Australian newbie

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stobiepole

Newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2008
2
10
Hi. My name's Chris, and I finally decided to pick up a Weber Smokey Mountain after a few years of smoking bacon and fish in a large cardboard box.

I live in Australia, where smoking is not terribly popular (at least in the Anglo-Saxon community). Probably because of a shortage of easily available hardwoods. But in Melbourne, where I live, there's a lot of smoking done in the Italian and eastern European communities.

I've been doing a bit of charcuterie for a while now, with some somewhat illicit pink salt (which isn't legal here, as far as I can tell, so I get it from a continental butcher friend). But I'm particularly interested in smoking dog treats, which are ridiculously over-priced...I get offended when I see a bag of raw pig ears selling for a buck, and smoked ears selling for a few dollars each.

Anybody making dog treats? Any recipes?

Chris
 
Welcome to SMF, Chris! Although I'm not familiar with smoking meat for dog treats, someone may be along to help you out.

Glad to have another from Down Under join our family!
 
Welcome to SMF Chris! Hmmm never made a doggie treat. I tend to feed them instead of eat them. Err..? Anyway... Pink salt is restricted? Fireworks issues? I hear they are tough over there on that... I'm an amateur pyro myself. Anyway..you'll want an expanded metal charcoal basket for the WSM. That's the biggest tweak for it. Not a bad rig a'tall.. made me $150 today at a rib contest today with one. But the Drum smoker took first!
 
Hello Chris, and welcome to the SMF.
 
Welcome to the SMF family. Lots of good folks here to help you out. Ask any questions you have and someone will be along to give you an answer.
 
welcome to the site, seems like maybe set them in the sun to dry some and when they arent very bendable , toss them in the smoker?

just quessing, but glad to have you here.
 
Welcome to the forum.

Smoked dog treats...... When I make sausage, I usually buy the whole ham (hind leg) and skin and bone it my self. Once sausage is made, I will hang the bones and some skin in the smoke house with the sausage. After smoke is done, I freeze them for either soup or dog bones. The dog loves them.
Never tried to make any other dog treats other than that.
 
My partner's in India for two months, working on the update for the Lonely Planet India travel guide. It's been a month of just me and the dog, and another month to go. With the smoker coming soon, I'm planning on keeping the dog fed until there's enough humans around to enjoy it properly...

I'm thinking that it should be possible to do some tandoori style cooking in the Weber as well.

Where I live has a very large Muslim community, often from Turkey or the Lebanon. Not so much bacon being made, but there's a wide variety of smoked beef and lamb and chicken edibles, often made on the premises. And the Halal butchers slaughter the animals themselves, so the lamb tends to be slightly better quality than the usual domestically sold meat (all the very best Australian lamb, sadly, gets exported).

A particular favourite is a spicy beef sausage called sujuk or sucuk, which I think are actually slightly different. Anyway, they're spiced with cumin and sumac and red pepper, you cut them into round slices and you cook them in a skillet for breakfast, with eggs. It's basically Muslim bacon - they put it on pizzas and so on as well. It's great stuff. I'm certainly planning to try to make some myself, just because having made something I seem to appreciate the flavours more, in the same way that learning to play a musical instrument makes the experience of listening to music different.
 
Welcome from SMF .

I used to make peanut butter cookies for my dogs but haven't in a while. I have never made doggie treats with meat in them. However there is a dog bakery 20 miles from here and they brag about their meat treats. They do not use salt in their products as it is claimed to be not to good for canines.
 
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