The other Christmas present

Roger Tulk

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3,018
Location
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
My wife presented me and one of my sons in law with Masterbuilt smokers. Now, smoking isn't a big thing in Canada, at least in Ontario, but I did once smoke a salmon from Lake Ontario. Damn that thing was hard to light up, too! (You've all heard that one before, right?) Anyway, the smoking made the fish edible, after three days, so I was a bit uneasy with my new acquisition, especially when SWMBO told me I had to hurry up to assemble it and smoke a ham and some squash for dinner. I had bought the ham a couple of days previous. It was big, spiral cut and fully cooked, so I figured not much could go wrong. I figured correctly, and everyone enjoyed the ham, although we didn't think much of the squash.

The next encounter was earlier this week, when LOML decided to have some church ladies over for dinner, and brought home a couple of racks of ribs, and a whole lot of chicken legs and thighs, and told me I was cooking them in the smoker for dinner two days hence. So, Google is my friend. I set aside six hours for the ribs, and two for the chicken. The two for the chicken turned out to be a mistake as I misread the instructions. However, I followed the instructions to apply a rub and smoke at 225º for three hours, then took the ribs out of the smoker and wrapped them in foil with a liquid of my choice (I used ginger ale) and cooked at 225º for 2 more hours. While this was going on, I sprinkled the chicken with Mrs. Dash, and put them in the top of the smoker with about 2 hours to go. I unwrapped the ribs after two hours in the foil, applied barbecue sauce, and slapped one onto the grill. I got a flame that lit up the neighbourhood. It completely filled the inside of the smoker, and sent me running into the house for a jug of water. I came back and threw the water on the flames, which immediately went out. (Note to self: keep a jug of water handy.)The rest of the cooking went without undue stress, and at 6:30 I took some very black ribs and dark chicken pieces out of the smoker, and went inside where the church ladies were sitting at the table drinking wine and having a good time. Marion cut up the ribs and put the chicken on a platter, and I immediately heard someone say, "The chicken is perfect." All my fears dissolved; the ribs were good (I wouldn't call them perfect) and the chicken was cooked just enough that it wasn't dry, and people kept throwing compliments my way. Success!

Of course, this means I 'm going to have to stand outside in any weather from now on, smoking dinner. Life would be so much easier if I had done a bad job.

Here's a picture of the smoker, and the ribs just before wrapping them in foil.

20170104_151542.jpg 20170104_151557.jpg
 
Congratulations, Roger!!!

I have an electric Masterbuilt and love it! I still have my trusty OK Joe for big jobs, but the MB is used more these days since most of my cooking is just LOML and me. Yesterday, I smoked 15 chicken leg quarters; eight with lemon pepper seasoning and seven with fajita seasoning. I brined them overnight first, then had them in the smoker for a total of 4.5 hours at 220°F. I ran the temp up to 275 for the final 20 minutes to firm up the skin. We had two guests join us for dinner, so I had three very happy women with me!
 
Roger you'll love the smoker. Never been much for bbq'ing but the smoker is another deal. Have pork loin marinating in refrigerator to make Canadian bacon tomorrow when it gets up to a decent outside temperature. I have an electric MB and love it. Set and check. Don't worry about temperature once it gets up there. Always trying new recipes for meat smoking. Would love to do salmon but here we don't got some such.
Enjoy and show us the results.
David
 
Welcome to the dark and smoky side :)

Looks like a somewhat fancier version of my smoker, been a real solid performer for ~7 years and still going strong so I reckon you'll get a lot of use out of that fellow. :thumb:

One of my favorite smoked chicken recipes is the whiskey maple glaze from the Charcuterie book (by Rhulman). In lieu of typing it out I'll lazily google it and just point you at someone else who has already done that for me. Takes a bit of planning and somewhat longer but wow is it something. I've brined the chicken for up to three days ahead of time and usually do one or two mops with the glaze during the smoking. If you're taking the time to do this one its worth doing 2 or 4 chickens ;)

https://twoyolks.org/2009/09/22/whiskey-glazed-smoked-chicken/

Now we just need to get you into sausage making, I have a real good recipe for "beirrewurst" which is basically spiced and chopped pork shoulder mixed with about 20% diced bacon stuffed into casings and then smoked (yup that's right.. smoked.. bacon.. sausage..).
 
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