Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

I do it with every bird i smoke i don't buy any stocks all home made. i leave the skin on and skim the fat later. I also found in a large crock pot you can just set it and forget it. I'll make my stocks over night 10 hours on low and it's nice and gelatinous once cooled.

 

I did the same thing, threw them in the crockpot with a bunch of veggies and let them simmer away. It turned out pretty good.

thanks for the input everyone!

 

Seven lbs of pork shoulder hit the smoker an hour ago. It's maintaining about 210 insead of the usual 250 since it's like 30 degrees out. 210 should be fine though, because I'm planning on a quick 5 hr smoke and then double-wrapped and into the 210 deg oven overnight. Low(er) and slow(er), we'll see how it goes. Should be good for lunch tomorrow and sandwiches for the work week.

 

Making turkey stock for soup.......



Got probably over 2 lb of meat off the carcass.

 

Smoker had a slow rise in temp - up to 225 after a couple hours and up to 250 at hour six, even as the ambient air temps dropped to around freezing. Off the smoker and wrapped in foil, into a 205 deg oven overnight. Let rest for 2 hours this morning then pulled. Meat was a consistent 205-207 degrees throughout. Probably the best pork I've made. Pulled with no effort and the fat was very easy to separate from the meat.

 

Sounds good, going to do one this year. Even if I have to make an igloo around the smoker I am using it. I dont even put the grill away.

 

Back when I used a pill type smoker, I'd promised a turkey for Christmas to my Mother in Law (of all people). As luck would have it, it turned off windy and cold as a witches' tit in a brass bra on Christmas Eve. Could NOT get my temp up, ended up moving the smoker into my shop and Christmas was saved, plus for months afterwards, my shop had a awesome smokey smell to it.

 

Thanks man - the cold doesn't really affect smokers too much. If you can stand to go out and check on it every couple hours, you should be able to smoke all year.


Saw your finished soup in the other thread - looked tasty!

 

Good stuff! I'm planning on smoking a turkey breast for Christmas. We'll see how it goes.

 

Yeah, I'm doing a smallish bird (12ish lbs) again for her this year. I would just do a breast, but I hate white meat, I'm the first on the legs and thighs.

 

I did a 22lb turkey in my smoker in about 3 hours. Smoker temp was about 360*. Turned out to be the best turkey I've ever made!

 

I need some advice on a smoker. Never owned one so I don't really know what to get. I don't really have a ton to spend on a nice one, and I have a giftcard to cabelas so that's why I'm looking there. My uncle has been smoking fish forever and said he uses an electric smoker and it works fine. I want an electric over gas so I don't always have to refill the bottle after it runs for hours.

As for size is this a decent size? I want to be able to do pork shoulders and small birds. A turkey would be awesome but I dont know what ones I could fit a turkey in.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Home...=SBC;MMcat104798880;cat104754780;cat104582880

 

Spend just little more and get this one instead, digital, set time and temp, walk away. Just add chips every so often, (until you can get a smoke generator, $25.00) then you won't even have to add chips. But the best thing, it's double insulated, uses less power, maintains temp in any weather, even light rain. Look back a couple of pages I have a pic posted.


http://www.cabelas.com/product/Home...=SBC;MMcat104798880;cat104754780;cat104582880

 

Both are big enough for a pretty big turkey, maybe not the largest in the store. Usually I do 12-14 pound ones with plenty of extra room for a bigger bird.

 

Smoke generator? Whats the difference between that and just using chips?

That's good to know. I knew when getting one that is one thing I want to be able to make for sure.

 

The main thing is you never even have to check it after starting. I put my meat on, and go to bed most of the time, depending when I'm serving. You can control the precise amount of smoke you want, as long or short a time frame as you want. Another great feature is, you can cold smoke fish and cheese and your own slab bacon (without cooking it) and not even turning on your smokers power/element. He is a vid, kinda long but you can get the jest in a few minutes. The dust is cheap, very cheap, and comes in a butt load of flavors.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWmVcyWYXnI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Figured I'd update my smoking experiences:

I tried out the Orion Cooker I picked up off craigslist using a 2 racks of St. Louis cut ribs and a smaller chicken (4-5lb.). Neither one really had a powerful smoke flavor or ring in the meat but they came out great. Ribs cooked up juicy and just freakin' great, the chicken was on a turkey stand and the lower half (drumsticks and thighs) split from the rest of the carcass and had good flavor but the skin was rubbery kinda. Nice and moist though.

Cliff Notes, great cooker-not so great smoker from my 1st experience with it. It's staying in the shed for ribs though.

On Thanksgiving morning Gander Mountain had the 30" Masterbuilt Electric smokehouses on sale for $130 so I kinda had to (impulse buy maybe). Used it last night for 44lbs. of deer sausage and it worked great but didn't really give the casings the brown, smoked look. I've read tossing in one briquet of charcoal helps that but...meh, great flavor anyhow.

Right now I'm smoking up some burgers for football..

 

A couple of Boston butts I did the other day for some pulled pork win!

 

Looks sooo good! I think it's time to do some pulled pork myself!

 

Yum dude - looks good.