Smoking meats etc.

[snake eyes]

Anyone  care to share any of their favorite smoking recipes? I am
just getting into it.Did  a pork loin and was very good but a bit bitter using hickory chips. I am thinking of using some kind of fruit
wood. Cherry,peach etc. Any thoughts?
snake-eyes

[Two Steps]

Snake Eyes...I mostly use mesquite...but I do use hickory and apple at times.  Kindda depends on what I'm smoking.  I'm gonna PM you a brisket recipe that I wrote down for an old pard of mine.  I'll try and add my favorite dry rub mix right here for ya.  I hope ya give it a try.

 

                                                             BOs  DRY RUB
                                                 (to Hamlet by way of West Texas)

3/4 cup Paprika
1/4  cup Ground Black Pepper
1/4 cup Chili Powder (homemade or Gebhardt's)
1/4 cup Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Garlic Powder
2 Tablespoons Onion Powder
1  Tablespoon Ground Cayenne

Mix it all together REAL good. You can put this in a  good jar, closed tight and keep it in the refrigerator...but it will  lose taste a tad as time goes by.  Of course you can add to or take from the spices as your taste tells ya.  I also like to take a few cummin seeds and drop them into a dry pan  and toast them  till they start jumping around real good, then grind them up and chunk them in with the rest...but you may not like the taste.   There ya go Bucko..ya got it .  This stuff will work good on  most anything  ya want to smoke, or cook on the grill.  Enjoy!

Al

[Uncle Russ]

Snake, the "Dry-Rub" Al gave you is EXCELLENT!

I have been using the same, or very similar, dry-rub recipe for many years.
Other than Fish and Jerky I don't use any thing on my smoked meats other than the dry rub.

I smoke a lot, so let me elaborate a bit, if ya don't mind.............

If I am smoking Salmon, Jerky, or Trout I use a pre-soak brine, but for Ham, Turkey, and Chicken I depend on the wood to do its magic, after I have applied the "Rub".

Sweet Woods (from about any fruit tree, plus Pecan) is preferred by a lot of folks, but I stick mostly to Mesquite, Hickory, and Alder.
Remember, Mesquite produces twice as much heat as Hickory.
Hickory produces twice as much heat as Alder.
Alder is the preferred wood for long, slow, smoke when used as a flavor enhancer.

Jim (Beaverman) has a really neat way of cooking / smoking Salmon on a board over a Dutch Oven...finger lickin good, it is!


There are, in all likely hood, as many recipes for smoking as there are folks that's doing the smoking.....it's just that kinda thing, if you know what I mean.
Different folks, from different parts of the country, all with different backgrounds, tends to lend a certain "mystique" to smoking meats, and that is as it should be.

There are really only two types of "smoking".....
The first is Cold Smoking, which is nothing more than a flavor enhancer. This is usually done at temperatures less than 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the smoke environment.

The other is Hot Smoking, which actually cooks the meat while adding flavor. This is normally done at temperatures of 165-185 degrees Fahrenheit....the heat source will be much higher, but the smoke environment should be somewhere in this range.

Cold Smoked meats should always be properly cooked after smoking because the cold smoke method also promotes the growth of undesirable bacteria....that same bacteria that causes botulism.

Your smoking device will, in all likelihood, dictate the means you use to smoke meats. I have found out over the years that the KISS method has merit when it comes to smoking meat.

Sorry for ramblin like an old fool, but like I said, I have three smokers, and I smoke a lot of meat.
Not only for myself, but for the neighbors too. Several of them seem to have a particular fondness for smoked Turkey done with Alder in a Propane Smoker...It usually costs me several bucks to keep the propane tank filled, but they certainly do like their Turkey in this neck of the woods, and not having a lot to do, I enjoy smoking the Turkey and whatever else for them.

Uncle Russ...

[vermontfreedom]

Been meaning to make a smokehouse for about 2 years. Will get to it eventually.

