food smokers

after years of eating rubbish smoked bacon full of that grotty white yuk that comes out in the pan i have today ordered myself a posh new smoker and was wondering if anyone else smokes foody stuff and any tips would be helpful

regards

john

 

That grotty white yuk is nothing to do with being smoked. It is worse than that. It is your 21st century 'bacon'.

Meat suppliers are allowed to enlarge the meat by a certain percentage. They do this by soaking it water under pressure. Except its not just water. They are allowed to mix in a certain percentage of processed animal protein. That animal protein, which may not even be from a pig, comes out the meat as the water in the meat boils during cooking, building up pressure, and forcing its way out, taking the processed animal protein with it.

 

lovely i feel so hungry now........not

 

I've seen a video where a side of beef on a conveyor belt is injected with dozens of hypodermics & it immediatly doubles in size. They are selling you water.

http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Supply-Chain/Water-injected-meat-the-UK-s-latest-food-scandal

See why I don't eat land animals now ?

Sorry Bi9johhny, we digressed from your original question.

Yes, I smoke a lot of the fish that I catch, you can't beat the flavour.

Is it an electric smoker or a solid fuel one you've bought ?

 

I wondered what that white stuff was!!!:th_scifD36:

Val

 

I know nothing about this subject at all, but the white stuff has been coming out of smoked bacon for as long as I can remember.
I always thought it was salt. Part of the soaking in brine stage of curing bacon.
Smoked bacon always seems saltier than non smoked.

The differences between bacon, ham and pork, have always been a mystery to me.

 

Unless its free range and you know its pedigree, don't eat it. Remember them feeding sheeps brains to mainly vegetarian cows?

The sheep had a disease called scrapey, which manifested in the cows as BSE. which passed into the human food chain and caused CJD. It turns your brain into sponge and makes you die horribly.

Yet still I get sarky comments from clients and co workers alike, when I say I don't eat land animals:DOH: They look at you as if you are some sort of lentil sucking loony lefty. Hey, who is going to look like a loony when you've got cjd ?

When CJD first became apparent, keratin (hoof & horn) powder was banned. We used to use it as a retarder for casting plaster in building conservation.

Eddie, our site services manager had a stash of the stuff, but our stonemason, Adam, refused to use it because he didn't want to catch cjd.

I asked him what he had just eaten for lunch, he replied " Beef Pasty" :DOH::DOH::DOH:

I've done it again, hijacked the thread:DOH:

When you've got the fire going, make sure you dampen the oak chippings, you want a lot of smoke but not a raging fire.

 

thanks for the reply's folks....it is a solid fuel smoker and my plan to start with is dry cured bacon and cold smoking it along with some cod and haddock as the fish wholesale market is near me.....suppose i'll need a vacuum packer too now :D

 

Sounds good You can freeze the fish after you've smoked it, just make sure the fillets are wrapped up, otherwise they dry out in the freezer.

In fact, freezing is recomended for cold smoked fish, if you get an old fish that may have fish worm eggs, cold smoking wont kill the eggs, but 24 hours in a freezer will.

Chances are, your new one will be a hot smoker. This is where the fish is directly above the fire & the heat cooks the fish as well as smokes it.

A cold smoker takes the smoke to a separate chamber, where the fish is smoked but not cooked.

You'll need to brine the fish first. I use a mix of salt, sugar & spices. Soak for about an hour & then put to drain.

When its dry you'll see a sheen on the fish,( I think thats called a pelicule ) Its then ready to smoke.

Sorry, don't know about smoking land animals, as you may have gathered:DOH:

You can smoke, cheeses & garlic & stuff too.

 

[size=large]Actually Ziggy if I remember well the germs in the food they will only go dormant in the freezer. On the other hand the cooking at a certain temperature for so and so long will kill them.[/size]

[size=large] [/size][size=large]In Iceland they eat a lot of smoked and cold meat, a combination that for an Italian is a bit of a torture. [/size]

[size=large]I kind of don't mind smoked bacon but that is about as far as I go/ On the other hand I quite like the dried fish not smoked.[/size]

 

Sorry, missed this one.

You are right about the germs, salmonella will still be alive when it comes out of the freezer. Its just the fish worm eggs that we were on about here.

 

I have what is called a "Smoker/Grill" can be used for just grilling meat.

When I set it up for smoking meat. I usually marinate my meat overnight in something.
Then you place lots of coals on one side, get them going. On the other side is places a tin of water. Sometime I put in the water orange rinds, herbs, lemon slices, whatever, because that water will steam up to the meat. The meat is put on the grill over the water bath, not over the coals. The O2 dials are set. The lid is closed, and the temp dial is watched on the outside. The chimmney gives off white smoke (that is a good thing). So it goes on smoking for a good 3-4 hours that way. I may check the water, and add extra coals the later usually not. Comes out wonderful. I can also add to the coals, several special woods, such as apple, mistique (spel), or hickory for added flavorrs. The way the chamber is and the dials are the smoke travels from right to left, passively going on the meat. And the whole smoker maintains a really hot heat for a long time, of at least 250 to 300 degrees.

 

well i have set up my smoker and proofed it by burning empty and the first gloucester old spot bellies in cure for a few days a mix of salt and mollasses sugar then in for cold smoking on thursday i hope
fingers crossed