Newbie with lots of questions!!!!

[julliette]

Hey....

my name is Jullie, I live in South Dakota, i just purchased a 30" master built smoker, (Hoping this is not a mistake in buying this brand, seems like all brands of smokers have lots of pro and cons).

The only thing I know about smoking, is a memory of my father building a smoker out of a old refrig, and the work he put into it. figuring out how much salt, how much sugar, how long to soak meat in brine, what kind of wood, ( he used a lot of apple and fruit woods). He was always outside watching the smoker to make sure it was giving enough smoke and etc.

He spent a lot of time adjusting his recipes, as I said he put a lot of love and work into his smoking.

What do I use for wood??? small chips? Chunks? Pellets? or a mixture of all?

After saying all that, what do recommend for my first attempt at smoking?  I know I would love to try my hand at making smoked bacon, but have read that smoking bacon is not that simple to do and takes lots of time????  My first question on this project would be, can the pig belly be with the skin on or off? and can I use a pig  belly that has been frozen??

I do plan on smoking fish, as I do a lot of fishing in summer months (to big of sissy to fish  in winter time, Burr) . do I have to use fresh fish or can it be frozen first?

Any help, tips and suggestions are very much welcomed to make my smoking experience a great one.

Thank You

 

[kathrynn]

 to SMF!  We are so glad you joined us!  Would you mind updating your profile to show others where you live?  Ya might meet some neighbors here!

Also....sign up for Jeff's E-course.  It's great and you will learn so much from it!  http://www.smoking-meat.com/smoking-basics-ecourse

Some of your questions will totally be answered in the E-Course!

If you need any help roaming around the forums....just holler!  Happy to help out!

Kat

 

[zahlgren]

Welcome! Is your smoker electric? If you have a pan to put wood in chips may be the only thing to fit in your pan. As far as pellets or dust, Todd over at A-Maz-N has some excellent products to check out, he also is a great sponsor of the site and you can easily check out his site with links from the home page. As far as types of wood to use its really of personal taste, for pork I like to use fruit woods like apple, cherry, and pecan. For beef I usually use hickory or mesquite, fish I have used both, like I said its really up to your personal taste!
As far as starters, I usually suggest something like chicken or ribs to start out with, that way its not a huge hit to the pocketbook if things don't go as planned.
You are definately at the right place, they're are so many great folks here to help! Good luck!

 

[julliette]

yes smoker is electric, thanks for the suggestion, prob ably will nstart with a chick. does chicken have to be whole or can I use half chickens?  i just bought a bunch nice chickens and due to limited room in my freezer I removed back bone and flatten them out.

 

[zahlgren]

You can do them any way you want, just keep track of the Internal Temp in the breast. The best investment I made besides my smoker of course was my Maverick Thermometer, you will find yourself not even keeping track of how long smokes take rather just cooking to your desired temps.

 

[mossymo]

Glad you joined us Julliette! :welcome1: from a neighbor to the north!

As previously mentioned, pellets and the A-MAZE-N smoker is the way to go with an electric Masterbuilt, just makes getting good quality smoke much easier than using wood chips.

Curing and cold smoking pork bellies for bacon is time consuming, but fairly easy, I would recommend a few smokes with your smoker to get comfortable with it first. Thawing out pre-frozen bellies works just fine, we always do them with the skin off.

I do not have much experience with smoking fish, but pre-frozen or fresh fish smoke just fine.

 

[julliette]

Thanks for the info, as i am just starting this adventure, all tips and hints are most welcomed.