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Who here has a smoker? Recipes please.

buzglyd

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I think a pellet smoker is the way to go. When I fire up the Traeger the yard smells
So good.
 

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One of the biggest things to make sure of is that the smoker is able to maintain heat temps

If there’s a lot of fluctuations then you will have a fun time smoking

We bought all of ours from a sportsman type store. Cabelas / Bass Pro type

Two of my friends bought smokers after me
One bought a nice fairly expensive one and has no issues
The other a cheap Walmart type and doesn’t seem like it maintains even heat
 

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One of the biggest things to make sure of is that the smoker is able to maintain heat temps

If there’s a lot of fluctuations then you will have a fun time smoking

We bought all of ours from a sportsman type store. Cabelas / Bass Pro type

Two of my friends bought smokers after me
One bought a nice fairly expensive one and has no issues
The other a cheap Walmart type and doesn’t seem like it maintains even heat

Air leaking from the wrong places makes it difficult to maintain the desired temp. When you are looking at a smoker, check the seals around the door(s). There should be no gaps. And there should be no gaps anywhere really. If you can see light anywhere besides the air intake and the air exhaust, it will be hard to control the temp. The $80 smokers being sold cause more people to give up smoking than just about anything.
 

Passepartout

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I've had my Louisiana for nearly 20 years, and never had a burn out of even replaced an ignitor. Compared to Traeger, Traeger is made in China of 20 gauge steel, painted. Louisiana grills are made in that great Cajun city of Edmonton, Alberta of 18 gauge steel and powder coated. There is a world of difference in quality and longevity.
 

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Thanks! But I think six hours is a long time, and in fact I think that's the mistake we've been making. I think chicken is not "long and slow," like pork or brisket, but relatively hot (like 225 or 250) and fast (like two hours-ish? Three?). We hadn't thought of vinegar, but that seems like it could work!

I rode with my friend today, he clarified it was 6 hours at 205F. Trust me, it was moist and delicious. Enough so that it inspired me to buy a smoker.

Three total additions of wood chips over the 6 hours.

He uses mahogany that he collects himself.

The last period of time (I don’t remember, maybe a hour?) was at 225F because that’s when he put the sausages in.

I’m fuzzy on the details because: mojitos.
 

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Smoked Salmon

1 chilled Salmon filet, about 2 ½ to 3 pounds, cut in thirds

2 cups water

1/3 cup Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt

1/3 cup honey or packed light brown sugar

2 cups ice cubes


1. Heat the water and dissolve the salt and honey. Add ice cubes

2. Place salmon pieces in 7 by 11 pyrex dish or large bowl, skin side up. Cover with the brine. Refrigerate 6-8 hours, moving the salmon filets around every couple of hours to ensure full contact with the brine.

3. Remove the salmon pieces, rinse well and dry with paper towels. Cover salmon pieces with spices (see below) and (optional, but recommended) place on drying rack in the refrigerator overnight to form pellicle on surface of salmon meat.

4. Lightly drizzle a small amount of honey or maple syrup (the real stuff, not Log Cabin type) over salmon meat to taste. Don't make it too sweet, a little goes a long way. Smoke in Traeger smoker using alder pellets* for 2 hours on 225F setting and 1 hour at “Smoke” setting.


Spices:

Gourmet Chipotle Adovado – 4 Corners Spice Co.

or

Lemon pepper, lemon zest and lemons slices

*Traeger brand pellets are, I think, 70% alder wood. Great for salmon, but too much alder for everything else. I bought online "pure" Applewood pellets (for chicken), and hickory (for beef), and black cherry wood for pork ribs.
 

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Wenatchee Roaster Two-Day Herb Chicken

1 fresh chicken, 3-4 lbs.

1 lemon, zested and juiced, pith discarded

¼ cup olive oil

8 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons fresh whole basil

2 teaspoons fresh whole thyme

1 teaspoon Diamond Kosher Salt

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground pepper

1-2 large onions

1 roasting pan

DAY ONE:

Combine the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, basil, thyme, brown sugar, salt and pepper in a blender. Blend until the mixture is smooth. Brush the chicken generously, including the cavity. Put the reserved lemon zest in the cavity. Place the seasoned chicken in a food grade plastic bag, tie end and refrigerate overnight, turning once or twice to distribute marinade.


