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

[h4ppy-chris]

ok am on the hunt for apple wood.
once you have the smoker up and running and need to add more charcoals, can you just add them or do they have to be at the white stage?

 

[Oregon Blues]

I soak my wood in water and when I need more fuel on the fire, I put wet wood on the fire. The object is to make smoke.

Is your smoker home made, so it didn't come with directions? If so, you are going to have to try different things and see what works best. That's probably true of commercial equipment, too. You start by following the directions and then refine until you find what works best.

 

[h4ppy-chris]

I soak my wood in water and when I need more fuel on the fire, I put wet wood on the fire. The object is to make smoke.

Is your smoker home made, so it didn't come with directions? If so, you are going to have to try different things and see what works best. That's probably true of commercial equipment, too. You start by following the directions and then refine until you find what works best.

you say "The object is to make smoke" can i make too much smoke?

 

[jerryb]

you say "The object is to make smoke" can i make too much smoke?

yes you can, at least to my taste. if you are smoking a pork butt for 12 hours you may want to stop adding wood about half way through and just run the charcoal after that.

with fish I have never gotten too much smoke because they are generally done quick.

Jerry

 

[h4ppy-chris]

thank you Jerry
i've just made a new charcoal basket the inside of my drum is 550mm so i made the basket 400mm and 10 inch high.
do you think that's ok, it's raining here ATM so carn't try it out. i will post pics and a vid once i get to try it.

 

[h4ppy-chris]

here's a piccy of the pork going in

 

[cjdmashley]

oh that looks delicious!!

 

[Oregon Blues]

With that much fire, you are basically cooking the same way you cook on a barbecue grill. I would think that if you leave the meat in too long it would get dried out and over-done.

If those are commercial charcoal briquettes, I haven't cooked with them for years, but I like to let them get all the way white. Then you put your soaked, preferable green, fruit wood on there, then your meat and close 'er up. By the way, small amounts of wood. You don't want to start a bonfire. I use chips, a few at a time and add more when those are gone.

You are going to have to play around with that smoker to learn what works best.

 

[h4ppy-chris]

here's a piccy of the pork cooked it smells soooooooooo good, gona let it sit a while in the foil

it had been in the smoker for 3 hours it was only a 3lb pork join to test with.

 

[arabianequine]

Looks good. I was just given a smoker in Dec. and can't wait to try it. Was that meat already cured/smoked since it is pork? It did look like it to me.