Smoking meat imparts the unique flavor profile of the type of wood you choose, not to mention it’s a great way to preserve meat if you smoke it for a long time. However, purchasing a smoker can be pretty expensive, and celebrity chef Alton Brown has a cheap and simple method using something you may already have at home.

Brown shares that you can use a cardboard box as your smoking vessel in an episode of Food Network's "Good Eats: The Return." He starts assembling this gadget by placing a roasting pan with an electric plate in it inside an insulated heavy-duty cardboard box, then uses a metal pie pan with holes in it to act as a smoke diffuser.

Finally, Brown advises that you add two wooden dowels across the top of the box to give the meat something to hang over. To begin the smoking process, place your wood chips in the roasting pan and plug in the electric plate so it heats up, and when it’s nice and hot, choose your favorite type of meat to smoke and enjoy.