Yeah... but I insist... ventilation is important too. Otherwise you'd be cooking it instead of dehydrating it
Tales from the grill...
- Thread starter cmartinez
- Start date
I honestly wouldn't know... I'm not familiar with the smoker you've just bought. All I'm saying is you should consider the possibility of improvising using a small ventilator ... you don't need too much air flow either.
I smoked quite a bit of King Mackeral over the years (makes great fish dip). I never brined it. I have a large 4 rack, propane fired smoker. In the bottom, it has a chip box and a water tub. I'd fire it up and cut the burn down to a minimum and close all the vents as much as possible and let it go for ~12 hours. Check and refill the chip box and water every few hours as needed. It would be pretty dry when I took it off. My experience with smoked fish is no matter where I bought it, or if I made it, it was always a refrigerated item after smoking. Anything more than that would require drying. I used to collect wild mushrooms. Sometimes there would be a bloom and I would have lots more than just for that days meal. I tried drying them but they would invariably turn into maggots. So, I would put them on a cookie tray, after cleaning and slicing, and stick them in the oven at ~180F for a few hours. After a couple of hours or so they would be dried and could then be put in ziplocks and kept unrefrigerated for a few weeks until consumed. Sometimes they would get a bit crispy but after being bagged would rehydrate a bit to a leathery texture instead of crisp and brittle.
4 hrs smoking at around 200°F but I made a rookie mistake and didn’t put any water in the pan till 2:45min into it, hopefully I didn’t ruin them. At 4hrs I put them into aluminum foil been cooking now for 6 hrs. Do I rip the gristle of before starting them? I don’t remember.
kv
kv
Ouch... almost three hours without water? Let's hope it doesn't affect the results much... good luck!
My Wife purchased already seasoned pork, most likely the save. It was already torn membrane. So, my final was to smoke, I did begin low and slow turn;s out, I didn’t find it, as other meats I’ve eaten. Next will be brisket. I’m not a big time pork person, now to experiment
kv
kv
A favorite here, and what most BBQ joints serve as pulled pork, is Boston Butt. Which is actually the pork shoulder. I start the smoker in the afternoon and can get 3-4 butts on a rack and let em smoke all night. I smoke at low temp, I turn the propane burner all the way down. I don't have to buy wood chips as we have lots of hickory and pecan dead wood chunks to use. When properly done you can pull the shoulder blade out of the butt with your fingers and the meat is falling apart. Some people use various rubs but most just smoke 'em low and slow. I'll check the smoker every ~3 hours to add chips and water if needed and go to bed around midnight and check it when I get up in the morning. After coffee and breakfast, it's time to unload, wrap, freeze, give away to friends and relatives and have a nice BBQ dinner with all the fixins including nanner puddin. A true southern delicacy. Used to be, butts would go on sale for less than $1/lb, and my cousin Dave and I would buy a pile of em to smoke. Or freeze em if not ready to do the smoking to have on hand when we were ready. One nice big butt can serve a crowd or a family for several days.
MaxHeadRoom
- Joined Jul 18, 2013
- 28,699
One of my favourites that is increasing hard to get here is pork button back bones, these are the small disc bones that come from alongside the back bones.
Now, all I can get here is a mixture of buttons and rib ends, which ends up with mainly the fatty rib end bones.
Probabally too labour intensive to remove .
Max.
Now, all I can get here is a mixture of buttons and rib ends, which ends up with mainly the fatty rib end bones.
Probabally too labour intensive to remove .
Max.
I bet if you talk to the butcher he'd be willing to prepare those cuts to your liking... at least that's the way things work down here...One of my favourites that is increasing hard to get here is pork button back bones, these are the small disc bones that come from alongside the back bones.
Now, all I can get here is a mixture of buttons and rib ends, which ends up with mainly the fatty rib end bones.
Probabally too labour intensive to remove .
Max.
For on the grill... We have what they call pork backbone, both boneless and bone-in. It is actually a Boston Butt cut in long strips about 1-1/2" - 2" square. I like Butt over tenderloin. It has more fat and does not cook up as dry as tenderloin can. Ribs I don't particularly like to cook. Cost too much for the little bit of meat on 'em although I do like eating them on occasion. Down here in the swamps we have feral hogs and cattle (look up hogzilla) and I used to shoot several hogs every year. Tough lean meat but I'd relax it low and slow in the oven before grilling it. Feral hog ribs are tough as hell and give the jaws a real workout although they taste great. Forget the feral cattle. Too damn big to drag outta the swamp and tough as nails. That's where the Georgia Bulldog came from and not those silly looking English Bulldogs but big Pit Bull brutes. Livestock was allowed to run wild (no fences) and you had your "ear nock" registered in the "brand book" at the courthouse. The bulldog was a catch dog to round livestock up to bring home to pen up for fattening before slaughter. We still have some boys that use catch dogs down in the swamp and pine barrens for hogs. And hogs are armed with very sharp slicing tusks that can make them deadly to a dog.
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Great... I'll bring the beer!
Turned out well, I’m still learning. The Temps here in Utah are much higher because of the lower ambient temps. Started at 225°F From the book, then had to turn it up after my first probe, not high enough got around 110°F then turned it up to 325°F and in short time achieved 140°F perfect.
kv
kv
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I moved to a new house a few months ago, and I haven't have the time (nor means) to properly set a BBQ pit, so I've had to make do with a crappy shell-like portable grill (the shame!) ... anyway, last Wednesday I BBQed some Rib eye ribs, and used an offset technique at high heat. I was pleasantly surprised by the result. Notice how clearly a "smoke ring" is shown in them ribs!:
MaxHeadRoom
- Joined Jul 18, 2013
- 28,699
Just a quick update on the Saffron issue, after picking up a small snuff sized box at quite the $price$, I tried it in a few dishes and was not as impressed as I had hoped, could not really detect it?
BTW when making Paella type dishes, I either solely use, or as in addition to the lobster-crab meat, is to use a shredded mixture of imitation crab/lobster meat, I know the purist's may hold up their hands, but I have found a way to make it a little more palatable.
I make the piece length no more than about 3cm, and shred it by squeezing between fingers, then immerse it in melted garlic butter for 10-15min.Then remove from the butter mix.
Any garlic butter left over can be used on toasted Baguette.
I either add the shreds into the rice mixture or use it solely as seafood dish, in the absence of higher priced meat etc.
Faux lobster-crab is made from Pollack and is already cooked.
Another nice touch is to dribble a little Pernod over the rice a few minutes before serving.
Max.
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