiently transferring heat to the meat so as to get its surface out of the bacterial “danger zone” quickly, and keeping things moist. A too-small door in the cylinder allows limited access to the water and charcoal pans.

The rib rack pictured on the box is not included (and the packaging does not make this clear), but Brinkmann sells one as an accessory, and the superior, widely available Weber 3601 rack is a perfect fit. With two racks, the Smoke ‘n’ Grill can cook ten slabs of ribs, or with one rack, one to two chickens (easily two if the chickens are on wire stands) or a small turkey and five slabs of ribs.

Unsatisfied with the fire I was able to build in the Smoke ‘n’ Grill out of the box, I drilled about two dozen 3/8″ holes in the bottom of the charcoal pan, a modification commonly suggested on websites devoted to the El Cheapo Brinkmann. This allowed me to use what’s come to be known (after its popularizer) as the “Minion Method”, where about 20 hot coals are poured on a pan of unlit coals and wood, allowing the fire to progress relatively evenly during a long, low, and slow barbecue session. Even the Smokey Joe and the cheapest portable covered charcoal grills have throttles; the Brinkmann doesn’t, but the fire can be controlled by manipulation of the lid and access door, with some cost to heat retention. Some ECB owners move the legs to the outside and support the charcoal pan with a separate stand, allowing the whole smoker to be lifted off the pan during cooking. I’ve been able to maintain a reasonably good cooking temperature in my Smoke ‘n’ Grill for over six hours, but if I ever found myself cooking a brisket I might go ahead with that modification. Then again, six hours over hickory and charcoal is enough, and the meat may as well be finished in the oven or in a cloche on a gas grill.

Gusts of wind, via the venturi effect, draw the heat out of the Smoke ‘n’ Grill, and its thin walls have little thermal mass and thus don’t bring it back up to temperature quickly. (Again, the water pan helps.) They do little to retain heat in general, making cooking when the charcoal fire is dying out a challenge. I suspect that, outside of hot regions like southern Arizona, this is not a four-season smoker.

Thin walls and light weight have their advantages: this is a portable smoker. For that forementioned cookout, my better half, who comes from a part of the country where “barbecue” somehow means “hamburgers and hot dogs on a grill”, had no idea we were transporting a water smoker two hundred miles in the back of my compact Daewoo. (On seeing it, the confusion regarding why I wanted to start cooking four hours before the guests arrived was dispelled.)

Cleanup is fairly easy; the grates can be scraped with a grill scraper or brightened up with a scouring pad. The water pan accumulates a good deal of fat, which can form a very stubborn coating if the pan runs dry. Washing soda removes it either way. Brinkmann makes a stainless steel version of the Smoke ‘n’ Grill available for $100 more than the base model, but that’s like dipping a Twinkie in a good vin santo. Moreover, the enameled finish holds up reasonably well, at least if the manual’s direction to periodically rub the inside with vegetable oil is followed.

Toeing the line between folksy and gourmet, barbecue–tough meat smoked low and slow until the wood flavor seasons the meat and the collagen melts–is at once a joy for the chef and a crowd-pleaser. Slightly carcinogenic, it’s definitely, as the Cookie Monster now tells kids about sweets, a “Sometime Food”. The Smoke ‘n’ Grill makes “sometime” now for grad students and others who can’t afford to drop $200 on a better cooker. The Weber Smokey Mountain “bullet” and Brinkmann’s cabinet smokers are certainly better, but the law of declining returns applies from $28.88 on out. With some patience, a few good spice rubs (for ribs, the “southern rub” in the Joy of Cooking, minus the sugar, is a good starting point), a modification or two, and a little practice, the frugal home cook can make, without too much frustration, barbecue in the infamous ECB that rivals all but the best of restaurants’.

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