Who's smoke'n

[Timberwolf]

Anyone out there smoking, curing or fermenting?

Threw a couple pounds of pepper jerky on tonight and 5lb of dry rub bacon which I may smoke on the weekend.

Any picture out there of smokers? Going to have to build one some day, little electric and charcoal ones I have have their limitations.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I don't, but I'd like too! Basically, I'm too lazy...

 

[SkwerI]

You have no idea how hungry you're making me right now.

 

[Treepreacher51]

I have one that looks just like yours. I think it is a Chief or somptin. Makes yummy jerkey.

Great pics. I'm salivating too

 

[Timberwolf]

You have no idea how hungry you're making me right now.

Me too, problem with this kind of food is it takes weeks to make.

I'd like to try some of the cured hams but they take months.

Here is some corned meat that will be ready in a week or so and half a bucket of sour cabbage that is likely still two weeks from being ready though I sampled some and it would be edible.

 

[Al Smith]

I don't have a smoker but I did make the mistake of showing Mrs. Smith I could grill a mean steak . So there I was in a Carhart artic parka grilling the darned things at 16 above a few weeks ago .

 

[sotc]

I want a smokehouse too!
If theres no smoke, it ain't grillin!

 

[Bounce]

I recently smoked 24 salmon that I took in trade for some tree work. My wife and I canned about 1/3 of it before we ran out of jars, so we just used the Food Saver on the rest and stuck it in the freezer. I've never been so well paid for 1 day of work before. I used a friend's smokehouse, which did about 60 fish all at once. It was buitd from cinder blocks and the shelves were stripped from an old refrigerator. He said the whole thing cost him $150 to build. Since then I got myself a lil' chief smoker like yours, but nothing seems to turn out good in that. I keep thinking I'm tasting the metal from the racks or something. Do you get that with yours?

 

[Timberwolf]

Some nice grill work there.

Never noticed any taste problems. But it has temperature issues. Near impossible to get anything the same twice.

 

[vharrison]

Timber, is that a brine you have that meat in?

 

[Timberwolf]

Yes, brine is made up of brown sugar, maple syrup, kosher salt, pickeling spice mix, crushed peper corns, and a little sodium nitrite.

Did make a littlle boo boo though as I did not have the brine fully chilled when I added meat, could allow bacteria a start that way, but with the strong salt, sodium nitrite and getting it right in the fridge I am not worried. Not a mistake to chance making on ground meat or something that would be subject to a longer cure or cool/warm smoking.

Jerky tuned out well, smoker would have never reached safe temperature in 4 hours as it was about 5f outside, so finnished it off in oven for about 1.5 hours to 175f. Even just smoking with one pan of pecan wood chips the smoke flavor was plenty strong.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I smoke all kinds of stuff in my wood stove at the shop, as I posted earlier with a pic at the stove thread. I have a little different take on smoking things than most, due to the fact that often I am heating my shop and smoking something at the same time. Being a long tank like shape, I can push the fire all the way to the back, and closing the air intake and damper will help cool it down. I welded in some flanges to hold a grill, put some meat or fish...poultry in at the front, then throwing on some blocks of cherry or oak, I can get intense smoke happening, that will make opening a window essential if I open the stove door for too long, it really rolls out of there. The good thing is that with that arrangement I don't have to smoke things for very long, and still get real good smoke flavor. If I want to cook and smoke at the same time I can regulate the heat. and with the coals in the back, I can cook up a chicken leg for lunch in only a few minutes, and also get a good shot of smoke on it in that short time. You just need to know how much heat you need and the time factor.

I smoke a lot of cheese, it makes a great present to give someone, and folks love it. You need lower heat for sure or else it will melt or get a crust on the outside. 45 minutes to an hour is all it takes with all the smoke. I know a guy who smokes the same cheese for twelve hours, he told me. You wouldn't know the difference except mine is better . I rub a little vegetable oil on the four sides of the cheese block, then put a lot of spices all around. You can make for some variety that way too. After one hour, presto! The cheese I stick on a piece of screen on top of the grill, as it tends to get a bit soft with the heat.

A tip about smoking cheese.... the cheap processed cheese is not very good tasting, but if you smoke it, the taste becomes really good. The other nice thing is that it has a shelf life of about twenty-five years! I really recommend it.

 

[sotc]

Cheese! I haven't done that yet!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Lots of uses for smoked cheese...sandwiches, in salads, with your drink.....

 

[sotc]

Just to eat! With an apple! Crackers! Yum

 

[Burnham]

Here's my smoker, a modified Weber 22" covered grill. All charcoal and wood chunk fired. I can easily fit up to a 30 pound turkey or several large salmon, half a dozen chickens or 20+ pounds of chops/steaks, 8-10 boneless pork loins or tri tips.

It was easy to make, if anyone wants to try it I can tell you what I did, but it's not rocket science.

 

[sotc]

Looks kinda like a rocket

 

[SkwerI]

Looks kinda like a rocket

Punk!

 

[Burnham]

Maybe it is rocket science, then .

 

[Timberwolf]

Bacon is done curing, just soaked it a couple hours to take the salt off, in the fridge overnight to form a skin then into the smoker for a couple hours. Salt cure drew about 3/4 of a cup of water out of the meat.

 

[SkwerI]

I think I'm going to use that picture as my desktop background.

 

[sotc]

Thought you liked more curves

 

[Timberwolf]

Bacon turned out well after a couple hours smoking, going to tweak the recipe a bit as the flavor is fairly mild and could stand a little more smoking.

Much better than that slime filled bag of salty pork fat they sell at the grocery store as bacon.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Hahaha, oh lordy! Mighty, mighty fine looking!!!

 

[SkwerI]

Wow, more bacon porn.