Smoking Meat – The Basics
What are the Basic Principles of Smoking?
Think of a kitchen oven running at 225 Fahrenheit with meat on the top shelf and water bath underneath – mostly slow cooking in a hot & humid environment. That is all there is to it really. Just add a bit of smoke.
The challenge, is to use the same heat source to create the smoke as to cook the food. Also, to be sure there is a continuous supply of heat of both sides.
That’s the way most everyone does it. In more recent an modern modern smokers, you’ll find that the heat supply for the food area is different than the energy supply that’s generating the smoke. Of course, this make’s everything much easier to control. So your results will be more consistent, but the purist smoker might humble you.
What is needed to create smoke?
Either by smoldering wood shavings on a hot plate or wood smoke. This can be direct from burning logs or wood chips on a charcoal fire). It’s nothing more simple than that other than you need to keep the smoke flowing as there’s nothing worse than cooking in stale smoke.
It’s here that we get to the absolute basic principle of the smoker, a vent by the fire and a chimney vent above the food chamber. Hot air rises, so creating a draft that allows the smoke to pass over the meat continually. The clever bit is that this draft also provides air to the fire making it hotter, as it gets hotter, the air draft flows faster, and the fire gets even more heated. So careful control of these two vents controls the supply of smoke and the amount of heat.
That’s all there is to it. It doesn’t matter what your smoker is made out of. You may have made it yourself, or it is the “top dollar” brand, the basic principle of how a smoker works are the same. Of course, there’s a lot more to smoking meat for competitions, but that’s a bit different. If you can hold a humid food chamber at a constant 225 Fahrenheit and pass the smoke through it, then you have the necessary skills required for smoking meat.
Smoking Resources
How to Set Up a Grill for Smoking
Most people looking for info on smokers either got one as a present or looking to purchase one. If you do not currently own a smoker, you can use your grill as a smoker. Let me repeat that… YOU CAN USE (MOST) GRILLS AS A SMOKER!
I am not crazy. Let’s take a look at how that works in the video below.
The items he used in this video can be found below. You probably already have these, but if you don’t, click the item to open up the Amazon page for it. I like Amazon, I can use the two day delivery and set it up to deliver on my day off at fantastic pricing. Check em out below:
1 – Weber Fold-able Grill Grate
1 – Applejuice – This is the 24pack. One bottle should be enough, give the kids the rest. 🙂
1 – Cherry Wood Chips – These are the packs, I much prefer them over plastic bags.
If you have a Weber kettle grill already, you are already halfway done. The Weber kettle grills are versatile and extremely easy to use. This type of grill is a charcoal grill. I am sure a similar technique would work with gas grills too.
For indirect cooking on any grill, you will need two zones. One for direct heat, and another for indirect heat. The man describes it as a hot zone and a cool zone. Names don’t matter, but some things you do not want over direct heat.
In this example, he places a tin aluminum pan on one side of the grill for indirect heat. The other side of the grill is used to load up charcoal and wood chips, so it doesn’t burn the meat.
The Weber gate is fantastic. It has sides that flip over so you can add more charcoal or wood without removing the food.
Next, you want to start your charcoal in the chimney. Once they are ready, put the pan on the side of the grate and load up the charcoal on the other side.
Add some apple juice into the tin pan. This is going to help your meat cook with an extra kick to it.
Add your chips to the charcoal side. Open the vents about a quarter size. Put the grate back in and let the grill heat up until its around 300 degrees. You should start seeing some smoke come out.
Let your meat cook in the grill, and you are all ready to rock!
Check out this post on Smoked Party Wings Recipe | Smoked Hot Wings on Ole Hickory Smoker here.
Happy Grilling!
Source by Paul Yates
