Home smoking/BBQ

[spitfire]

Hello my new friend.

I'm looking at smoked trout. Stocked rainbow caught on the fly at a prime fishery and wild brown, sea trout and the occasional salmon caught on my local river. I've been researching candied salmon so yes any advice would be greatly appreciated.

How did you come by the dust dude?

I ordered it from a used whiskey barrel trader. They exist believe it or not.

Candied salmon was what we actually made rather than smoked salmon, it’s just easier usually to say smoked.

I can send links etc., but on my phone right now, can get something together later if you like?

 

[friedaweed]

I ordered it from a used whiskey barrel trader. They exist believe it or not.

Candied salmon was what we actually made rather than smoked salmon, it’s just easier usually to say smoked.

I can send links etc., but on my phone right now, can get something together later if you like?

Nice one. Yeah in your own time mate. Be a bit of a travesty to be in a rush for something about smoking

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Smoker is on with Pulled pork starting to smell good.

Black turtle beans with bacon, smoked mac and cheese & red cabbage tahini slaw.

Hungry already and it's a few hours off.

 

[dessiato]

Just got one of these



It's a pocket sized cold smoker. My first thoughts are that it'll be great for taking with me to smoke fresh fish.

The first thing I've learned though, don't use it while sitting in the lounge watching football. But there's a nice smoky smell through the house.

I'll let you know how successful it is. I'm doing some cheese at the moment.

 

[dessiato]

It worked. There was a nice smoky flavour. But it don't like the flavour of the supplied wood. I'll try it with some oak.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Who is outside cooking this bank holiday weekend? We've got a few people round on Saturday, so it's nice to be able to do a few different things. It will be the first time I've used the smoker and the weber together (and will have the travel bbq out for veggie stuff).

I'm doing ribs and pulled pork in the smoker. I've got the pork down, but only tried ribs once and they were average. I don't I gave them long enough. As always it's will be trying to get the timings to match as closely as I can. Burgers, Chicken and sausages on the weber.

Going to experiment with setein burgers for veggies (but will have to try one myself). I should probably buy some halloumi as a backup.

 

[spitfire]

I’m away or would be cooking.

I boil the halloumi for about 8 minutes. Cut sideways so you get 2 big patties, boil. Pat dry and it gets a more aerated texture. Worth an experiment first or it may just disintegrate on the grill, have back up cheese.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I’m away or would be cooking.

I boil the halloumi for about 8 minutes. Cut sideways so you get 2 big patties, boil. Pat dry and it gets a more aerated texture. Worth an experiment first or it may just disintegrate on the grill, have back up cheese.

Ah. I've done halloumi before, but never tried boiling it first!

I either buy it already in burger shapes or cut in cubes and stick it on kebab sticks.

 

[Cid]

Oh it's bank holiday again? We had a power cut at the workshop yesterday, so smoked up some burgers and sausages. Not bad, bit rushed. Also did a pork shoulder, which got about 5 hours of smoke and is now in the sous vide at 74c for pulled pork tomorrow (probably be a shade under 24 hours total cooking time).

I did yakitori last week, big K's binchostix worked really well, though they are a bit of a pain to light, as I expected (I just make a small conventional charcoal fire and put them on top).

 

[Elpenor]

Is this the thread to get recommendations for which bbq to buy?

Not in a position to buy for some time though, but would be handy to know

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Oh it's bank holiday again? We had a power cut at the workshop yesterday, so smoked up some burgers and sausages. Not bad, bit rushed. Also did a pork shoulder, which got about 5 hours of smoke and is now in the sous vide at 74c for pulled pork tomorrow (probably be a shade under 24 hours total cooking time).

I did yakitori last week, big K's binchostix worked really well, though they are a bit of a pain to light, as I expected (I just make a small conventional charcoal fire and put them on top).

I've not heard of yakitori before, sounds nice! I like doing chicken thigh in tikka mix on sticks, but want to try that. I've got chicken thighs in my butchers order, but my OH will probably kill me if I suggest even more meat.

Why the sous vide after smoking?

Is this the thread to get recommendations for which bbq to buy?

Not in a position to buy for some time though, but would be handy to know

Probably the best place on urban. Of course one is not enough...

 

[Cid]

I've not heard of yakitori before, sounds nice! I like doing chicken thigh in tikka mix on sticks, but want to try that. I've got chicken thighs in my butchers order, but my OH will probably kill me if I suggest even more meat.

Why the sous vide after smoking?



Probably the best place on urban. Of course one is not enough...

Because a good smoke of a pork shoulder would be, what, 10-12 hours maybe? And requires a decent amount of supervision.

 

[Cid]

Is this the thread to get recommendations for which bbq to buy?

Not in a position to buy for some time though, but would be handy to know

What are your requirements etc?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Because a good smoke of a pork shoulder would be, what, 10-12 hours maybe? And requires a decent amount of supervision.

