Home smoking/BBQ

[Chilli.s]

start earlier than you think

this

 

[UnderOpenSky]

The only thing I could suggest as I must admit I've not done that much big meat cookery is start earlier than you think. Because once the meat is done it is done and then you can wrap it or whatever for hours afterwards whilst doing everything else. The porchetta I did was 2.5kg and was ready in about 4 hours on an open BBQ rotisserie. much quicker than I expected.

Yes, I've been reading about wrapping and putting in a cool box, so this is an option.

You can always chop it up part cooked and finnish with hot heat

True. Although the smoker only goes to 275f so it would be in the oven or the Weber. Not sure if you could pull it after that, but would still be edible.

 

[Chilli.s]

1.5kg

Id say about 5 hours, more would be better

 

[spitfire]

Id say about 5 hours, more would be better

Yeah, should add I wasn't going for pulled pork, just roasted pork that would slice well. You'd need longer than I did.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Well here goes nothing. Rubbed salt all over it and trimmed the fat when we came in from the pub last night. Made the meathead rub and covered. Seemed a lot sugar, but I'll roll with it this time.

Turns out the probes are a nightmare to get in the smoker when it's hot . So I'll just have to use a single one I managed to get in to monitor the smoker temp (don't trust inbuilt thermostat). It's currently 10 deg out. I'll just have to use a thermapen in a bit, but not being opened for a good few hours.

Also some guests can't come due to illness and I now have 3.2kg of pork cooking. Might have a few leftovers.

About to start making the BBQ sauce.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Well got a stall about 70c so wrapped it. Cut myself a bit it's amazing. And meatheads rub really doesn't have to much sugar.

So I'm now pondering other stuff I want to make as I wait. Has anyone done a ham? Ive got the fridge space to do a wet cure and think it could be really nice smoked afterwards. Pork is fairly cheap, but decent ham isn't. Plus if I get it nailed it could be a wonderful extra thing at Xmas, my Mum used to buy a ham to have with xmas dinner, be great to make my own.

On an Xmas note in August, my local Asda does turkey legs really cheap. It's not something I see often, I've bought one before and made a bone in curry which was amazing, I'm thinking that a couple in the smoker could be a great mid week meal. So glad I went electric. I've faffed a bit today, but can see it being easy to cook a meal when WFH with little input. I'm wishing I bought the bigger one though as none of my roasting tins and similar will fit. My thought had been to do the pork on the grill pan to save mess and still let the smoke around it. Plus they come with wheels. Thought I'd throw it out there in case anyone else is considering it.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Well I've had a hell of a hangover today, but last night was quite a success. Thanks for all the pointers folks.

The finished product



Just before got wrapped. About 70 deg internal at this point.



The mini beast.

 

[Cid]

Had a go with a hogget (16 month sheep) shoulder… sausages just Tesco finest, and a few bits of pork belly taking up space in the freezer. Wrapped at around 70 (immediately after that pic), let it get to 84 because I abandoned it to buy more beer. Although that was also suggested by various recipes to get fat to render. Definitely more in the roast spectrum than pulled, extremely good. Just used bits of solid oak off cuts for the smoke. All a bit improvised and last minute, but we ate everything (er… between 5 of us). I deem it successful.

 

[Cid]

Excuse the rotation, cannot be arsed to correct.

 

[Cid]

How fussy are people about charcoal? That's globaltic binchotan, which isn't really like proper binchotan, but is decently dense and long burning. I also really like big K's marabu. And their binchotan, which seems pretty similar to globaltic's but more chunky works quite well. The silly thing about these binchotan products is that they're kind of crap for Japanese style grilling, which uses small grills with good heat retention to minimise fuel use. The Marabu stuff is kind of closer to proper binchotan in shape, but a bit less dense.

 

[Cid]

Some yakitori grill action for reference. Why does the attach images function insist on rotating things? e2a: apparently an exif thing. I'll have a fiddle some time if I get round to it.

 

[spitfire]

I try and use regular sustainable charcoal and Heatbeads. I'd like to use the Japanese stuff, had a box once, was great.

Did some quick and dirty wings yesterday on my mate's gas BBQ, A&O Sweet bones and butts and then finished off with a load of Sweet Baby Rays.

 

[Cid]

I try and use regular sustainable charcoal and Heatbeads. I'd like to use the Japanese stuff, had a box once, was great.

