I smoke over an open fire and it is constant work to keep the fire going just enough for a slow cook. I suspect you may have too much heat.
I love to slow cook whole chickens this way, and when the mackerel are running I smoke some of my catch. Mackerel season should start picking up soon so I’ll add pics of the catch and process as soon as I can.
Also: how often do you change the wood chips?
I’m not sure how it works with pellet smokers since we use our grill for smoking (we smoke with it more than we grill), but we change the wood chips every 20-30min (remove the charred ones, replace with fresh ones that were soaking in water).
mmm…we smoked 4 full racks of back ribs last weekend.
I think the last ribs of the season will be for Thanksgiving in a few weeks
I haven’t used a smoker in years but I grew up in a fishing town so throughout much of my upbringing we had rows of electric smokers running at the end of the salmon season. We’d usually smoke a bit of venison in the fall too. Limited experience with other meats (for electric smokers anyway).
Just use good wood that compliments the meat. I find alder works well. Also, we would always make chips from the wood, don’t know if that’s standard practice everywhere?
The key to smoking, probably more than anything, is low heat. Really low.
Went analog and black because it’s the new thing!!
As long as the thermostat is correct on the unit temp has been between 200-225. I think I need to rotate the chips more.
Made a pork tenderloin that came out awesome but my chicken quarters though good, tasted burnt.
Think your right, I need to rotate chips more. Left them in the whole time I cooked my chicken, not much left and charred to a crisp. Smoker even smells burnt.
Another professional chef here, but I packed it in years ago and now happily maintain production equipment for a multinational company.
The long hours cooking and obligatory hectic social life do eventually take a toll!
Still enjoy cooking at home though.
Breakfast was pancakes with sugar and lemon for our 4 year old.
Slow cooked a (small) rib of beef today for 10 hours, for dinner. Awesome.
Today I cooked myself duck breast in green pepper sauce (French recipe) with wok-fried potato wedges and runner beans. Bloody delicious!
After cutting the potato wedges, I rinse them then put in a bowl of lightly salted cold water for about 20 mins, rinse again and dry thoroughly before frying in a wok.
Now to the main bit.
Is that a Napolean grill behind it?
Looks like ours, except we have the extra grill to the left.
One good tip I have is to let whatever it is you are going to smoke air dry in your fridge, uncovered, for about 24 hours, preferably on a wire rack so air can flow underneath it as well. What you want is when the surface is no longer wet at all and kind of tacky. This is called a pellicle, and it greatly helps smoke flavored “stick” to the meat, requiring less actual smoking.
No, another cheap Char-Broil 6 burner but napoleon Has been on the radar. I used to grill for kids, baseball teams, families, parties. That grill owes us nothing for the amount of food we’ve cooked. Now that kids are 18 and never around we mostly cook for two. I want a small 2/3 burner, will be looking at Weber/napoleon next season.
I’m no chef but I’ve got a few recipes I have pretty dialed in like beef stroganoff, classic shortribs, bulgogi, gyudon, Salisbury steak, and beef stew. Pretty much lots of improvised braised meats or curryish type things.
Tonight’s supper is sticky garlic porkchops and coleslaw topped with homemade feta on top for the side. My sister made the cheese and gifted some to me.
I had to try these
Tell us more!
Absolutely delicious. Made with buckwheat flour and filled with cheese, mushrooms, spinach and some baby courgette from the garden. These will be a regular at the weekend for sure.
My usual Saturday treat: Harissa ratatouille and parmesan-topped scrambled eggs.
Echoing others regarding the Jaques Pepin scrambled eggs / omelette video up-thread. It finally cleared up everything I was doing wrong. Plus, I totally dig the way he says “butter.”
Bon app’!
This looks so damn good
