Food

[crownpuller]

^^^

[skywatch]

Autumn weather made me want to light up the smoker, so I picked up a large (2 kilo) slab of steelhead and marinated it overnight in spices and brown sugar. It's also the season to pick avocados from our tree. They are very thin skinned, I think the "fuerte" variety, which has a pretty good frost tolerance. (The little tree came with our house and has grown into a big tree over the last 30 years.) Dinner was a big salad with smoked salmon, with cucumbers, apples, tomatoes and guacamole, all from the garden.

[Henry Krinkle]

The very first "meat" I ever cured was salmon and in the decade or so since I have never not cold smoked it afterwards. Until this week. Beet cured salmon. First I packed it with a blend of salt, sugar, coriander, pepper, dill seed, juniper and allspice, then covered that with a blend of grated beets, dill, ginger and garlic.



Two or so days later



I baked the rugbrod, on the far left, a couple weeks ago and froze some. The cloche baked pain de campagne came out of the oven a couple hours ago.

[geoffbot]

Bought a blender, good pan, made hummus, felafel, orzo with burnt veg (actually delish)... Loving cooking.

[skywatch]

Homemade sushi (maki rolls filled with cooked shrimp, scallops, salmon and shiitake.) The remaining salmon went on top of bean thread noodles in dashi broth (made from dried squid and seaweed.)

[Dan R]

Pork tenderloin. apple with honey and cinnamon, snap peas with salt & pepper. Damned good!

[Spooky]

A Nurse at work gifted me a Smoker. (Weber Smokey Mountain. ) Never smoked any food in my life. So before I ruin the Brisket that came with the 1/4th Cow we split with my Father in Law, gonna start small on a Chicken. I brined it for about 14 hours and rubbed with Worcestershire Sauce, Pepper, and Lawry's. Also put some butter under the skin.

I'm a total novice and have simply been attending YouTube University, any tips or advice are certainly welcome.

(Current temp is about 260°F)

[Spooky]

Right at about 270°F now. I've ever so slightly closed the vents to try to stay in the 250-260 range. If anyone is familiar with this style smoker, it comes with a water pan that I understand is supposed to help with temperature fluctuations. (Also apparently keeps things moist?) Either way, I've filled it about 3/4 full as it is a little chilly here at the moment.

Wish me luck.

[skywatch]

I have that exact same model. The water pan really helps to lower the temperature of the meat, for slower cooking. The instructions claim that it is designed to work best with charcoal briquets, but I like the flavor of fruit wood smoke, so I use our pruning from apricot and nectarine trees. I soak the wood in water for a few hours to slow down the burn rate. I have sometimes gotten things a bit too smokey using this technique, but it tastes pretty good.

[Spooky]

I have that exact same model. The water pan really helps to lower the temperature of the meat, for slower cooking. The instructions claim that it is designed to work best with charcoal briquets, but I like the flavor of fruit wood smoke, so I use our pruning from apricot and nectarine trees. I soak the wood in water for a few hours to slow down the burn rate. I have sometimes gotten things a bit too smokey using this technique, but it tastes pretty good.

What kind of Thermometer do you use? Have you made any alterations to the Smoker itself?

The probe pictured is a Sub $10.00 I got from Walmart just for muddling through today. There's one on Amazon that has two probes and a handheld monitor with a 500 foot range for ~ $50.00 I plan to buy soon.

Currently using one full 8 pound bag of Kingsford Blue briquettes, and a couple pieces each of Apple and Pecan wood. (Wood chunks came with the Smoker.)

Astounding luck, I one day mentioned I had a Brisket with no proper way of cooking it, and this Nurse states they had a smoker they never used that they would otherwise simply throw away. Nearly new condition.