I am not a big fan of overly smoked anything. Just me. I have grape vines in my back yard and when I trim them I cut them up in 4 inch long pieces and put them under the porch in a basket and just let them sit there for a year. I use them after they dry out... like the following year. I have ALOT if you want them ;-) When I cook most anything on the grill I use them. I will soak the sticks in a seasoned liquid at least overnight and come sumer time I just keep a big pan of it all in the frig. Rosemary branches, chili stems, garlic, thyme..even apricots!!! I soak it all. I wrap up my smoking goodies loosely in foil in a cigar shape. Then I stab little holes in the foil cigars and lay them directly over the the metal rack that sits above the flames of my GAS grill ;-( Usually at least three cigar foils. Whether I am cooking veg, fish or meat it gives the food a wood fired taste, that I like and miss, form my Brasa days. Light, delicious and no so much "smoked" but earthy and deep. Its a good technique and I hope that you will use and its fun to share.

We have a cheap Brinkman bullet smoker, charcoal fueled. Works great.

My favorite thing to smoke in it is turkey breast--brine it first with some aromatics and spices and the results are amazing. We had a party once and about halfway through we pulled four turkey breasts out of the smoker. I couldn't slice the meat fast enough--I thought somebody was going to lose a finger, grabbing it off the cutting board. THAT good.

If you have a Weber grill you're good for anything you want to hot smoke already. Light half a chimney of charcoal & when it's burned down put it on top of a whole chimney's worth of bricks all on one side of the grill. Put a drip pan with some water on the other. Put some soaked chunks or chips on top for some excellent smoke. Put your meat on top of the grill above the drip pan. With all the vents closed most of the way you should be able to maintain a temp between 200 & 225 without a problem & some good smoke for several hours, which is plenty of time to flavor ribs, shoulder, brisket, or belly. Cold smoking things like bacon requires more specialized equipment I don't have. But any good charcoal grill can at least get you started.

What kind of smoking are you trying to do? Hot smoking like BBQ (hot being a relative term) or cold smoking (lox, bacon, cheese).

For the absolute easiest thing possible a Bradley Smoker is probably what you want. You basically set the temp, load it with pucks of wood, and that's it. It should do fine for hot smoking in any temperature from about 180-250. For an extra $80 or so you can also buy the cold smoker attachment. You should get good results with not a lot of effort.

However, some of believe that you have to use charcoal or hardwood only for smoking meat. In that case, the best beginning smoker is a Weber Smokey Mountain. I say it's a beginner smoker, but people still use it in BBQ competitions. I have the old 18" but they make a 22.5" one now as well. I use it to make all sort of BBQ (bristket, ribs, pork shoulder), hot smoked fish, and can even make a pretty good Canadian bacon and regular bacon (not as good as cold smoked though).

What you want to avoid is an offset smoker. Cheap ones aren't worth the trouble, and expensive ones are super expensive.

My husband has a Weber Smokey Mountain cooker and loves it. He does sausage, ham, salmon, bacon, tazo and even cheese once or twice. Well worth the investment. Also check out the book Charcuterie.