How to smoke meat in a hot smoker

What kind of meat is suitable?

Any type of meat product is suitable for smoking at home. The main thing is that the product must be fresh. When using beef and pork for cooking, you need to consider how long the process will take at home, because each type will be smoked differently.

How long to smoke meat at home depends on its type. Smoking pork at home will take about 5 hours, and to smoke beef well, you will have to spend 2 times more.

A pre-boiled product will smoke 2 times faster than a simply pickled product!

How to choose the right meat product

In order for hot smoked meat at home, the recipe for which has already been selected, to be successful, the main ingredient must be fresh and of high quality. You must be careful and careful when purchasing raw materials. When purchasing products in a store, you may come across treatment with antibiotics and other chemicals to increase shelf life. But buying from livestock owners is also fraught with consequences, since unscrupulous sellers may not check the quality of their goods.

Basic tips:

• If you want juicy meat, pork will do. It doesn't get dry and cooks quickly. Rib, brisket, and tenderloin will do;
• the beef must have layers, otherwise the dish will come out dry;
• rabbit can also become a main dish. The advantage is that it can easily be placed in the smoker whole.

Color

This is the main parameter by which meat is selected. This is the first thing the buyer sees and can evaluate.

Things to remember:

1. Fresh beef is moderately red.
2. The pork has a pink tint, but not pronounced. Too attractive pink is a sign of potassium salt treatment.
3. Veal is similar to pork, but has a deeper pink hue.
4. Lamb can be compared to beef, but is slightly darker.
5. Beef should have a moderate amount of veining.

Advice! To check the quality, you can touch the meat with your palm; it should remain dry.

Pork ham or any other part must not have spots or other local discolorations.

Smell

When choosing a rib or breast for hot smoking, you should pay attention to the smell. Pork, beef and veal should have a light meaty flavor. However, it should not contain any extraneous sour or rotten notes. The complete absence of odor indicates that the animal was fed chemical additives to accelerate growth or save on quality food.

The biggest mistake you can make is buying a boar. When cooked, the meat will give off an unpleasant odor. However, it is impossible to determine it on the market, since in all respects the piece will not be different. In Soviet times, they took a knitting needle with them to the market, which they heated with fire and pierced a piece of meat to test the smell.

Preparing for smoking

Before smoking at home, the meat product goes through a preparatory stage - salting. How long this will take depends on the type of meat product. To properly prepare meat for smoking at home, it is stripped of veins and cut into palm-sized bars.

Preparing a marinade for smoking meat in a smokehouse is easy and takes little time. The main components of homemade brine recipes are salt, sugar and seasonings. The number of ingredients in the recipe and the use of additives to improve taste vary. For example - lemon, garlic or onion. Apple cider vinegar is added to the marinade, which reduces the marinating time at home. How long the marinating lasts depends on the ingredients used. You can properly marinate pork or beef in the following brine:

Salted water is poured into a metal container. Add spices, a glass of soy sauce and bay leaf. Lemon slices and onions, cut into rings, are placed in the same container. The solution is brought to a boil.

It can be used for cold pickling. The solution is cooled, the prepared bars are placed in it and the pan is placed in the refrigerator for a period of 3 days. How long it takes for the product to become saturated with spices and become softer will depend on the “age” of the meat.

You can cook meat products in brine. This will take about 40 minutes, but will reduce the smoking speed. The cooled meat in brine is sent to the refrigerator for several days. How long marinating will take depends on the part of the carcass chosen.

Before smoking the meat in a home smokehouse, it is dried. To do this, the bars are hung for 6-7 hours in a ventilated place. The drying time can be doubled, which will only improve the taste of the dish. Now you can take any recipe for smoking meat at home as a basis and you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.

If drying takes place in the summer, it is important to protect the meat product from contact with insects. To do this, wrap it in gauze soaked in vinegar.

Smoke without a smokehouse

There is a known simple way to prepare smoked meat at home, which you can use without having a smoker. Liquid smoke will give a specific aroma to smoked meats. You can quickly make aromatic smoked meats using this recipe at home.

Pour a liter of salted water into a basin and add 5-6 tbsp. smoke and spices. To make the color of the meat look as if it had been smoked, add onion skins. Place the meat in the prepared brine and cook over low heat for about an hour. The finished smoked meat is hung outside to dry.

Using this method, it is possible to obtain a smoked delicacy at home without fire and smoke. This smoking option is used when you need to get the product quickly and it is fundamentally important how long the entire process will take.

Hot and cold marinades

A delicious marinade for smoking meat at home is prepared according to different recipes. The marinade gives the dish a spicy taste and aroma. When choosing a smoking option, take into account how much time you have left. After all, cold smoking will take a lot of time, while hot smoking can be done literally in a day.

For hot smoking, prepare the following marinade: 4 liters. Add a glass of salt to boiling water, add 10 peppercorns, a few garlic cloves and your favorite spices. Boil the brine until the salt is completely dissolved and cool. You can marinate any meat in it, but pork is especially tasty.

