Meat smoking mamas?

[hummingmom]

Does anyone here smoke their own meat, fish, etc.? I know smoked products aren't recommended in NT, but they're certainly traditional, and I'm willing to take my chances with eating them.

I've been driven to investigate this because I'm on a restricted diet for the long term, and can't find any ham, bacon, salami, or smoked salmon that meets my needs (i.e. no added sucrose, starch, or nitrates). And life without those things... well, that wouldn't be much of a life at all.

My time and energy are at a premium right now, so I'd be especially interested in getting a ready-made smoker, if such a thing exists for the above foods. Everything I can find online seems to be talking about making BBQ, which isn't quite what I had in mind.

[AJP]

Check out Bradley smokers, if you want something ready-made specifically for smoking foods (not BBQ hot smoking). We started making our own bacon, ham, etc. a couple of years ago, and my husband doesn't do anything halfway so we ended up with one of those Bradleys. It's fabulous, not cheap though. That type of design also results in fewer of the smoke compounds that concern some people, because it's a cleaner, less sooty smoke. You can make your own smoker of similar design, but it would take considerable time. Alton Brown makes one in the Good Eats episode called Scrap Iron Chef, and a cardboard-box version for smoked salmon in another episode. Having a cold-smoker is kind of like having a miniature form of a smokehouse.

We have not made any smoke-cured sausages yet (I don't think salami is actually smoked, just dry-cured), because we haven't been able to get comfortable with how to eliminate the botulism risk without adding chemicals - they're more dangerous because of being made with ground meat and cured at 'danger zone' temps for long periods of time. (Salami falls into that same category.) We have made a good amount of ham, bacon, pastrami, smoked fish, turkey and chicken. So good!

[PaulaJoAnne]

We smoke lots of things. In fact we make our own hams now.
This link will show you the ham from Thanksgiving..
http://steveandpaularunyan.blogspot....iving-ham.html
We will be switching to making our own msg free sausages and dogs this year, and hopefully we will get a good fat bear this fall so we can make BACON!!!!

We have a propane smoker that we got at Walmart. Here is the link to the one we have.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3342508
Do not buy a Little Chief or Big Chief. They are notroious for not having good circulation or even temp control. DH has lost a great deal of fish due to it rotting because the temps would not stay in control.

Its easy to find recipes and how to. Just google what you are wanting to try and read through the tutorials. Thats how I learned.
You can try this phrase....homemade smoked ham, for example.

As for fish, I make the Gravlox in NT, and then briefly smoke it, and that stuff is so good, it will knock your socks off!!!

[hummingmom]

Cool! Thank you both for the suggestions. The bear bacon sounds great.

Something else I was wondering about... We get most of our meat frozen. Would it be possible to thaw and then cold-smoke the meat, or would this be a bad idea, as thawed meat goes bad faster? (I'm guessing it would be a bad idea to re-freeze the meat after smoking, in any case.)

[cristeen]

We've actually been discussing buying a smoker ourselves. A couple colleagues of DH's have been bringing in home-smoked goodies and tempting him, so he's been getting jealous.

I believe it was the Brinkmann that both colleagues have - one electric and one charcoal. For those of you that do smoke, which do you prefer?

[PaulaJoAnne]

Originally Posted by cristeen

We've actually been discussing buying a smoker ourselves. A couple colleagues of DH's have been bringing in home-smoked goodies and tempting him, so he's been getting jealous.

I believe it was the Brinkmann that both colleagues have - one electric and one charcoal. For those of you that do smoke, which do you prefer?

Charcoal requires lots of babysitting, whereas propane is like an oven. The temps stay even.

[spughy]

I have been smoking my own stuff for many years. I use one of those maligned Little Chief thingies, and it works great and I've never had a problem with spoilage - bearing in mind that in order to get a safe smoke at a relatively low temp, you MUST use enough salt.

I typically brine whatever I'm smoking for long enough that the texture firms up enough to really notice, dry it in the fridge to form a pellicle, then smoke til done. In the winter, I smoke things I don't want actually cooked - like bison jerky. In the summer, I hot-smoke salmon. It's true the Little Chief doesn't have any real temperature control, BUT a modicum of common sense and placement suffices for most things (ie hot day, smoker in the sun = hot smoke; snow outside, smoker in shade = cold smoke)

Remember, there are a few methods of preservation at work here: salt, smoke, heat & dehydration. I typically figure 2 out of 4 makes it safe

[motherbirth]

I want to try building a wood smoker...I was reading about it online a while ago... has anyone else tried this?