Here is my story of how I became a smoke meat fanatic.
First off, I was so excited to find this site that I posted my problems, then found the Roll Call! So here ya go.
My father built a smoker when I was in school and I have fond memories of coming home on break and smoking something, Chicken, jerkey, fish. He was a mad genius in that he built most of what he used. The smoker was built from scratch with this-and-that, based on some 20 year old books on smokers. It's about 5 foot tall and 2+ feet wide and deep.
Here is the top vent, it's aluminum and was drilled out using a drill press.
Here is the propane burner at the bottom (recently replaced, see below).
Here is the whole setup with the wood chip pot:
Well back to the story!
After college I moved around and ended up in New York City. Without a smoker! As many of you know it's hard to have a smoker in the city, especially if you live in any sort of mulit-family dwelling.
My other hobby is fly fishing and I visted the Catskills many times over the years and last year my wife and I bought and refurbished a small village house in the Catskills (that's a whole story in itsef!). So now I have a place to have the smoker! Fast forward to this summer and I was finally able to ship my fathers creation to my house. I was stoked.
Once it arrived I needed to find some new hoses and fire it up on it's first smoke in almost 20 years! However I ran into some issues (well one major one) in that the smoker couldnt get hot enough. I was bummed!
So I trolled the internet and found this site, and I thought, they've gotta know how to help me. So I took some pictures and posted my issue. Within moments I had suggestions (thanks everyone!).
So after checking out everything it turns out that the single burner at the bottom wasnt operating properly and not producing enough flame. My father had several other stoves (a 3-burner, 2 2-burners and 1 1-burner) so I took the remaining 1-burner and had to head back to the hardware store for more hardware. Then I had to install the hose through the back on the opposite side. More hardware, then finally success!
Then I had to get chips, recipes, rubs, I drove my wife crazy
.
The first item on the agenda was what to smoke. Since I grew up in New Orleans and love their use of smoked meats in the dishes several things came to mind: Andouille, tasso, boudin are all staples in dishes like red beans and rice, gumbo and jambalaya. So I settled on tasso and threw in some salmon for good measure.
Finished products (sorry for the double post of pics :) ):
Salmon:
Tasso:
So now on to other meats. I want to do brisket (definitely!), ribs and jerky.
For equipment, I'm looking to get the dual probe thermometer mentioned here.
Thanks for all the help on getting me up and running. I look forward to sharing and contributing to the site.
Kurt
First off, I was so excited to find this site that I posted my problems, then found the Roll Call! So here ya go.
My father built a smoker when I was in school and I have fond memories of coming home on break and smoking something, Chicken, jerkey, fish. He was a mad genius in that he built most of what he used. The smoker was built from scratch with this-and-that, based on some 20 year old books on smokers. It's about 5 foot tall and 2+ feet wide and deep.
Here is the top vent, it's aluminum and was drilled out using a drill press.
Here is the propane burner at the bottom (recently replaced, see below).
Here is the whole setup with the wood chip pot:
Well back to the story!
After college I moved around and ended up in New York City. Without a smoker! As many of you know it's hard to have a smoker in the city, especially if you live in any sort of mulit-family dwelling.
My other hobby is fly fishing and I visted the Catskills many times over the years and last year my wife and I bought and refurbished a small village house in the Catskills (that's a whole story in itsef!). So now I have a place to have the smoker! Fast forward to this summer and I was finally able to ship my fathers creation to my house. I was stoked.
Once it arrived I needed to find some new hoses and fire it up on it's first smoke in almost 20 years! However I ran into some issues (well one major one) in that the smoker couldnt get hot enough. I was bummed!
So I trolled the internet and found this site, and I thought, they've gotta know how to help me. So I took some pictures and posted my issue. Within moments I had suggestions (thanks everyone!).
So after checking out everything it turns out that the single burner at the bottom wasnt operating properly and not producing enough flame. My father had several other stoves (a 3-burner, 2 2-burners and 1 1-burner) so I took the remaining 1-burner and had to head back to the hardware store for more hardware. Then I had to install the hose through the back on the opposite side. More hardware, then finally success!
Then I had to get chips, recipes, rubs, I drove my wife crazy
The first item on the agenda was what to smoke. Since I grew up in New Orleans and love their use of smoked meats in the dishes several things came to mind: Andouille, tasso, boudin are all staples in dishes like red beans and rice, gumbo and jambalaya. So I settled on tasso and threw in some salmon for good measure.
Finished products (sorry for the double post of pics :) ):
Salmon:
Tasso:
So now on to other meats. I want to do brisket (definitely!), ribs and jerky.
For equipment, I'm looking to get the dual probe thermometer mentioned here.
Thanks for all the help on getting me up and running. I look forward to sharing and contributing to the site.
Kurt