Did some quick and dirty wings yesterday on my mate's gas BBQ, A&O Sweet bones and butts and then finished off with a load of Sweet Baby Rays.

View attachment 337814

I have one small bag of proper binchotan. It will probably never get used because it cost £26 and weighs 1kg... It's pretty amazing stuff though, very hard and dense, rings when you tap two pieces together. The Marabu stuff is made from an invasive species, but er... I think an invasive species in Cuba going of google, so there are probably transport costs that reduce the ecological potential there.

 

[spitfire]

I have one small bag of proper binchotan. It will probably never get used because it cost £26 and weighs 1kg... It's pretty amazing stuff though, very hard and dense, rings when you tap two pieces together. The Marabu stuff is made form an invasive species, but er... I think an invasive species in Cuba going of google, so there are probably transport costs that reduce the ecological potential there.

This fella does some great stuff on his Hibachi Konro. Nice guy as well, happy to swap messages and comments for tips and tricks.

https://twitter.com/gregemmerson_

 

[UnderOpenSky]

My cure number 1 arrived today so I'm going to pick up a nice bit of pork leg and some big zip lock bags this week. If it goes according to plan I'll do pastrami next.

 

[Chilli.s]

My cure number 1 arrived today so I'm going to pick up a nice bit of pork leg and some big zip lock bags this week. If it goes according to plan I'll do pastrami next.

Fascinated to see how this goes. One of the briskets Ive done was very pastrami like, mostly by lucky accident and I wonder just how close to the deli version it would be possible to get by following a more deliberate approach.

 

[bemused]

I've bought one of those cold smoking kits to try out making smoked salmon - any tips?

 

[Cid]

My cure number 1 arrived today so I'm going to pick up a nice bit of pork leg and some big zip lock bags this week. If it goes according to plan I'll do pastrami next.

Very interested... The same friend I bought the hogget off is taking a couple of her pigs for slaughter in the near future.

Have you got links to recipes etc?

 

[spitfire]

I've bought one of those cold smoking kits to try out making smoked salmon - any tips?

It's pretty easy, watch your temps at the moment, you don't want it going above 30c.

What recipe are you using? Also where are you getting your salmon from, (avoid supermarkets).

What's the kit you got?

 

[bemused]

It's pretty easy, watch your temps at the moment, you don't want it going above 30c.

What recipe are you using? Also where are you getting your salmon from, (avoid supermarkets).

What's the kit you got?

I've got an Egg and brought a Pro Q cold smoker kit with all the salt, oak dust etc. I was planning on just buying a side of salmon from a supermarket whilst I give it a go and then get more adventurous once I've done it once.

 

[spitfire]

I've got an Egg and brought a Pro Q cold smoker kit with all the salt, oak dust etc. I was planning on just buying a side of salmon from a supermarket whilst I give it a go and then get more adventurous once I've done it once.

Supermarket fish just isn't fresh enough, go to a decent fishmonger if you can. Scottish is preferable to Norwegian but they're all farmed now (more or less). Some farms are better than others, the price will reflect that. The fish for (most) fishmongers gets to them more quickly than it does through the supermarket chain. If you're in London have a trip down to Billingsgate, really interesting stuff. Bennett's are best for salmon.

You can start with half a side to get a feel for it so you're not wasting loads if it goes wrong.

Smoking Curing & Drying - The complete guide for meat and fish - Turan

Smoking Curing & Drying - This book is a digest for anyone starting out preserving food using smoke, salt of heat to dry. -- Smoking Curing & Drying Smoking Curing & Drying - This book is a digest for anyone starting out preserving food using smoke, salt of heat to dry. In each part of the...

coldsmoking.co.uk

You can do other stuff

Food Smoking - A Practical Giude Turan T. Turan

Turan T. Turan has been a passionate smoker of food for many years, teaches courses all around UK and now crystallises his knowledge in food smoking - a practical guide.--Back in our cave-dwelling days, food smoking was used to preserve food and then our ancestors discovered just how great it...

coldsmoking.co.uk

 

[bemused]

Supermarket fish just isn't fresh enough, go to a decent fishmonger if you can. Scottish is preferable to Norwegian but they're all farmed now (more or less). Some farms are better than others, the price will reflect that. The fish for (most) fishmongers gets to them more quickly than it does through the supermarket chain. If you're in London have a trip down to Billingsgate, really interesting stuff. Bennett's are best for salmon.