DAY TWO:

Coarse slice the onions and place in greased roasting pan. Remove the chicken from the bag, and place breast side up on bed of onions. Squeeze any remaining herb marinade out of the bag and brush over the chicken. Use Applewood pellets to smoke the chicken at 350 degreesF for 1.5-2 hours until the hip joint reaches 165F or more.

Make a pan sauce out of the drippings and a small amount of the roasted onions to taste. Freeze the remaining smoked onions to use as a flavoring agent in other dishes.


Wine recommendation:

Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay
 
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Big Matt

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Hi, Matt, I want to make smoked chicken. Do I have to butterfly the chicken? It's been tough and overcooked the couple of times we've done it.
You can't over cook it. Use a meat thermometer to make sure the thigh in the largest part is 170. Juices run clear. Mine takes between 2-2.5 hours depending on the size of the chicken.
 

buzglyd

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I've had my Louisiana for nearly 20 years, and never had a burn out of even replaced an ignitor. Compared to Traeger, Traeger is made in China of 20 gauge steel, painted. Louisiana grills are made in that great Cajun city of Edmonton, Alberta of 18 gauge steel and powder coated. There is a world of difference in quality and longevity.

I haven’t checked out the Louisiana. I’ve had my Traeger for ten years. I’ve had to replace the fire pot once because it rusted out. I live near the ocean so it’s not unusual. That cost $20. The powder coat is start to chip around the bottom but I’m surprised it’s lasted this long in the ocean air.
 

heathpack

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1. I ordered the Meathead cookbook
2. The smoker I ordered is a Masterbuilt digital Bluetooth electric smoker. It has 4 racks, a drip pan, and thermometer probe. It was on sale and came with a base on casters, a cover, some applewood chips and cooking accessories (heat proof gloves, rib racks, a vertical chicken roasting stand, and some sausage hangers). $350 with free shipping. Hopefully it will be of ok quality. It’s very similar to the smoker my friend has.
3. I was reading on line and the author of one article said that smoking preserves food. The recipe was talking about smoked duck lasting 3 weeks in the fridge. Is this accurate? My friend gave us some leftover smoked chicken. By now it’s 6 days old. Is it still good? Will it last 3 weeks?
 

CO skier

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I haven’t checked out the Louisiana. I’ve had my Traeger for ten years. I’ve had to replace the fire pot once because it rusted out. I live near the ocean so it’s not unusual. That cost $20. The powder coat is start to chip around the bottom but I’m surprised it’s lasted this long in the ocean air.
About 3 years ago, I went into my Costco for a $4.99 Rotisserie chicken and walked out with the chicken and a $350 Traeger smoker, cover and 3 bags of pellets.

One of the best purchases I have ever made.

I eat A LOT of smoked salmon and I have spent A LOT of money on some good smoked ribs. What I have saved by smoking my own has easily returned the price of the Traeger. The smoker is powder coated (not painted) and there is not a speck of rust anywhere after 3 years outdoor (covered with the smoker cover); will easily last 10 years, maybe 15-20.

I love, love, love my Traeger smoker/grill and experimenting with different flavor wood pellets.
 

CO skier

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1. I ordered the Meathead cookbook
2. The smoker I ordered is a Masterbuilt digital Bluetooth electric smoker. It has 4 racks, a drip pan, and thermometer probe. It was on sale and came with a base on casters, a cover, some applewood chips and cooking accessories (heat proof gloves, rib racks, a vertical chicken roasting stand, and some sausage hangers). $350 with free shipping. Hopefully it will be of ok quality. It’s very similar to the smoker my friend has.
3. I was reading on line and the author of one article said that smoking preserves food. The recipe was talking about smoked duck lasting 3 weeks in the fridge. Is this accurate? My friend gave us some leftover smoked chicken. By now it’s 6 days old. Is it still good? Will it last 3 weeks?
Smoking was one of the earliest methods for preserving meats. That was before freezers. Cooked or smoked meats, why leave it in the fridge more than 72 hours? Freeze it.

The smoked chicken is (probably) good for 10 days in the fridge. Smell it, and you should know. Taste a small bite and you WILL know. Do not wait 3 weeks to find out.
 

heathpack

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Smoking was one of the earliest methods for preserving meats. That was before freezers. Cooked or smoked meats, why leave it in the fridge more than 72 hours? Freeze it.

