Getting smoke out of a grill they already own
This is the highest-value gift on the page, because it changes what someone can cook without changing what they own. A pellet smoker tube is a perforated stainless tube you fill with wood pellets, light at one end and set on the grate. It smolders for hours alongside whatever else is cooking, on gas or charcoal, and it works cold as well as hot — which is how people smoke cheese and nuts.
A smoker box does a similar job with wood chips instead of pellets, and it suits a gas grill particularly well because it can sit directly over a burner where the heat is fiercest. Between the two, the tube runs longer and the box is simpler. Either turns a plain grill into something that produces genuine smoke flavor. Our step-by-step guides to smoking on a gas grill and smoking on a charcoal grill show where each one goes and what temperature to hold.
Choosing wood
Wood choice matters less than people fear, but there is a rough rule: fruit woods like apple and cherry are mild and forgiving and suit poultry and pork; hickory and oak are stronger and suit beef; mesquite is the strongest and is easy to overdo. For a gift, a mild fruit wood is the safer choice, because the failure mode of a strong wood is food that tastes acrid, and that failure is hard to undo.
Chips burn faster and suit shorter cooks; chunks last longer and suit charcoal and real smokers. A bag of apple chips is a good, cheap thing to pair with a tube or a box so the gift arrives ready to use rather than needing a second trip to the shop. And if they are ready for a dedicated cooker rather than an accessory, best smokers for beginners ranks the easiest ones to learn.
The finishing tools
Once someone is cooking low and slow, three annoyances show up. Ribs take enormous grate space laid flat — a rib rack stands them upright and roughly triples what fits. Pulling a hot pork shoulder with two forks is slow and awkward — a pair of shredding claws does it in a fraction of the time and is the accessory smoker owners most often say they wish they’d bought sooner. And mopping sauce on with a bristle brush sheds bristles; a silicone brush rated for real heat doesn’t.
None of these is expensive, and together they make a genuinely good bundle. If you want to add the one tool that improves the food most, it’s a leave-in probe thermometer— long cooks are exactly where guessing goes most wrong. For the cook all of this is in aid of, see how to smoke a brisket; and if a dedicated cooker is on the cards, offset smoker vs pellet grill is the decision to make first.
Two pages sit next to this one. If the accessory you are buying burns wood — a tube, a tray, a hopper — best wood pellets covers what to put in it, with seven bags matched to what the cook actually smokes. And if the gift has grown from an accessory into the cooker itself, best electric smokers compares six plug-in cabinets on published cooking area, temperature range and warranty.
