Smoking your own meat

[GT108]

Do anyone here smoke their own meat?

I want to try to smoke some brisket or some pull pork this weekend.

Any suggestions or tips on how to marinate the meat and the type of wood to use?

[jayisthebest88]

salt!

[wanted]

on food tv they use cedar.

I just roll it up, put in some rosemary, blaze it up and smoke it!
AAnd make smoke rings!

[S14_Raven]

Look around for some dry rub recipes... I find hickory is a good 'all around' type of wood to use...

[Headhunter]

Wasn't there a huge thread on this within the last month? I can't find it, but it had a ton of good tips (I thought).

[sonick]

"would you like to taste my smoked meat log?" -Peter Griffin

[NDman]

Wasn't there a huge thread on this within the last month? I can't find it, but it had a ton of good tips (I thought).

Here :D

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179639&highlight=smoke

Do have a question though... I tried smoking some wings and chicken the other day. I have a decent-sized packet of woodchip (2:1 wet:dry), but the package barely lasted 40-45 minutes or so. Thought I read that it generally lasts about an hour or so.'

How should I start the packet to get the smoke going? I started off with some medium high heat until I see smoke, then turn it way down on the wood-chip side, and then mediu-low to low heat on the meat side. Did I do it wrong?

Back on topic, I would love to smoke a pork shoulder. But I have to figure out how exactly do I go about starting, and continuing (I'm sure I'll have to change wood-chip pouch a few times) since it generally takes hours to smoke a whole pork shoulder roast. Yum....

[trini]

Don't be fooled alot of places used something called liquid smoke which they inject into the meat you wont know the difference unless you are a pro.

[Hodge]

Don't be fooled alot of places used something called liquid smoke which they inject into the meat you wont know the difference unless you are a pro.

If it's really been smoked, you should see a reddish/pink colour around the outside of the meat.

[Headhunter]

Don't be fooled alot of places used something called liquid smoke which they inject into the meat you wont know the difference unless you are a pro.
What on Earth? Didn't know about this.

[NDman]

What on Earth? Didn't know about this.
They actually say liquid smoke on some of the packages that use that

[NDman]

Here :D

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179639&highlight=smoke

Do have a question though... I tried smoking some wings and chicken the other day. I have a decent-sized packet of woodchip (2:1 wet:dry), but the package barely lasted 40-45 minutes or so. Thought I read that it generally lasts about an hour or so.'

How should I start the packet to get the smoke going? I started off with some medium high heat until I see smoke, then turn it way down on the wood-chip side, and then mediu-low to low heat on the meat side. Did I do it wrong?

Back on topic, I would love to smoke a pork shoulder. But I have to figure out how exactly do I go about starting, and continuing (I'm sure I'll have to change wood-chip pouch a few times) since it generally takes hours to smoke a whole pork shoulder roast. Yum....

BUMP. Still looking for some help.

[wanted]

Just watch License to Grill.

[Hodge]

BUMP. Still looking for some help.

NDMan, I only get about the same from my smoke packets (45 minutes) - I do the same as you are doing in terms of getting them started and keeping the smoke going.

I'm assuming that you are using a gas/propane bbq - I've done pork shoulder several times and it has turned out well. The thing is, you don't necessarily need smoke for the entire cooking time (7+ hours, I'd say) - I usually do a few smoke packets at the beginning and then continue to let it cook via indirect heat - I find that usually works well - make sure you baste it with a mop sauce (apple cider vinegar and some of your rub, and maybe a little coke or jack daniels mixed in) works well. You can also wrap it in foil for the last half of cooking to help get it up to temperature and keep it a little more moist.

If you want to smoke it for the whole cooking time, you'd need to use a smoker, I don't think you'll find that it is easily done using a gas/propane 'q. But it can turn out quite well using the steps above.

[NDman]

Cool stuff. But it takes 7 hours? That's a bit much. Maybe I'll take on a smaller project first since I'm novice to the smoking technique. Pork tenderloin is on sale at Sobeys and it's on my hit list now. Thanks again for the pointers

[deep]

Doesn't Ron Jeremy own the patent on smnoking your own meat?

Maybe some yoga classes are your best bet.

[GT108]

I tried smoking some meat for the first time last weekend, so, I am not trying to sound like a pro or what, just trying to be helpful.

I started the pouch on medium high with a ratio of 2 part soaked hickory chips and 1 part dry. Once it started smoking, not steaming, I turned it down to med low. You do not have heat on the meat side.

I smoked a pork shoulder marinated with a dry rub overnight. I put a aluminum tray under grill on the meat side to catch the drips.

It took me around 41/2 hours in which I changed the pouch 5 times. My pouches lasted almost an hour each.

I tested for the meat doneness through a internal temperature reading.

The result wasn't as expected but still tasted pretty good. The pork shoulder didn't all pulled away as some of it needed to be sliced like a roast. Everyone enjoyed it and is look forward to my next experiment.

Served with homemade coleslaw on Kaiser, drizzeled with spicy vinagrette sauce.

Now I am hungry and wished I have brought the leftover for lunch.




