What Is a Portable Cajun Smoker?
Any picnic can be turned into an exciting event if you take a badminton, ball, or portable speaker with you. But entertainment is not limited to the gameplay, because in nature you always want to eat, especially after swimming.
You can prepare food in advance, but it will be mundane. Who wants to eat pasta on a day like this? This is where Cajun smokers come in. Stationary and portable, with a gas burner and traditional solid fuel. You can easily place them on your garden plot, take them into the forest, or just go out into the yard and quickly cook meat with a pleasant aroma.
If you are going to organize outdoor recreation, you should seriously approach the choice of the Cajun smoker. In order to cook a barbecue with high quality, you need to buy a solid and reliable smoker, with which it will be convenient to work. It should be a stable structure with walls thick enough to hold heat well.
An important criterion when buying is also the parameters of the Cajun smoker – it is necessary to choose the optimal height and depth of the smoker. If you are going to relax in the country, it is better to choose a stationary model – it is much more reliable and durable than a portable Cajun smoker.
What Is The Difference Between Cajun Smokers?
First of all, Cajun smokers differ in design. There are stationary and portable. There is also a special type (sets for outdoor cooking) that are either collapsible or non-collapsible.
Stationary Cajun Smokers
This type is popular with homeowners who do not need to move the Cajun smoker from place to place. A stationary Cajun smoker is usually non-separable from its base; so, it is suitable backyard picnics. It does take up space wherever it is located. Therefore, it is precisely such a smoker that retains heat better, built more solid, and is more reliable.
Portable Cajun Smokers
This is just a godsend for those who like to eat hot food while admiring the forest landscape. Disassembled Cajun smokers of this design are easy to transport. The Cajun smoker kit also includes a carrying bag, which will allow you to transport the smoker as hand luggage because it’s an easy transport on a bicycle or in the trunk of a car.
Choosing A Portable Cajun Smoker
Portable Cajun smokers, in turn, are also divided into two large types with many other modifications. Usually, Cajun smokers are presented in the following forms:
An Empty Cajun Smoker
This design can hardly be called complete, but, nevertheless, it is also worth mentioning. An empty Cajun smoker consists of four metal walls on legs without a bottom and a cover. It is installed directly above the fire, which requires special skill and care. Due to the walls, the heat is directed to the product and is not sprayed.
Folding Cajun Smoker / Collapsible Cajun smoker
For its lightness, convenience, and small size when disassembled, this type is called a compactable Cajun smoker. It is easy to transport and store in a special bag. This is such a convenient and popular type that some manufacturers even patent the mechanism for quick assembly of the barbecue. The advantage of folding Cajun smokers over all others lies in their mobility and ease of installation, because even a child can cope with unfolding such a Cajun smoker.
Cajun Smoker – Picnic Set
A new type of outdoor picnic device is rapidly gaining popularity – the multifunctional set. It includes a convenient Cajun smoker bowl, smokehouse, and barbecue grills. The picnic set is also collapsible and portable. It takes up more space than a collapsible one, and even more so than an empty grill. However, its unique ability to cook several different types of food at once compensates for this disadvantage.
Caring For A Portable Cajun Smoker
If a stationary Cajun smoker does not require special manipulations with cleaning and assembling, portable Cajun smoker, which is stored in a home closet and is driven a private car, must be washed, and cleaned of soot. According to statistics, stationary Cajun smokers last longer than portable ones due to the integrity and additional reliability of parts connections. However, a portable Cajun smoker will delight you for many years if you follow all the recommendations for caring for the Cajun smoker:
- Before and after cooking, clean the Cajun smoker from soot, dust, and carbon deposits. This is the most important rule that many, unfortunately, neglect.
- Cajun smoker components can and should be washed with ordinary detergents. Do not overdo it with specialized chemicals that can damage the walls of the Cajun smoker.
- Do not rush to disassemble and wash the Cajun smoker immediately after cooking. Let the material cool down, thereby you will keep its best characteristics for a long time.
- Store the disassembled Cajun smoker in a room with low humidity, and it is better to additionally treat it against corrosion.
