A good
smoke does take some planning. You need to buy quality meats and vegetables.
You need to get the right spices and sauces for the results that you want. The
wood that you use needs to the right wood for the results that you are wanting.
Below
are pictures of Gambles Oak. I simply cut 1½ inch thick bocks from a piece of
log that was split for the wood heating stoves.
I then split them into chips. I bagged them for future smokes also.
Make
sure your smoker is level. I use an App on my cell phone. Preheating your
smoker takes at least a half hour. If it is windy or very cold you will want to
shelter your smoker. Remember the grease tray in the back. You may want to
protect the surface under the smoker.
Now let’s
go into the kitchen. The menu today for our first smoke is 2 Fillets of Salmon
lightly salted to taste with skin on. Leave salmon on the counter to pellicle
for 2 hours. 6 Chicken Thighs and 4 COSTCO Pork Spare Ribs. The picture below
was before I salted the salmon and smothered Stubbs Original BBQ Sauce on
everything else. Remember to do both sides.
I
started the preheat at 225*F ½ hour before the meat was put in. I started the
chicken and ribs 5 hours before dinner time (pic below at 12:00 noon). The vent
is closed and 2 cups of water are in the pan.
I used
Gamble Oak chip at start and at every hour.
The
salmon was put in the smoker after 2 hours (2:00pm). Everything was pulled at
5:00pm.
Salmon
on platter (picture). The smoker rack was flipped over on a cookie sheet and the skin lifted off. It was then flipped back over onto the platter. It is
moist and tender. The oak has a nutty flavored smoke.
As you
can see the BBQ sauce on the ribs keeps the moisture in. Also you can see how
the meat has shrunken back on the bones and 2 wires narrower on the rack (below).
The chicken
thighs shrink about to 2/3rds of the original size.
Now for a second back-to-back smoking.
The
menu is 4 small Elk Steaks, 4 Chicken Thighs and 3 more Pork Ribs. I pulled the
first smoke at 5:00pm and started the second at 5:05pm. Of course, I added oak
chips every hour and the temp at 225*F.
At one
hour I pulled the small elk steaks (6:05pm)
I had a
trouble call power outage at 9:00pm. Everything else was pulled at 10:30pm by
my wife, 5 hour 25 minutes. It was a little overdone and drier than I like. I also forgot to add
water to the pan. I think it was a combination of water and 25 minutes too long
of smoking. I have pulled rib at 4 hour 45 minutes with great results also.
