Just bought a cheap smoker and am going to try it out for the first time tomorrow morning by smoking some cod. I'll brine it tonight. Can't wait to see how it turns out
I bought a cheap one to cut my teeth on, and if I get good enough, I'd like to upgrade to a nicer one.
<bump> I've got the day off so I decided today would be a great day to try cooking a brisket in my Charbroil Big Easy Electric Smoker. Brisket is always tricky and requires hours and hours of TLC. I'm hoping the Big Easy will make it... well easier if not easy. As insurance I'm doing a Portabello and Pepper pork loin also. We'll see how it all turns out.
I've had trouble with brisket using my charcoal smoker. The last two times, I've had to finish it off in the oven. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
It is turning out to be problematic on my electric smoker too. The low heat and long cooking time means my smoke chips keep going out.
BTW, finishing off a piece of meat in the oven isn't cheating. It is all about getting the smoke flavor into the meat.
Do you soak your chips or wrap them in aluminum foil? I usually soak mine, but I still end up going through a ton of them during the smoking. I found that using the bigger chunks of wood can help prevent it from burning too quickly.
I always soak them when I'm cooking with fire and then wrap in foil. And like you, I go through a ton of them. I do chunks too, when I know everything is offset. Today is turning out to be a real disaster. The wife plugged the vacum into the same circuit as my smoker, blew a fuse and didn't bother to tell me about it. She simply threw the switch and went on cleaning. I went about 2 hours without any heat without knowing about it.
Remarkably, my brisket turned out pretty good. I didn't get smoke ring I'd hoped for, but I finished it off in the oven and doused it in the meat's natural juices and it was very tender. Not my best work, but still edible.
Yeah, I find the smoke is tricky on these electric smokers (even when the wife doesn't shut of the power). The next time I attempt brisket I'm going back to the old charcoal grill. I did cook two turkey breasts for thanksgiving and they turned out so good my wife made me promise to cook four on Christmas day when she has 25 people coming over.
So for Christmas Day the wife had 18 people over and I used the electric smoker took cook 4 turkey breasts. These were turned out to the most magnificent breasts I've seen since Marianne Gravatte's back in 1983. And there were 4 of them! It was like Playboy meets Total Recall, only with an extra moist and juicy breast I could enjoy all by myself the next day.
Nice! What was your method? I've never smoked turkey. I did deep fry one this year for the first time.
I didn't really do anything special. Once upon a time I smoked whole turkeys, but found it hard to get everything right, the dark meat seems to take longer so it is hard not to dry out the breast meat, and my wife never trusted me to not to screw it all up so she'd make me do it all the day before and then reheat the meat, which to me is like serving turkey left overs. I've also tried brining the whole birds, which keeps the meat moist, but you don't get that beautiful crunchy skin you get if you don't brine or if you deep fry 'em. Here is what I did: 1. Rubbed the breasts with Badia Complete Seasoning 2. Smoked for about 3 hours in the electric smoker at about 350 degrees 3. Pulled the meat out @ 170 degrees and let sit for about 20 minutes. 4. Sliced and served. How did the deep fried turkey turn out, I want to try it but I'm afraid I'll burn the shack down (which would really make the wife mad).
Sounds good. I'll have to give it a try. My charcoal smoker would not be able to get to 350, though. The deep fried turkey was very tasty. I brined it overnight in just salt, sugar, and ice. For frying, I used peanut oil. The weird thing is that I was having trouble getting the heat up to 350 degrees, as suggested. I let the oil get to about 200 degrees and then lowered the turkey in. The heat slowly climbed to 250, but never got any higher. It was a windy day, so I think next time I'll need to build something to block all of the wind and see if that helps. I took out the meat when the internal temperature was around 160 degrees and let it rest for about 20 minutes. The skin was not as crispy as I wanted it, so I threw it on a cookie sheet and put it under the broiler for another couple minutes. It was a big hit. Next time I want to try injecting it with Tony Chachere's Roasted Garlic and Herb injection.
You can't go wrong with Tony Chachere's injection kits, but it is easy to make your own. Here is a favorite for a Ragin' Cajun Injection mix: Ingredients: 1 cup lemon juice 1/2 cup liquid crab boil 1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 cup butter 2 tablespoons onion powder 2 tablespoons garlic powder 2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning 1 teaspoon Tabasco 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper Put it all in a sauce pan and melt the butter. You'll end up with a lot (approx. 3 cups) so you might want to cut it all down.
You'd probably be better off going lower and slower anyway, but I was pressed for time. My wife gave me a 1:00 kick off time and even at the higher temp the turkey wasn't ready until about 1:30.
It's too cold to cook outside and if it doesn't warm up soon I'm cooking The Best Stovetop Ribs: Arroz Con Costillas de Cerd (Mexican Rice with Ribs of Pig)
Having just moved to suburbia I will need to start following this thread. Got a grill a few weeks ago (gas) but need to pick up a smoker soon.