Smoking Meat...
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shaunous
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Yeh it does Ferg, it also means the outside will cook before the inside, and you use more gas with a higher flame to hold your smoker temp untill they kinda catch up with each other and the pork warms up, then can turn the gas down again for the same internal temp.
I meant we cant afford to let it get to room temp for times sake. I normally wake at about 545am to put a pulled pork for dinner, or carving roast for lunch into the smoker at 6am, im not waking up at 4am to take it outa the fridge, which would be ideal, but not worth the wake-up with the results im getting.
Ideally yeh, you wanna let the meat get to room temp before smoking, not a chilly fridge coolness of 2-4*c.
I meant we cant afford to let it get to room temp for times sake. I normally wake at about 545am to put a pulled pork for dinner, or carving roast for lunch into the smoker at 6am, im not waking up at 4am to take it outa the fridge, which would be ideal, but not worth the wake-up with the results im getting.
Ideally yeh, you wanna let the meat get to room temp before smoking, not a chilly fridge coolness of 2-4*c.
I'm still learning, so probably using more than I should.shaunous said:
I pretty much filled the wood box in my Aldi smoker with a combo of dry, soaked & wrapped chunks, and got a consistent smoke for about 2 1/2 hours at 95-100 deg.
How much wood would you use in your Aldi?
Crusty
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These guys are good too & have a great range of Aussie wood smoke pellets......Aussie BBQ Smoke.barls said:
shaunous
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Im no professional either, but all up i use about 2-3cups per cook, and i add say 1 cup to start, than half than half again, or 3 lots of 1 cup, just added evenly over the first 2 hours. i get good smokey flavour, but in saying that, im probably not adding enough to brag about my smoke rings in the pork meat. But the meat is still very smokey, and I dont add sauce unless for sanga's cause the meat is flavourfull enough.SmallFry said:
the qauntities i use wouldnt even come to half of the ALDI smoke box i dont think.
shaunous
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Anyone used pellets in the ALDI/Hark smokers. Cant see why they would be a problem, but some sites say to only use chunks for gas smokers, but i dont think they are talking about the gas type smokers we are useing. Pellets would have to be ok in a tray/box like the ALDI smokers have, get more bang for your buck with them (use less per cook), they are cheaper to buy, and can fit more into a postage bag.
barls
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Forgot to mention this is the aldi smoker I use.barls said:
Also low and slow is better as it gives the connective tissue more time to break down.
Did an eye fillet the other day and that was a 5 hour cook and my daughter has been eating it as it's soooo soft
Malted
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Generally pellets will burn quicker than chunks. Whether to use pellets, chips or chunks depends on how you use them. Generally: high intensity, low duration smoke can be made form pellets whilst low intensity, long duration can be made from chips or chunks. That is over simplified because there is more too it than that but it is a good conceptual starting place.
My Masterbuilt Electric Smoker (MES) does not produce as aggressive a heat onto the smoking tray as does my Dad's Aldi gas smoker - the heat onto the wood chip tray is very high with the gas flame directly under it. 3/4 filled his tray with fruit tree trimmings about little finger thick gives us about 1/2 hr of smoke running at about 110oC. Chunks of fruitwood trunk also last about 1/2hr, smokes like all buggery and then stops. I would be inclined to wrap the smoking wood in aluminium foil and put a few pin pricks into it and then place it in the Aldi gas smoker tray to make the wood last a bit longer.
Pellets would burn too quickly if you put them on top of heat beads in something like a webber. Some folks I know who use heat beads will put chunks of smoking wood on top of them, say 10-20cm long bits of wine barrel staves. You could try the alfoil wraping of pellets on top of heat beads but I supsect that is simply too much direct heat on the pellets.
AFAIK and the communication I had with urban griller, the Traegor pellets are a fuel pellet not a smoking pellet, per se.
