Angelaid, Elery has an electric smoker, and we have done some amazing brisket in it, it's the smoke and heat, not the actual flame that does it.

We haven't tried sausages yet, but we're going to. As soon as we get a minute, LOL, we just finished doing maple cured and apple smoked bacon and it was a thing of beauty!

Annie

LOL I thought you meant cigarettes.

I have an older wood fired smoker, smoke chamber and offset firebox. I can do ribs and Pork shoulder so good it will make you weep. I have been playing with cured and smoked meats, Tasso Ham, etc, lately with really good results. But, I have only done brisket once and it was disappointing. "Smoke and Spice" by Cheryl and Bill Jameson has a really good sounding Brisket recipe that I have been meaning to try. I'll be watching this tread to see what comes up.

Steve

We just got an electric smoker. Used it the first time on Easter for baby back ribs & smoked mac 'n cheese. Both were delicious! We've got 5 lbs. of pork belly in the fridge curing. It will be ready to smoke for bacon tomorrow. We're going to use apple wood. We used hickory for the ribs.

Brisket is on our short list also along with a whole chicken. We'll do an overnight dry rub & then mop once or twice during smoking and then a glaze in the last hour.

There are so many rubs, mops, sauces/glazes it's hard to pick a few to get started. I posted the sauce we used on the baby back ribs on my thread called "Thunder Thighs".

I would definitely use that sauce for pork shoulder but probably not brisket. For beef, I'm thinking something a bit different...I'll come up with something.

Don't limit yourself to just meats either. The smoked mac 'n cheese was the best I've ever eaten!

Please post what rubs you use...I'm looking for lots of ideas.

/tricia

Here are two rubs I have developed over the years, the second one is better on beef IMO.

EDDYS RIB RUB

4 Tablespoons LawryÂs Seasoned Salt
4 Tablespoons MortonÂs NatureÂs Seasons
2 Tablespoons Onion Powder
2 Tablespoons Garlic Powder
2 Tablespoons Dried Thyme
2 Tablespoons Dried Oregano
2 Tablespoons Chili Powder
2 Tablespoons Paprika
2 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar
2 Tablespoons Ground Black Pepper
2 Tablespoons Ground Cumin

Place all into a pint jar. Shake to combine. This Rub is excellent on Beef, Chicken and Pork.

BARBECUE RUB

1 ½ Teaspoons Kosher Salt
1 ½ Teaspoons Dark Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Paprika
2 Teaspoons Garlic Powder
2 Teaspoons Mustard Powder
1 ½ Teaspoons Black Pepper
½ Teaspoon ground Coriander
½ Teaspoon ground Cumin
½ Teaspoon dried Thyme

Place all in a pint jar and shake to combine.

Steve

I haven't smoked any sausage yet, but that would be an excellent thing to do.

Don't overlook poultry. Smoked turkey and chicken are a real treat.

Jim

"LOL I thought you meant cigarettes."

That was my reaction when I saw the thread title.

So what are we doing here? I'm not a smoker. Are you?

Jim

Oh yeah, I forgot. We smoked ducks too, and they were amazing, juicy and tender and falling off the bone. Not at all greasy, just delicious.

Annie

Bruce is on his second Treager (sp) this year, the first one was to small for him. Have smoked tons of ribs for our 'Rib Fest' which was a big hit. Our friends are now begging for another one!
Smoked Mac and Cheese is awesome. There are so many combos of cheeses to use, our favorite is sharp cheddar with smoked gouda. Bruce had mac and cheese out this week and it had asiago with bacon so we will be trying that the next time. Another dish we have smoked is Calico Beans with ground beef....oh so good!
For other meats we have done salmon, pork shoulder, turkey and a roast dont remember which cut.

Annie how do you do bacon? Sure sounds good!

Rubs we have used: Famous Daves Rib Rub, Grill Mate Montreal steak rub, Penzey's Galena Street Chicken and Rib Rub,Jack Stacks KC rubs, Penzey's Chicago Steak Seasoning has nice smokey flavor, my favorite is Grill Mates Sweet and Smoky Rub to which we also add some brown sugar on top of the rub before smoking.

We smoked a pork butt with Mesquite for just a couple of pans of chips in our Big Chief.
Then finished cooking it in the crockpot with just a little water. No other seasonings. It simmers in all that smokiness.....
It made the best, smoky pulled pork sandwiches. You could taste the pork and smoke without a bunch of other flavors.

We. will. do. this. again!

Deanna

Jimster, I am sad to say. Losing weight and stopping smoking have been my new year's resolutions and I've done very well with both this year. I'm down to 4 to 6 cigarettes a day and I've lost almost 20 pounds since mid January. When I've tried to lose weight in the past I just used to smoke instead of eat. Trying to do both has proven to be more difficult than I thought it would be.

