I bought my first smoker a couple months ago. It was a used smoker so I the first thing I did was got nice hot fire going to clean it out and to just learn how the smoker operates. During this time (a few hours) I went through two bags of lump. The thought of spending more money on fuel than on meat is absurd to me so I decided I would start burning red oak for heat (I have access to a hundred plus acres suffering from oak wilt). So now I have my nice dry red oak, no bark, and a bountiful supply of smoking wood that I bought in stores and online (apple, hickory, maple, cherry…). After doing some reading on this site I knew the first thing I had to put in my smoker was what yall refer to as a “fatty” which turned out amazing! So then I decided I would smoke something new, like RIBS! (and of course another fatty or two!!), both were excellent, so good in fact that I did the same thing for my third time smoking and again, good results.
After that I figured it’s time to move up, so I had this years venison scraps in the freezer and decided to make some snack sticks. I tried to cook them per the instructions I found online but half way through everything went wrong:
· I discovered my thermometer was not reading accurately (about 30 degrees off)
· I couldn’t keep the temperature down in the smoker without the fire going out.
· I looked like half the snack sticks in the smoker were burned (turns out later that they weren’t)
In short, I panicked and pulled it all out, shortly thereafter I realized they were still raw so I finished them in the oven. They finished cooking but they are horrible! The smoke flavor is extremely strong and bitter, they were so bad that about 10 pounds went into the garbage and the rest will be dog treats.
After a little research I know what was wrong, trying to keep a large fire choked down which created billowing white smoke. Finding the problem was easy but finding a solution raises many questions. Up to now I have been making my small fire with nice dry oak (warmed on the fire box) and I’ve been placing my wood for smoking off to the side of the fire where they smoke and smolder and do not catch fire, this is how I though you get your smoke.
Here's what I've been doing
Now, after doing some research, I’ve learned that you need a nice thin blue stream of smoke which is the product of an efficient-clean burning fire. So here are the questions I have…
1) Generally when my fire is clean burning I do not see any smoke coming out of the smoker, just heat, but regardless, is my oak fire for heat actually smoking my meat? The fire should be producing thin blue smoke, correct?
2) If I want to smoke poultry, should I not use oak for heat? People say that poultry will take a lot of smoke flavor and that oak is very strong , so is it a bad idea—should I use apple, maple or a milder wood for my fire then?
3) When people use oak or hickory for heat and want an apple smoke flavor, are the chunks thrown in the fire to burn or do you want them to smolder?
I should also note that I'm using a bandera-style smoker
After that I figured it’s time to move up, so I had this years venison scraps in the freezer and decided to make some snack sticks. I tried to cook them per the instructions I found online but half way through everything went wrong:
· I discovered my thermometer was not reading accurately (about 30 degrees off)
· I couldn’t keep the temperature down in the smoker without the fire going out.
· I looked like half the snack sticks in the smoker were burned (turns out later that they weren’t)
In short, I panicked and pulled it all out, shortly thereafter I realized they were still raw so I finished them in the oven. They finished cooking but they are horrible! The smoke flavor is extremely strong and bitter, they were so bad that about 10 pounds went into the garbage and the rest will be dog treats.
After a little research I know what was wrong, trying to keep a large fire choked down which created billowing white smoke. Finding the problem was easy but finding a solution raises many questions. Up to now I have been making my small fire with nice dry oak (warmed on the fire box) and I’ve been placing my wood for smoking off to the side of the fire where they smoke and smolder and do not catch fire, this is how I though you get your smoke.
Here's what I've been doing
Now, after doing some research, I’ve learned that you need a nice thin blue stream of smoke which is the product of an efficient-clean burning fire. So here are the questions I have…
1) Generally when my fire is clean burning I do not see any smoke coming out of the smoker, just heat, but regardless, is my oak fire for heat actually smoking my meat? The fire should be producing thin blue smoke, correct?
2) If I want to smoke poultry, should I not use oak for heat? People say that poultry will take a lot of smoke flavor and that oak is very strong , so is it a bad idea—should I use apple, maple or a milder wood for my fire then?
3) When people use oak or hickory for heat and want an apple smoke flavor, are the chunks thrown in the fire to burn or do you want them to smolder?
I should also note that I'm using a bandera-style smoker