Why buy a portable Cajun smoker?
- It is convenient: you do not need to have special skills to assemble and use a portable Cajun smoker.
- It is transportable: it is easy to carry it from place to place; to carry it in a car.
- It is compact: when folded, a portable Cajun smoker takes up little space and fits in a closet or on a standard mezzanine.
- It is reliable: with proper care, the portable stainless-steel Cajun smoker will serve you for many years.
- It is profitable: additional skewers and a reliable carrying bag are usually included in the package of a folding Cajun smoker.
Cajun Smokers
Designed specifically to smoke larger portions of food, Cajun smokers cook at lower temperatures using indirect heat. This smokiness creates an environment that infuses the food with that smoky, rich flavor, and aides in making the food more tender in the long run.
The difference in many Cajun smokers’ function than other smokers is by using a wood chip instead of flavor-infused charcoal. Also, a water basin may be used to help control the temperature. While charcoal and gas smokers can be hacked, in a sense, function as a smoker, Cajun smoker cannot function like a regular smoker. So, if you want to smoke quickly and easily, or make many different types of food at one time, this smoker may not be the right apparatus.
Cajun Smoker Pros
Flavor: For those who love the super smoky aroma and tenderness of foods like brisket or ribs, the smoker is a great device for preparing those in the fall-off-the-bone fashion.
Low maintenance: During cooking, unlike a gas grill, where you have to stand and usually eat food, with smokers, you can set it up and go away in a few hours while your food turns into an ideal meal.
Great for giant cuts: Looking to cook a whole coil of? Giant brisket? Four or five rib cuts? Cajun smokers are great for these giant cuts. The low and slow process means you don’t torch the outer skin of your meat, leaving raw meat on the inside. In addition, many Cajun smokers are designed so that these large cuts fit comfortably.
Which Smoker Is Better To Buy?
The classic Cajun smoker is a box made of heat-resistant material in which wood is burned until a thick layer of hot coals is formed. To ensure controlled combustion, fresh air must be sucked in. At a convenient height, shelves for skewers or a smoker are equipped. There are several typical design solutions for barbecues that provide high-quality cooking on such equipment. Let’s look at them in order.
Portable, Stationary or Collapsible?
When purchasing a Cajun smoker, you should know exactly in what conditions it will be used. For permanent installations, priority is given to structural reliability and maximum convenience. Hiking options should primarily be light and compact. They are loaded into the trunk of a car or carrying bag and then quickly assembled into a working position at the resting place.
Portable Cajun Smoker
Portable Cajun smokers are usually made of sheet steel with a thickness of 1-2 mm and a corner. They rarely exceed the dimensions 250×600 mm and are installed on low legs. Sometimes, a set of skewers or a barbecue smoker is included, but usually these are purchased separately. Due to the small frying surface, they can be used to cook no more than 6-8 servings of meat at a time. By design, they can be divided into collapsible and folding models.
Collapsible Cajun Smoker
Collapsible Cajun smokers consist of a set of several flat parts, which, when brought into the working position, engage with each other.
When is it appropriate to use?
Such a smoker can be taken with you on a trip or lent to a friend for the evening. Sometimes, it is purchased for a summer residence as a cheap temporary option before purchasing a successful stationary model.
Pros:
- Simple construction.
- Minimum space required when disassembled.
- Convenience of cleaning.
- Low price.
Cons:
- Low reliability.
- Skill required to assemble.
- Parts deform over time.
- Because of the thin walls, the coals cool quickly.
- Short service life due to frequent burnouts.
Folding Cajun smoker
Folding Cajun smoker models have the form of a transformer with two positions: working and traveling. They can be folded in just a few movements, which saves time.
When is it appropriate to use?
Such Cajun smokers are purchased by people who do not want to waste time on complex assembly and disassembly. This option is suitable for a young family or a pensioner who has decided to spend the summer in the country.
Pros:
- Convenience of assembly and disassembly.
- Affordable cost.
- Compactness.
Cons:
- Low stability.
- Unreliability of hinges and the complexity of transformation with distortions that occur over time.
- Short service life.
