Got a smoker but no recipes

[Ramjet]

I'm

Cheers for the info Tim and i will be giving the jerky a go and see how it turns out. Also what is cold smoking?

Cold smoking is smoke with no heat. Used for fish, cheese, bacon.. lots of things really.

Nugget did start a smoking food topic but it faded away. As we now have more cooks/smokers on the forum maybe we can kick it along again.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2930

I see there is over 7000 posts for smokers on that forum Ramjet.. That will be a bit of a read haha.. Thanks
Kezz

It's like the PA of BBQ

My homemade cold smoker. Plenty on youtube and you can buy them.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/UE_-cBjPUL8[/video]

 

[jamie]

i do some cold smoking at home, i love it, nothing better i think, also do a little hot smoking too but i favor the cold process, have fun with it, you will really enjoy the results of doing it yourself

 

[Guest]

Yeah Kezz it just means bringing the smoke to the meat without heating the meat up. Fish will stay moister that way. But if you're making salami/pepperoni/fatty meat you can get some of the fat to drip out with hotter smoke. When I was on Humbert River Station in the Kimberley my smoker was a 60l drum on its side, with a hinged door to control airflow, for the fire/smoke going through 8feet of steel downpipe to an old chest freezer sitting on a 44. Me and the ex would "overland" a beast every few months, I had a bandsaw with reduction pulley to a mincer, and a home made sausage press. And a brine pump. So we made steak, mince, corned beef, sausages, jerky, salami and pepperoni.
Because we had a big coolroom we would just hang the quartered/portioned beast, and do it over a few days once it was aged.
Mind you after 5 years in the Territory, I would have killed for a mutton chop.

 

[Solid Luck]

Really easy to add smoke to any bbq. Cook the same way, just add smoke.

There is a great Aussie forum and the guys n girls can cook anything. Plenty of recipes and advice. http://www.aussiebbq.info/forum/

This is the place to start to get a good idea about how to go about it.

Also a new Aussie BBQ forum is pretty good.
*No affiliation

http://smokefireandfood.com/forum/index.php?board-list/

 

[Jon]

I use the same brine recipe for fish Tim does. When I remove it from the brine I place the fillets on a open rack to dry for about an hour before smoking. This ensures or helps to lessen too much loss of moisture from the fillets during the smoke. Creates a barrier on the fillet surface and kind of keeps the moisture in. I have at times used a small fan directed at them on the rack to speed it up a bit.

 

[XIV]

blackwood and a Tbone in the smoker goes really well.
soft woods for fish, chicken, veg
hard wood for beef, lamb and game
there is no real right or wrong, just play around with different things,

if you have fish fillets, leave skin facing down, spray flesh with some port, this will prevent the flesh drying out, and adds a different flavor to the fish
this I find works really well on Aust salmon, but you must bleed them strait away when freshly caught

 

[KEZZ]

All this info is very helpful looking forward to getting home and trying some of this out..Tim you sound quite the butcher haha..And you can't beat a good chop..I think i will start making a bigger smoker for my new project..My other one is just to small but perfect size for testing so not much wastage while i learn

 

[Guest]

blackwood and a Tbone in the smoker goes really well.
soft woods for fish, chicken, veg
hard wood for beef, lamb and game
there is no real right or wrong, just play around with different things,

if you have fish fillets, leave skin facing down, spray flesh with some port, this will prevent the flesh drying out, and adds a different flavor to the fish
this I find works really well on Aust salmon, but you must bleed them strait away when freshly caught

Not sure about the smoke from Blackwood(Acacia Melanoxylon). I know when you work it, it stains your hands, and is irritant to your eyes/tender bits. Maybe that irritant is changed on burning, but it might create problems for asthmatics etc.
And generally sappy wood should be avoided, e.g. pine/cypress because the pungency can be overbearing. That being said I recently saw a recipe on tv doing seafood over pine needles for the flavour.
Gidgee (Acacia Cambagei) is another I would be careful of. I have flavoured my spirits with oak and redgum successfully, and even though Gidgee smells beautiful when burning, it made my hooch too bitter to drink. 8.(

 

[Billy]

Here's a chart with some info on different types of wood for various types of meat:

All this talk is making me hungry! May have to fire up the "Dragon" this weekend!

Cheers,

Billy.

 

[KEZZ]

Dam now i have to study charts to haha

 

[Guest]

The best chops I ever had were threaded on a bent star picket and slow-cooked over a mallee stump fire. It's the wood of choice down here, but since land clearing stopped they're getting harder and harder to come by. In primary school I used to go out with my mates 3 days a week after school stump picking. Their Dad would drive the old Commer Knocker tipper. Originally we would load them into railway carriages at Coonalpyn, but then when the guvment stuffed the railways their Dad would drive them down to Adelaide. He worked for ETSA (also now stuffed/privatised/*******ised thanks to the guvment) during the day then took the stumps down, unloaded, back about 2.30 am then start work again at ETSA at 7.30.
A work ethic long lost to most of the modern cotton-wool mob. It's no wonder the country is going down the toilet.

 

[Jon]

I use Smokin Joes wood chips distributed by Juro Tackle, I get athsma but it has never affected me using it.

 

[Ramjet]

There are a few food smoking posts in out "Today I cooked topic" too.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2320

 

[KEZZ]

Wow nice smoker on that other thread Ramjet..

 

[Ramjet]

Thanks Kezz. I mostly use the weber kettles, have 3 now. A fire pit with a spit roast for whole animals and I have portable spit roast as well. Can never have 2 many bbq toys

 

[KEZZ]

hahaha thats awesome..i just had a mate show me a pic of this bbq on a trip he did to great kepple island.. best bbq i have ever seen so i will throw the 2 bunnings bbq's out and build the one he showed me... i think i am going to b busy for a while fabricating these new toys..i will send pics of this bbq when i finally get home from this swing..very impressive..