Ok, that makes sense. I've only done the 1.5kg chunks from Aldi up till now. And use an electric smoker.

 

[Cid]

Ok, that makes sense. I've only done the 1.5kg chunks from Aldi up till now. And use an electric smoker.

I've got Aldi's budget offset smoker, which er... definitely requires some supervision. It's actually not at all bad for the price, but of course the temps can change a lot.

 

[spitfire]

Weber for me all day long.

And a rotisserie attachment.

But a lot of it is down to budget.

 

[Cid]

Yes, the significant advantage of the Aldi smoker is that it cost me £63, thus leaving me to spend my money on more important things like charcoal, specialist Japanese grills and wasabi plants.

 

[spitfire]

My mates Chris and Becky have just taken delivery of this.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I'd like to try the rotisserie at some point. My Weber was a really good price on eBay, but I had a bit of a drive to get it.

I think the MasterBuilt electric was also a great buy. I know it's not proper BBQ as such, but I'm at the point I can set it off and go walk the dog and not stress to much. My only thing is that it doesn't get that hot, which is fine for beef, pork and lamb, but if I'm doing chicken it's better on the Weber with the lid on.

 

[Elpenor]

What are your requirements etc?

Hmm.

Gas I think for simplicity - I appreciate charcoal is more purist but I find keeping it simple is better for me and have had issues with charcoal before.

I’ll be cooking for at most 4-6 people so don’t need a huge amount of space:

Most important is compact storage. I saw the Weber traveller (I think) in a garden centre and it was perfect but also the best part of £500. I think it’s designed for the caravan / camper van market.

Something like that - but cheaper - would be amazing.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

A promising start to the weekend. Ordered yesterday, arrived at 7.50.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

The 2kg pork shoulder seems to have a lot less fat then the 1.4kg ish ones I get from Aldi. So actually better value then it first appeared. Assume/hope there is enough fat in for a proper pulled pork experience.

Wishing I'd ordered two racks of ribs now. Still I want to get them right first. Whats everyones favourite way of doing them?

 

[Cid]

Hmm.

Gas I think for simplicity - I appreciate charcoal is more purist but I find keeping it simple is better for me and have had issues with charcoal before.

I’ll be cooking for at most 4-6 people so don’t need a huge amount of space:

Most important is compact storage. I saw the Weber traveller (I think) in a garden centre and it was perfect but also the best part of £500. I think it’s designed for the caravan / camper van market.

Something like that - but cheaper - would be amazing.

I'm very rough and ready (except with Japanese stuff), so not the one to ask about gas etc.

 

[Elpenor]

I'm very rough and ready (except with Japanese stuff), so not the one to ask about gas etc.

Fair dos. Thanks for replying

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Fair dos. Thanks for replying

Sorry. I didn't reply either as I know nothing about gas. My intuition is the grill won't affect the cook quality much, but the build quality and other factors will decide what's nice. Are you just cooking food over direct heat? On a charcoal BBQ a very cheap one will do this well, but if you want to put a lid on it and cook with indirect heat having something better makes a difference.

 

[Elpenor]

Sorry. I didn't reply either as I know nothing about gas. My intuition is the grill won't affect the cook quality much, but the build quality and other factors will decide what's nice. Are you just cooking food over direct heat? On a charcoal BBQ a very cheap one will do this well, but if you want to put a lid on it and cook with indirect heat having something better makes a difference.

If I am honest I don’t even know what I don’t know. I have tried to do bbq before with a cheap charcoal bbq and it was a disaster. As in it didn’t get hot. My thought was gas would deliver the outcome - cooking food outside - without the previous agony.

But perhaps there is a charcoal option out there for me. Something fairly compact that doesn’t take up much storage space and is idiot proof.

I doubt I’ll be buying anything for this summer due to other priorities. I’ll keep reading the thread, hopefully I’ll learn a bit.

 

[alex_]

“Indirect heat” just means the meat isn’t directly over the charcoal.

You can do charcoal one side / meat other side or charcoal around the edge meat in the middle.

 

[Elpenor]

So indirect heat means cooking something slowly (for example a joint? certainly not burgers or sausages) - do you wrap whatever is being cooking in foil then?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

So indirect heat means cooking something slowly (for example a joint? certainly not burgers or sausages) - do you wrap whatever is being cooking in foil then?

It can be, things like pulled pork and brisket is cooked low and slow. Some people like to wrap later in the cook to get keep moisture in, but you want the smoke to start.

Chicken works better hotter, like your oven or hotter still. I also like to sausages indirect as they cook more evenly.

 

[alex_]

If you have a bbq with a lid, sausages indirect work well as you don’t get flare ups from the fat and you get a bit of smoke.

If I’m cooking for a lot of people, I’ll do sausages indirect first, then when they are nearly done stack them furthest from the heat and put more things, then finally do quick cooking stuff direct.

With indirect you can think of the bbq as having hotter and cooler areas.