Smoking Meat.

[HillBill]

I fancy having a go at smoking some meat. I'm not 100% on how to go about it though.

I have seen the Ray Mears one where he makes Jerky with an American Indian outside with the meat on a rack on a tripod and a cover of some kind over it. Would this work or is it only good for jerky?

Also what are the best woods to use for the smoke itself? I have plenty of Birch Ash and Willow.

All advice apprieciated.

Thanks
Mark

 

[stuart f]

Hi HillBill, are you thinking about smoking outdoors or smoking meat in general?
if outdoors you could use the tripod method that you speak of,but you would have to decide whether you want to hot smoke the meat or cold smoke. To cold smoke it you would have a fire away from the meat and direct the cold smoke up onto the meat and smoke it for however long you want,then cook the meat by another means. To hot smoke it you would have a hot smokey fire directly under the meat so that it cooked and smoked at the same time.

If you want to try hot smoking at home then just get a wok,line it with tinfoil,then add some tea leaves(if you have no loose tea just rip open a dozen tea bags)add a handful of uncooked rice,and a handful of brown sugar,then stick a wire rack in the wok with the mixture underneath,next place your chicken/meat on the rack,now place a lid on top of the wok to seal in the smoke,next place the wok on your cooker over a medium heat,and smoke/cook the meats until cooked through.

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers Stuart.

 

[cattyman]

only use hardwoods for smoking too much tar in softer woods. oak is excellent....mack

 

[sparkplug]

IIRC Ray Mears' rig for jerky used the fire to create a flow of warm air rather than to smoke the meat. I'm sure that some of the smoke flavour would find it's way in, but it wouldn't be properly smoked.

Smoking is really easy and very safe as long as you follow a couple of basic rules (especially with cold smoking). I've been doing it for a number of years now and can throughly recommend it.

You have two basic types: Hot and cold smoking.
Hot smoking cooks the meat at the same time as it smokes. This is suitable for fish, meat and poultry.
Cold smoking does not cook the food and is suitable for cheese, bacon, ham and some kinds of fish. If you are going to consider cold smoking 'raw' meat you need to do a little more reading as you are creating an environment where some nasty bacteria can breed.

There's lots of designs for smokers, many of them are easy to make at home for not too much money ('trash can' example - slightly bizzare example - a youtube link to a bloke who likes showing his body off, but makes a cheap and simple design smoker)

For recipe ideas I can suggest having a look here (don't worry that they all talk about one model of smoker, the recipies are the same for whatever you use. Times will vary, but you get the hang of it quickly)

There's also some good recipes on the River Cottage forum

To answer your question about wood - I'd steer clear of the ones you mention. My rule of thumb is that any fruit wood is good (apple and cherry are favourites), Alder is also good. Stonger wood such as oak, mesquite etc are OK, but you need to be smoking something that can stand the flavour. Oak smoked fish for example is something I would never do as you just won't taste the fish for the smoke. Particularly avoid anything like pine as the smoke imparts a strong and really nasty resiny taste.

Be prepared for your first attempt to be somewhere between pretty good and a total disaster! The second attempt is usually pretty close to perfect and it's plain sailing from there on in.

Feel free to ask any specific questions you think I might be able to help with

HTH!

 

[HillBill]

Thanks guys. Never knew about the hot/cold smoking, but i will be trying both.

Going to be cooking outside (at home) lots this summer. Its good to have a few options to try.

I know where there are some apple trees so i'll use that.

Do the wood chips need to be dried first or are they better fresh?

 

[tommy the cat]

Or fruits of course apple, cherry, hickory oak is lovely.
D

 

[sparkplug]

Do the wood chips need to be dried first or are they better fresh?

If you are cold smoking, you'll probably want to use sawdust and to get that you really want dried wood.

For hot smoking you can use either. What I normally do is take some green wood and saw, chop, mutilate it into small pieces while it is easy to work. I do this in reasonably large quantities so one session will last for a year or so.

My hot smoker is one of the commercially bought Brinkmann style ones - so it has a bowl at the base where hot charcoal briquettes are, a bowl on a rack above that which you fill with water and the whole lot is housed in a sort of domed bin with a door on the front...

... hang on where's a picture to show you what I mean? ..google google.. Ah! yes - here you go:

So what I do is soak my wood chips in water for a couple of hours (or even overnight) This moisture is what makes the wood smoke rather than just burn. Then I light my charcoal and wait for it to be at the 'glowing' stage. Chuck a small handfull of chips on the coals, shut the door and have a beer. You'll need to add some more chips when the smoke has died down. That's usually 20 - 30 mins on mine.

