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

[duckinnut]

Chris, that sausage looks great!
That whole hog looks to die for, and I'd love me some skin and cheek meat.

You got it, try to tell people that the head meat is by far the sweetest and most tender.

 

[arabianequine]

I was thinking the same thing about the pig and sausage. I am breaking out my smoker today.....thinking about getting it cleaned up for the season.

What to smoke first?

I will be doing some cheese I know that

 

[h4ppy-chris]

My apologies for not being around more, been busy with a lot of stuff.
Still smoking. Did a pork butt that made the best pulled pork I've ever had. I used to swear by my made in the dutch oven in the oven pulled pork, no more.
The smoky flavor the smoker gives the mean was amazing - I BELIEVE I used cherry and apple wood for it. WOW.

Then I found a thread on the Cookshack forum for Burnt Ends, read the recipe which sounded good. Did some trolling on YouTube and see why people are so nuts about it.

Essentially you cook a whole brisket in the smoker, when the flat portion is at temp (about 190) you take the whole thing out of the smoker and put it on a cutting board.
With the back side (dull side) of the knife you slide thru the now cooked fat seam that separates the flat from the tip (deckle or point) and wrap the flat in foil and then a towel.
Cover the perviously unexposed layer of the the tip with rub and put back in the smoker about another 90-120 minutes until you get this lovely crusty dark thing - you've rendered almost all the fat out of the tip and you have this crispy tasty mass. So then remove, slice and then cube the meat, place in a throwaway aluminum pan and ladle in a little sauce. What you get is "burnt ends" - the meat is fall apart tender. It's way better than pulled pork. Great over a baked potato, on a soft potato roll, over rice... WOW




X2 mike been busy here too, nice plate up there mate.

Chris, that sausage looks great!
That whole hog looks to die for, and I'd love me some skin and cheek meat.

thanks slick it tasted yummy

I was thinking the same thing about the pig and sausage. I am breaking out my smoker today.....thinking about getting it cleaned up for the season.

What to smoke first?

I will be doing some cheese I know that

ribsssssssssssss

 

[h4ppy-chris]

i have made a cold smoke generator if you want to have a look it will save you lots of $$$$$$$$$$$$$
more pix here http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57747

good for smoked cheese and more very little heat

 

[slick4591]

This thread has been sleeping too long.

Chris~ that looks like a great contraption and cold smoking is something I plan on getting in to one of these days.

I finally fired up the the old Cookshack smoker today and threw some baby backs on. Since a good cook should always sample before serving, I did.

 

[bigmike&nan]

Hey Slick

Looking Good young man
I gotta ask you, what model Cookshack do you have. I have an old SM008, the original Smokette smoker, made primarily for smoking pork butts. I am ready to upgrade and looking at a lot of used gear on eBay and the internet, but really an SM025 is all I truly need - I want those 18 inch wide shelves and the ability to crank a brisket up to 300 degrees if I want to cook it fast. A lot of the old timers on the Cookshack forum cook their briskets fast and hot. But I'm very curious what model you have, did you buy it used or new and what you paid. It's such a joke that I really only spent about $400.00 on mine and have had more fun and great meals come out of it. When I get the SM025 I am also buying a cold smoking baffle as my wife is crazy about smoked salmon and smoked cheese - I want to start smoking fish for her, she loves smoked whitefish and man oh man could I make her a happy camper !! Gotta keep Mrs. Big happy !!


Got my neighbor Frank, our kandladys handyman repairing all sorts of stuff here today.
So I got some brisket cut irk ribs (longer than baby backs with a bit if the brisket meat on the bottom) and smoked two racks. WhennFrank got back from a motorcycle ride I was walking over witha slab of ribs double foiled nd wrapped in a towel for him and his wife. I also got ac15 pound beef bRisket prepped and rubbed for Fathers Day - gonna get up about 5 am to start it, then go ack to bed,it will be Fathers Day after all. Lol

Got that 15 pounder cut into a 6 pound flat and 9 pound tip/flat combo. Frank gets the 6 pound flat, his wife loves the brisket. I will do the old burnt ends thing with the tip.

