There are also many purpose built appliances for smoking ranging in price from 60$ to the price of a small car. To break it down you need a heat source (preferably wood/charcoal or electric), a place to put the wood (for smoke not fuel) and something heat safe to contain the smoke and what you are smoking. For fuel stay away from gas as burning gas produces large amounts of water vapor, water vapor will hit the fat in what you are cooking and prevent a lot of the smoke from penetrating. Later on I will give you a "recipe" for a smoker anyone can afford.
Think of smoke as a flavor. You can use just about any wood during a roasting or a grilling to impart a wonderful aroma and flavor (after grilling steaks or burgers put a pan of meatballs or a meatloaf on the grill to cook in the residual heat and you will be amazed) as this happens over a short period. Somewhere between 6-8 hours under the smoke though and the individual characteristics of the wood come through as a distinctive flavor in your meat.
As for choice of fuel I have a cousin who swears by wood. Nothing wrong with this but be warned it needs a lot more attention and will vary in heat. You have to nurse a wood smoker along and it is a labor of love. I prefer electric as it gives me a constant heat and a constant smoke and is much less time intensive in terms of fiddling with your smoke.
Wood choices vary in two ways flavor and chunk size. The smaller the chunk the more smoke and faster consumption you will have, the larger chunks will last longer and smoke a bit slower. Sawdust will burn fast with a LOT of smoke, hand size chunks will smoke for a long time with a constant amount of smoke. Also in terms of flavor you can break it up into light medium & heavy flavors. The lighter flavors include all of the fruit woods, medium oak, maple and almond, heavy hickory and mesquite. The heavier flavors I relegate to grilling too much of them imparts what is to me a medicinal taste that bothers me but I am not everyone. I prefer single wood smoking using the fruit woods for a light sweet smoky addition. Like all flavors though play with and choose your own choices until you get what you like. My suggestion is to stay single wood and start lighter and build heavier until you find the flavor you like best.
Smoker:
Ingredients
small round hot plate
inexpensive metal pie pan
round grill grate
terra cotta pot large (from your local hardware store should fit the round grill top on the inner lip)
Ceramic or cement lid that will snugly cover the large terra cotta pot
Wood chunks
large for long smoking, medium for ribs and chips or sawdust for cured fish.Smoking thermometer
Assembly:
Put the hot plate at the bottom of the pot and feed the cord through the bottom. Set the temperature on the hot plate to 2/3rds max. Place pie pan on hot plate and fill with wood chunks. Put grill in the top of the terra cotta pot. Put meat/whatever you are smoking on top. Hopefully there is a hole in your cover, if not drill one using a ceramic drill bit. Put the thermometer in the top and secure. Put top over pot and plug in. If you are using large chunks the smoke will last 3-4 hours per refill. Once it runs out, if the meat is not done, you will need to refill the wood, dump the old chunks in a metal pan full of water (if you dump in the mulch pile you will start a fire and burn down your fence or more trust me on this) and put the new chunks in, replace the grill, meat and top and drink another beer. Repeat process until the meat falls apart. I'll give you specific recipes later but hey unless you are really driven gathering the hardware here will take a few days.
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