You can start with half a side to get a feel for it so you're not wasting loads if it goes wrong.

I have a fishmonger close buy I'll check them out.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Very interested... The same friend I bought the hogget off is taking a couple of her pigs for slaughter in the near future.

Have you got links to recipes etc?

I'm thinking of using this, pretty sure it's how I tried to do bacon a few years. Think I'll leave the cure quite simple and add flavour with smoke and maybe a rub.

Basic 2:1 Brine Cure Tutorial
Having set out a basic approach to dry curing in another tutorial, where the rub mix containing both
the curing ingredients and the sweeteners and aromats and spices are all applied dry to the surface
of the meat, we can now look at wet methods, where a liquid brine is mixed and the meat immersed
in this in order to cure and absorb the flavour elements.
Brining is still an excellent method that we use a lot commercially, when curing different cuts. It’s
incredibly efficient, in that once the meat is cut up into it’s primal (shoulders, bellies, loins and
hams) they can all be put into the same brine tank to cure and simply be pulled out at different
times, when each of them would have been suitably cured. This is the traditional curing approach
for the creation of cured collars, ham hocks, back and streaky bacon, as well as typical gammons,
and allows one brine cure to be mixed for all of them.
For the sake of this article though, I’m going to concentrate on methods most suitable for the home
user wanting to brine cure their own ham, but be aware that once you have mastered this simple
technique, it can be applied to many other cuts, including immersion cure bacons or ham hocks.
The method that is by far the simplest and doesn’t rely, as the big brine tank methods described
above do, on the precise timing of when to pull the meat from the cure in order to stop it becoming
too salty, is the 2:1 measured brine approach.
For me, it is the equivalent in simplicity and reliability of the measured dry cure approach, and it’s
beautiful simplicity is that the brine should weigh half of the meat weight and that the brine is of a
known and adequate salinity, which ensures effective curing, but can never be overly salty, even if
left too long. (note: Credit is due to Oddly, Phil and Paul on Franco’s great sausagemaking forum
for successfully developing this method)
This simple approach to beautiful homemade hams is below.
STEP 1: THE MEAT
As with the discussion over bacon above, the fundamental rule of curing is that the end product will
only be as good as what you put in at the beginning. Quality of the ingredient is key. Source outdoor
reared (ideally pastured or woodland) pork, and preferably an older animal, rather than an
immature, factory farmed and basically flavourless protein. This will provide you with a flavour,
texture and intramuscular fat content that makes for better product.
For the purposes of this example, we’re going to talk about boned leg meat, to provide us with the
classic cylindrical ham that is most popular. If you don’t fancy doing this yourself, ask your butcher
for a boned, rolled and well tied joint of the size you prefer. This should be relatively lean, but with
a nice, even covering of fat to it’s exterior, which is essential for flavour and the cooking process.
STEP 2: SALT & CURE
Brine strength is important here, and rather like the dry cure approach, there is a margin for
personal preference. It’s not for anyone to tell anyone else what the best salt content is, as this is
purely a matter of taste. But there are lower limits, below which the cure will not be effective and
upper limits beyond which the product will be inedible. There is also to be born in mind whether the
ham will be eaten hot or cold, as with all cookery, this will effect how the seasonings taste.
My recommendation is to start at somewhere around a 10% salt content for your brine. This will
then be the first weight in your 2:1 cure recipe set out below:
Basic brine is to use a 2:1 ratio meat to liquid.
1000g meat
Brine
Water 420.5g
Salt 50g
Sugar 25g
Cure #1 4.5g
(or all in one salt/cure mix 54.5g)
Total Amount 500g
You can then add the sweetener of your choice, be that honey, simple white sugar or a dark
muscavado, in order to counteract some of the saltiness and also to give an appealing sweetness to
the ham.
Some spices and aromats of your choice can then be added to this, to create the flavours within the
brine that you want in your ham. Once this is done the liquid forms the balance of the brine weight
required to total half your meat’s weight.
This liquid may generally be water, but could just as easily be a beer, a cider, or a wine added in at
whatever ratio you fancy trying. Some recommend cooking off alcohol when used in a brine, other
recipes have perfectly good success without doing so, it will generally depend on what the alcohol
content was in the first place.
So, in order to come up with the calculation, you take your, for example, one kilo boned leg joint
and know that you need to create a brine with the total weight of 500 grams. The salt content, with
it’s nitrite mix included, would be 54.5 grams to give you the required salt content in the finished
ham, the sugar is 25 grams to provide the balance, meaning that we need to complete the 500 grams
with 420.5 grams of water (or other liquid). This mix should be heated briefly to get the salts and
sugars to dissolve, and then allowed to cool completely.
STEP 3: IMMERSION CURE PHASE
Then, the meat can be immersed completely within the brine, for the curing phase.
Given how efficient this method is, and the relatively small amount of brine we’re using, it’s the
best that a reasonably tight fitting container is used, which will allow the brine to completely cover
the meat, or I would recommend the use of a ziplock or other type of sealing bag, as this allows the
meat to be put in, the brine to be poured in and then the excess air to be blown out until the meat is
entirely surrounded by the brine. The bag then being sealed, this can be popped into the fridge
without any mess, where it can be turned and generally jiggled around occasionally during the
curing phase, which follows the same rule of thumb as the dry cure (one day per half inch to centre,
plus two days).
Important though to bear in mind, that the beauty of this approach is that leaving it longer, or even
accidentally forgetting about it, doesn’t matter. The ham will not become over salty, as you have
limited the available salt to the level that you want.
STEP 4; EQUALISATION
As with all of these cured meats, once the initial curing stage is complete, the important
equalization stage must be remembered, however tempting it may be to get stuck in. Remember,
what you are creating here is specifically supposed to be a high quality product and not the wet,
flavourless junk that you may as well buy at the supermarket.
So once the ham is out of the brine, give it a quick rinse and pat dry, before setting it on a rack back
in the fridge to rest, equalize, and for the flavours to really develop. This is especially important
here, as the thicker the piece of meat, the more time this will take. Setting your ham aside like this
for a week will pay dividends.
And there you have it, quality brine cured ham, which you can adjust to your liking, using exactly
the same method, providing everything from a simple, everyday sandwich ham to a dark beer and
treacle cured treat.
Once you have produced your bacons and hams or whatever other goodies you’ve created following
these methods, the options are then open for hot smoking or gentle cold smoking before use.