The ribs turned out great: smoked 75 minutes meat sideup, then 75 minutes meat side down, the sauced and foiled meat side down an hour, then unfoiled and cooked 30 minutes more so the sauce would tack up nice. The sauce: 3 parts Sweet Baby Rays, 1 oart honey, 1 part real maple syrup. Good stuff

Today I'm reheating a rib and giving it to our rooster who shares it with all his girls - they go nuts over the ribs and the bone especially, LOL

Mike

 

[Kikiriki]

Well thanks an awful lot you guys !! DO YOU KNOW the kind of trouble this thread got me in. I quietly read the first couple pages of this and went hunting on the internet about smokers. Smoked only a tiny bit of meat while in chef school and love beef jerky. Well doggone it I went whole hog the last week, first spending way too much money on jerky from a nice Marine veteran and then while chatting him up found out the best way to make jerky is YEAH TO SMOKE IT, and here I was back at this thread again. So enabler that I am I got out on eBay looking at smokers and realized I wanted something pretty "foolproof" and efficient. I know a lot of purists will laugh - by purists I mean the folks that constantly feed a hotbox with wood to keep the temp constant and so on. I read a lot on smoking elsewhere and it seems that the "smoke" gets into the meat in about the first half of the cooking time - so if you are doing a big brisket (drooling thinking of really tender brisket that's been SMOKED) the smoke permeates the meat in the first half. Well I jumped ahead a bunch and wanted a electric smoker, partly because of where we live (lots of old trees and leaves everywhere) and partly because with very little maint. you get a consistent temperature and good results without using a lot of fuel, propane or spend time tending to it all the time. I found a restaurant supply house selling a Cookshack SM008 smoker, this is the 2008 version of what is now called the SM009-2 - it's got three shelves that are 14x14 and a dial you set the temp with (like an oven). There is a wood box over a heating element (think like in an electric oven) and it's all stainless steel inside, insulated and stainless steel and coated steel outside. It's on casters so it's easy to roll around. I can cook right on my deck without worrying about a lot of sparks and such creating a fire here. Here's a video put out by Cookshack showing the SM009-2, the more current name for the one I got

Now to brush up on my rub recipes and get ready for this bad boy to arrive... Got five different kinds of wood bought (hickory, maple, cherry, oak and apple). The Cookshack only uses about 3 ox. of wood for a 12 hour cycle. Like I said most of the smoke flavor happens in the first half of your cooking time. I know a lot of purists might look down on something like this but give me time and maybe I'll be selling my own homemade jerky soon. LOL

Just a safety note for electric smokers: my dad had one and used it on the driveway with an extension cord. He left a portion of the cord coiled up and the current created heat that melted the insulation in the coiled part. If you use an extension cord make sure it is rated for the current of the smoker and spread it out. Also, check your wall for heat above the outlet which you plug into. Older homes especially can have problems as old copper can crystalize and aluminum wiring was common in houses in the 70's and it is very easy to heat it up.

 

[bigmike&nan]

Thanks for the tip. Like most folks my power source is inside so I use a 15 ft. 12 gauge contractor grade extension cord, it's just the right length. When I upgrade to a new smoker I'm gonna have my neighbor install an outdoor outlet so I can directly hook the smoker right up to it. Now that's living.

 

[slick4591]

Mike, I already PM'd you, but I'll post here to share the answers.

Mine is an older version of: http://www.cookshack.com/store/Smokers_3/SmartSmoker-Model-SM260 only in black, not SS.

My Cookshack was already being used in a restaurant I bought. I originally thought that it would be the first thing to go, but changed my mind after using it for a while. Now, it's all I use.

This PIC is a few of the dozen briskets that had finished cooking. It'll give you an idea of the size of the thing. Seems a shame to fire all of it up just for three racks of ribs.

Kikiriki, I know what you are talking about. I have mine hardwired into the panel and have never had the wire get hot.

 

[bigmike&nan]

Hey Slick

Answered your PM, thanks. And yeah if yours is all black on the outside you have a model 206, which later became the 260 - that is one fine machine. I actually have my eye on a 206 but I'd need to grovel with the seller to ship for me AND then get my neighbor to run dedicated 220 near the thing. The price is quite good even with Yellow Freight and a palletizing charge. But overkill for a home cooker.

Will likely stick to my plan and get a SM025, a cold smoking baffle and a rib rack and cover. That's about a grand by the time I get it here but it'll be new and use 110 power. Easy does it... Got those two brisket hunks smoking now. Love the smell of my smoker going in the morning.

Mike