What Smokers Are The Best?

Electric, Gas or Straight Wood?

I am one to do a lot of research. Everything from grills to bike helmets, I scour the web. I used to have a Brinkmann backyard special, which was a grill and smoker side by side that shared one gas tank. The thing was a beast. It lasted me for years and I had originally bought it on craigslist, used! Last year I moved and had upgraded to a Webber Genesis grill. I had done months of research on that grill and finally decided it was worth the extra money. I can honestly say I would recommend this grill to anyone who wants a quality grill to use at least a few times a week. 

All said and done though, I passed the Brinkmann on and was without a smoker for the past 6 months. 

After a few months of research, I finally came up with a list that had some of the best smokers. My research came down to 3 for the "under $500" category. The frontrunners were the electric Bradley Original and the Smoke Hollow 38" gas smoker. The Webber Smokey Mountain smoker was my third place runner up, but I wanted the convince of gas or electric. 

The Webber was one of the top rated across the web but requires you to start getting the coals smoking before you add them into the smoker. The Smoke Hollow was praised for its decent construction and ability to seal well, letting very little smoke leaking out around the door. Lastly, the Bradley uses bisquettes, or small wooden disks, to load into a heating unit and smoke in the box without having an open flame. The unit has a heating element as well. Therefore the smoke isn't cooking the meat, the element is. One benefit of having the heating element is you can cold smoke meats such as bacon or salmon.

For safety reasons I did choose the Bradley over the Smoke Hallow. Living in the city close to many buildings, the open flame gas smoker was not going to work. Working for a seafood company, I have access to great fresh Salmon and will smoke a fillet within the next few weeks. So far I have used the Bradley twice and it has been great! One of my favorite condiments, Smoked Blueberry BBQ Sauce, was the fist victim in the smoke. After 2 hours of smoking, the sauce came out perfect! This past weekend I smoked a brisket  The entire 12 pound piece needed to be cut in half, but it came out great and was delicious! 

I will keep you updated on the smoker and products I test with it. The one precaution I would make with Bradley electric smokers in general; make sure to buy plenty of woods bisquettes in advance. Cheers!

The Culinary Chamber, Part 2 - Meats and Cheeses

What to do with your aging machine.

Now that we have our aging machine from part 1, we can move one to creating culinary masterpieces. Meats and cheeses take time to age; patients is a virtue! But, the results are well worth the wait.

I wish I could take credit for some of the Italian cured meat recipes (Coppa below) and variety of cheeses I have worked on thus far, but I can't. I will share with you 2 great books that I have use for creating these items; both I would highly recommend. The first is Charcuterie. This book goes into great detail about a wide variety of Italian meats, sausages, smoked items, sauces, cures and many other delicious creations. NOTE: this book has no photography inside and only shows sketches on some of the pages.

The second book is Artisan Cheese Making At Home. In this book, you will find everything from short term cheddars (below) to brie and multi-year aged cheeses to the recipes you can use them in. I have become addicted to trying new cheeses, but cheese is a delicate item. In part 1, I mentioned propylene glycol was needed for cheeses. When you age cheese, the temperature and humidity need to be perfect. With the freezer and temperature controller, you can achieve your desired temperature. By adding the propylene glycol in the terrarium, you are able to keep the humidity at a preferred 70% without any hassle. The propylene glycol absorbs and releases moisture to keep a consistent 70% humidity.

How about dry-aged steaks?

Have you ever been to a really nice steakhouse where they offer "dry-aged steaks"? What is that? Dry aged steaks are actually old steaks, but in a good way. Fancy restaurants will dry-age steaks by leaving large loins of your favorite cuts of beef in the fridge for 30-45+ days. The meats will form a hard crust on the outside of the loin, preserving the meat inside. The meat will become tender and more flavorful. The loin will lose much of its moisture, making the beef flavor more intense and concentrated. This leaves you with a tender, intense steak that will make store bought steaks seem like hamburgers.

Directions: Set your temperature controller to 35 degrees. Make sure your freezer is clean; wipe it down wipes or a sanitizer. Take a large 15+ pound loin (BJ's, Costco or Restaurant Depot have these, or special order from your butcher) and hang it from your curtain rod using heavy butcher string or meat hooks. I went with bacon hangers to evenly distribute the weight. You don't need to put anything on the meat, but make sure your work area and hands are clean. I placed paper towel with tinfoil under it to collect any drippings.

After hanging the loin for 30-45 days( start with 30 for a less intense flavor), you have a unbelievable steak hiding inside the loin. Start by cutting steaks out of the loin, then trim off all the outer crust (grey color) on each steak. You can vacuum seal and freeze the steaks for up to 6-12 months.

Because so much meat is removed, the steaks become more expensive. About 1/3-1/2 of the loin is wasted in the process. Hence the extremely high prices of $50+ for these steaks at restaurants. Doing this at home will be closer to $18 a steak for the same quality as those high-end steakhouses.

I recommend grilling your steak with just salt and pepper. If you want a little extra flavor, finish with a drizzle of aged balsamic or red wine reduction. Cheers!

The Culinary Chamber, Part 1 - The Machine

The best way to age and cure meat and cheeses at home!

After a short hiatus over the last month (finishing up grad school takes up a little bit of your free time) I am finally done with school and pushing out some new recipes! During my break, I purchased a smoker. The decision was tough - gas or electric. Now, normally I would never have considered electric, but my porch in the city is small and open flames are not friendly in an apartment complex.

How does a smoker help with cheese and meat aging? It doesn't; that was a tangent. Later this week my post will be all about smokers. 

So now, onto the aging machine! 

I have used this machine for about 8 months now and have had flawless results. The magical box will allow you to age beef, cure meats, age cheese or become an everyday backup fridge. The contraption costs about $300-$350 (all new) and the components are easily accessible. So what is it? Essentially it's a chest freezer with accessories. By adding a few devices to your average chest freezer from any box store or craigslist, you can become a culinary artisan right at home.

What you need: Chest freezer (I went with 7.0cu. ft.), temperature controller, small fan, terrarium, propylene glycol, and a curtain rod or 2. The terrarium and propylene glycol are only if you want to age cheeses. Don't get overwhelmed by the propylene glycol either. This item helps hold moisture and is found in cigar humidors and everyday items like toothpaste. 

Instructions: Simply hook the freezer up to the temperature controller and plug it into a outlet. The temperature controller has a copper line that will be placed in the freezer. When the freezer hits the right temperature, the controller will cut the power until the temperature rises again. Next, plug in the fan into a different plug and put the fan in the freezer to circulate the air (the fan is not in the picture, but I place it on top of the terrarium). Tighten the curtain rod to the sides near the top of the freezer and put your propylene glycol in the terrarium and place it on the ledge or in the bottom of the freezer. Your done! It takes 5 minutes to set up. 

So now what? 

Now you can start to create amazing meats and cheeses at home. In part 2 of this post, I will go into more details about aging meat and cheeses, as well as start you off with dry aging steaks on your own! Part 2 will be available tomorrow. Cheers!