Smoker Maintenance

It’s just started raining here in NE Oklahoma and it got me thinking about a few things everyone might want to consider when it comes to maintaining your smoker.

First don’t leave ashes in your smoker ESPICALLY during wet season, the ashes will actually draw the moisture into your smoker and in turn expedite a bad case of cancer (rust).

It’s always a good idea to also spray any hinges latches etc with WD-40 or something of the like. On a semi regular basis, TRUST me you would MUCH rather stay ahead of rusted shut hinges or latches than trying to recover from them. 

Last is covers….I am actually not a big fan of covers, if you do insist on covering your smoker make sure it is WELL ventilated, smokers that are covered for extended periods of time end up trapping moisture in and because they do not get enough air circulation the moisture is unable to evaporate. This is why I normally just give my smoker a GOOD cleaning (spot paint, etc) and make sure the fire box is completely cleaned out for the winter season.

Any of you that know me, know that my smoker is pretty much going year round, like the cheese and olives I COLD smoked in the blizzard of 2008….good times. Anyway just a few off the tops I thought I would share.

Also worth noting if you have a new smoker, it is always a good idea to season the cooking chamber. This process is pretty much the same as season any kind of cast iron cookware, you are going to coat the inside with any kind of oil, you can use spray (pam, etc) or beef fat, whatever you want (it don’t affect any kind of taste so use whatever you have on hand or whatever is cheap) once all the cooking chamber surfaces are coated you will then just fire up the smoker and heat it to about 250 degrees. This will turn that oil into a nice protective coating that will more or less repel any water.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Chicken Start to Finish

One of the best dishes you can make when it comes to BBQ is traditional BBQ chicken. BBQ chicken is one of the staples of BBQ. Here again I make a very simple BBQ chicken that is guaranteed to please.

First you want to start off with the right kind of chicken. As we talked before if you are looking to make chicken breast you are basically going to bake them in a shallow pan of chicken broth or water, but today we are going to be making that finger licking traditional BBQ chicken, I am talking about thighs, quarters, halves however you cut it, chicken that is bone in and skin on (now for this example I will be cooking chicken quarters, but all these same steps apply to thighs, halves whatever you plan to cook).

           


           Step 1: Get your fire started.

Just like anything else, don’t waste time playing around start working on getting your temp up to heat. For this example you are going to be baking your chicken not slow cooking it, so you will want your smoker at 375.

            Step 2: Prepping the chicken.

Start by giving your chicken a good wash, and then pat dry as much as you can (you won’t be able to get the chicken completely dry, but get as close as you can). Now like the brisket COVER your chicken with my secret BBQ rub.

            Step 3: Musical chairs.

I hope by now you know where your hot spots are on your smoker, this is one time you want to take advantage of that extra heat and get your chicken skin nice and crispy. Now I normally would advise not to open the smoking chamber while you are cooking, but in this case you have to keep those chickens moving (I normally do not flip the chicken I cook them skin side in the case of quarters), you want to rotate the chickens in the hotspot so each piece gets its fair share of face time with the hotspots I normally will move them all around about every 12 to 15 minutes.

            Step 4: Sauce glaze

Typically you will cook the chicken to an internal temp of 180 – 185ish. Around 180 I normally put a nice glaze of BBQ sauce on the chicken and then put them back on the smoker for just a few minutes, just long enough that the sauce caramelizes around the chicken.

Once the sauce is nice and caramelized you are set to go, you don’t have to slice or chop chicken so you can just plate, serve, and enjoy! It’s really that simple.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Simple Smoke Kissed Salmon

Want some smoked salmon but don’t want to commit all the time it takes to correctly cold smoke it (the citrus cure, and extended curing process, etc). Well I have a pretty simple Smoked salmon that I really enjoy.

Back to one of the basic concepts take your favorite baked salmon recipe and convert it to smoked salmon. This is why I call it smoke kissed because typically you are going to cook salmon 30 minutes per half inch, so measure the thickest part of your filet typically you are looking at 45 minutes cook time. This short cook time gives the salmon just a light kiss of smoke. So fire up your smoker to bake some salmon!