Here :D

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179639&highlight=smoke

Do have a question though... I tried smoking some wings and chicken the other day. I have a decent-sized packet of woodchip (2:1 wet:dry), but the package barely lasted 40-45 minutes or so. Thought I read that it generally lasts about an hour or so.'

How should I start the packet to get the smoke going? I started off with some medium high heat until I see smoke, then turn it way down on the wood-chip side, and then mediu-low to low heat on the meat side. Did I do it wrong?

Back on topic, I would love to smoke a pork shoulder. But I have to figure out how exactly do I go about starting, and continuing (I'm sure I'll have to change wood-chip pouch a few times) since it generally takes hours to smoke a whole pork shoulder roast. Yum....

[NDman]

It took me around 41/2 hours in which I changed the pouch 5 times. My pouches lasted almost an hour each.

That one sounded good!!! So when you changed the pouch, did you fire the heat back up to get the moldering of the chip going, or you just toss the new pack in (med-low heat) and let it go?

[GT108]

I tried to change it as quickly as possible to maintain the heat.

I just tossed it in and let it do it own thing.

I had a poker game going with the boys and was too lazy to get out there after 5 minutes to turn the heat back down. :D

[el_diablo007]

the guy on food tv cooked his stuff with indirect heat, high heat on the wood side, zero heat on the meat side.

[GT108]

the guy on food tv cooked his stuff with indirect heat, high heat on the wood side, zero heat on the meat side.
\
You can cook with high indirect heat when you are not using a smoke pouch.

High heat with the smoke pouch will burn out the pouch in very little time, and give the food a charred burnt taste.

[tienm23]

Sounds like your heat was too high. Tenderloin is not all that great a cut to smoke as it is too lean. A good cut to start with is a pork picnic roast, they are cheap and nicely marbled and very forgiving. Brisket, ribs, and pork butts ands and shoulders should be cooked at 200 to 225, low and slow using indirect heat, I do briskets and shoulders for 10-12 hours and ribs for about 6hrs.

I have a smoker I got at CT that has a offset firebox and and main cooking chamber. A cheap grill top thermometer helps as well as I have found that the thermometers on most bbq are very inaccurate. I use apple wood which I get from a local orchard and it works very well with pork and chicken.

[gh05t]

Would love to try some smoked beer. Haven't seen it at the beer store yet. Spoke to some people who brew their own but one person said they put liquid smoke and you couldn't drink it till six months after because of the high smoke content.

I am thinking most people doing their smoking on a small scale or as a one off thing and who do not have large smoke houses at their disposal etc do in fact cheat and use liquid smoke becuse the hickory chips that they sell at the store etc do in fact burn off quickly.

If you buy a smoker maybe it would come with instructions on how to do your own smoking or maybe some recipes.

Once tried to barbecue some chicken on a smoker. Lucky thing I steamed the chicken before cause i could not leave the chicken on for a long time as the smoker produced lots of smoke and i was on a condo balcony at the time.

Just kept looking over to see if any firetrucks were called in while i hurriedly charred my chicken. :D

Remember google is your friend too and friends are there to be used. ;)

[AudiDude]

This weekend I will be smoking a pork picnic roast, a turkey breast and peppers. I am using my charcoal smoker and hard lump charcoal. The wood is tennis ball sized chunks of hickory and alderwood. I might do some wings on the gas barbeque with the smoking box as well (something to munch on while I wait),

[Hodge]

Would love to try some smoked beer. Haven't seen it at the beer store yet. Spoke to some people who brew their own but one person said they put liquid smoke and you couldn't drink it till six months after because of the high smoke content.



I got some last summer at the LCBO - it was a German import. Haven't seen it at the beer store, but try your local LCBO if you haven't.

It was interesting for a change - don't know that I'd want to drink it all the time though. Would probably make a wicked base for cooking though.

[duckdown]

This weekend I will be smoking a pork picnic roast, a turkey breast and peppers. I am using my charcoal smoker and hard lump charcoal. The wood is tennis ball sized chunks of hickory and alderwood. I might do some wings on the gas barbeque with the smoking box as well (something to munch on while I wait),

3 things..

1> with the picnic roast, do you take off that huge nasty slab of fat (the crackling eventually?) that part totally disgusted me when we did a picnic roast last year.. I plan to do another before the summer is up though.. are you supposed to trim that fat ass layer of fat off of the top side?

2> how do you do the turkey breast? high-heat sear then remove from the heat, move them to the off side, and put the pouch on the side you seared on (the heat?)

3> same question as 2, but how do you do your wings? i've never smoked wings.. i'm great at the ribs though.. just gotta make sure you peel the membrane off the bones :)

[AudiDude]

3 things..

1> with the picnic roast, do you take off that huge nasty slab of fat (the crackling eventually?) that part totally disgusted me when we did a picnic roast last year.. I plan to do another before the summer is up though.. are you supposed to trim that fat ass layer of fat off of the top side?

2> how do you do the turkey breast? high-heat sear then remove from the heat, move them to the off side, and put the pouch on the side you seared on (the heat?)

