Barbecue Smoker

Barbecue Smoker : I was a personal barbecue 'open flame' devotee untill I te  sted a smoker. I always over did everything because when the nosh was ready the visitors were circulating and too busy to come for another 20 minutes. So then I test run a solitary water smoker. Got the food cooking a few hours in advance of the guests arrival. Found that it's almost impossible to overcook, and uncovered the appreciation of our visitors when I removed the lid off, exposing plenty of perfectly cooked, hot, ripping, moist nosh... Well... I was converted. I now have been out there to truck do the Sunday chicken or roast in it. Sad I know but true.

What's so different about smoking? I hear you ask. Well... Basically there are three types of barbecuing - grilling, roasting and smoking. Grilling will do for steaks, chops, sausages, burgers and kebabs etc ie grub that is cooked close to direct fire; at high heat; and at once. Meat juices drip onto something hot (coals, flames, lava rock, ceramic brickets or sear plates) vapourize and caramelise the grub. Producing that recognisable BBQ flavour. Any tempreture in the air disappears past the grub and is gone.

Barbecue Smoker : Pop a lid on it though, reduce the heat and you can start to cook by that trapped hot air and also by the reflected flame bouncing off the lid. As with roasting. The sunday joint plus the benefits of the meat juices still hitting something hot and vapourising. You can background detail aroart a single rotisserie. Great for whole joints of meat, chickens etc. Roasting obviously takes longer than a single few minutes.

WithBarbecue Smoker throw on a couple of handfuls of scented wood or herbs and we are in one whole new world of aromas. Soaking them in water first (for 1/2 to 2 hours) makes them burn slower and smoke longer.

If you then go and pop the flavoured wood chips in a single pan of water and  simmer that lot, you detail 'water smoking'. You end up cooking in one succulent steam which never gets much above 90-110 degrees centigrade. The chow therefore, never has the moisture sucked out of it by the flame. In fact the meat sucks the smoky flavour right in deep. This process does line much longer than straight grilling of course! I fill up my smoker  with burgers, chicken pieces, prawns etc and come back about 2-3 hours later. Every the chow is superbly cooked. Leave it another hour and it still won't make overcooked.

  barbecue