For David Izumi, an expert in smoking foods, a key message is that it's up to you: how you smoke, what you smoke, what flavors you use.

He is a SERIOUS smoker and also a mechanical engineer with access to big-boy tools like plasma cutters and soldering devices. His smokers include two made-over water heaters and one horizontal barrel big enough to roast an ox in.

But you don't need to go to those lengths to infuse foods with smoke. Here are ideas, from the simplest stovetop technique to commercial products to consider:

STOVETOP

Equipment: Cast iron skillet with lid, round rack with 1-inch "feet" to leave room for wood chips beneath, aluminum foil, wood chips (available at hardware and home improvement stores and some gourmet and kitchen supply shops).

Technique: Line cast iron with foil but cut out a circle in the center. Line lid with foil (so it doesn't get stained). Place a few wood chips in the center so they rest right on the pan. Place rack in pan. Heat pan over medium heat until chips begin to smoke. Arrange fish fillets, tender steaks, even rustic bread brushed with olive oil on top of rack. Cover and smoke — most items take just 4 to 10 minutes to smoke. Do not oversmoke. Bread is ready to eat directly after smoking; meats and fish may need a few more minutes of cooking under the broiler or on the grill unless you like them very rare.

JAPANESE GRILL/SHICHIRIN

Equipment: These traditional Japanese cooking devices are patio charcoal-burning grills often found in restaurants and used by many Japanese households, as well. The square or round body a foot or so tall is made from a pottery that uses diatomaceous earth, which is said to retain heat for longer periods and radiate in such a way as to cook food quickly and healthfully. The grill is usually used with a compressed hardwood charcoal called sumi or (a more costly version) binchoutan but standard briquets can be used. A wire mesh grill sits atop the shichirin. To smoke, you would briefly tent the food with aluminum foil. You may find these at Shirokiya or other Japanese specialty stores or online. Prices range from $50 to the stratosphere depending on size

Technique: Fire up the charcoal, place small fillets of meat or fish, or small whole fish, or vegetables atop grill, tent lightly with foil and smoke briefly.

STANDARD GRILL

Equipment: Standard kettle or square wood-burning or gas grill, aluminum foil, briquets and wood chips.

Technique: To smoke in a standard grill, you need to be able to set the food away from the heat. With gas grills, this can be difficult unless the grill offers a double-control feature, allowing you to turn on one side and leave the other off. With charcoal-burning grills, you merely build the fire to one side of the grill and put the food on the other side. If you're burning briquets, burn them to the white ash stage, then set wood chips (kiawe or fruitwood) atop the fire, arrange the food on heavy-duty aluminum foil and place it as far from the fire as possible, cover the grill and smoke. Depending on the size of the grill, you may be smoking delicate items for as little as 10 minutes or entire racks of beef or pork for hours on end.

HOME SMOKER

Equipment: Home smokers range from small-doored metal boxes fitted with racks and/or rods to waist-high smoker-grill combinations (Weber makes a popular one that sells for about $75) and prices range from $75 up to $1,500. These may be wood-burning or electric (although electric smokers are taboo in official smoking competitions and anathema to smoking fanatics). Shop around at hardware and home improvement stores or go online to research the type of smoker that would work best for you. If you won't be doing a lot of smoking, the small metal box or the smoker-grill combination might be the best choice. Depending on the type of smoker, you may use wood chips or even hunks of wood.

HOMEMADE SMOKERS

Equipment: You can make a smoker out of just about anything that can hold a fire or sit atop one, that has shelves or rods for hanging meat, and a lid or door for enclosing the smoke.

At Dixie Grill in 'Aiea, for example, they cold-smoke fish, cheese and other delicate items using a large insulated cooler (NOT Styrofoam), a metal plumbing hose and an overturned pottery planter with a hole in the top. They have drilled a hole in the side of the cooler and run the hose between that and the drain hole in the bottom of the pottery planter (this is an Alton Brown technique). The fire is kindled in the planter and topped with wood chips and the smoke channeled to the food by the hose. The cooler is partly filled with ice and the food placed on foil atop it, allowing it to get the smoke without overheating. Cheese prepared this way can be served as is. Smoked fish needs to be grilled or broiled.

Izumi uses reworked water tanks fitted with metal grill shelving but he's also made a smoker out of a 55-gallon metal drum.

Over on the Big Island, boar hunter Alvin Jardine uses a metal shed raised off the ground on cement blocks, allowing free air flow to the 'ohi'a and ironwood fire below. A metal cap shields the fire from contact with the fat that drips from the meat during smoking. Metal rods suspended between the walls of the shed hold ropes of pipikaula and shoyu-marinated pork. Long coils of Portuguese-style sausage are entwined around sticks of hard, strong strawberry guava wood.

SOME CAUTIONS

It's best to start a briquet or wood fire by means of a gas torch rather than using lighter fluid, which permeates the smoked product, particularly a problem with delicate foods.

Smoking food must be tended, even if it's going to take hours and hours. You must watch for fire flare-ups caused by dripping fat from food, or a rise in temperature due to too dense a concentration of briquets under the wood or wood chips. Food may need to be rotated if the smoker is full. The temperature of the smoker, which should hover around 200 degrees and no higher, should be checked, as well as that of the food to be cooked. Don't wander away or you may have burned, overcooked or oversmoked food for all your trouble.

Be SURE whatever you use is free of all potentially hazardous substances, such as petroleum products and paints.

NEVER use mango wood or cedar for smoking. The resins in mango wood are absorbed into the food and those with mango allergies may suffer a reaction. And cedar wood is potentially poisonous and not food-safe.