So my husband surprised me last night with an electric smoker. I’d tried to play with an older charcoal model before, with dubious results, and this one seems somewhat more idiot-proof. So yay, on to the actual food!
What do you like to smoke? My father-in-law supplemented the gift with a nice bag of frozen trout fillets, so they’re on the list. I’d like to try brisket and turkey and pulled pork and ribs… well, it’s a long list.
I’ve also got casings and sausage makings for jerky sticks, and a freezer full of venison and elk, and possibly some bear in there somewhere, to experiment with.
The only time I ever smoked meat in a electric smoker was pork shoulder, to make South Carolina pulled pork, a style I love, which is more or less impossible to find up North. (Pulled pork is almost always red and sweet.)
I don’t really have a helpful recipe for you: I smoked the shoulder until it was cooked enough to fall apart in your fingers – 6 or 8 hours at least – and then mixed it with a sauce along the lines of this recipe to taste. (Actually, I used a bottle of Maurice’s).
First thing: What brand is it? Many of the electric models on the market are inadequately vented. Before they can be used, you need to drill a few holes in the top. If you don’t do this, a couple bad things happen. First, soot and condensed steam accumulate on inside of the lid, resulting in sooty water dripping down on the meat and giving it a nasty flavor. Secondly, the smoke doesn’t rise up and around the meat the way you want it to because there’s no updraft.
I like to soak chicken thighs overnight in a brine made from brown sugar and sea salt, then smoke them over hickory.
Fish, like your trout, is often salt cured then rinsed before smoking.
Many electric smokers don’t get hot enough to do things like briskets or large cuts of pork. Don’t be afraid to smoke such cuts for a few hours in the smoker and then finish the cooking in a conventional oven; it gives perfectly delicious results.
I don’t have an exhaustive knowledge of models, alas. It’s easy enough to look at a smoker and see if there are holes in the top though. If there is no obvious way for the smoke to escape through the top, the thing isn’t vented right. Happily, this is easily correctable in a few seconds with the use of an electric drill.
There’s a hole in the top like the vents on a Weber grill - you know, the kind you can adjust. I hope that will work, as it’s insulated and drilling through the top would ruin that.
I founds it online; it’s this one, from Bass Pro Shops.
We haven’t had any problem with our Brinkmann. There’s about a half-inch gap between the lid and the body so smoke escapes around the top.
I smoked a ham for Thanksgiving. I’ve also done salmon, pork roasts, and ribs. Salmon fillets were the first thing I smoked, using a marinade recipe (equal parts soy sauce, lemon juice, and white wine IIRC) that came with the smoker. As for wood, we have arbutus (great for fish), cherry, apple, mesquite, and hickory.
Thanks for the site, Lute Skywatcher. I browsed through it and got some ideas. Ultimately, I went with the marinade recipe included with the smoker. I just finished my trout, and it’s really good. I’ll cut down on the salt next time, but I remain excited about using it.
I have recently mastered the art of smoking a turkey. for T-Giving dinner this year I fried a bird and smoked one. The overwhelming consensus was that the smoked bird was far better.
I soak them overnight in a brine and then smoke with hickory for about 9 hours at 200-225. Wrap it in foil and then a towel and drop it in an old cooler. I’ll let it sit over night in that cooler and in the morning it is still too hot to touch without oven mits.
Yeah, I don’t get why smoker manufacturers do this. I had one of those cheap $50 Brinkmans (charcoal, though), and the damn food always tasted like bitter smoke & creosote. When I got my Weber Smokey Mountain, I discovered it’s because there’s no good place for the soot and creosote to go–like you said, it accumulates at the top, drips down to your food, and just generally suffocates your food with smoke. Drill a few holes, though, and you’re golden. You need adequate ventilation to smoke properly.
Get yourself a couple of pork butts.
cover them with a good quality rub.
Put them in the smoker with a drip pan underneath.
Get a remote reading thermometer and stick it in the center of the meat, not touching a bone.
Set the thermostat on the unit for 225 degrees and use apple wood for smoke.
When the meat gets to 200 degrees, it is done. This will take anywhere from 12-24 hours.
Pull the meat off and let it cool for a few minutes, and shred it using a couple of forks. Add some extra rub and salt at this time if you wish.
Serve on cheap white bread hamburger buns with a vinegar based BBQ sauce.
coleslaw on the side.
You will then know that there is a God, and the pig is proof that he loves us.