What I understand of this is: I would assume that when they are manufactured in the extruded pellet there would be less aromatic wood and more bulking timber in the mix. Smoking pellets would have a higher proportion of the aromatic wood. Fuel pellets are used in smokers where they are the primary heat source and due to using a large amount of them, they would impart enough smoke flavour. If you used a smoking pellet in a fuel situation like that it is likely you would oversmoke the foods. This could explain why fuel pellets appear to be cheaper than smoking pellets.
IMO it is somewhat of a challenge to smoke at low temps with the Aldi gas smoker. Certainly if you are wanting to cook food (as oppossed to a cool smoking) in the smoker it will burn through the items in the smoke tray quite quickly. The MES too can produce a lot of heat on the smoker tray (as it has an electric element almost directly under it) and at 120oC it can make the pellets catch on fire (i.e. they produce a lot of combustable gas that then ignites making a huffing noise or shoots the pellet loader out of the MES). My approach with the MES was to smoke at lower temps, say 50-60oC and then ramp up later on to 120oC for the cooking to begin. Having said that I find that the MES produces a lot of tar/blackening of the inside of the machine when I put pellets in the smoker tray. My approach these days is to not use the MES smoking tray at all. I have constructed an external, venturi style (much the same as a smokedaddy) cool smoke generator that burns pellets. I find the cool smoke going into the MES even when it is at 120oC creates less tar or blackening of the inside of the machine and IMO gives a better tasting food. I can even still see through the glass panel in the door.
You get the idea of the venturi: the smaller pipe has an aquarium air pump hooked to it and draws the smoke into the bigger pipe that travels into the MES. It has a lid on it when operating. I have a small hole just above the false bottom in it, to poke a flame from a butane torch into it to ignite the pellets. I will leave the hole open until it gets going and then will shove a bolt in the hole to choke it down a little (it still draws enough air through the gaps in the bottom sealing plate). I have built it to resemble the shape of the pellet feed tray so that it is slide in replacement for the feeder tray.
I use the prototype/proof of concept model that worked well enough to not bother building another and pump the smoke into the MES in turned off mode for cheese. My favourites so far are Colby, Havarti and Cracker Barrel but I have recently tried Kaskaval (not keen on it to begin with), Cheshire (school is out on this) and some cheese for cooking - Romano Pepato. It does not raise the temeprature of the MES much above ambient temp (a couple of degrees celsius if I run the smoke too hard) so I can smoke cheese at what ever the ambient temp is (I prefer to do it on a cool day). I might smoke for 1/2hr to 2 hrs depending upon how smokey I want it, or whether I am drinking.
Looking at the sliced off corner, you can see the colour change on the outside. It has not really made a penetration smoke ring but the flavours goes right through.
Or turned on at cooking temps for wings; the bucket is the chicken wingettes and broken down duck in brine. The smoked duck was sublime.
Ribs (dry rub then spiced rum and pineapple sticky sauce/glaze)
Fatties (the unrolled one was pork mince with fennel bulb, caramelised apple, caramelised dried apricot and caramel sauce - it is also the cooked one).
I purchased and tried an A Maze N Pellet smoke generator but found you need good airflow to keep it smouldering and this can dry the foods more than I would like. I didn't really persist with it that much TBH because I then jumped into making the venturi jobby.
Misty gully has good quality smoking pellets and can do a good deal on large quantities: some friends and I bought 10kg bags of 5 varieties recently and split them amongst ourselves. Admitedly (in terms of price) these were some of the last imported wood pellets as I believe she now stocks Australian made smoking pellets. I also highly rate her jerky cure and seasoning mixes.
My Masterbuilt Electric Smoker (MES) does not produce as aggressive a heat onto the smoking tray as does my Dad's Aldi gas smoker - the heat onto the wood chip tray is very high with the gas flame directly under it. 3/4 filled his tray with fruit tree trimmings about little finger thick gives us about 1/2 hr of smoke running at about 110oC. Chunks of fruitwood trunk also last about 1/2hr, smokes like all buggery and then stops. I would be inclined to wrap the smoking wood in aluminium foil and put a few pin pricks into it and then place it in the Aldi gas smoker tray to make the wood last a bit longer.
