Threeteas
New member
I bought a Brinkmann offset wood/charcoal smoker. Nothing really fancy.
The turkey gets brined. I saw a great brine recipie on Good Eats a few years ago that helps keep the turkey moist through the smoking process (and makes it darn tasty). Beef and pork get a dry rub.
I find the key to taste is the right combination of wood and meat. I keep experimenting with woods but so far I've found that mesquite is best for smoking. I like apple and cherry for pork. Mesquite and Hickory so far for beef.
Dinner when I BBQ is an all day process, a minimum of 10 hours to about 14 hours... but the results are usually worth the wait.
Here's a tip...oak and pork are awful, very acrid and bitter.
So you have analogue smoke do you?
I've got a digital bradley smoker...wonder if the pixellated smoke makes any difference?
Now here's the big question, hot or cold smoke?
I cold smoked gouda cheese with applewood...that's great
But hot smoked dry brined salmon, (salt and brown sugar 50/50) and that turned out good too. Bradan Rost style.
Meats have been hit and miss. I've mapled chicken...so, so.
Not done any beef or a turkey yet (what's that brining recipe you have?). I bought a butchered pig and a sheep. Ruined a ham, but salvaged ribs with hot hickory smoke.
I do have one cured ham air drying...it should be ready to be eaten as proscuitto in March/April.
Oh and bacon, proper bacon with the eye of meat, dry salt brine, then into mollasses, before smoking cold with applewood.