My new smoker arrived a week early, which I had no issue with, but now I'm faced with learning how to use it... The instruction booklet describes the "method," but contains no actual recipes, so if you have any insight to share, I'd love to hear from you!
After much debate, I opted for a propane fueled smoker, found one at what I thought was a reasonable price and ordered it for delivery... It arrived, I managed to drag it into the house using my "folding" dolly, and tore open the box. Spreading the pieces all around the dining room, I left it all sit for a number of days, as I had other chores to deal with at the time. It is now fully assembled, and waiting to be carried out to the back patio. Now that it's here, I'm eagerly awaiting using for the first time, but be the frugal man my dad taught me to be, I must learn more about using it...
I have a ham in the freezer I'm dying to smoke, but feel that when I'm well enough educated, I can cook an entire meal along with it, rather than wasting gas for just the ham... I've got the propane, wood chips, etc. but not yet sure what else I can place in the "space" to cook a meal...
I've found a website smokegrillbbq.com and hope to learn plenty about smoking foods there, but I'm sure there are plenty of other sites that I will find in time.
So, this is the most recent adventure of a "crazycook" continuing my journey into the culinary world! Any and all advice or comments will be appreciated!
Be well, Steve
hello Stevie, hope all is well with you, we are never on line at the same time,sorry i don't know anything about smokers just wanted to say hi
ReplyDeletewe're both ok, issues, but ok! Hope that you're well, and "hi" back!
DeleteHey Steve. Am going to share your FB post with a friend of mine. Seems that I remember he does a lot of smoking.
ReplyDeleteSteve, check FB. Mark gave you some info, too.
DeleteThanks, Sheila! I'll check later this evening.
DeleteYou can smoke anything you'd like in that thing. This weekend, I'll be smoking off a 16-pound turkey for Smoked Turkey Fajitas for an RV park potluck. You can get raw almonds and soak in a salt water brine for a few hours and smoke those. You can smoke your own sea salt. I smoke peppercorns.
ReplyDeleteI use a charcoal smoker, though...but propane is easy enough. Experiment with different woods and you'll get different flavors. Grab a nice chunk of pork belly and make your own bacon. Prime rib is also another one of our favorite things to prepare on the smoker.
When we are smoking off meat, I like to throw a pepper or two or three or four or...you get the idea...on there, as well. Smoked peppers are amazing. I slice them up and freeze them and when I want a bit of smoke flavor, I grab out the freezer bag, break off a chunk and throw it in.
Buying turkey wings in bulk and smoking them is an amazing way of making bean soup in the crock pot more healthy.
The sky is the limit. There is no right or wrong way...you just have to get different types of wood (I'm partial to apple, cherry and alder) and different types of things. Also, there's a difference between cold smoking and actually cooking something to obtain a smoke flavor. I can get into all that with you on Facebook sometime if you'd like.
People think that they need to spend a lot of bucks on a fancy smoker, but, in reality, I have smoked off an amazing prime rib on a $10 charcoal BBQ that I bought at Walmart.
I can't wait to hear about your smoking journey, buckle up because you're in for a very fun ride!
I'm sure I am in for a "fun ride," Laurrie! Can't wait to fire the thing up and start playing... Been hot as hell here of late, but cooling down a bit, so I may be off to the races this weekend or such!
DeleteOh goody, I found it!!!
ReplyDeleteWe've had an electric smoker for awhile now. We've done turkey, Canadian Bacon, pork chops, beef rump, hamburger salami and pepperoni, and mac and cheese,, lots of other things. Laurrie, great post.
Laurie, thought I'd recalled (correctly, for a change,) that you folk in the boonies were doing some smoking! Stay tuned for more adventures! Be well!
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