The smoked chicken is (probably) good for 10 days in the fridge. Smell it, and you should know. Taste a small bite and you WILL know. Do not wait 3 weeks to find out.

Here’s what I found from google: https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_pres.html

Answer is probably two weeks for poultry. (There’s some mitigating factors that might make ours last a shorter time period- fridge temps, packaging, how we’ve handled the leftovers, so I think we’re good for maybe a few more days at the most.)

Why didn’t I freeze it? We live in LA but at the time were in Tahoe, first on a timeshare exchange then at a hotel for a conference. We had a freezer in the timeshare unit but only a mini fridge in the hotel. Plus, we were on vacation without specific culinary plans. It turned out we mostly had post-mountain-biking lunches out each day, then a little snack for dinner. Smoked chicken, Swiss and mustard on toasted brioche rolls one night. Smoked chicken tacos with cheddar, cilantro, minced jalapeño and pickled red onions another night. Etc. Hence we find ourselves home in LA with some leftover refrigerated smoked chicken.

Oddly, on the way up to Tahoe we stopped at a smokehouse. They make great lunch sandwiches, which was our primary reason for stopping. But I picked up some killer bacon and also- you guessed it- a smoked vacuum sealed chicken breast. My thought was we’d have some great sandwiches in the timeshare. But we never even opened the chicken from the smokehouse. I guess I could freeze that, need to plan meals for the week tomorrow and figure it out from there.

I have some leftover peanut sauce and I’m thinking for dinner tomorrow something like smoked chicken over roasted sweet potato noodles with peanut sauce, cilantro and a few chopped peanuts. And a cold cucumber salad.

I also have some cabbage to use up so maybe Hungarian cabbage soup (which is mainly in my hands a vegetable soup vehicle for great paprika). I sometimes make this with smoked paprika but maybe I’ll use half sweet-half hot paprika and add smoked chicken instead. The soup freezes well, so if the smoked chicken still seems good tomorrow I could make up a batch of soup, use up the chicken and have some easy lunches banked for future use. You know, in case there’s a famine or something.
 

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I absolutely hate to waste food. And I take pride in wasting less than $200 worth (maybe much less, I do not track it) per year versus the $2,200 per family estimated by the National Defenses Resource Council.

But my inviolable rule is that "when in doubt, throw it out".

I do the best that I can to freeze food rather than chance any doubt.
 
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heathpack

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I’m thinking I might start off by smoking a duck. I love duck but it’s a PIA to deal with the fat. I’d typically steam a duck to render most of the fat (to avoid setting off the kitchen smoke detectors) and then cut it up and roast the pieces to finish cooking and crisp then skin, then paint it with a delicious homemade orange glaze. It’s really good but too much of a production for anything but the most special occasions.

Smoked duck however- throw it in the smoker, let the fat render of it own accord while the meat cooks. No worries about the smoke detectors, then throw the cooked duck briefly in a hot oven to get the skin crispy. Sounds way easier.

Here’s the recipes I’ve found on the ‘net, I’ll have time to study up on the subject while waiting for my smoker to arrive.

https://honest-food.net/how-to-make-smoked-duck/

https://blog.thermoworks.com/poultry/thermal-tips-smoke-duck/

https://barbecuebible.com/recipe/cherry-smoked-duck-with-chipotle-cherry-barbecue-sauce/

I’m gonna try to read up on tea smoked duck.
 

heathpack

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I absolutely hate to waste food. And I take pride in wasting less than $200 worth (maybe much less, I do not track it) per year.

But my inviolable rule is that "when in doubt, throw it out".

I do the best that I can to freeze food rather than chance any doubt.

I have a giant non-defrosting chest freezer plus my normal frost free kitchen freezer. I too am a freezer-of-things. And I also hate food waste. I can’t even throw away the carcass remain from a Costco rotisserie chicken- I use it to make chicken stock and then pull the meat from the bones when the stock is done, and chop it finely with the celery and carrots. To feed to the dog of course.

Once I got a beautiful bunch of celery from the farmers market. It seemed a shame to discard the beautiful deep green leaves. I found the answer in celery leaf pesto. Which was more delicious imo than basil pesto. I made it with walnuts, roasted walnut oil, garlic and pecorino. My husband is not into fancy food and even he was asking “what is this stuff and when can we have it again?”
 

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To feed to the dog of course.
Oven baked a Cornish game hen tonight. Clipped the wings to fry and make a wine reduction for sauce. The dog got some wing meat in her dinner with some more leftover for a few more nights. Very happy, jumpy dog.