For cold smoking, another marinade recipe is suitable: 3 liters. add 2 tsp water nitrite salt and 3 coarse table salt, 10 peppercorns, 2 tsp. basil and black pepper, and 5 bay leaves. Place a kilogram of neck in a tight bag and pour marinade over it. The bag is sealed with an iron and left to marinate for 5 days in the refrigerator.

How to choose meat and prepare it for smoking

You can use absolutely any product as meat for smoking. The main thing is that you can place it in the smokehouse. It can be beef, chicken, pork, duck, rabbit, etc.

For chicken, a marinade based on water with the addition of salt, sugar, lemon juice, garlic and your favorite spices is suitable. Can use coriander, basil, bay leaves and ground black pepper.

Marinade with kefir also turns out delicious if you prepare everything correctly. In addition to kefir, you will need oil, honey, spices, onions and mint.

Pork will be unforgettable with a lemon juice marinade. You can add salt, garlic, honey, oil and spices in the form of rosemary, paprika, basil and coriander.

You can also prepare a delicious marinade for any type of meat using wine. In addition to alcohol, you will need mustard, basil, salt, oil and ground black pepper.

Beef will be incredibly juicy in a marinade of apple cider vinegar, tomato paste, a mixture of peppers, paprika, garlic, salt and sugar.

The hot sauce, which is suitable for any meat, consists of water, salt, sugar, vinegar, garlic and your favorite spices.

You can also get tasty and very tender meat from mineral water. Add citric acid, onion, salt, garlic, paprika and you will be delighted!

Another simple marinade that is suitable for any meat is prepared using water. The ingredients include salt, ground black pepper, sugar, bay leaves and garlic.

If you want something especially original, we offer you a fruit sauce that will make the meat simply incredible! The composition will include kiwi, tangerines, chili, salt, thyme and rosemary.

To prepare a fresh sauce for meat, take herbs, salt, oil, lemon or lime juice, and spices. In our case it will be ginger, basil and coriander.

With juniper, the marinade will definitely not be easy! Along with it, take water, salt, garlic, bay leaves, sugar and a little wine. You'll like it!

Smoking at home on the stove

Recipes for smoking meat at home imply that the meat is smoked. It seems obvious that it cannot be cooked in an apartment. But everything is solved simply! A rubber hose is put on the smokehouse pipe, its free end is placed in the ventilation or protruded through the window. This method removes almost all restrictions on smoking meat within an apartment. Home smokehouses for gas stoves have long been invented. An interesting recipe for home-smoked meat on the stove. The preparation takes 3 days, but the taste of the finished delicacy is worth it:

dry wine – 1 glass; pork tenderloin – 2 kg; spices, bay, dill and garlic - to taste; water – 2 l.; onions – 1 pc.

The wine is diluted with water and spices, bay leaves and crushed garlic are added. Finely chop the onion and place it in the same container. The marinade is cooked for half an hour and cooled. It is poured over pork and placed in the refrigerator for 2 days. After the marinating time has elapsed, the workpiece is removed from the liquid and wiped. The product is smoked in a tabletop smokehouse on gas. The finished delicacy is kept in the refrigerator for several hours and served.

How to smoke meat in a hot smoked smokehouse in an apartment

If you live in an apartment, there is no need to worry, because apartment smokehouses have been on sale for a long time. Try cooking with us, the result is worth it!

How to cook:

1. Pour the wine into a saucepan, add laurel leaves and spices.
2. Peel the garlic and press the cloves through a crusher.
3. Pour in water, add dill.
4. Remove the skin from the onion, rinse it and finely chop it.
5. Add to the remaining ingredients and mix them.
6. Place on the stove, bring to a boil, cook for thirty minutes.
7. Then pour into a bowl or container where the meat will marinate.
8. Clean the pork and cut it into large pieces.
9. When the marinade has cooled, place the pork in it.
10. Place in the refrigerator for two days.
11. After this, remove the pork from the marinade and dry it with dry cloths.
12. Pour sawdust into the smokehouse and install meat grates.
13. Close the lid and leave the meat until cooked. If there is a water seal, pour water into it so that the smoke remains inside. If it is not there, then open the smokehouse every twenty minutes.
14. Place the finished meat for several hours, then serve.

Tip: if the sawdust is too dry, you need to spray it with water.

Smoke in an electric oven

You can always create conditions for smoking meat at home, if you have the desire to do so. A “smoky” dish cooked in an electric oven cannot be distinguished from real smoked meats. Only its shelf life will be shorter.

The product must marinate and dry. Place a deep tray filled with shavings on the bottom of the oven. Pieces of preparations for smoking are placed on a grate, which is located just above the tray with wood chips, and covered with a sheet of food foil. This “blanket” will hold back the smoke from the smoldering sawdust. The pieces are smoked for 15 minutes at a temperature of about 300 degrees.

To preserve taste longer, read about storing smoked meat

You can smoke any product, even without special equipment. The main thing is not to be afraid to experiment. As they say: “If only you have the desire and time, the skill will follow!”