1.      Pre-heat your smoker to about 350 degrees (you will want to keep the heat between 300 and 375)

2.      Take a piece of foil and fold the edges to create a shallow pan

3.      Spray the foil with non-stick spray and place filets on the foil

4.      Drizzle honey over the salmon filets

5.      Sprinkle brown sugar over the filets

6.      Lightly dust with cinnamon

7.      Lightly salt and pepper

8.      Smoke for 15 minutes per half inch of filet (lightly butter filets half way through if the edges are starting to get dry).

This is my personal version of baked salmon, I like the sweet from the honey and brown sugar and something about the sweet with the cinnamon just pops. Like I said take your existing recipe and try it on the smoker, there are literally HUNDREDS of baked salmon recipes online.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Bake or Broil Expanded

            I have already covered the difference between smoking and grilling in a past post, now let’s look at this same concept, but go a little bit deeper. Now if you have done any reading on BBQ you have come across the phrase “Low and Slow”. This basically means you are smoking at a low temperature (usually around 200 degrees) and you will be cooking it slow (with the lower temperature you will be increasing your cook time, average size brisket cooked at 200 degrees the entire time will be at least 18 hours cook time).

            So understanding this you will see you have two kinds of smoking, stuff you will bake at more of a traditional baking temperature like 375, and stuff you are cooking low and slow like 200. This is much like baking vs. slow cooking in the Crockpot.

            Let’s go back to our chicken example this time instead of boneless skinless breasts we are going to be looking at chicken quarters, chicken thighs, etc (something bone in and skin on). Now have you EVER seen a recipe that calls for a chicken quarter to be cooked in the slow cooker? No! Bone in skin on chicken is almost always bake fried (baked at a higher temperature that causes the skin to fry making it crispy).

            Just like you use the logic of do I smoke or grill (i.e. do I bake or broil) you can take it one more step, do you bake or slow cook. You would not bake a roast in the oven at 400 degrees; you would put it in a slow cooker at 200. So here again you have a whole slew of resources at your finger tips in slow cooker recipes and baking recipes, given not everything will work on the smoker, but this will keep you from making mistakes of slow cooking items that really should be baked at a higher temperature or vise versa.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Tools

            So what are the MUST have’s for any true BBQ smoker? Well of course you have to have your leather wide brim cowboy hat, accompanied by your kiss the cook apron. Outside of these I have a few items I have grown to absolutely love and they have made my must have list in order to properly BBQ.

            One of the first things I never fire up the smoker without is my STRUDY stainless steel BBQ tongs. When you get tons, don’t cheap out. You want good strong tons not the open ended togs that don’t have a spring and hinge. You can find good strong, long handed, close ended tongs at any good cooking supply store. I purchased two just to make sure I always have one handy. Even if you are a griller and not a smoker you should NEVER use a fork to turn steaks, burgers, etc you never want to pierce your food.

The next item was given to me as a gift and I have used it ever since. The infamous “Ove Glove”, in fact I now have three of these. You can use them for just about anything; I primarily use them on the fire and handling pans, hot racks, etc. Nothing beats the original Ove Glove, so don’t settle for just a general oven mitt, do yourself a favor and go buy the real thing.

            Temperature gauges on the smoker are a given, but you also want a good meat thermometer. I have and use a vast variety of wireless and wired digital thermometers. I normally mount one inside my cooking chamber so I can monitor my cooking chamber temperature from inside the house. This is especially nice during the winter cooking season. There are a lot of different wireless thermometers on the market, I have yet to find “the one” but if I do happen to stumble across it you will be the first to know.

            One thing you will NEVER want to enter the kitchen without is an oversized cutting board and a couple of good quality kitchen knifes. Like I covered in “Brisket start to finish” you may have the BEST smoked brisket but if you don’t cut it right it could taste like the worst cooked brisket you EVER ate. If you start cooking larger cuts of meat you will want the oversized cutting board so you have the extra real-estate. I also keep a good meat cleaver style blade handy for chopping meat as well.