- Rapid cooling of coals.
- The impossibility of cooking for a large company.
Stationary Cajun Smoker
A stationary Cajun smoker is a rather complex and cumbersome structure. It is made of thick-walled metal. Its design is usually designed for cooking for a large company and implies the possibility of adding a fresh portion of coals when the previous one dies out.
Expensive models are equipped with a rain canopy, a dome with a chimney for removing fumes, stands, or shelves for dishes and accessories, and numerous accessories for various methods of cooking food.
When is it appropriate to use?
A stationary barbecue is purchased by families who are accustomed to diversifying their diet with baked meat and vegetable dishes. It is installed on a patio at a country house with the obligatory observance of fire safety rules.
Pros:
- Large dimensions and high performance.
- Long-term preservation of heat.
- Convenient design.
- Presentable appearance.
- Long service life.
Cons:
- The need to prepare a solid foundation and allocate a significant area.
- High purchase cost.
Steel or Cast-iron Cajun Smoker
The most accessible materials for the manufacture of Cajun smokers are steel and cast iron. Steel is more technological. It lends itself better to welding, cutting, and stamping. Highly artistic designs can be made from it. This material has high strength even at low thickness. It is from it that all portable models of Cajun smokers are made.
Structural steel does not tolerate high temperatures very well, and heat-resistant steel costs several times more. It corrodes. Products with a thickness of 3-5 mm can serve for 10-15 years, after which deformations and continuous burnouts are found.
Cast-iron retains heat better than steel and withstands a huge number of heating and cooling cycles. It is less susceptible to corrosion. Welding or machining such material requires special technologies and is rarely used.
The main disadvantage of cast iron is fragility. Because of it, you have to make thicker and more massive parts. In frosty weather, such a Cajun smoker should be heated especially carefully to prevent cracks. Usually, cast iron models are not so attractive in appearance, but they last longer.
What size should the Cajun smoker be?
The size of the Cajun smoker is directly related to the number of servings that can be prepared at one time. The depth of the Cajun smoker should correspond to the length of the skewers and is usually 20-30 cm. The width, of most models, lies in the range from 40 to 80 cm. The meat does not burn when it is located above the coals at a distance of 10-15 cm. Therefore, the height of the box should be 15-20 cm.
The walls of outdoor Cajun smokers are often made of sheet steel with a thickness of 1-1.5 mm. Stationary models are made from sheets of at least 3 mm. The height of the legs should be such that the skewers are at the level of the person’s waist. For portable versions, this rule is rarely met.
In the lower part of the walls of the Cajun smoker or in the bottom, there should be holes for air intake. Sometimes, they are equipped with adjustable dampers for easy selection of the appropriate mode. The double bottom promotes rapid heating and long-term heat retention. The removable lid speeds up cooking.
Blow-out Holes in Cajun Smokers
Although most of the offered models have blow-out holes in the bottom or in the sidewalls of the Cajun smoker, the craftsmen who prepare the best barbeques consider the presence of holes “a joy for the lazy barbeque owner,” because the heat temperature should be regulated exclusively with the help of the fan.
The side openings do not allow to control the process of coal smoldering – the breath of an insidious wind, which does not obey the kebab man in any way, provokes coal ignition.
The holes do not affect the quality of the dish in the best way – the heat at the side wall will be stronger than in the center of the Cajun smoker. And the pieces of meat located in the middle of the skewer are less cooked than at the ends.
However, you should not give up a Cajun smoker worthy in all respects if the holes on the sidewall are located in the upper part. These holes can be regarded as a decorative element; they do not in any way affect the quality of the kebab.
Advantages of a Cajun smoker without air vents (for models with a single bottom):
- The uniform heat inside the Cajun smoker guarantees the high quality of the dish.
- The ember is completely under the control of the owner.
- The possibility of a burn from a small coal accidentally falling out of the hole is excluded.
- Preparing barbecue can be safely left unattended in calm weather for a short time. This will only lead to a gradual decrease in the heat, which can be increased again by working with a fan and a poker.
- Air vents are only appropriate for a double bottom Cajun smoker.