Smoking aficionados cook with chunks of wood like apple or hickory ($15 for 10 lb.; cookshack.com). The easiest smokers to use are electric, which maintain an even heat and don’t require a constant watch to add more wood. Cookshack also sells a great smoker ($500), though it’s a bit smaller than Williams-Sonoma’s Smokin’ Tex ($500; williams-sonoma.com), which has four racks to cook several meats at once.
If you forgo the smoker, try a SAVU Smoker Bag ($3.50 each; bigacres.com), a single-use foil sack laced with alder or hickory chips, or cedar grilling planks ($7.99; fireandflavor.com) or papers ($9.99 for four). Just toss these atop an outdoor grill to get a hint of smoky taste.
As for sauce, nothing comes close to Cookshack’s tangy and authentic Barbecue Sauce ($2.50), while one of the best rubs is Williams-Sonoma’s Memphis-style Rib Rub ($9). Now you can call yourself a smoker and your friends might think you’re cool.