 

[spitfire]

I have a fishmonger close buy I'll check them out.

Cool, if you let them know what you're doing they'll probably tell you which day is best to pick up.

 

[spitfire]

I have a fishmonger close buy I'll check them out.

And ask them to pin bone it for you.

 

[Cid]

I'm thinking of using this, pretty sure it's how I tried to do bacon a few years. Think I'll leave the cure quite simple and add flavour with smoke and maybe a rub.

Yeah, almost a rhetorical question - very likely I will use some combination of various different things if I do get round to it, but good to see what others have had a go with. Why 'tried' rather than 'successfully made' on the bacon front?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Yeah, almost a rhetorical question - very likely I will use some combination of various different things if I do get round to it, but good to see what others have had a go with. Why 'tried' rather than 'successfully made' on the bacon front?

Maybe a bit unfair on myself as it was very tasty, but I couldn't cut it thin enough so it was more like thin gammon steaks. I thought about buying a meat slicer, but way seemed madness with the kitchen as full as it was.

Mind you I do have a garage now.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I got carried away today. I've got a massive rack of pork ribs and bought two turkey legs as they are such good value. All resting in a cool box right now whilst I do the other bits.

It all cooked a bit hot though. I properly wired it with the inkbird, but we went out to the shopping and found it running at 150C when I got back It's annoying as I can cope with it being out, but it would be good if it was out consistently.

Pics showing it all wired up and the mess I have to deal with tomorrow.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

That was a lot of meat. So much so in fact I'm cancelling tonight's roast and making a chilli or something with the left overs. I didn't imagine you could get so much meat on a rack of pork ribs. They were quite something. Bit disappointed it cooked hotter then I wanted, but still very tasty.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

What rubs does everyone use for their meat? I've only used the one so far from this site, which is very tasty, but curious about others. I've been adding salt the night before and applying this before the cook.

Meathead's World Famous Memphis Dust Rub Recipe

This popular Memphis dust bbq dry rub recipe is the only seasoning blend you'll ever need for pork, chicken, fish, beef, and veggies. The rub is based on Memphis style BBQ, where ribs are served "dry," letting the seasoning and smoked shine by skipping the sauce.

amazingribs.com