Pellets would burn too quickly if you put them on top of heat beads in something like a webber. Some folks I know who use heat beads will put chunks of smoking wood on top of them, say 10-20cm long bits of wine barrel staves. You could try the alfoil wraping of pellets on top of heat beads but I supsect that is simply too much direct heat on the pellets.
AFAIK and the communication I had with urban griller, the Traegor pellets are a fuel pellet not a smoking pellet, per se.
What I understand of this is: I would assume that when they are manufactured in the extruded pellet there would be less aromatic wood and more bulking timber in the mix. Smoking pellets would have a higher proportion of the aromatic wood. Fuel pellets are used in smokers where they are the primary heat source and due to using a large amount of them, they would impart enough smoke flavour. If you used a smoking pellet in a fuel situation like that it is likely you would oversmoke the foods. This could explain why fuel pellets appear to be cheaper than smoking pellets.
IMO it is somewhat of a challenge to smoke at low temps with the Aldi gas smoker. Certainly if you are wanting to cook food (as oppossed to a cool smoking) in the smoker it will burn through the items in the smoke tray quite quickly. The MES too can produce a lot of heat on the smoker tray (as it has an electric element almost directly under it) and at 120oC it can make the pellets catch on fire (i.e. they produce a lot of combustable gas that then ignites making a huffing noise or shoots the pellet loader out of the MES). My approach with the MES was to smoke at lower temps, say 50-60oC and then ramp up later on to 120oC for the cooking to begin. Having said that I find that the MES produces a lot of tar/blackening of the inside of the machine when I put pellets in the smoker tray. My approach these days is to not use the MES smoking tray at all. I have constructed an external, venturi style (much the same as a smokedaddy) cool smoke generator that burns pellets. I find the cool smoke going into the MES even when it is at 120oC creates less tar or blackening of the inside of the machine and IMO gives a better tasting food. I can even still see through the glass panel in the door.
You get the idea of the venturi: the smaller pipe has an aquarium air pump hooked to it and draws the smoke into the bigger pipe that travels into the MES. It has a lid on it when operating. I have a small hole just above the false bottom in it, to poke a flame from a butane torch into it to ignite the pellets. I will leave the hole open until it gets going and then will shove a bolt in the hole to choke it down a little (it still draws enough air through the gaps in the bottom sealing plate). I have built it to resemble the shape of the pellet feed tray so that it is slide in replacement for the feeder tray.
I use the prototype/proof of concept model that worked well enough to not bother building another and pump the smoke into the MES in turned off mode for cheese. My favourites so far are Colby, Havarti and Cracker Barrel but I have recently tried Kaskaval (not keen on it to begin with), Cheshire (school is out on this) and some cheese for cooking - Romano Pepato. It does not raise the temeprature of the MES much above ambient temp (a couple of degrees celsius if I run the smoke too hard) so I can smoke cheese at what ever the ambient temp is (I prefer to do it on a cool day). I might smoke for 1/2hr to 2 hrs depending upon how smokey I want it, or whether I am drinking.
Looking at the sliced off corner, you can see the colour change on the outside. It has not really made a penetration smoke ring but the flavours goes right through.
Or turned on at cooking temps for wings; the bucket is the chicken wingettes and broken down duck in brine. The smoked duck was sublime.
Ribs (dry rub then spiced rum and pineapple sticky sauce/glaze)
Fatties (the unrolled one was pork mince with fennel bulb, caramelised apple, caramelised dried apricot and caramel sauce - it is also the cooked one).
I purchased and tried an A Maze N Pellet smoke generator but found you need good airflow to keep it smouldering and this can dry the foods more than I would like. I didn't really persist with it that much TBH because I then jumped into making the venturi jobby.
