Smoker/Smoking foods

SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I’ve smoked salt and cheese in a very small smoker and the heat from the pellets doesn’t melt the cheese. It made it soft but it reverted back to its original consistency once fully chilled.
The salt was rock salt and didn’t need any special treatment and the cheese just needed turning to get the smoke flavour n colour through all sides.
The cream cheese was really, really good.
Cheese really doesn’t need long at all. In fact I over smoked some of it because it was done so quickly, the feta ended up with too strong a taste.

Next time I’d let the salt go for more than 3 hours. On my initial run I just tasted it and stopped when I thought it tasted smokey enough but it goes in a salt grinder and once ground fine it’s not so pungent.

For a while Ocado (a supermarket) sold smoked water at £7 for a small bottle. Apparently it’s a very effective way of getting natural smoke flavour into soups n stews. Next time I use the smoker I’m going to put some water in there too and see how that goes.

Here’s the salt I smoked. I just put it on a tray and moved it about every now and then. As you can see it takes on the smoke flavour very well.
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I’ll see if I can find the YouTuber who I used as a guide on the cheese. She is using the ninja wood fire to smoke but I don’t see there’s much difference. I like the way she does it in different ways and then comments on the different outcomes. Her voice can be a weeny bit irritating but I think she’s worth it for the info.

The further away you place the foods from the smoker box the safer it is from melting so a big box can be much better. I know I’ll be smoking butter when I have a larger one.

JAS_OH1 maybe you could try out a single block of cheese along side the next thing you’re smoking, won’t seem a great loss then if it goes wrong 🤷‍♀️
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We generally do smoked meats at around 225-240F depending on the outside temperature. The smoker has 3 racks and it isn't huge but it's a good size. I hate the idea of firing it up for a block of cheese, so yeah, it would be great to smoke it in with something else, but wouldn't it melt at 240F? Also, would cheese pick up the flavors from the pork/turkey/whatever? Not that it would be a bad thing unless the "whatever" was fish...
 
JAS_OH1 said:
We generally do smoked meats at around 225-240F depending on the outside temperature. The smoker has 3 racks and it isn't huge but it's a good size. I hate the idea of firing it up for a block of cheese, so yeah, it would be great to smoke it in with something else, but wouldn't it melt at 240F? Also, would cheese pick up the flavors from the pork/turkey/whatever? Not that it would be a bad thing unless the "whatever" was fish...
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Ah well if you’re not cold smoking then yes and yes!
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Ah well if you’re not cold smoking then yes and yes!
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Right, we are fairly new to the smoking foods game as I bought the smoker for DH for his birthday 3 years ago and it took him 6 months to get around to using it the first time. So far we haven't expiremented with any cold smoking, but the cheese and salt both sound like a good idea. With salt my biggest concern was if I were to smoke it with something else that had moisture in it, would it melt the salt?
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Right, we are fairly new to the smoking foods game as I bought the smoker for DH for his birthday 3 years ago and it took him 6 months to get around to using it the first time. So far we haven't expiremented with any cold smoking, but the cheese and salt both sound like a good idea. With salt my biggest concern was if I were to smoke it with something else that had moisture in it, would it melt the salt?
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I very much doubt it, smoke is very drying but I couldn’t give any guarantees on that.
So far in-spite of there being an awful lot of info out there that makes it sound like a complicated art form (bring on the BBQing men and their p*ssing contests 😂) it’s all been a very straight forward and successful process.

I think the thing I’ve been least impressed with is smoking pizza. It’s in there for 2 ½ mins, way too quick to actually grab any smokey flavour.

When if comes to cold smoking I’m not confident enough to smoke and then store raw fish or meat again before cooking. Consciously I know the smoke is supposed to kill everything but I find myself just going on to cook it.

When I go on my days smoking course I’m hoping to get the clarification I need to put that question to bed once n for all.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I very much doubt it, smoke is very drying but I couldn’t give any guarantees on that.
So far in-spite of there being an awful lot of info out there that makes it sound like a complicated art form (bring on the BBQing men and their p*ssing contests 😂) it’s all been a very straight forward and successful process.

I think the thing I’ve been least impressed with is smoking pizza. It’s in there for 2 ½ mins, way too quick to actually grab any smokey flavour.

When if comes to cold smoking I’m not confident enough to smoke and then store raw fish or meat again before cooking. Consciously I know the smoke is supposed to kill everything but I find myself just going on to cook it.

When I go on my days smoking course I’m hoping to get the clarification I need to put that question to bed once n for all.
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I don't care for cold-smoked fish, even when I purchase it. I find it slimy. I always liked hot-smoked so that's what I buy if I want to make bagels with cream cheese, capers, and smoked fish, but if I can't find hot-smoked and purchase cold-smoked, I will put the fish on the top of the bagel half and put it in the toaster oven to cook for 2 minutes.

