Greetings All
You are cordially invited to spend smoking day with me. This is the day when I stoke the smoker and perform the centuries old ritual of combining meat and fire. Grab a cup of coffee and a donut and lets get started
Several weeks ago a topic came up on how to host a successful open house. Part of that discussion was food. If your open house is only 2-3 hours you might not serve food but if it is an all day one or part of an all day tour food makes the event. Of course the food of choice is BBQ. I smoke and prepare all of my BBQ meats weeks sometimes months in advance. Being fatty, brisket and pork freeze well and I can get this large amount of work out of the way at my convenience. Today is such a day. Cool temps have set in here in New Mexico with a little cloud cover. Perfect BBQ weather.
Here is the sunrise at 6:30. It is almost like God were willing me to cook BBQ…
Today I am smoking a 6Lbs brisket, two racks of pork ribs and a salmon fillet. The first thing I need to do is get the charcoal going. I only use charwood chunks, never briquets which are about 1/3 clay and sawdust filler. They also often contain petroleum distillates to help with lighting. Never use these or lighter fluid in your smoker. They will make your food taste like motor oil.
This is the best brand I have found here. It is by Royal Oak and comes in 8.8 lbs bags. I will probably use the whole thing. For smoke I have Western brand Hickory chunks. They make blocks and chips in Hickory, Mesquite, Maple, Cherry and Apple. The last three are best suited for pork or chicken. The chunks get soaked in water to help produce more smoke and slow the burn rate. Two hours of soak time is optimal.
I light the charcoal with a shotgun chimney starter. This gets a hot quart of coals going quickly. These are poured on top of a bed of charcoal. If I was grilling and wanted a hot fire I would put the coals down first and dump the unlit over the top but since this is slow smoking I want a cooler fire. Putting the coals on top makes them burn down at a slower rate. With the fire laid I add the hickory blocks on top. For chicken or white fish I would use the chips and place them in a foil packet with a few punctures in it.
Back with the meat in a bit. Hmm I think this coffee needs some Baileys in it. Guess the meat isn’t the only thing that will get smoked today!!!