Hi Again Everyone,
As we do every year, we took a week off last week and headed up north for vacation, and to celebrate our daughters birthday.
As it turns out there are quite a few people in the family(s) who have dabbled in smoking with most having used old refrigerators that were modified to become smokers. They've only ever done fish from what I gather, so my wife and I decided to whip up a batch of ABT's for the birthday party.
We had about twenty four people out at the cottage (including kids) and I did two dozen ABT's with the idea that everyone would get to sample them... since we didn't have a smoker per say, we ended up using my father in laws machine... which as it turns out wasn't a smoker either.
This "smoker" was some kind of dehydrating contrpation that was purchased at an MNR auction a couple of years ago... apparently the Ministry used to dry leaves out in it... who knows what they did with dried leaves...
Anyway, it worked out pretty good... it was almost like a small fridge type thing and it was well sealed with a vent at the top. Since it was electric we controlled the temperature with the dial on the front and built a small pile of wood in the bottom. We ended up using some Maple that was kicking around and some Apple. My in-laws have about twenty apple trees in their yard.
Well needless to say things went really well... all the adults were able to try the ABT's, unfortunately the kids were deprived of sampling the delicacies (they were too busy swimming) that day, so I whipped up another small batch the next day. What a hit the ABT's were... absolutely EVERYONE was asking where I learned to make them, what else I smoked, etc., etc.
I pointed everyone to this site, but there are only two or so people in the familiy who have computers, so I'll have to print some recipes and techniques out for them to try.
I wish I had some taken some pictures, some of you probably would've got a kick out of this dehydrating thingamajig. We ended up doing a couple of chickens in it when my mom came out for a night too... they weren't nearly as good as the one I had done at home, but tasty nonethe less. I didn't get to brine them, so I'm not sure if that was the difference, but they just didn't seem to have the smokey flavour that ours did. We also ended up doing some sausages that were also a big hit... it seems like you just can't go wrong with the smoking!
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks again for all the help. My wife asked last night what I planned to smoke this weekend... we're addicted :D
Take care!
As we do every year, we took a week off last week and headed up north for vacation, and to celebrate our daughters birthday.
As it turns out there are quite a few people in the family(s) who have dabbled in smoking with most having used old refrigerators that were modified to become smokers. They've only ever done fish from what I gather, so my wife and I decided to whip up a batch of ABT's for the birthday party.
We had about twenty four people out at the cottage (including kids) and I did two dozen ABT's with the idea that everyone would get to sample them... since we didn't have a smoker per say, we ended up using my father in laws machine... which as it turns out wasn't a smoker either.
This "smoker" was some kind of dehydrating contrpation that was purchased at an MNR auction a couple of years ago... apparently the Ministry used to dry leaves out in it... who knows what they did with dried leaves...
Anyway, it worked out pretty good... it was almost like a small fridge type thing and it was well sealed with a vent at the top. Since it was electric we controlled the temperature with the dial on the front and built a small pile of wood in the bottom. We ended up using some Maple that was kicking around and some Apple. My in-laws have about twenty apple trees in their yard.
Well needless to say things went really well... all the adults were able to try the ABT's, unfortunately the kids were deprived of sampling the delicacies (they were too busy swimming) that day, so I whipped up another small batch the next day. What a hit the ABT's were... absolutely EVERYONE was asking where I learned to make them, what else I smoked, etc., etc.
I pointed everyone to this site, but there are only two or so people in the familiy who have computers, so I'll have to print some recipes and techniques out for them to try.
I wish I had some taken some pictures, some of you probably would've got a kick out of this dehydrating thingamajig. We ended up doing a couple of chickens in it when my mom came out for a night too... they weren't nearly as good as the one I had done at home, but tasty nonethe less. I didn't get to brine them, so I'm not sure if that was the difference, but they just didn't seem to have the smokey flavour that ours did. We also ended up doing some sausages that were also a big hit... it seems like you just can't go wrong with the smoking!
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks again for all the help. My wife asked last night what I planned to smoke this weekend... we're addicted :D
Take care!