If, like me, you have easy access to large quantities of bay leaves or rosemary, you can take a branch straight off the plant, a quick dip in a bucket of water and chuck that on too - you get some great flavour off these, but go easy as it's easy to overdo!

I'm sure others do it differently - but that's the method that works for me!

 

[HillBill]

Sounds good, thanks for the info.

I happen to have access to both rosemary and bay. We grow herbs and vegetables so no probs there. I like the sound of the rosemary added to the smoker. Mmmmm.

Thanks again guys, you have been most helpful.

 

[clcuckow]

I am making a cold smoke generator at the moment. I will post some photos when I have finished it but I 'warm/hot' smoked some home made pancetta the other week with some alder chips in a incinerator bin with a veg steamer fire bowl.

 

[Bongo Matt]

Can green Oak leaves be used for smoking?

 

[PRKL]

Its not hard to build your own smoking-tipi if you have permit from landowner or ibto your own backyard.Some may think that it has to be big but no,even really small ones wil do,ive built smoking tipis from moss and stick,that were under one meter tall,to smoke fish etc,just be careful with the heat,that it wont rise to hot.

This one´s bigger though,and permanent and we use it to smoke just about anything nature offers and you can also sleep in it.

 

[Adze]

Will you be smoking meat for preservation or just for the flavour?

If it's just for flavour, then the only limiting factor is your personal taste - some people like it very smokey, others not so, some like it well brined, others barely salted at all or unsalted, your mileage will vary - go with whatever you like.

If it's for preservation then there's some rules you need to follow regarding brining/dry curing and how long the meat is smoked for (read as how much moisture is lost from the meat) to preserve it properly. Quite a few people can't stomach meat which has been properly preserved by cold smoking - beef or venison are good examples as larger pieces can take up to a week in brine and a further week of smoking before they're properly preserved - this means the flavour is strong and salty to say the least!

I highly recommend Keith Erlandson's book "Home Smoking and Curing"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0091927609/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

Everything you need from hot smoking in an old biscuit tin, to building a brick outhouse smoker.

Hope that helps,

 

[R3XXY]

So how does smoking or slow cooking the meat help to preserve it, what does it do to it ?

 

[Adze]

Cold smoking:
Brining the meat first does the bulk of the preservation by killing the greeblies, smoking it removes a significant proportion of the water added during the brining process, imparts an extra flavour and has a mild 'antiseptic' effect in it's own right. Properly done there will be a salt and smoke residue crust or rind which forms a barrier to infection. The presence of a reasonably high salt content as well as a low moisture content is what prevents bacterial infection, it's not completely bacteria proof, but with that said, very little is.

Hot smoking:
Is a cooking process, it doesn't have to be slow either, mackeral will hot smoke in 20 minutes in a biscuit tin over a BBQ. Stuff which is hot smoked is only preserved for the same amount of time as other cooking methods preserve things for.

There might be other reasons, but that's as I understand it.

Cheers,

 

[bikebum1975]

Never smoked meats before but have alwasy wanted to try it myself but I do know this willow is one of the worst woods to try burning way to wet no matter how long you try drying it.

 

[phill_ue]

I tried smoking a trout once, but I couldn't get the tail to light. Stick to Benson and Hedges!

 

[Pcwizme]

Right, If Cold smoking fish such as trout, salmon and the such the most important thing is the moistness in the fish its self, if it is wet or damp the smoke wont take,

so first things first, wash the fish and (if you decide to) fillet it, then lay flesh side down on a layer of kitchen salt then cover the skin side. This draws the moisture, leave covered for an hour or 2. Scrap salt off and then rinse the fish, and dry on a clean tea towel before putting it in your Smoker.

This is for Cold Smoking only!

I have a Custom Built smoker that runs from my small helium bottle stove (all self made) and trout with Oak was lovely, apple smoked salmon is also very nice, just have to get more chips. Other thing to point out is use natural materials to start your fire ie no firelighters or wax candle things other wise you get nasty chemicals on your lovely fish.

If i get a chance ill set it up this weekend (If the weather is nice) another thing to note is smoking is more effective if the weather is dry, as the smoke clings to the moisture (much like having wet fish) and not to the fish its self.


I think thats all i have to say at the moment,