But I'm sure going to make a lovely-looking corpse one day. lol

Annie: Could you please share your brisket recipe? I just bought an electric smoker 2 weeks ago, I have polish sausage that I made that I'm dying to smoke, just haven't had the time yet. But brisket is what I'm craving. I have the meat, just not sure what to do with it.

You sure can do it in an electric smoker like others have mentioned. I agree too, don't forget about chicken....turkey is one of my faves too.

Here is a good rub that I like. Another is Head Country Seasoning. Not sure if you can get it in your area or not. I would be happy to send you or anyone some if you want to check it out.

Memphis Rub

1/4 cup paprika
1 tablespoon firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons accent (MSG; optional)
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 to 3 teaspoons cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder

Combine all the ingredients in a jar, twist the lid on airtight, and shake to mix. Store away from heat or light for up to six months. Makes about 1/2 cup. Enough for 4 to 6 racks of ribs.

Cookebook, congrats to you on the weight loss and tackling the smoking too. I REALLY need to kick the Marlboro Man out of my life too.

Happy smoking everyone!

David

David, your dry rub looks good. I like to use Ancho powder & a little cocoa in my dry rub...gives a darn good suggestion of a mole on ribs & chicken. Send a couple tablespoons of dry roasted peanuts through your FP & add the peanut powder to the dry rub instead of the cocoa & you've got peanut mole!

/t

I'd like some of you to share those mac and cheese recipes, if possible. That sounds great. Never thought of doing that on the smoker.

Hi Lynn. I posted what I used & the proportions for the mac 'n cheese I smoked over on the Thunder Thighs thread. Give it a try...we thought it was really good.

/tricia

Smoked duck!

Thanks for that idea, Annie. I never thought of it. What could be better? The whole family loves duck but we don't often have it.

Jim

We like smoked meats also. My family owns a restaurant and I've smoked a lot of meats in the smoker for that. I've not tried mac and cheese or any other crazy things like that, :) but I'm up for it. One of our favorites is Cornish game hens. We either halve them, spatchcock them or keep them whole and stuff them with onion, orange and lemon and then use some sort of rub or glaze on them. Really good.

Judi

The Mac and Cheese recipe that we use was taken from All Recipes with some changes.

Added smoked Gouda cheese and instead of bread crumbs used crushed Chez It crackers. Bruce wasnt sure of the amount of crackers he used, to me it looked more than 1/2 of a cup.
Put on smoker for around an hour until bubbled and nice browned top. Comfort Food!!!

Ingredients

* 8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
* 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 3 cups milk
* 1/4 cup butter
* 2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1/2 cup bread crumbs
* 1 pinch paprika

Directions

1. Cook macaroni according to the package directions. Drain.
2. In a saucepan, melt butter or margarine over medium heat. Stir in enough flour to make a roux. Add milk to roux slowly, stirring constantly. Stir in cheeses, and cook over low heat until cheese is melted and the sauce is a little thick. Put macaroni in large casserole dish, and pour sauce over macaroni. Stir well.

I have a Brinkman smoker that I love. Certainly needs more babysitting than an electric smoker, but I enjoy it.

I like Steven Raichlen's rubs and my favorite is his all-purpose rub. I use it on brisket and pork in the smoker and it's absolutely BRILLANT on grilled steaks. I've made it up and given it as a gift several times and everyone loves it.

Basic Rub

1/4 cup coarse salt (kosher or sea)
1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
3 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

Mix and store in airtight jar.

Jim, I raised those 32 ducks last year, we had to do SOMETHING with them, LOL, so I've eaten them smoked and roasted and in cassoulet...

mrsmoosepants, Elery used Head Country Seasoning for the rub, he loves the stuff, I've got to get on the ball and order some more, we can't get it here locally. Anyway, here's what he did:

If there's a lot of fat on the brisket, trim it to about 1/4 inch. Rub brisket liberally with favorite dry spice rub. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, put it in smoker the, fat side up. Smoke at no more than 225-degrees for 5-to-6 hours. Elery uses mesquite, but I think pecan or hickory would be good too.

Remove meat from the smoker, wrap tightly in 2 layers of heavy duty foil with 1/2 cup of liquid of your choice. Elery likes beer but I don't, I'd rather he use beef broth. Put the foil package on baking sheet with sides in case of leaks. Finish in oven at 225-degrees for 4-to-5 hours.

This was really good, nice and tender and smoky, and it's especially good with some good BBQ sauce. We have only done a couple because I keep making pastrami out of the briskets and a cow only has so many pieces of brisket, LOL.

