Cooking Class: Smoking
Cooking Class: Smoking
Flavor fanatics typically love smoked foods. From almonds and Gouda to bacon, ham and salmon, there are delicious smoked products for purchase all over the market. But you can also smoke foods at home, even if you don't own a smoker. While it's most common and most effective for things that cook for a long period of time (like ribs, chicken, brisket and pork shoulder), you can smoke just about anything, including a burger or a steak. Here's a beginner's guide to smoking with your standard backyard gas or charcoal grill:
Prep the Chips
Or chunks. Chunks will smolder, are less likely to flare up than chips and will last longer than chips, but chips will work fine if that is what you have on hand. To prevent smoking and burning, both wood chips and chunks need to be soaked before use (chips for at least 1 hour, chunks for at least 4 hours). Water is most commonly used for soaking, but a flavored liquid, such as apple juice or wine, may also be used to impart added flavor. Be sure to soak enough wood for the entire cooking process, as chips will need to be replaced every 45 minutes or so.
The type of wood you choose depends on what you're cooking. Apple and cherry are medium-flavored woods, which are great for pork and chicken. Strongly flavored woods like hickory and oak are better with more intensely flavored meats. Mesquite is an extremely pungent wood and should be used with the most flavor-filled foods, such as game.
Charcoal grillers can put soaked wood directly on their coals or place the drained chips in a smoker box or homemade foil packet like gas grillers do. To make a packet, pile soaked chips on a sheet of foil and fold into a packet, tightly sealing the edges. You can also use a disposable foil baking pan covered tightly with foil. Use a metal or wooden skewer to poke holes in the top of the packet or pan. Holes are required so the smoke can escape, but take care not to poke too many or make them too big. In smoking you need to carefully control the exposure of food to smoke (see the note on airflow below), but you also don't want too much to escape.
Set Up a Smoker
If you're using a charcoal grill, pile hot coals on one side and food on the other. If you're using a gas grill, turn off one side of the grill after preheating and place your food on the unlit side. The wood goes over the heat (the coals or the flame). In either case it's a good idea to place a drip pan filled with a bit of reserved soaking liquid under your food to prevent flare-ups. (You want smoke, not fire.)
Cook Low and Slow
Use a thermometer to ensure a constant low temperature during the entire cooking process (no less than 200° and no more than 250°). Don't open the grill more than needed to replace your wood or charcoal, as this will change the temperature in the smoker. (For this reason, a chimney starter is a must for supplying hot coals and maintaining a charcoal grill's temp.) Many smoked foods are cooked slowly for a very long time. A longer cook time means more smoke flavor, but it also helps proteins with lots of connective tissue to break down, making such tough cuts tender. While it may seem counterintuitive, it's generally not necessary to turn smoked foods, as they cook convectively rather than directly.
Go with the Flow
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, control the airflow inside the grill using the dampers/vents. You want a light smoke, not a thick, acrid, white, billowing smoke. You also want the smoke to be constantly moving around it. Opening the vents below the coals/flame and over the food often will produce the best circulation of smoke. Too much smoke directly applied to it will turn food bitter or cause a thick, oily buildup called creosote to form on its surface. This tongue-numbing substance is unpalatable and should be scraped off food before eating.
Good Question:
What is a pellet smoker?
A pellet smoker is a type of grill that self-regulates temperature, airflow and production of smoke by burning pressed wood that is automatically fed into the machine. These pellets also serve as the fuel source for the grill (no gas or charcoal). It’s a particularly hands-off device lauded for its convenience and consistent smoking results.