Folks I know that do a lot have offered some advice:

(1) use fruit woods (apple, peach, pear, etc. etc.) or hickory. BUt, honestly, nearly any wood will do (but watch out for softwood).

(2) use green (wet) wood for more smoke and less heat. Dry wood will burn hotter and produce less smoke.

(3) smoke for longer times at lower temps, so 12-24+ hours at 200 degrees or less instead of a few hours at 300+ degrees. This make require your fire to be 10 or more feet from your meat. For example, build an outhouse-sized smoke house on a small foundation with a steel smoke pipe running to it from your fire pit 10-12 feet away just slightly downhill.

(4) Some Amish I know do an absolutely excellent venison smoke. They take an entire ham steak, put some twine through it, dip it in a light brine briefly and then smoke slow and cool for 12-24 hours (closer to 24 if over 2-5 pounds, around 12 for under 2 pounds).

But another guy I know with the same outhouse-type set up will smoke whole chickens in 3-5 hours.

My advice: use these guidelines very generally and experiment! When things 'go wrong' you still get to eat the results!

[Longhunter]

Russ, that salmon on a board is how we do carp around here. When it's done we throw away the carp and eat the board... :lol:

In 1977 a friend and I went to the Friendship Nationals. We camped in a lean-to on the primitive side. We had brought a bunch of venison and when we realized it might spoil before we ate it all we decided to  made jerky. We made a rack of sticks over the fire and dried/smoked the meat strips with just a little salt. As I remember it was mighty good. As good or better than the goat that was roasted over a fire at another camp nearby..........Ah yes,....them was shinin times...

[Uncle Russ]

Russ, that salmon on a board is how we do carp around here. When it's done we throw away the carp and eat the board... :lol:

Same way we do Possum here in the Pacific Northwest. I've been told it works good on several types of Road-Kill too....depending of course on the "type" of wood being used.

Uncle Russ...

[BEAVERMAN]

Doing the salmon that way is actually planking it on cedar and is more of a grilling technique although it does get smoke flavor from the alder wood used for the fire, I do add green alder leaves to the fire through the process for more flavor, one of favorite things to smoke out camping or at a voo is a turkey in a tipi, you make a tri pod from conduit about 6 foot tall, green limbs lashed together will work also, I use form (rebar) wire to do the lashing, hang a swing set chain from the top of the lashing, slide the chain through the bird and adjust height by sliding a round steel bar or stick through the chain link, the bird rests on the stick, if using the conduit I have 3 cylinders made from 1/4" hardware cloth (chicken wire)  about 3 inches in diameter and 10" tall, tie them to the legs of the conduit with wire, now start some charcoal and fill the cylinders, wrap the entire thing with heavy foil, you now have made an oven, cut a small access door above each cylinder, if at a primitive voo you can use some cut leaved tree boughs to camo the tipi so the foil doesn't show, thats what we did at the pacifics a couple years ago. once everything is set up just let it cook, every 45 mins tap the legs of the tipi by the cylinders, this makes the ash from the burning coals fall to the bottom then open your access door and drop unlit coals on to the lit coals in the cylinder, after 2 hours I start some more coals and make a bed os about 10 to 12 in the center of the tipi and add a Marie calenders pie pan full of apple and alder chips to it along side another coal bed with a pan with apple juice, smaoke the bird for the next four hours using the wet technique, I use a quart of juice over that time period and 2 pans of chips, cooking time depends on the size of the bird, we did our last one a couple years ago on the opening day of ML deer season here,(Thanksgiving day) smoked a 24 lb bird, took 7 hours, and we fed 22 people on it wit all the trimmings brought out to camp that day by the wives of those in camp,pretty tasty! cook time also will depend on weather conditions, cold a windy will add alot more time, about 10 years ago Ladysmith and I went to a Scout camp in Canada and taut this technique to a  a bunch of leaders there, we helped the cook for the weekend with sat eve supper and smoked 6 -22 pounders, took 10 hours in March was a cool winy day and we had to wrap the big tipi I made with moving blankets, you can smoke anything this way, just have to figure out how to hand it from the tri pod, if you want potatoes with your bird, run some tripped and clean framing nails through the chain and stick a tater to it and smoke them along with the bird, when there done they'll fall off the nail and drop to the ground and stay warm , good eats!

