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If you have thought about crossing that line and taking the next step to do some real barbecue cooking, you have no doubt decided that you need a “real” barbecue smoker cooker so that you can put out some quality barbecue product.

There are basically 3 styles of barbecue smokers, 4 if you consider using a gas grill, but we’ll stick with three for this article for more traditional barbecue. These three different styles of barbecue smokers are categorized by their design. The different styles are offset, vertical and kettle type.

Offset style: this is what most people think off when they visualize a barbecue smoker. Basically, this design has two characteristics. A firebox off too one side for the wood fire, and a smoking (or cooking) chamber where the meat is placed on racks and cooked. Usually these cookers have a chimney on one end, away from the firebox, and the some is drawn through the cooking chamber, over the meat and out the chimney. That’s how the meat receives that great smoky flavor.

Vertical style: these are generally a rectangular box type contraption with a door in the front. If you visualize a smallish refrigerator shape, that’s about the right dimensions. The fire is built in the bottom of the box, there is usually a water pan directly over the fire to keep the meat moist, over the water pan are a couple of wire racks that sit horizontally in the smoke chamber, and the meat sits on top of those racks. The smoke and heat are drawn up through the box, over and around the meat. The rising smoke is what gives the meat the delicious flavor of real smoked barbecue

Kettle style: most backyard grill masters already have one of these. In fact, most have two. This is the grill made famous by the Weber Company. It can be set up for real barbecue smoking by using the indirect cooking method and adding fuel that will make wood smoke. This is done by building the charcoal fire on the sides of the kettle, in two separate piles on either side of the unit. The meat is then placed on the grill, between the two charcoal fires but not directly over them. Water soaked wood chips are added to the fires to create smoke. The unit is covered with the lid, the top and bottom vents are opened to create airflow, and the smoke and heat flows up and around the meat, giving it that excellent smoked barbecue flavor.

Whichever style is chosen by the barbecue pit-master, the most important tip to remember when cooking real smoked barbecue is to cook “low and slow”. This means at low heat for a long period of time, the temperature of the cookers should be maintained at around 230 to 250 degrees F.

Entry-level real barbecue cookers can be purchased at any of the big box home improvement stores, and can even be found at Wal-Mart. There is no need to spend thousands of dollars for a cooker, as great high quality barbecue can be pulled out of a $150 cooker.