Hi,
I'm new to the forum and to be honest have never even had smoked food yet.
I'm interested in starting out, but before I do have some questions which hopefully will not come across as dumb.
I've tried slow cooking both pork and beef in a crock pot as well as in a gas oven. I do not like any spices or seasoning other than salt and pepper and am a very picky eater so cooking my own food is usually a must. Practically all of my meat gets cooked outside on either the gas Weber or over lump charcoal and I was not happy with the results in the crockpot or the oven mainly because of smell and taste.
In the crockpot I filled half way with water and cooked for 8-10 hours on low. The meat was super tender which I loved but it had a weird smell and taste. Last night I cooked some pork ribs in the oven. I put them in a foil pan covered with foil and cooked @ 225F for 4 hours after which they didn't look too appealing and had the same smell as they did in the slow cooker so I drained the juices out and finished them @ 425F for 15-20 minutes uncovered. They still had the funny smell and taste.
I love meat cooked over lump charcoal, or even on my gas Weber so I'm hoping smoking with lump charcoal might provide me with the results I want. Super tender with a smokey taste rather than this weird funky smell and taste I got from the oven and crock pot.
So basically my questions are,
Why does the crockpot and slow cooking in the oven the way I did give this specific smell and taste and does smoking meat do the same?
Is smoking for me (hopefully it is!) , and if so how should I start? :) I currently have a Weber Smokey Joe Gold and a Jumbo Joe currently as far as charcoal goes.
I'm new to the forum and to be honest have never even had smoked food yet.
I'm interested in starting out, but before I do have some questions which hopefully will not come across as dumb.
I've tried slow cooking both pork and beef in a crock pot as well as in a gas oven. I do not like any spices or seasoning other than salt and pepper and am a very picky eater so cooking my own food is usually a must. Practically all of my meat gets cooked outside on either the gas Weber or over lump charcoal and I was not happy with the results in the crockpot or the oven mainly because of smell and taste.
In the crockpot I filled half way with water and cooked for 8-10 hours on low. The meat was super tender which I loved but it had a weird smell and taste. Last night I cooked some pork ribs in the oven. I put them in a foil pan covered with foil and cooked @ 225F for 4 hours after which they didn't look too appealing and had the same smell as they did in the slow cooker so I drained the juices out and finished them @ 425F for 15-20 minutes uncovered. They still had the funny smell and taste.
I love meat cooked over lump charcoal, or even on my gas Weber so I'm hoping smoking with lump charcoal might provide me with the results I want. Super tender with a smokey taste rather than this weird funky smell and taste I got from the oven and crock pot.
So basically my questions are,
Why does the crockpot and slow cooking in the oven the way I did give this specific smell and taste and does smoking meat do the same?
Is smoking for me (hopefully it is!) , and if so how should I start? :) I currently have a Weber Smokey Joe Gold and a Jumbo Joe currently as far as charcoal goes.