Meat Smokers
Infuse Your Meats with Flavor
If you've read a lot about smoked meats or have eaten them from a supermarket or restaurant and would like to try making them at home, all you really need is a meat smoker. With a meat smoker, you will be able to smoke all of your favorite meats, such as pork, beef, turkey, chicken and sausages. You will also be able to make smoked jerky. A meat smoker will give your meat that special flavor and texture that you desire.
A meat smoker is a culinary device that gives the smoked flavor of wood or coal into the meat. However, wood smokers are the most common and popular types as there are many different flavored woods to use. A meat smoker cooks the meat slowly while the smoke surrounds the meat. The flavor of the wood slowly penetrates the meat and gives it a great and unique barbecue flavor. The basic difference between a wood meat smoker and barbecue grill is that a meat smoker cooks meat over smoking wood. A meat smoker cooks the meat very slowly in a moist and smoky environment. As the meat cooks, the smoke inside the meat smoker covers the meat and seasons the outside of it. As the temperature of the meat rises, the meat cooks and the seasoning on the outside of the meat from the wood smoke is absorbed into the meat giving it that great smoky flavor.
Once you have a meat smoker you will need to learn how to smoke meat. This will depend on the type and size of meat you want to smoke. You can short smoke, long smoke, hot smoke or cold smoke your meat. You can cure it, brine it, or season your meat with a barbecue rub or barbecue sauce. Hot smoking meat is cooking it between 190 and 225 degrees F. Cold smoking meat is usually used for cured meat such as ham and bacon etc. This method is done at temperatures below 80 degrees F. Because of the lower temperature, cold smoking takes longer than hot smoking.
You want to keep the meat moist when smoking it so placing a pan of water inside the meat smoker is a good idea. The water should be between the heat source and the meat racks but not too close to the heat as you don't want the water to boil. The racks for holding the meat can include barbecue grill racks, barbecue skewers and wire mesh. The meat can be smoked while it lies on the racks or hangs inside the meat smoker. The last and most important item of the meat smoker is the source of wood smoke as you need a constant stream of real wood smoke for smoking meat.
There are various styles of meat smokers on the market. They also come in assorted sizes, shapes, colors and, materials. There are indoor meat smokers and outdoor meat smokers. You can use meat smokers with wood chips and you can use them with coals.