Once I got a beautiful bunch of celery from the farmers market. It seemed a shame to discard the beautiful deep green leaves. I found the answer in celery leaf pesto. Which was more delicious imo than basil pesto. I made it with walnuts, roasted walnut oil, garlic and pecorino.
Nice idea! Celery leaves are too bitter for stock, so they have been one of my "throw-aways". Basil pesto is too strong flavored for me, so I will try the celery leaf pesto.
 

heathpack

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Nice idea! Celery leaves are too bitter for stock, so they have been one of my "throw-aways". Basil pesto is too strong flavored for me, so I will try the celery leaf pesto.

Maybe it’s supermarket celery that’s bitter? I weirdly find fresh farmers market celery to be slightly sweet and slightly salty.

I definitely use the tops in stock and will add chopped leaves to homemade chicken noodle soup. It’s good stuff.

Here’s the blog post that inspired me to make the celery leaf pesto: https://www.thekitchn.com/celery-leaves-deserve-far-more-attention-the-vegetable-butcher-219994

I keep roasted walnut oil on hand to make mayo. I don’t like the commercial stuff and I don’t eat fish so walnuts are an important source of omega 3 fatty acids for me. I make walnut oil mayo with egg, mustard, garlic, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Might have to whip some up tomorrow and make some BLTs from my killer smokehouse bacon.

I think the roasted walnut oil might be the key to pesto for me. I have some excellent cold pressed olive oil that I buy off a lady in Santa Barbara, she literally sells it out of her garage. I prefer one of her more assertive tasting oils, but it’s just too much in pesto I think. The roasted walnut oil is warmer tasting to me and overall more mellow.

So those are my culinary insights for the day: walnut oil for pesto, and for mayo.
 

heathpack

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Buy the book Meathead on Amazon. You'll learn more from that than anything.

The smoker arrives next Tuesday but... I made Grilled Sweet and Sour Pork Tenderloin from the cookbook today.

It was pretty darn tasty.
 

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1. I made delicious Celery Leaf Pesto yesterday, tossed it into cooked spaghetti. With grilled lemon herb chicken breasts and steamed broccoli.

2. The smoker hopefully arrives tomorrow. In my fridge I have bratwurst (fully cooked, should have bought fresh I think), shrink wrapped St Louis Ribs, and a frozen duck that I’m starting to defrost. I might try to smoke the sausages on Thursday and the ribs and duck on Sat.
 

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The smoker arrived mid week. I thought I was ordering the same one my friend has, but it turned out to be way bigger than I expected.



DEBBA4D4-21FB-4702-A143-A6DDAC2C4A69.jpeg


St Louis ribs were on sale, so I picked up a rack. And a duck. And a chicken. And while I was at it, some bratwurst.

I stuck the brats in when I got the ribs going, and they were done by lunch. Along with boiled potatoes with dill & butter and a spinach & arugula salad with walnuts, raspberries and Swiss cheese. Mmm. Tasty.

B98E08D0-166F-4955-8FDF-681C85906F70.jpeg



I’ve got the ribs rubbed with Memphis Dust as per the Meathead cookbook. Also made some slaw and homemade BBQ sauce. We’ll do ribs with slaw and green beans tonight for dinner.

I’m following instructions from a blog post for the smoked duck. Very simple. Just smoke a brined duck, brushing it with thick maple syrup once an hour. We’ll have that for dinner tomorrow, I’ll heat it then run it under the broiler to crisp the skin. Maybe I’ll roast some butternut squash and steam some broccoli to go alongside.

Once the duck is done, I’ll turn the smoker temp down to 200F and pop a chicken in. We’ll use that for meals mid week.
 

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The duck is done. I have half a mind to tuck into it now, even though it’s for tomorrow’s dinner...

465CE9FB-BB89-4B3B-8F70-B4388E87B319.jpeg
 

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I have a relative that does Thanksgiving turkey in the smoker. It’s to die for!
 

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The ribs were good. Could have been more tender, not sure where I went awry.

I was so hungry from smelling the smoker all day long that I ate a mess of ribs. It did not matter that they weren’t the tenderest ever ribs, I guess. So stuffed right now. :)

F4DA8D3B-899C-4763-9FFC-882FA4A82BC3.jpeg
 
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