Who’s into their hot and cold smoking?

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Hoddy

Hoddy

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I’ve been getting into hot and cold smoking food over the last year and I’ve just invested in my own hot smoker that also doubles as a cold smoker so I’ve got more capacity to cold smoke bacon and salmon at Christmas.

I’ve plumped for the Pro Q Ranger Elite. The smallest one in the range but with everything I’ve done it will be more than big enough to feed up to 10 people.

first outing was two chickens brined over night and then one rubbed in a garlic and rosemary dry rub and the other in a smoked paprika dry rub which were then hot smoked “low and slow” over 5 hours and smoked with apple wood.

I didn’t get any pics of them cooked as we were drunk and the chickens were demolished in no time.

Anyone else got a smoker?
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I've also got a ProQ, plus a Cold Smoker made out of a Coffee Maker (see the attached video) plus a small "cooker top" Hot Smoker. Yep! I love creosoted food!

My favourite for the ProQ is to do a smoked brisket on the bottom shelf and three small chickens (half-filled beer can up the jacksie method) on the top shelf. All done "slow and low" usually with birch sticks bought from the local garage.

I use the Cold Smoker for Cheese and Salt Beef or Bacon after curing.

Here's the YouTube video that inspired the Cold Smoker. Works a treat. I use a plastic box and can smoke a kilo of cheese and a kilo of bacon in a single run.

 
I've got one of those hot smokers that are heated by meths burners, and use it when I catch a load of Mackerel. I've yet to smoke anything other than fish, but have had my eye on a proQ for a few years. Someday......
 
Smileyr8 said:
This may be a dumb question, but did you eat the chicken straight from the smoker, or was further cooking required?
Click to expand...

No they were post brine, and pre hot smoke. We were all too ravenous when they came out so they were both devoured so quickly i couldn't get a picture of them.

I'm planning on doing something else this weekend so i will snap a few pics.
 
Dutto said:
I've also got a ProQ, plus a Cold Smoker made out of a Coffee Maker (see the attached video) plus a small "cooker top" Hot Smoker. Yep! I love creosoted food!

My favourite for the ProQ is to do a smoked brisket on the bottom shelf and three small chickens (half-filled beer can up the jacksie method) on the top shelf. All done "slow and low" usually with birch sticks bought from the local garage.

I use the Cold Smoker for Cheese and Salt Beef or Bacon after curing.

Here's the YouTube video that inspired the Cold Smoker. Works a treat. I use a plastic box and can smoke a kilo of cheese and a kilo of bacon in a single run.

Click to expand...


How have you found using the water pan @Dutto ? I was struggling to get the temp up to the ideal 110oC for the low and slow with the pan in and 1/3 full of hot water. I ended up just taking the water pan out to finish the birds off. Any tips?
 
Hoddy said:
How have you found using the water pan @Dutto ? I was struggling to get the temp up to the ideal 110oC for the low and slow with the pan in and 1/3 full of hot water. I ended up just taking the water pan out to finish the birds off. Any tips?
Click to expand...

First of all, I line the water-bath with kitchen foil to minimise cleaning! I also place foil under the cooking meat for the same reason.

For the water bath, I start off with it +/- half-full of boiling water and then top it up occasionally for the first three or four hours. (This being the main “smoking” time.)

I then just let the water-bath boil dry until the meat reaches whatever temperature I need.

I pre-inject most of the joints I smoke. This keeps them moist even though the water-bath is dry for up to four hours.

For chicken and turkey I use the “half filled beer can up their jacksie” system. It gives them a lovely taste and keeps them moist.

I have only ever smoked fish in the stove-top smoker. My Mum bought it for me about 20 years ago and for mackerel, haddock, herring and pork-loin bacon it’s great; except SWMBO complains if I use it in the house! (Hasn’t stopped her eating the products though!) I have a Paella gas burner so I will probably fire it up in the summer.

Oh, for anyone that has a BBQ, there is also a small crescent shaped insert so that you can smoke things on an ordinary BBQ.

Hope this helps.
 
Clint said:
Foil...the home cooks saviour! I just done some tikka...would have made a right mess otherwise.
I must investigate the smoker....
Click to expand...
After eating low and slow meats cooked by my friends over the last few summers I just had to get one myself. How you can transform really quite ordinary meat is amazing. Really impressed with mine just after the first cook. I think I’ll be using mine all through the year.

more recipes to follow.
 
For those of us who like frigging about with food, try this site ...

www.homecuring.co.uk

I love Salt Beef and Bacon and both of them can be hot or cold smoked after curing! (*)

(*) The cold smoked meats need cooking before eating.

For bacon I cure a slab of skinned pork loin, rinse it and let it rest for a day or two in the fridge, cold smoke it, slice it, freeze it and then cook it before eating. (I chop up the offcuts to make lardons and use those to liven up a cheesy pasta.)

Salt Beef can be hot smoked after curing.
 
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When I lived in Ullapool I used to hot smoke my locally caught Mackerel it was so good the resturants and hotels used to buy it. It went down a bomb.
Prior to smoking I used to marinade in lemon juice and a few spices to get rid of all the bones.

I never made any money as my boat was a high powered speedboat, Petrol was nearly £100.00 PER HOUR.
( over 100 litres hr consumption ) I just used to enjoy the fishing and watersking.
 
I 've used the original 'basic' version for about 4 years'ish
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Abu-Garc...335764?hash=item2a58e9ad94:g:HJMAAOSwWnFWAqvo
I just stick it on the gas hob and put the extractor on high!!!
Rosewood beef for the carnies, or my favourite applewood rainbow trout, + Fresh mackerel with leon juice and my chilli's,,,, I just cook it until the probe says 60*c in the product core.
Can't wait for summer,,athumb..
 
Druncan said:
I 've used the original 'basic' version for about 4 years'ish
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Abu-Garc...335764?hash=item2a58e9ad94:g:HJMAAOSwWnFWAqvo
I just stick it on the gas hob and put the extractor on high!!!
Rosewood beef for the carnies, or my favourite applewood rainbow trout, + Fresh mackerel with leon juice and my chilli's,,,, I just cook it until the probe says 60*c in the product core.
Can't wait for summer,,athumb..
Click to expand...

That's the one my Mum bought me about 20 years ago! It's a fantastic bit of kit; but I've blown up TWO electric hobs by trying to smoke something by laying it across two of the rings rather than mess about with the methanol burners!

Fortunately, SWMBO only discovered one of them as the other one was put down to old age (the hobs old age, not mine!!) and next time (as I am banned from the kitchen) I will fire it up with a gas Paella Burner.
 
I have a Slow 'N' Sear for my Weber kettle (it was actually me that persuaded the original UK/European resellers to import and sell it), it is fantastic for easy hot smoking of food or using as a really hot searing surface.
I also have one of those cold smoker things to use in the Weber, although I am actually mostly using it at the moment to cold smoke malts for brewing with; I need to play around with it a bit more but it does produce interesting results and gives you much more options than what can be bought commercially, although you can also buy more unusual stuff that The Malt Miller smoke themselves too. The cold smoking of the malts was driven by some conversations with other brewers from Jim’s and the availability here in Germany of lots of different rauch beers, some of which are incredible (I’ve had a few brilliant smoked porters/stouts too from other homebrewers and UK breweries).
 

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