It's Easier Than You Think To Make Your Own DIY Smoker (Thanks, Alton Brown)

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Alton Brown is nothing if not a chef of the people. A master of culinary ingenuity, he once taught us a method to brine a turkey in a regular old bucket, not to mention the mind-blowing fact that Brown's secret to a perfect prime rib roast is a length of cheesecloth. Brown built his career on making elevated cooking accessible to home chefs, and that has never been more evident than in the case of his cardboard box smoker, which you can assemble and set up on your driveway or patio.

Yes, you read that right: the smoker is made primarily of a cardboard box. There's also an electric hot plate to provide heat to wood chunks and some wooden dowels to hold a baking rack on which you can rest the food you're smoking. Basically, you set up an aluminum pan in the bottom of a large box to catch any drippy matter and place the hot plate just inside it. Put a small cast iron pan on the hot plate and fill it with your favorite aromatic hardwood chips. The two dowels are inserted at perpendicular angles through the box, making a frame on which you can support the baking rack. 

When you're ready to start smoking, simply fire up your hot plate and close the top of the box. A probe thermometer stuck through another hole will tell you when your makeshift oven is hot enough to put the meat on the rack. Once it comes up to temp, drop your protein and keep a close eye on your smoker while it works its magic!

With a cardboard box smoker, a big pro is that you don't have to fuss about the best way to clean your smoker and how often to do so — you can simply dispose of the box when you're done. Cost is the big factor here, as dedicated smokers are spendy and take up a lot of room. With a cardboard box smoker, the expenses are minimal, and so is the room you need to execute your vision. Just make sure that you use a clean box and set up your smoker on a level surface that's sufficiently far from any structures or flammable materials.

Speaking of that, Brown specifies that you should have a fire extinguisher handy when smoking in a cardboard box, and we really can't stress enough how important this is. A good fire extinguisher is one of those tools that home chefs should have on hand, anyway, and this goes double for when you're cooking in a cardboard box that could turn into a greasy fireball. We like this twin-pack of highly-rated, compact fire extinguishers by AmzBoom, and the price is definitely right. While we're at it, make sure that your smoker is always supervised, even during long cooks.

We'd also suggest that you take your main dish into account when choosing your box. How big a chunk of meat are you intending to cook? A whole rack of ribs, for instance, may require more room than a couple of fish. You definitely don't want the food touching the sides, so measure ahead of time and scout your box accordingly.