            The last necessity is a new one that just arrived in my kitchen. I have been looking for this product for awhile and could not find one in the heat resistant range I was looking for. If you look online you can find high heat neoprene gloves. It took me awhile but I found some that cover the heat range I was looking for and did not come up to my elbows. These are priceless when it comes to handling those larger cuts of meat; you can reach in grab them with out slipping or soaking a cloth type glove in scalding hot meat juice. They are amazing when it comes time to cut the meat since you can then handle the meat without burning your hands. You can look for fryer gloves, or industrial dishwasher gloves, this will give you a few choices. I got the Steven Raichlen BBQ gloves; I will give a full review of the product on another post.

            Now that we have what I consider the essentials out of the way lets look at a few items I just like to keep on hand. Mass qualities of paper towels, extra disposable foil pans in a variety of sizes (these work great to cook in as well as just store your cooked food in), and last but not least charcoal and lighter fluid. I don’t know how many times I THOUGHT I had a full bag to find two briquettes and dust, now I always buy bags and cans of lighter fluid in two’s.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

Woods

 There are many different types of wood you can use to smoke with but the main thing you are looking for is hard woods (Hickory, Mesquite, etc). Now each type of wood is going to have a different type of flavor character so play around and see which kinds you like the best. Don’t forget you can also mix and match. Below are a few different types and my thoughts on them.

Hickory: This is kind of a no brainer, it’s in BBQ sauce, and it’s in everything BBQ. It is probably one of the best know woods for BBQ smoking. It is very popular and for good reason. It is very strong in its smoke flavor. If you like that heavy smoke flavor and taste try hickory.

            Mesquite: Pretty much the same as hickory and very popular in the deeper south. Here again this gives a very strong flavor so use it wisely.

            Pecan: My personal favorite. This wood gives a very mild flavor that is not over powering at all. It also burns very easily and burns much cooler than the other harder woods listed. It is a great wood to use in combination with, because it is so mild and easy to burn.

            Oak: Another great choice for a milder flavor. Much like pecan but is much denser so it burns hotter and slower. I like mixing this wood with pecan if you are looking for a very mild smoke flavor. The oak has the sustaining heat while the pecan gives you the ease of burning.

            Fruit Woods: Fruit woods in general are very good with different items. They give a much sweeter smoke flavor and can also be over powering as well, so be carful. I personal only use fruit woods (preferably apple) when I cold smoke cheese, olives or nuts.

            So in conclusion I recommend about a 50/50 mix of pecan and hickory if you like a heavier smoke flavor. Hickory by itself is just too strong, in my opinon. However a lot of times if I am smoking food for a large crowd with mixed preferences I will just use pecan by itself or mixed with oak. This way you play it safe, I would much rather hear a few people say “It was really good but I like mine with just a little bit stronger smoke flavor” vs. “I could not eat it, it was just too smoky for me”.

Note: If you are using a charcoal, electric or gas smoker you will be fine with using Hickory or Mesquite wood chunks or chips, because you are getting your heat from the charcoal, gas, or electric burner (which is not going to give it any “smoke” flavor) and the smoke flavor from the chunks (given your chunks are also giving you some heat but its not the sole source of heat) gives you the flexibility to add as much or as little smoke flavor as you want.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/

From Flake to Bake

            I know I am not the only one that has struggled with the paint on my smoker. If you have a wood burning smoker you know what I am talking about. You sand and wire brush the whole thing up get everything nice and clean and then you go out buy the rustoleum grill paint, spray it on and everything looks great. Three smokes later your paint if flaking off and you are back to square one. Well here is what I have done and it has saved me a LOT of time and money. Go to your local auto parts store and buy VHT header paint or any kind that has a silicon and or ceramic agent mixed in it. Most of the time you will have to bake this stuff on your smoker so I only use it on the firebox and the main chamber, the legs rack, etc I paint with normal grill paint. I use the heat of the smoker to bake the paint on. I have found that rustoleum flat grill paint and VHT flat black header paint is a perfect match.

            So next time you are looking to repaint your smoker do yourself the favor and buy a few cans of VHT header paint and use it on the hot surfaces and the crapoleum on the rest of the surfaces. Just make sure and get the surface sanded good and follow the baking/curing process to the best of your ability.

- From no to know

Nathan Conner

http://bbqbasics.blogspot.com/