Real BBQ Smoker Reviews From a Backyard Cook

Honest smoker reviews, BBQ guides, and gear comparisons based on real cooking — not just spec sheets.

Our Story

I’m Kate Brown, the founder and main voice behind Burning Brisket.

I’m not a competition pitmaster or restaurant owner. I’m a backyard cook who became slightly obsessed with smoking meat, testing BBQ gear, and figuring out what actually makes cooking outside easier, better, and more enjoyable.

Burning Brisket started because I wanted to make good barbecue at home without overcomplicating it. Since then, I’ve cooked on pellet grills, charcoal smokers, drum smokers, electric smokers, kamados, gas grills, and pizza ovens — learning what makes each style easier, harder, better, or more frustrating to use.

These days, a lot of that cooking happens around family life on our small cattle ranch, where outdoor cooking is part hobby, part dinner plan, and part ongoing experiment.

What Burning Brisket Is About

Burning Brisket is a BBQ gear and smoker review site for people cooking at home.

The goal is to help you understand the differences between smokers, grills, fuels, tools, and outdoor cooking gear before you spend your money.

Some guides are based on hands-on testing. Others compare popular models, explain fuel types, or help you choose between different smoker styles.

The aim is not to crown the biggest or most expensive smoker as the winner. It’s to help you find the one that suits your cooking style, budget, space, and how much effort you actually want to put in.

How We Test BBQ Gear

When I review a smoker, grill, pizza oven, thermometer, fuel, or BBQ accessory, I look at how it performs outside in normal conditions.
That means using gear in a real backyard setup, cooking the kinds of food people actually buy smokers for, and paying attention to the details that matter once the excitement of a new BBQ wears off.
Some products are owned and used over time. Some are tested for specific reviews. And when a product is included without personal hands-on testing, I make that clear and base the recommendation on its design, specs, availability, owner feedback, and how it compares with similar gear I have used.

The goal is to explain what a product is like to live with — not just what it says on the box.

What We Look For When Reviewing Smokers

Depending on the product, I look at things like:

how easy it is to assemble, start, and use
how steady the temperature is
how much smoke flavor it produces
how it handles longer cooks like brisket, pork, ribs, and chicken
how much fuel it uses
how easy it is to clean
how solid it feels after repeated use
whether the features are actually useful
whether the price makes sense
who it suits, and who should skip it

For a deeper look at the process, read our full guide here: How We Review Barbecues.

How Burning Brisket Makes Money

Burning Brisket is reader-supported. Some pages include affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you buy through those links, at no extra cost to you.
Affiliate links help keep the site running, but they do not decide what gets recommended. Brands do not get to control our opinions, edit our reviews, or buy positive placement.
If a smoker is awkward to use, overpriced, poorly suited to beginners, or not the best fit for a certain type of cook, I’ll say that. A useful recommendation is worth more than pushing the wrong product.

Read our full affiliate policy here.

Why You Can Trust Burning Brisket

Firsthand BBQ Experience

Many of the smokers, grills, pizza ovens, and BBQ tools featured on Burning Brisket are products we have cooked on, photographed, cleaned, compared, and used.

Original Photos

A lot of the photos on Burning Brisket come from our own cooks, setups, tests, and backyard BBQ sessions, so you can see the gear as it is actually used.

Honest Pros and Cons

No piece of BBQ gear is perfect. I try to explain both sides clearly — what works well, what gets annoying, and what type of person each product does or does not suit.

Beginner-Friendly Guides

BBQ can get technical quickly. I keep guides clear and easy to follow, especially for people choosing their first smoker or comparing fuel types, smoker styles, and features.

Independent Reviews

Burning Brisket earns money through affiliate links, but recommendations are based on usefulness, performance, value, and fit for the reader.

Practical Buying Advice

A good smoker on paper is not always the right smoker for your backyard. I look at real-life fit, not just specs, brand name, or extra features.

Meet the Family Behind Burning Brisket

Burning Brisket is run from our family home on a small cattle ranch, where BBQ testing happens around normal life — kids, animals, weather, dinner deadlines, and the occasional cook that does not go exactly to plan.

Kate Brown

Founder & BBQ Reviewer

I’m the main writer, tester, photographer, and decision-maker behind Burning Brisket. I research the gear, cook on it, compare it, take the photos, and write the reviews.

What matters most to me is whether a product makes sense for ordinary outdoor cooking: how it performs, how much effort it takes, and whether I’d actually recommend it.

Jared Brown

BBQ Tester, Live-Fire Cook & Setup Expert

Jared writes and contributes to reviews across Burning Brisket, especially around charcoal grilling, live-fire cooking, setup, and hands-on testing.

He helps assemble new BBQs, cook, compare results, and talk through what worked, what didn’t, and what he’d use again — with extra perspective from other BBQ owners he talks to.

The Kids

Box Testers, Rub Mixers & Junior BBQ Helpers

Our kids are genuinely useful parts of the process. They help unpack new BBQs, sort parts, put smokers together, mix rubs, fill pellet hoppers, take photos, and get involved with cooking in safe ways.

They also give very honest feedback on both the food and the process, which is a pretty valuable part of BBQ testing around here.

Behind the Scenes at Burning Brisket

Most of the work behind Burning Brisket is less polished than it looks on a finished page.

It involves unpacking gear, assembling smokers, checking temperatures, cooking in changing weather, cleaning ash and grease, taking photos before dinner disappears, and comparing what actually happened with what the marketing promised.

There are good cooks, frustrating cooks, easy wins, and products that sound better than they are. That is part of the process.

The point is to show BBQ gear in a way that feels useful to someone buying for their own home — not just in perfect lighting, perfect weather, and perfect conditions.

Start Here

BEST SMOKER GUIDES

Start here if you’re choosing a smoker and want a clear breakdown of the best options for different budgets, fuel types, and cooking styles.

PELLET SMOKER REVIEWS

Compare pellet grills by ease of use, features, temperature control, smoke flavor, value, and how they perform in real backyard cooking.

CHARCOAL SMOKER GUIDES

Explore drum smokers, kamados, bullet smokers, offsets, charcoal, and fire management for stronger smoke flavor and hands-on BBQ.

ELECTRIC SMOKER REVIEWS

Find out where electric smokers work well, where they fall short, and whether they suit your space, budget, and cooking style.

BBQ GEAR REVIEWS

Browse thermometers, fuels, tools, pizza ovens, and accessories that can make BBQ easier, better, or more useful in real cooking.