[BEAVERMAN]

John, there is a forum out there all about smoking meats, can't remember the name, I used to have a link to it, send melsdad a pm I think I got it from him!

[ridjrunr]

Well I shure do love smoked meats,but have only been learnin it for not quite a year now. I have used mesqite and pecan.I have a pecan tree in the back yard and 2 pear trees.Did a ham with pecan for Easter,delicious !! That rub looks great, gonna have to try it out.
Great thread!

[jbullard1]

Not trying to start a fuss but in Mississippi Pecan is Hickory and vice versa, very hard very tough and a lovely wood to smoke with it, is not good for a cooking fire because it doesnt make coals like white oak. I will suggest you try White Oak with a nice rub and see how you like it just do it low and slow

[Roaddog]

I smoke a lot of just about anything. We have a lot of Maple around here so I go 1/2 apple 1/2 Mayple hot smoke or cold smoke. I'll be giving Alder a try. Corncobs make a very nice smoke too. You must soak them in water first. as been said keeping the heat down is the key. Fish do like a little hotter heat but not for as long of time. An other thing with hot smoke put up a drip shield so the drippins don't flair up your fire from the grease of the meat.

[Three Hawks]

The mistake lots of beginners make is using a smoke that is too heavy for too long.  Cut back on the amount of wood in the smoker, or cut back on the time and temp.  Creosote does not taste good.  If you haven't smoked your stuff long enough, you can always put it back for another hour or two or six, but if you've over smoked it, it's ruined, not even good for fertilizer.

Three Hawks

[jbullard1]

3 hawks you have made a point
I recently paid cash money to a deer processor to make me summer sausage and link sausage  the stuff is overpowering with SMOKE and his answer was "its just your luck how I smoke it" So He has my word of mouth advertisement to deal with now
Never will I use him again

[Gordon H.Kemp]

I know this is a little off topic but might be of help for those looking for a cheap and effective smoker that will do a considerable amount of meat at one time. You
ll need a mefal 55 gal. drum with both ends removed make sure the former contents wernt toxic!  With a cold chisel and hammer remove both ends , Punc/drill two holes across from each other and about 4 to 6" below the top rim. Build a good wood fire and scorch the paint and or coating off both inside and out . Scrub The carbon and scale off with a wire brush . You'll need short boards enough to cover the top of the barrel when it's set in place.
         You'll also need a short length of black iron pipe to make a hanger that goes across the two holes .  It can be done with a wood tube but it's much easier to buy blued stove pipe  , about 10 foot will do it  It can be set up on level ground but a slight slope works too.
       Dig a neat hole about 4 foot deep and 3by 3 foot. From this hole dig  a trench at a very slight angle jus a little deeper than the dia. of the stove pipe6 or 8" will wok fine . Make sure to burn the oil off the pipe before starting the smoking process.
         Fill the trench around the pipe wifh sand this helps seal and insulates it . now dig the barrel don a few inches to seal and stabliiiiiize it  You'll also need a cover for the 3by 3 foot fire hole.
          At this point your ready to crank up the smoker for a test run oh yeah you;ll need to make a few heavy wire hangers for the meat to hang off the cross pipe .Build a fire in the hole and let it burn down to a bed of copals add your green smoke wood or chips cover the fire hole and use th boards covering the barrel/smoke hose to regulate the draft and amount of heat.
         Once you do a couple of small hunks of meat you'll get the knack of reguating the smoke/fire. Remember You don't want to have anything but a cool smoke. If the meat is sizzleing it's way too hot. I used this set-up for over 10 years with the same barrel and have done many pounds of meat both wild and domestic. Hope someone can use this idea !