Smoking meat is all about cooking the meat low and slow unlike grilling where grill fare are seared at searing temperatures. If you are truly serious about barbecue and smokey meats, then you need to learn a bit about it. Smoking meat is part skill, part experience, and part equipment. If someone is new to meat smoking, asking peers about basic things one needs to learn will really help. Most burgeoning pit masters won't share secrets about their recipes, but they will share the basics of what to do. One can look on the Internet for recipes and some of that great taste. The longer someone is an active meat smoker, gaining experience and contact with other smokers, the more opportunities for learning new techniques and secret recipes will arise.
The indirect method of smoking allows you to use an ordinary grill as a smoker and believe it or not, you can turn out some interesting fare this way. Smoking meat is a great way to break down tough cuts of meat, such as ribs, brisket and pork shoulder. Smoking meat is cooking it between 190f and 225f while in the meat smoker. Cold smoking meat is primarily for cured meat like ham, bacon etc. And is done inside the meat smoker at temperatures below 80f. Cold smoking always takes longer than hot smoking. You can short smoke meat like steaks and chops on the barbecue grill with gas grills smokers or long smoke meat inside gas grills smokers. Whether you smoke your meat inside a portable grill or meat smoker, any way that you decide to push smoke into the meat is a great way to enjoy it.
Smoking meat calls for acquiring the proper internal temperature. Because outdoor temperatures will dictate cooking time, you cannot rely on time alone. There are many recipes available but they cannot be applied across the board. Meat smoking is also a growing trend for great flavor by adding taste to food without adding extra fat. When the smoke covers mild meats like pork, fish and poultry, it produces a mouth-watering flavor and rich color that's hard to resist. Smoking is easy to do and can be accomplished in a kettle-style grill using indirect heat and adding wood chips to banked coals. At least two hours before you plan to start cooking, place wood chips or wood chunks in water to soak. Estimate two chunks of wood or a good handful of wood chips for each hour of planned smoking time. If you have unburned soaked wood after completing smoking, it can be dried and used at another time. Build the fire about 40 minutes before you plan to start cooking. Remove the cooking grate from the covered grill and build a mound of about 25-30 charcoal briquettes on one side of the fire grate, light them, and let them burn down to glowing embers, covered with gray ash. Leave only one of the bottom air vents open directly under the charcoal. Place an aluminum loaf pan filled two-thirds with water across from the charcoal.
Smoking meat is mainly used to soften and add flavor to the meat. It can also be a low heat and slow method that works superbly for fatty or tough meat like beef brisket, beef ribs, pork spareribs, or lamb shoulder. For that signature smoky flavor, you need wood chips. Apple, maple, mesquite, and hickory are the best wood chips to use. There are some considerations when smoking meat on your own. To prevent food poisoning, observe cleanliness when working with raw meat. Wash surfaces and your hands often, separate meats in different stages of preparation, and cook & chill using proper temperatures. Defrosting the meat properly is an important step in the process. Defrosting in the smoker can cause bacteria to breed within the meat. Remember, smoking takes longer. Regular grill cooking happens much faster and the bacteria would not have time to grow, but with smoking it is a real possibility.
Smoking meat is by far the exceptional means of achieving that desired flavor but it also requires the most effort. With the benefits of our up to date barbecuing tools the identical results can be realized without all of the extra work involved. The quickest way to add the smoke flavor to any meat is by using liquid smoke. This can be added to any food from baked beans to grilled fish. There are several pitfalls to this item as it does not impart a true smoke flavor to your recipe nor should the liquid be employed on an ongoing daily basis. We recommend this product only to create more interesting homemade sauces. You can use your backyard gas grills smoker to smoke meats. Several manufacturers of grills now include a smoke trough where you can insert a mixture of wood chips, pellets or chunks of hardwood for use as smoking material. The hoods on these grills generally call for closure when meat smoking is indicated. If you have an older grill which lacks the trough don't worry, as you can purchase a smoke box at your local department store, or you can assemble your own out of aluminum foil pockets to hold the wood pieces. The only problem with using gas grills smokers for smoking is that the grill tends to cook the meat rather quickly. Please remember that the art of correctly smoking meat is to cook the meat slowly over a longer period of time at lower temperatures. Making use of the typical backyard grill setup for smoking the meat can result in the food being done much too rapidly while failing to impart the desired subtle wood characteristics. This is why you need low temperatures and the correct equipment. Fortunately such equipment is available today for minimal cost.
Smoking meat is great for providing a cozy and friendly atmosphere for guests, perhaps inside a nice gazebo or around a picnic table. Most of us enjoy the simple joy of staying outdoors and eating delicious grilled meat but it often doesn't cross our minds that what appears to be healthy grilling can turn out to be less than healthy. Heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons may sound like complex words to most of us, but if we look carefully into their meanings we may look at grilling in a whole different way. Heterocyclic amines are cancer causing compounds that appear linked with the grilling of meat from muscle fibers and they have been shown to possibly cause cancer in animals and perhaps even in people.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, for example, are cancer causing compounds produced by fats leaking onto the hot coals or grill burner surfaces and then being released through the smoke. The smoke produced releases these compounds which in turn coat the meat. There is a silver lining though! The above cancer causing compounds do not necessarily mean that you should ban grilling from your summer time gatherings. There are some steps you can take to reduce the amount of these substances from coating your meats. Marinate your meats before grilling and grill a lot of vegetables along with the meat to avoid filling up on meat alone. Also, do not overcook or char your meat. The more charring, the more cancer causing compounds will be formed and found on your smokey treat. Cook your meat slower and at lower temperatures, and grill every other night because in moderation, grilling and meat smoking can be thoroughly enjoyed.
I hope that this has served as an easy to read and understand introduction to this very rewarding extenstion to an already popular pastime. Turn your gas grills into smokers, or any grill into a smoker. More and more products and gas grills accessories are coming onto the market to serve this wonderful outgrowth of the whole backyard grilling passtime. Today's gas grills are built to last, so you already have the leg up by being able to get some of the best equipment to be in the market, ever.
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