The art of smoking - part 1

1 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
Almost all meats may be successfully cooked in the smoke oven
With the full smoke treatment or, if preferred, with little or no
Smoke. Some cuts will turn out better if they are cured before
Smoking.
Correctly used, the smoke oven will produce better-tasting
Meals++even from the cheaper kinds of meat++then will conventional
Oven-roasting.

Directions

SMOKING BUTCHERS MEAT

NO SMOKE ROASTING

The smoke oven may be used for plain roasting simply by omitting to place any hardwood chips or sawdust on the charcoal or other heat source. Meat cooked in this way will turn out moist and succulent.

The ordinary kitchen oven applies a dry heat and consequently tends to dehydrate meat or any other food that is cooked in it. But through the smoke oven there passes a constant current of fresh air, which contains a certain amount of moisture, more or less, according to local climatic conditions. The meat is being cooked in hot, moist air, and therefore tends to retain more of its original water content than if it were roasted in the conventional dry-heat oven. It should be remembered, then, that most of the following recipes can be varied, according to taste, by omitting the smoke treatment, but otherwise proceeding as recommended. Oven Temperatures: Long experience with the smoke oven indicates that the best results are generally obtained with temperatures not over 250 F. At these moderate temperatures, cooking is rather slow and moist, and all the better for that, since it heightens succulence and flavor. It is recommended, then, that no attempt be made to speed up the smoke-cooking process by overheating the oven. A Useful Precaution: If the oven is hot enough to cook a meat loaf or roast, there will be a tendency for grease to drip from the meat. If this grease falls on the smoke baffle, it accumulates there until the oven door is opened and fresh air is admitted, when it flares up, with possibly dangerous results. There are two ways to avoid this risk. Six inches below the oven rack that supports the meat, place a shallow pan, or a tray improvised by bending up the edges of a sheet of aluminum foil. The grease from this pan can be salvaged for use in other cooking operations. Its light smoke flavor will give an interesting touch to other dishes that have not been cooked in the smoke oven at all! Make two additional baffles of sheet metal or aluminum foil, pierced with plenty of holes. Mount one of them two or three inches above the main baffle, so that it catches the drippings. When grease begins to build up on this baffle, remove it and put the spare one in its place. How Much Is Enough?: There can be no cast-iron rules about how long meat should be smoked, because tastes differ so widely. Wherever it can be used, the best guide is a meat thermometer. Stick it into the thickest part of the meat, avoiding contact with the bone, and continue smoking until the thermometer indicates the desired degree of doneness. Bear in mind that many smoke-roasted meats tend to be rather more red than meat cooked in an ordinary oven to an equivalent degree of doneness, especially around the bone and joints. Do not be misled by this redness, but be guided by reading the meat thermometer. Pork, by the way, does not show this redness around the bone and joints. Some cuts, such as spareribs and chops, are not big enough to hold the meat thermometer. A test for these is to cut through a fleshy section and see how much red meat shows at the center, making due allowance for the expected additional redness of smoke-cooked meat. Of course, if meat has been cured, it will stay red, like a ham, when cooked, whether it is pork or any other kind of meat. Pork, as a precaution against trichinosis, should always be cooked until the thermometer shows Well Done, unless it has previously been frozen for 21 days at 0 F. The flavor of the finished meat is easily controlled. For maximum smoke flavor, give a period of cold-smoking at 75 to 85 F, then heat the oven to cooking temperature until the meat is done to taste. The longer the preliminary cold-smoking, the stronger will be the smoke flavor.

Times given in the following recipes will suit the average palate, but they may be extended if desired. For a mild smoke flavor, preheat the oven to 200 to 225 F so that the meat begins to cook at once, and remains in the smoke for a shorter time. Continued in part 2 TO ALL Submitted By DENISE LANGLOIS SUBJ HELP! - NEW SMOKER GRILL On

07-10-95

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