Nordic Ware, 7 by 13 inches, Red Indoor/Outdoor Kettle Smoker

This is a miracle product!I am one of those people who hate to have a house that smells like cooking. We have a nice kitchen, but the ventilation for the cooktop is terribly inadequate. But I love smoked foods and our weather often means that doing the smoking outside is inadvisable and, quite frankly, takes more time to set up than it does to cook the food involved. I used to have one of those indoor smokers that was like a cake pan with a slide-on lid. That was fine for some things like flat fish, but I also had better ventilation then. In addition, I have a ceramic cooktop here.When I saw this product and watched the videos, I really wanted to try it. I ordered it in the morning, went to the grocery for a whole chicken, and that night cooked that very large chicken in the Nordic Ware smoker.There is nothing to put together. All the pieces are well made and solid. It fit on my cooktop on the larger burner, hanging about one inch over the actual visible heat coils. I used about two tablespoons of the applewood chips, and a bottle of beer in the drip tray. The chicken itself was covered lightly with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some rosemary.It took about half an hour with the burner on high to get the internal temperature of the cooker to the 200 degree mark, and then I set the heat to a 6 and then finally a 3 to keep it at the 200-210 degree mark. I had the vent holes closed, and was at first fearful for leaking smoke, as was my husband, but there was none! There was only a very faint scent of what I was cooking. I would say that cooking the same food in my oven would have smelled 8 times as strong. The lid is heavy enough that it truly keeps the smokiness in.The only modification I had to make was this: since the chicken was so large, the thermometer wanted to set on top of it. The hole for the thermometer was slightly loose (the directions said it may or may not be tight at the beginning). So, I used a strip of tin foil to wrap around the thermometer stem tightly to ensure the temperature reading was from the interior in general rather than from the outer layer of the chicken.Wow!When we opened up the top at the end of cooking time, there was only the faintest amount of steam and/or smoke and it was gone instantly.The chicken was perfect. It literally fell right off of the bone. Even the breast meat was nice and moist. The flavor was incredible! My husband the chicken hater actually loved his meal. So now I am confident in smoking the fish I love IN THE HOUSE!!!Cleanup was absolutely easy. I had put a circle of foil where the wood chips would lay, and a thin layer of cooking spray on both sides of the cooking tray itself. All of the pieces literally rinsed off. No scrubbing. Then into the dishwasher for the inner parts. The base, dome and thermometer only needed an easy soapy-water wash with a soft sponge. It looks like new after the first use.I highly recommend this to anyone who loves smoked foods but either doesn't have to outdoor setup, or who just wants the ease of cooking indoors.

I love ribs! My method of cooking them indoors was to bake them on a rack in a covered roaster with some liquid, at 350 deg. for three hours, then into the broiler (or out door charcoal grill) for 10 minutes. Moving on...I just wasn't sure this kettle smoker could cook ribs at 200 degrees for 90 minutes or so, and give them a nice smoky flavor with only 2 TB of smoking chips. Well, I don't know how it did, but it did! They were tender and delicious, with just the right amount of smoky flavor. You could put them under the broiler or on a grill when finished, to get that char, but they were really great as is.I used Baby Back ribs (spare ribs may need a little longer time), with 2 TB of hickory. (Cameron's brand for stovetop smoking). The best advice I can give is don't forget to line the drip tray with heavy foil! I had the vents closed, and absolutely no smoke came out of the kettle. All I could smell was a mild hickory and meat cooking smell. Towards the end of the cooking time however, the drippings from the ribs started smoking and I could smell something burning. The drippings had really burnt on to the foil. The ribs were just a tiny bit dryer than we were used to so I will be putting a cup of apple juice in the drip tray next time. I think that will stop the rib grease from burning in the drip pan too. UPDATE: Putting apple juice in the foil lined drip tray worked perfectly! The vents were kept open a tiny bit as recommended in the instructions when using the wet method. Result, juicy, very moist ribs!This is truly an amazing piece of cookware. I used a gas burner on the stove, but one can also use a gas or charcoal BBQ for the heat source. The instruction booklet is small but very informative. Experimentation is part of the fun!. If you keep to the 200 degrees or so, the cooking times are pretty accurate. I left the burner on medium and the temperature never moved from 200 deg. When I took the cover off to test the meat or apply sauce, the temperature did drop about 50 degrees, but it went back up In a couple of minutes. By the way, it took almost 30 minutes for my kettle to get to 200 deg. on my gas burner. But they said to start timing the cooking from when the smoke appears, which was less than 5 minutes after turning the burner on.Clean up was fast and easy. Nothing stuck to the food tray, and the foil in the drip tray went into the trash. The wood chips were black but they didn't smell burnt. I added a bit of water as suggested to be sure they were completely out, then dumped them into the trash. There really was nothing to clean. It is very easy to be successful with this kettle smoker and I highly recommendedUPDATE 6/24: PIZZA!!! I just made my first pizza in this smoker. To my amazement IT GOT CRISP! My home made crust was medium thickness and I smoked the pizza for 20 minutes. I was too impatient to let it go another 5 minutes, but although the top was not as brown as it could have been, the bottom was nice and crisp. I used a little spaghetti sauce on the bottom, smoked corn on the cob, (left over from a rib dinner), fresh spinach, and mozzarella on top. The corn did not get over smoked because it was on top of the sauce with spinach and cheese over it. The cheese got a nice smoky flavor as did the crust. Two suggestions: 1. Try not to press down on the crust after it is in the pan. If the crust pokes down through the holes it will burn. 2. Eat this as soon as you take it out of the smoker to keep the crispness. Of course one can always re-heat it for breakfast and get it crisp again! Honestly, you won't believe how good this is. I just ordered several more flavors of Camerons smoking chips. Next pizza...pulled pork with the bourbon/oak chips.UPDATE: 12/19/16. This is still my favorite kitchen appliance and I have found a new use for it. I wanted to make steamed BAO (Chinese dumplings, meat and veg. filled buns) and did not want to spend money on a bamboo steamer. Purchased the 10 inch steaming papers which fit perfectly in this. Water in the bottom of the smoker (about 2-3 inches) and heat on high. VOILA! steamed buns!!!