SEXTUPLETS ON THE SMOKER

Having thoroughly solved the how-fast-can-I-light-charcoal riddle, it was time to address another issue faced by many ECB water smoker owners: capacity. With two grill grates, you're rather limited in how much food you can smoke at once. While some people get around this by using rib racks and other contraptions to make things sit at odd angles in order to make more food fit, there's another answer: add more grates.

Although it was cleaner, this is basically how my smoker looked when I bought it. A charcoal pan (which you can't see), a water pan, and two grates.

I've never tried, but I'm guessing you might be able to squeeze three racks of ribs onto those two grates. With the body of the smoker being 16.5" in diameter, it would be tight. And the body of the smoker only has holders for the two racks, so it's not like you can just set more grates in the thing without a way to hold them in place.

COOKING WITH GAS...AND CHARCOAL

On Memorial Day weekend of this year, I was with my wife's family in Orleans, NE, where I found an older Cook N Cajun water smoker at a garage sale. It was made by Bosman Industries--Bosman made this smoker before a company called Brinkmann started selling it, so it's been around a while. Fortunately, it spent all of those years in it's box.

The smoker came with exotic features like wooden handles and green paint. After it came home to Norfolk, a few vents were added, along with a thermometer in the lid.