Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

A 22 foot kettle sounds huge.

 

Actually it sounds like the perfect size to me.

 

Sounds like he’s making pastrami. Or at least a version of it.

 

Curing changes the texture, flavor and color of the meat. Think of white pork verses pink ham. It also protects against botulism.

 

Dried beef is nothing like pastrami.

Chipped dried beef, flour gravy over biscuits.

 

Yeah but nitrates and nitrites cause cancer. I’d like to avoid that as mush as death by botulism poisoning.

I would be curious to find a curing replacement and do my own bacons at home. I also want to use something other than pork belly which I know is fighting words around some parts :O!

Also summer sausages w/o curing as well.

 

So do nitrates/nitrate really cause cancer? Education is you friend, not listening to the fear mongering that has been around since the 70's. You do realize you have nitrate in your saliva. So you'd better quit swallowing or you'll get the big casino. Also lots of vegetables contain nitrates. Nitrates have been linked to heart health. You really need to look around read, read and then read some more on the topic and make an educated decision on if the "n" word is truly as bad for you. as former misguided studies will have you believe.

I cure my own bacons at home. Recently I posted up Black Forest Maple Bacon. If you can find a suitable substitute for pork belly or jowl to make bacon I let you know the secret to making gold out of lead.

 

Y O L O

 

Hey I’ve had bacon out of pork sliced from the rib area and it was bomb. Im not a fan of bacon thats like 90% fat, which is what you get prepackaged at stores in the US. I like meaty thick cut bacon. So I don’t think its making gold out of lead. More like polishing tarnished gold.

Canadian bacon is awesome too.

I need to get some slabs of meat and try to smoke them up like your posts (although make it more amatuer).

On nitrates and nitrites, pretty solid evidence they damage cellular DNA. Red meat gets a wrongful bad rap though.

Nitrates or nitrates occuring in vegitables or naturally in the body do not cause the development of nitrosamines in the body which are what make them harmful. Those are red herrings. In either event, due to an autoimmune disease I need to stay away from cured meats hence my desire to invent my own ways to create foods I love

 

I’ve got 2 racks of baby back ribs on the smoker now: One with regular Pitfaced rub and the second with Rudy’s BBQ Sause and the spicy Pitfaced rub.

It’s going to be a good day!

 

por

I thought you were talking about finding another protein source to make bacon not just a meatier cut of pork. No doubt goat, lamb or other animal belly meat would work.

Check out Buckboard Bacon made out of pork shoulder maybe you can get something to work there using celery as a cure. Similar to Canadian bacon but with some fat for flavor. It ends up being a cross between bacon and ham.

Some mass produced bacon is okay but it is not anything near homemade plus making stuff is fun. I called a local butcher shop today and order up another pork belly and 8 to 10 lbs of jowls. I have not worked with jowls yet but they are supposed to make a great richer although fattier bacon. Affectionately know as "face bacon".

 

No, use them to smoke with. Don’t waste good wood.

 

Nice reference! Funniest movie ever IMO, especially if you're in a band. It's all so close to home it's scary.

 

Homemade is much better. Store bought is good but its slimier compared to homemade.

How thick do you cut yours? I like 1/4’’ sliced bacon. :9

 

I don't precut my bacons. I cure, smoke and age them then portion them up in around 1lb slabs and freeze. When I take them out it depends on what I'm cooking as to the thickness. Bacon streaks, 1/4" thick bacon strips for burgers or paper thin for wrapping scallops. It all depends.

 

Anyone with a good brine/electric smoker recipe for some boned out deer hams?

 

I used this last time:

Brine the Venison Meat
The next step is to create the brine for your meat. Now, you’ll find plenty of brine recipes on the Internet, but a basic brine is very simple.

• 1 Gallon of water
• 1/2 cup soy sauce – Make sure not to buy the reduced sodium kind
• 3/4 cup of Kosher salt
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup of molasses
• 2 tbs. pepper
• 1 tbs. rosemary

I smoked it for 3 hours at 250 degrees. It turned out really good, just interested in trying something different! Anyone using mustard? Because I LOVE MUSTARD!

 

OMAGAWD NO!! George Washington cut down a cherry tree to use for smoking poultry and cheese. You should do the same.

 

Dueling banjo's. 12lb+ pork shoulder on the BGE and 6lbs of cured dried beef on the MES. Applewood smoke for both.

 

What's the box on the far right?? Looks like it attaches to the MES??