Trudy, the bacon was actually easier than I had anticipated but it has to cure for several days, so you'll have to have refrigerator space. I used the recipe in Charcuterie for the brine, and Elery smoked it over apple wood. Here's the recipe, the instructions aren't mine, I copied from another website posting, but it's just like I did it and it's the same recipe:

Maple Cured Bacon

One 5 lb. piece of pork belly, rind on
2 ounces kosher salt
1/4 C. pure Maple syrup
2 t. pink salt (a curing salt, not the Hawaiian stuff)
1/4 C. Maple sugar (mine was grade B)

Simply mix up all the ingredients for the cure (it will be a sort of yellow slurry) and spread it all over the pork belly, making sure to get under all the nooks and crannies and on the sides as well. Make the coating as evenly as possible on both sides so the whole thing has a nice coating (including the rind). Place in a 2 gallon zip lock bag and sort of fold up the sides so that the liquid that exudes from the belly is in constant contact with the meat (will take a bit of folding, the bag will be much larger than the belly), or put it into a plastic Tupperware container, which is what I do with one, but we did four, LOL. Once you've done that, throw it in the fridge (36-40 degrees) for 7 days, flipping it over every other day. On the 7th day, remove the belly from the bag and wash all the cure off. Put it on some sort of drying rack (I use my baking rack that I use for cookies ) and stick it in back in the fridge for 1 day to dry out (form the pellicle).

Put the bacon into the hot smoker and smoke until it reaches 147F internal temperature. We try to do this as slowly as possible, so we get lots of smoke flavor. The original recipe says to slice the rind off after smoking but I hadn't asked Carl not to remove it when he cut up the pig, so it was already gone.

After it's smoked, let it cool in the refrigerator or stick it on a tray into the freezer, then when it's firm, slice. It'll look like this:

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I still haven't tried that oven bacon recipe yet, where you sprinkle on brown sugar, drizzle with maple syrup and bake it, but I'm going to!

Annie

Couple of hints:

Meat surfaces need to be dry to absorb smoke flavor; or, saying that another way, moist surfaces don't absorb smoke flavor as well as dry surfaces.

Another trick: put something fatty on the top rack and something less fatty on the bottom; the fat drips onto the stuff on the bottom and bastes it. Pork roast on top and chickens below, or maybe ribs on top and something else on the bottom rack. My dad used to smoke the Thanksgiving turkey on the bottom rack of the smoker, and put a nice fat pork roast on the top. Both came out yummy.

BTW, a friend of mine is a barbecue aficionado from Texas--he only uses pecan wood to smoke stuff, and I gotta say his briskets are the best I've ever eaten. Pecan shells work fine if you can't find pecan wood.

Thanks Annie....the bacon looks awesome!

FWIW, pecan and hickory are closely related, two species of the same genus. That may explain why both are highly regarded for smoking. In the south pecan is what you have. In the north you have hickory. If you like pecan for smoking, hickory would be a good substitute.

Everyone has eaten pecans but not everyone has eaten hickory nuts. Hickory nuts have meats which look like little pecans and have a similar delicious flavor (Certain species of hickory, that is. Some species have too much of that astringent tannin.) Hickory nuts are very small, compared to pecans, and are hard to crack, which is why you don't see them marketed I guess.

Jim

Thanks, Trudy. I have to say, it's possibly the best bacon I've ever eaten and other than taking up refrigerator space for a week, it wasn't at all difficult.

Annie

Annie if we could get the bacon recipe accomplished we may think of having a 'Smoked Breakfast Fest'.

Wonder what other breakfast entrees could be made on the smoker?

Bruce really enjoys using his smoker....cuts down on my cooking.... :)

A smoked breakfast? Wow, now there's an idea.

If Tricia can do mac and cheese and I can do baked beans, I don't see any reason why eggs couldn't be made in the smoker, like Huevos Rancheros or just plain baked.

Tasso ham is relatively easy, or you could do regular ham and maybe some smokey potatoes?

Hmmm....

Annie

I would think a smoked omelette would be delicious along with smoked scalloped potatoes & bacon for breakfast. Bake off a batch of biscuits 'n cheddar & slice up some honeydew melon & I'm all over it! :)

/tricia

Ordered a Cookshack electric smoker back in April after many weeks of research on the subject, and contact with three smoker companies plus what I saw in stores to include the MasterBuilt. Settled on the CookShack and they had a scratch and dent that they sold for a discount. Seasoned it last week, and smoking baby back ribs for supper today. This sure beats running out to add wood every hour or so. Looking forward to some good Q.