3> same question as 2, but how do you do your wings? i've never smoked wings.. i'm great at the ribs though.. just gotta make sure you peel the membrane off the bones :)

1>You are supposed to remove the skin, but leave some fat. This side goes up so that as the fat melts away, it bastes the meat to keep it tender. Since I have a charcoal-water smoker all the fat lands in the water and you should see how much comes out. If you have minimal fat lost, the temp in the smoker was too high and you tightened the meat up too much. My first one, I pulled the bone out easily by hand.

2>If you sear the meat, you seal it and smoke cannot penetrate. It is best to brine the meat because turkey will dry out (I assume this is why you want to sear it). So as always use indirect heat and smoke at about 210.

3>I smoke the wings whole. I season them with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Salt because seasoned salt is too weak and sometimes you have ta add more salt later. Pepper is normal table pepper because cracked is too big and it will fall off and really ground up pepper is very strong and hot. Garlic powder instead of fresh garlic because if you are ever cooking food for short periods of time, fresh garlic will not have enough time to cook, and therefore doesn't have as much garlic flavour (just burninng and bad breath). This isn't true if you are going to make a marinade with fresh garlic as the rest of the marinade will help break the garlic down.

So salt, black pepper, garlic powder and wings tossed on a bowl. I use hickory chips and a cast iron smoking box in a gas barbeque. Fire up the barbeque and get the chips to smoke, then back off the temp to hold the barbeque @ 210. Put the wings on and make sure they are extended (stretched as far open as possible). Sometimes I turn on the other side of the barbeque on low after 15 mins to even out the cooking temps in the barbeque.

Sometimes I do two loads of chips, sometimes one (depends on how many wings ). When I am done, the skin is almost translucent and the meat is slightly pink. Everybody always wants to know what hickory sauce I put on the wings, but of course there is none...

[NDman]

3>I smoke the wings whole. I season them with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Salt because seasoned salt is too weak and sometimes you have ta add more salt later. Pepper is normal table pepper because cracked is too big and it will fall off and really ground up pepper is very strong and hot. Garlic powder instead of fresh garlic because if you are ever cooking food for short periods of time, fresh garlic will not have enough time to cook, and therefore doesn't have as much garlic flavour (just burninng and bad breath). This isn't true if you are going to make a marinade with fresh garlic as the rest of the marinade will help break the garlic down.


Nice recipe. How long does it take to smoke/cook wings? Last time I did it I think I used too much heat. The meat was only half pink and the smoke didn't quite penertrate through. There was some smoke flavour but not as intense as I thought. It took me about 35-40 minutes...

[monomono]

On Food Network once they showed how to make a smoker using a big terracotta pot (just a big clay planting pot you can buy at a garden center). You want one that is about 2 ft high by 1.5 ft in diameter.

You get a single portable electric ring cooker and put it in the bottom, on top of that put a aluminium foil tray in which go your wood chips.

Then you suspend your meat near the top and cover the pot.

Seems like this would be pretty cheap and easy way to smoke, and more efficient than a bbq (not using all that propane).

Just wondering if anyone has tried it?

[tienm23]

Heres how to build a Trash Can smoker

http://www.cruftbox.com/cruft/docs/elecsmoker.html

http://www.cruftbox.com/cruft/images/elecsmoker-10.jpg

[NDman]

Neat idea for the home-made smoker. Watched that particular Good Eats episode too! :D

But I think this system is not nearly perfect. The fat will drip directly onto the wood tray. And changing wood seems to be a royal PITA. Cool idea though. Don't think I'll go that hard core for a smoker. How much is a smoker that you can buy for household use anyway?

[Keelie]

i have a home made smoker, it works pretty good.

its an insulated metal box about 3' high with a door in the front, there are two racks inside and i have a small one burner hot plate in the bottom that i put a cast iron frying pan on for my wood chips. its really easy to toss more wood in the pan as needed. i use bigger pieces of wood rather than chips, that way you dont have add all the time.

i've only smoked fish in it tho, nothing else.

[duckdown]

I need to know where to get some decent wood chips besides Canadian Tire.. theres nothin here in Peel region

[AudiDude]

Nice recipe. How long does it take to smoke/cook wings? Last time I did it I think I used too much heat. The meat was only half pink and the smoke didn't quite penertrate through. There was some smoke flavour but not as intense as I thought. It took me about 35-40 minutes...

It is very difficult for me to answer this particular question, because it depends on how big the wings are and how close they are to room temperature. Since you know how the last batch turned out, use that as a baseline. You won't get the meat pink all the way through , it is a race between the meat cooking and the smoke penetrating.

The lower the temp, the longer the cook time, but the more smoke penetration. Remember, you should not actually see smoke, if you do your temps are too high and that type of smoke is bitter. You should just be able to smell it instead.

I don't know what kind of chips you used, as I said, I use hickory chips from HD, I don't like the pellets from crappy tire. To get lots of smoke flavour, use a stronger wood (although I don't recommend it as it could overpower the chicken), or lower the temps and cook longer(you do have a real thermometer in your barbeque, dont you??)

[Bortman]

Smoking your own meat? I saw a video of this once LOL. I totally have a dirty mind! :twisted: