Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

ok so i've heard of doing this and will probably try this weekend if i fire up the smoker or weber kettle. has anyone smoked a pan of water and then use that water to make ice cubes for your ceasars ?

that's my plan next time i fire up my smoker.

 

I've heard of this for making smoked ice for whiskey drinks. @bvbull200 ?

 

Yes, this has been discussed several months ago.

 

For Caesar's what?

 

OK that is kind of brilliant. I may have to try it.

And speaking of brilliant, smoke, ice, and adult beverages:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9orHqidJG8

 

Yes! I did it for Bloody Marys, though. I use bacon swizzle sticks for garnish and BBQ rub in place of pepper, so the smoked ice was a nice compliment.

It will take more work, but I might suggest the method I used.

I froze one very large block of ice. It was a mixing bowl that I put water in, then froze. I then removed the block of ice and put it in a foil pan with a few holes in the bottom. I set that pan above an empty pan in the smoker. I ran the smoker at whatever temp gave good, clean smoke that day and let the block of ice melt and drip in to the empty pan. Reason for this is, the smoke will really only affect the surface of the water and if you let it melt away from an ice block, you're continually getting a new layer for the smoke to interact with. Once the block is melted, take the resulting water and freeze up in ice trays.

I used pecan wood and the results were pretty nice! It was an interesting wrinkle in the Bloody Marys. Worth the effort? Maybe not all the time, but we were having a big gathering for Thanksgiving morning and it certainly kicked the Bloody Mary bar up a notch.

 

From a presentation standpoint, that is hard to beat. Very cool.

I haven't done it much, but for some whiskey cocktails (Old Fashion, Sazerac, etc.), smoking the glass prior to adding the cocktail is pretty nice. Just take a little wood chip, like in the video, get it lit, and put the cocktail glass over it to fill with smoke. Make the cocktail in a separate glass, then pour in to the smoked glass. It's pretty awesome.

 

we had a grinder attachment for ours and it was nothing but a pain. It could only do very small pieces then it leaked meat juice into the kitchen aid mixer. then after a couple weeks the liquid started to stink. I had to take off the covers of the mixer and clean it all out. we never used that one again. We do have a tomato juicer attachment and that works good.

 

I've done it a few times, turns out really nice. Great for bloody marys and have put it in whiskey too. Just froze a big block in a large tupperware, put it right on the great with a clean foil pan under, smoked until it all melted and then refroze in ice trays.

 

not sure if you guys get Clamato Juice. instead of Bloody Mary's we make Ceasar's up here.

i add a bit of horseradish and Extreme Bean pickles to garnish with a bit of the pickle juice in the ceasar as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinLztPFYBc

 

sorry i've made this go a little side-ways. lets get back to bbq and smoked meats ....

 

It’s all about anything we can smoke. I’ve got a recipe for Smoked Ice Cream I’m wanting to do. Once we have a new place and our stuff out of storage (ice cream maker is in SOME box) I’m going to try it.

As for sausage making I would go with a good grinder and stuffer if you can. It works a lot better than our KitchenAid did. Was an investment but then what isn’t anymore. I don’t have the stuffer yet so I still use the grinder for it but it will be the next investment for me. We do all kinds of sausages, my favorite has been the brats and the philly cheese steak sausages so far.

 

Check your local Randall’s

 

Getting on that time of year for corned beef on sale and especially after the St. Patty's day, clearance corned beef < $2/# Looking forward to making a big batch of pastrami out of some of them

 

They picky on limits? Still got 3 in the freezer from the .99 sale at HEB

 

i was just looking at the "with $25 purchase"
i guess if i buy two , it would be around $15 and just buy some salmon or t bone steaks

not sure if they are strict on the limits. I usually discriminate and just look for a cashier that looks chill

 

always the fine print

But it's easy to get there. Randalls is a bit more $ than HEB on most things, but it is way less packed which makes for a better shopping experience and that's worth it to me

 

same here. I dont go to randalls unless they have some meat sale. their stuff is expensive

 

You build any hamburger yet

 

Gotta make bacon first! need to hit Randalls for Pork butt and cure

Or find me some odds and ends. meant to look for that around here.