Misty gully has good quality smoking pellets and can do a good deal on large quantities: some friends and I bought 10kg bags of 5 varieties recently and split them amongst ourselves. Admitedly (in terms of price) these were some of the last imported wood pellets as I believe she now stocks Australian made smoking pellets. I also highly rate her jerky cure and seasoning mixes.
Crusty
Well-Known Member
I'm looking for an Aldi smoker at the moment & will be doing like malted does.
I will use the smoker purely as the heat source & smoking via an external unit.
I bought a Smokai from Urban Griller. Pumps out shitloads of smoke & great for cold or hot smoking.
I will use the smoker purely as the heat source & smoking via an external unit.
I bought a Smokai from Urban Griller. Pumps out shitloads of smoke & great for cold or hot smoking.
carniebrew
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Finally breaking the seal on my smoker today. Got up early and rubbed a 2kg boneless pork shoulder, left it an hour or so then popped it in, cooking at around 120/130C. Tough work keeping the Aldi smoker at that temp, having to fiddle the dial between high and off, as setting it to low makes the smoker too hot.
Got a combination of beech and hickory pellets creating the smoke. Smells great...
Got a combination of beech and hickory pellets creating the smoke. Smells great...
djar007
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Mine sits on 90-100 on the low setting with the vent open at the back Carnie. very stable in my experience.
carniebrew
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Plenty to go around, so you're more than welcome Wolfman! It's my first ever go at smoking, and first use of this rub (dark brown sugar, white sugar, salt, paprika, garlic, onion, ginger, black pepper & rosemary), so who knows how it'll come out.
Just finished carbing up my first ever kegged beer too...shame it's a Kolsch and won't taste any good for a few weeks. I still have some bottled IPA in the fridge though...
It just hit me that my temperature tests were while I was mucking around with seasoning the smoker....I didn't have any meat in there, nor did I have any water in the pan IIRC. I will try putting the knob back on low now and see what temp it holds.
Pic at about an hour:
Just finished carbing up my first ever kegged beer too...shame it's a Kolsch and won't taste any good for a few weeks. I still have some bottled IPA in the fridge though...
It just hit me that my temperature tests were while I was mucking around with seasoning the smoker....I didn't have any meat in there, nor did I have any water in the pan IIRC. I will try putting the knob back on low now and see what temp it holds.
Pic at about an hour:
carniebrew
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Ok, newbie curiousity question...I'm following a process which has me adding around 100 grams of wood to my smoke box every 30 minutes for the first two hours. Do people empty the wood box of the burnt wood before adding the new stuff? Or just chuck the new stuff on top? I've just left it all in there.
Just found this thread, here's what I do using a Hark Gas fired.
Fill the wood box with pre-soaked Birch chips (Usually 1/2 an hour soak).
Placed prepared meat/s on there trays (Usually prepare with rubs 24 hours before).
Light the gas till temp dial gets to about 100c.
Turn gas down to fairly low.
Leave it alone for 12 hours, don't open, don't **** around with it.
Get up in morning and remove my slow roasted and smoked meats.
Try not to eat all of it at once
Fill the wood box with pre-soaked Birch chips (Usually 1/2 an hour soak).
Placed prepared meat/s on there trays (Usually prepare with rubs 24 hours before).
Light the gas till temp dial gets to about 100c.
Turn gas down to fairly low.
Leave it alone for 12 hours, don't open, don't **** around with it.
Get up in morning and remove my slow roasted and smoked meats.
Try not to eat all of it at once
djar007
Well-Known Member
I dont empty mine. Turns to ash . I am being alot more conservative with the wood as I had an over smoked chook that was a bit awful. Too over powering.
carniebrew
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I'm not bothering with soaking my wood. Have read a few of these 'mythbusting' articles over the last few weeks: http://www.amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/mythbusting_soaking_wood.html
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