Broke down and bought a smoker today when I made a trip up to Cabela's, I have been eyeballing them for a while. I bought a master built electric. The goal is to play around with this one, get good with some recipes and eventually switch over to a charcoal smoker ( I feel like electric is kind of cheating). Anyhow, as an avid hunter and with South Carolina's long seasons and liberal game limits I will be smoking a lot of wild game ( deer, turkey, duck, you name it). I'm also looking forward to doing ribs and briskest too. I'm sure there are some old pros on here when it comes to smoking so that leads me to this question "What's the best advice you have for when first starting out?!" Thanks!
There are hundreds of variables involved with smoking and grilling, so here's my advice....practice, practice, practice.....and have plenty of beer on hand.
Take notes. As mentioned above, there are so many variables. Even wind, outside temp, cooking time, rest, etc. There's a great forum called smoked meat that I learned a lot from.
There are a good amount of forums for smoking meat on the web. Here's one I'm on, but you need to join ($) in order to access the forums. Still, plenty of info on the free pages. Amazingribs.com.
As mentioned, plenty of practice, not everyone likes the same level of smokiness or the same types of smoke. My first cook ever on a komado resulted in burgers so over smoked we could barely eat them. That was years ago and now using the smoker for grilling, low/slow or whatever is second nature but always learning. Here is an easy cook from elderthewelder that has great results smoked chuck following this recipe, really liked the results, made great pulled beef sandwiches 3 – 4 lb Chuck Roast 2 cup’s of beef broth ½ packet of ranch dressing mix ½ packet of brown gravy mix ½ packet of Italian dressing mix Course fresh ground pepper 1 onion 2-3 large peppers (I used green, red and yellow) ***************************** Mix the packets of ranch, brown gravy and Italian dressing together (just the powder Mix) Place the roast in an aluminum pan and coat with the powder mix plus some course pepper Add 1 cup of beef broth Smoked @ 190* for 2 hours Then put aluminum foil over the aluminum pan, raised the grill temp up to 250* for 3 hours Then add up to 1 cup of beef broth if needed and add the cut peppers and onion and re-foiled @ 250* for another 1 ½ hours or until the peppers are done and the beef easily pulls apart. Let rest for at least 30 minutes, pull the roast and mix and drain off any unwanted broth.
Hmmm, what makes this one worth yearly $$ to join? There are so many free forums and informative videos out there.
I found this site: smokingmeatforums.com (dont have to pay or register to read) Good site with lots of good info. great thread on brining is: smokingmeatforums.com/t/110799/pops6927s-wet-curing-brine The mods make sure that whatever is posted is safe. Sent from my P027 using Tapatalk
Try a variety of wood to smoke with. Some meats go better with certain types of wood smoke. There's a lot of trial and error.
Practice makes perfect. I usually write down my recipes so I can duplicate them again. Takes the guess work out. I tweek the recipes each time I make something
The truth is that I got a free 90 day membership when I bought Meatheads book. I still have a month left on it. It is good that all the pop ups disappear and the forums are great for info on techniques and which accessories to buy.
And of course we are here... a Boston Butt is fairly fail proof for a newbie.... and fairly cheap too, just a long cook duration... I was told and still for the most part go by it is that the meat will soak in most all of the smoke that really needs in the first four hours. However if using heavier smoking wood that might be too much.
2-4 hours is about what the meat needs of smoking. The rest is heat which can be done in an oven. I've wrapped a brisket in aluminum foil and finished it in the oven. Came out nice and smokey. Just make sure the internal temp is about 203°.
That is a good smoker I have one and really like it. The first couple times you use it will probably be lack luster but once it's seasoned you'll be treated like a king. Everyone is different when it comes to smoked so just keep it simple at first. Pork and chicken are cheap and good meat to learn with. Buy the best grade of meat you can afford too. For brisket I just use salt and pepper with oak for the smoking wood. I wrap with butchers paper around 165° to help push through the stall it doesn't hurt the bark of the meat as much as foil. Most of all don't be intimidated and if you don't understand something ask. You will find it very rewarding once you get the hang of it.
Smoking Woods: Smoking Meat, Making Sausage, Making Cheese, Making Jerky, Brewing Beer, Canning, Dehydrating here is a good chart for smoking woods
I found that having the assortment of woods to be a boon for any kind of smoking and when you find the wood texture (puck, chips, chunks or small splits Etc) you like using, it becomes an automatic thing. These days I have aquired oak, hickory, maple, apple, alder, cherry and plum, no need for me to get to the store for that stuff this summer. If you do harvest your own woods, it makes it helpful that you know what you have. Some woods are pretty heavy(mesquite for example) on the smoke flavor while plum has some subtle flavor(I tried some of this on some chicken legs about a month ago.... they were devoured). Keep your temperatures. Im a charcoal smoker myself but the temperatures mean a lot because you don't want your meat going cold at all. Dont try this when it is Windy unless you have a very good wind break shelter for that. Youd be fighting it. Good luck with the smoking! I just have some advice for the new smokers, try seasoning it without your food in it first. Just set a pan of chips for a good 3-4 hours and let it smoke up. Then you're not waiting for the bland period to go away for long.
smoked a turkey breast and a macaroni and cheese yesterday. The turkey had a really good flavor but was just a tad dryer than I had hoped for. I may should have pulled it off just a few minutes sooner or maybe this is to be expected with a wild turkey since they don't have much fat to start with. I brined it overnight and put a poultry rub on it. great flavor. No one else said anything about it being dry so maybe it's just me the mac and cheese was off the chain!
The brining should have helped. Next time you might want to try injecting it. Poultry is always tricky because of the high internal temps we need to bring it to.