Everyone everywhere loves cooking meat outdoors. Trust us: we’ve traveled a bit. Outdoor cooking isn’t regional. It doesn’t belong to any particular ethnic cuisine. No, it’s a shared treasure, coded deeply in our DNA. Outdoor cooking connects us to mutual ancestors—those cavemen grilling bison steak over open flame—you know, our great-great-great⁵⁰ grandparents.

Outdoor cooking is done differently in different places. Here, in North America, we prefer doing it low and slow with smoke. This magic method coverts collagen protein into gelatin, making otherwise tough, undesirable cuts of meat tender, moist and delicious. It’s science. And, using our Bradley Digital Smoker, we’re amateur chemists.

People may argue about the most “authentic” way to smoke. Ignore them. Almost no one cures mutton in their smoke shack to survive the long, cruel winter. Times change. Technology evolves. We find better ways.

The Bradley Digital Smoker is a better way. You set the cooking time and temperature. That temperature doesn’t fluctuate. Unlike with charcoal smokers, you needn’t constantly adjust vents, add fuel or monitor heat.

The Bradley Digital Smoker burns real wood. The wood comes as bisquettes. You fill the feeder tube with bisquettes. The bisquettes are transported one-by-one to a burner. Each bisquette burns for 20 minutes then is deposited in a water bowl. Automated. Easy.

Bradley offers bisquettes in 12 flavors, including apple, maple, pecan and whiskey oak. Be warned; they’re pricey. But, they emit smoke almost as pleasant to smell as the finished product is to taste.

The Bradley Digital Smoker works. It works really well. Here’s our proof.

For a recent gathering, we smoked three slabs of baby back ribs. We applied Squeal Hog Rub and let the slabs sit overnight. In the morning, we smoked them at 200 degrees F for 2 hours and then 250 degrees F for 2 3/4 hours. We removed the slabs, let them sit for 30 minutes and brushed on Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que Sauce. All the ribs disappeared very quickly.

We’ll be smoking all spring and summer. Check back for recipes and photos.