Let's smoke something!

Grumps

Grumps

Adventurist
Founding Member
On a wood fired smoker of course. It has been storming all weekend here in the foothills of northern Georgia. The thunder woke me up around 4am shaking the house, so I got coffeed up and fired up the smoker with hickory charcoal. I did just happen to have a pork shoulder that had been rubbed down with spices and brown sugar the night before sitting in the fridge (you do have plan ahead sometimes). Toss on a handful of hickory and apple wood chunks, gingerly lay 9 lbs of pork on the grate and close the lid. Eight hours later, add a slab of Atlantic salmon to the mix.

Looking good......
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-Andy

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Awesome! I'm a new convert to smoking, my parents bought me one for my birthday. I have been able to figure out how to get over the plateau yet.
 
Subscribed.

I gained a BBQ with a Texas side smoker not too long ago. It's time to start learning.
 
Nice! I'm a big fan of applewood too. Try mixing apple and sassafrass for smoke sometime...its a good combo.
 
Haggis said:
Nice! I'm a big fan of applewood too. Try mixing apple and sassafrass for smoke sometime...its a good combo.
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I think the salmon would have been better without the hickory (a little heavy), but where am I going to find sassafrass wood? I know "gumbo file" is made from sassafrass leaves and I can get that but........

-Andy
 
We just head out into the woods find a sassafrass and cut up some small bolts for the smoker. I don't buy smoker wood but I'm sure somebody has to carry some sassy...its been a long time favorite up here in the north.
 
Behind our house in Hawaii, there are acres of Kiawe trees. This is on state land on the slope of Diamond Head. They are in the Mesquite family. So we always had an endless supply. Wow, it makes your meat taste so good! When I was a kid, I thought it was so cool that we had trees like Arizona. We burned it in our lava rock fireplace too on those cold winter nights, when it got down to 58*.....hehe. Sorry no pics, just awesome memories!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopis_pallida
 
One more fun memory. A friend of my Dad's made us a huge smoker out of a 55 gallon steal drum. He cut it in half the tall way. Welded legs on the bottom portion. Put on hinges for the top portion. Weld on a handle. Drill some holes for air flow. And you have an awesome free smoker! It was huge. We used it for all of our big luaus at our house. That's how so many did it in the islands back in the 1960's.
 
I use a big green egg. Being the son of a commercial fisherman, I love fish.... I smoke it A LOT. So far smoked ahi has been my best yet. I generally brine (special recipe) for 24 hours and then dry it with a paper towel and let it sit by a fan for about an hour. I really like using hickory, or a combo of hickory and apple. I use mesquite charcoal so I don't want to over mesquite it.
 
I had one of those barrel smokers before my last move. Didn't use it enough... That thing made some great briskets.
 
I am going to brine/cure the fish before smoking next time. Thanks for the info Travis.

-Andy
 
travis.diller said:
I use a big green egg. Being the son of a commercial fisherman, I love fish.... I smoke it A LOT. So far smoked ahi has been my best yet. I generally brine (special recipe) for 24 hours and then dry it with a paper towel and let it sit by a fan for about an hour. I really like using hickory, or a combo of hickory and apple. I use mesquite charcoal so I don't want to over mesquite it.
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Smoked albacore is my favorite... even when it's cold, it's the bomb. You can make killer sandwiches out of it: take the bread of your choice, slap some mayo on it, then throw big ol' slabs of smoked albacore and Brie cheese between the pieces of bread. Anything which tastes that good HAS to be health food, 10-4? LOL. If Brie is too upscale for rugged outdoorsmen, they can substitute cream cheese, and the result is just about as tasty. Long ago, I worked as a deckhand aboard a sportfishing boat, and that's when I learned to love albacore... we used to grill fresh albacore and toss the fillets between regular old hamburger buns, with whatever else we wanted thrown on for good measure, and those sandwiches were delicious. That fish was fresh too: flopping around on deck one moment, sizzling on the grill the next. I haven't smoked either of the following, but I'm partial to Mahi Mahi and Chilean Sea Bass. One of these days, I reckon I'll try smoking those, but the albacore is so darned good that I stick with it time and time again.
 
Grumps said:
I am goking to brine/cure the fish before smoking next time. Thanks for the info Travis.

-Andy
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I use water, salt, agave syrup, lemon juice, worchesersire (whatever you spell it from memory) the worsc... gives it a real good taste.... goin to start some now haha
 
Trader Joe's definitely has great fish at great prices. I always keep some of the marinated stuff in the freezer for when I'm in a hurry...

How about some turkey?

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Two chickens doin' the chicken dance?

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ABT's 'N' ribs?

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Fatty and some spares?

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Ok, I gotta go cook dinner :D
 
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