I really want DH to branch out and start doing this on his own without my help. I don't mind doing the brining but if he could do some research on his own and come up with his own ideas it would be great. I just want him to get more involved with meals beyond just eating what I make for him. I do get a bit tired of not having any help in the kitchen, although I do enjoy doing it. I always wanted to be like those sweet couples who I see in the grocery store looking at produce and meat together deciding what they will cook...TOGETHER. That's probably never going to happen in my world, at least not very often. Sigh.

Edited to ask about the pizza...I don't have a pizza oven, I wonder if cranking up the smoker to a high heat with some wood in it and cooking pizza would work well?
 
JAS_OH1 said:
I don't care for cold-smoked fish, even when I purchase it. I find it slimy. I always liked hot-smoked so that's what I buy if I want to make bagels with cream cheese, capers, and smoked fish, but if I can't find hot-smoked and purchase cold-smoked, I will put the fish on the top of the bagel half and put it in the toaster oven to cook for 2 minutes.

I really want DH to branch out and start doing this on his own without my help. I don't mind doing the brining but if he could do some research on his own and come up with his own ideas it would be great. I just want him to get more involved with meals beyond just eating what I make for him. I do get a bit tired of not having any help in the kitchen, although I do enjoy doing it. I always wanted to be like those sweet couples who I see in the grocery store looking at produce and meat together deciding what they will cook...TOGETHER. That's probably never going to happen in my world, at least not very often. Sigh.

Edited to ask about the pizza...I don't have a pizza oven, I wonder if cranking up the smoker to a high heat with some wood in it and cooking pizza would work well?
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Cold smoking fish isn’t necessarily just for cold smoked fish - that’s sounds like a total contradiction doesn’t it 😂
You cold smoke first to give a good long exposure to the smoke flavours before cooking at a higher temp.

With fish for example smoking it only while cooking it doesn’t give a very strong smoke flavour because it doesn’t take long to cook. So you cold smoke and then cook it increase the smokiness. Hope that makes sense!

My other half isn’t interested in cooking either. It would be a nice thing to share and he does take a bit of interest when we’re in Spain but in the UK toast and something from the freezer on tray in the oven (think something breaded and chips) is about his limit. So I get what you mean.

If the smoker get up to a decent temp I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. You’d probably still be faced with it not being in there long enough to get a lot of the smoke flavours. Using smoked toppings and smoked cheese as well though, I bet that would be nice.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Cold smoking fish isn’t necessarily just for cold smoked fish - that’s sounds like a total contradiction doesn’t it 😂
You cold smoke first to give a good long exposure to the smoke flavours before cooking at a higher temp.

With fish for example smoking it only while cooking it doesn’t give a very strong smoke flavour because it doesn’t take long to cook. So you cold smoke and then cook it increase the smokiness. Hope that makes sense!

My other half isn’t interested in cooking either. It would be a nice thing to share and he does take a bit of interest when we’re in Spain but in the UK toast and something from the freezer on tray in the oven (think something breaded and chips) is about his limit. So I get what you mean.

If the smoker get up to a decent temp I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. You’d probably still be faced with it not being in there long enough to get a lot of the smoke flavours. Using smoked toppings and smoked cheese as well though, I bet that would be nice.
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Why is lox so slimy then? It's got an awful mouthfeel. I always assumed it was cold-smoked and cured but not cooked, much like some other cured meats.

We've had good luck with hot smoking salmon, it gets an incredible smoky flavor without doing a cold smoke first.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Why is lox so slimy then? It's got an awful mouthfeel. I always assumed it was cold-smoked and cured but not cooked, much like some other cured meats.

We've had good luck with hot smoking salmon, it gets an incredible smoky flavor without doing a cold smoke first.
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I’m not sure if we’re talking at cross purposes or I haven’t explained things very well 🤷‍♀️
If it’s slimy it’s probably not cooked and is cold cured.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Why is lox so slimy then? It's got an awful mouthfeel. I always assumed it was cold-smoked and cured but not cooked, much like some other cured meats.

We've had good luck with hot smoking salmon, it gets an incredible smoky flavor without doing a cold smoke first.
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Slimy on a protein/meat is the enzymes breaking it down. Ever pull an out of date piece of meat from the fridge and it's got that slimy rainbow sheen on it? That means something else is digesting it. All of that will, really, wash off since it's layer thing. Get it squeaky clean and you're good.
 
Barriehie said:
Slimy on a protein/meat is the enzymes breaking it down. Ever pull an out of date piece of meat from the fridge and it's got that slimy rainbow sheen on it? That means something else is digesting it. All of that will, really, wash off since it's layer thing. Get it squeaky clean and you're good.
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Yeah, but I like fish that flakes apart and lox doesn't until it's cooked. It's just as easy to hot smoke it or buy hot smoked if they have it at the grocery stores.
 
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