food smoking are you a smoker of meats? can you help? share your recipes! - Page 9

Great thread! I have a mes40 electric smoker looking for something easy to smoke for my first smoke, I heard bologna is good or would chicken be better? What temp should i run it at? what wood would be best?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jomoncon 


We just got a new smoker. and DH will be trying a Boston Butt this weekend. But I really want to try a fattie!!
DH has fallen in love with the smokingmeatforums.

Here is a fattie recipe.

http://www.squidoo.com/fatty-recipes

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redhen-pecked 

Great thread! I have a mes40 electric smoker looking for something easy to smoke for my first smoke, I heard bologna is good or would chicken be better? What temp should i run it at? what wood would be best?

bolonga is a great little snack to do on the smoker when its running anyway. I buy a chunk to smoke when I am cooking other things, I just pop it on and grab it out in an hour or so. it will plump up nice. no need to go too long since its already cooked, just give it a good color and its ready.

for a first time I would suggest going with a beer can chicken or with leg quarters. either will cook much faster than a pork butt and you can start to learn your cooker's personality, er cookerality.

good luck,

Jerry

Lots of guys also suggest a pork butt for a first timer, its got plenty of fat on it to help cure the smoker a little and is a pretty forgiving cut of meat to work with, not that expensive either.

Busy Day.

While I was assembling my Backyard BBQ Spice Rub blend Nan took every single item out of our kitchen cupboard, washed all the shelves and then put every thing back (once it too was wiped down) into a very organized and orderly arrangement. Yeah I DO have a lot of vinegars, condiments and spices. LOL !! Look at that shelf sag !!

Then I got back in the kitchen and completely cleaned up and broke down a full 14 lb beef brisket into two portions. I took the "deckle" more or less and split it where the fat runs thru, cleaned that all out. Then applied a thick layer of spicy mustard on the whole thing and then generously applied my new Backyard BBQ Spice Blend on it. Into a 2 1/2 gallon zippered bag and into the fridge. The other half of the brisket is totally cleaned up also and in the freezer for another day. I learned something, bribe my local butcher with a couple of cuban cigars and have him trim the doggone brisket. Man that is a LOT of work !!

Then I took a 5 lb. bottom round roast and using my new fancy fancy jerky slicer broke it down into 1/4 inch strips and made Bill's marinade (pretty much) from the jerky video I posted earlier in this thread. That 5 lb. of sliced bottom round is marinating in a gallon zippered storage bag. I figure the UPS driver will be here about 10:30 with my parcel from Cookshack and I'll be smoking jerky by 11:00 !!   Tuesday, Valentine's Day, I'll be smoking the brisket in my Cookshack and making potato salad for my sweetheart. BBQ Sauce smoked in the smoker !!

Here's the jar of spice rub I made:

And here is my rub recipe, I used a used herb container that has shaker holes on one side of the lid and a half open side on the other. Perfect for applying the rub.

Mike n Nan's Backyard BBQ Rub Blend

1/2 cup finely ground fresh roasted coffee beans (espresso grind)

2 Tbls Cocoa Powder

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

3 Tbls Herbs de Provence

3 Tbls Paprika

3 Tbls Lemon Pepper

1 Tbls Fresh Cracked Black Pepper

1 Tbls red pepper flakes

3 Tbls Onion Powder

3 Tbls Garlic Powder

3 Tbls Taco Seasoning

3 Tbls Cayenne Pepper

Combine all this in a medium bowl. With a tablespoon ladle it into your storage container/shaker, or put in a decent sized zippered storage bag. Keep in the freezer when not in use.

More updates/photos after I get the jerky smoked on Monday. Oh Man this is exciting.

Well I was all loaded up and ready to go - was gonna cure the smoker first with a pan of water, some hickory wood and to put a little coating of fat on the inside I was gonna smoke about 1/2 pound of bacon. Well UPS arrived very late and all that was in the box from Cookshack was the jerky rods and the cover for the Smokette. SO off to Plan B, make the jerky. Popped one piece of wood, it weighed 2.8 ounces on the wife's Weight Watcher's digital scale, perfect size, into the wood hopper, put the jerky on the rods and turned the smoker on to 165. In about 20 minutes the hickory smoke started wafting out of the smoker and making the yard smell quite good.

One great aspect of the Cookshack is it is low maintenance. It was about 40 degrees out but winds of 20 to 30 mph made being on the deck pretty lousy. So once I got the smoker rolling it was just out of plain curiosity that I went back out there to check on her. After 2 hours at 165 I cracked the door a little and smoked it another 2 hours at 200 so the jerky would dry out. It was still pretty tender and by then it was down to a wind chill of 20 so I brought the jerky rods in and dried the jerky in a foil lined 13x9 pan for another hour at 300 in our oven. OH MAN so great to be back inside where it was warm. It made the whole house smell lovely. This is the finished product which is really very good - tender, moist and chewy all at the same time. For a first attempt it turned out really good. I can see I'll upgrade from a bottom round to maybe a top sirloin next time I do this.