Wade

Yes I use one of the Wifi versions to control the temperature in my cold smoking cabinet. It works well and I can monitor the temperature from my phone anywhere I have Internet connectivity - including mobile data. Cheap and effective. Setting it us was a challenge though until i watched someone else do it on YouTube. The default automatic paring from the App does not work. To get around this simple use the manual paring method and it is done in seconds.

Hi Bandit. As you are just starting up please send me a private message with your name and address and I will send you a bacon making kit and a pack of Cure#1. I am trying to encourage people who are new to curing and so there will be no charge. The bacon making kit has a ready mixed cure that you use directly on the pork (full instructions included) and the cure#1 will be ready for when you take the next steps. Cheers Wade

Are you looking to begin your bacon making or have you been doing it for a while? I am not a great fan of Supracure as it contains both Nitrate as well as Nitrite. At least they are now recommending that it only be used at a rate of 3% - their original rate produced bacon that was way too salty and delivered twice the commercially permitted maximum of Nitrite. I suggest that you use their Cure #1 and use it to mix your own cure https://www.weschenfelder.co.uk/professional-weschenfelder-cure-no-1-500g.html Wade

Yes - it is all about getting the water out quickly. Most meats are ~70% water - though a proportion of it is bound to proteins etc and cannot easily be removed. It is the free water that the bacteria needs in order to grow and so one of the aims of curing is to reduce this to a point where there is insufficient present for bacteria/spores to thrive. The full curing process is a combination of water removal, addition of salt and managing the acidity (pH) With the water, you either remove as much of it as possible or you bind it so that it isn't available for the bacteria to use. Often curing involves both. If you are interested in the science a good explanation can be found here https://www.safefood360.com/resources/Water-Activity.pdf and also in the Woodsmoke Forum introduction to curing section here. Your Duck breasts will be about 72% water and the salt in the cure you added could reduce this by up to 15-25%. When I am curing trout the curing salt/sugar mix can release up to 500ml of water from 3 or 4 fish - even more from Salmon. Wade

I had a similar experience recently from Sainsburys. They appear to be cutting the whole single breasts into two and then labeling one breast as a "meal for two".

They look very tasty. The ProQ smokers are good for low and slow and give great results What rub did you use on your ribs and how long did you smoke them?

Yes, air dry them separately as it will allow them to lose moisture more efficiently.

The idea is to have a sandwich with the bottom fillet skin side down and the top fillet skin side up. One quarter of the salt underneath, half the salt in the middle (the two meat surfaces) and the last quarter on top.

There are so many different recipes for air drying and cold smoking duck. Unfortunately most of them result in an a product that is so salty that, even in thin slices, I find it unpalatable. The one in your link uses relatively little salt. I have not tried this recipe however I would be worried that the molasses would detract from the flavour of the duck itself. Also, from experience, you will notice little or no difference between using PDV salt against standard cooking salt. PDV salt is used mostly for things like seawater aquariums or salt purified pools and hot tubs - where other trace quantities of impurities will affect animals or degrade chlorine generators. There is nothing to stop you using it but I would not waste my time buying it for curing fish/meat. One recipe I have used and have enjoyed the final product is one from a book called "Smoking, Curing and Drying" by Turan T. Turan. He sometimes attends the UK BBQ competitions. This method I used is as follows - slightly adapted: 2 x Duck breasts (skin on) each weighing approximately 350 g 50 g sea salt 3 sprigs of thyme 5 Juniper berries 1 Tbsp orange zest Weigh each of the duck breasts. Grind one third of the salt with the thyme and juniper in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Grind to a fine powder. Empty into a bowl and add the remaining salt. Mix well. Separate into 3 piles - 1 x half of the mix and 2 x quarter of the mix. sprinkle a quarter of the mix into the bottom of a non-reactive container. Place the first duck breast skin side down on the cure. Spread half of the mix over the skin sides of both the first fillet and the second. Place the second fillet on top of the first with the skin side up. Sprinkle the remaining cure on top of the skin of the upper fillet. Cover the container with clingfilm and refrigerate. Aster about 18 hours remove the duck fillets and rinse well under cold running water. Pat dry with kitchen towel. Air dry by wrapping in muslin and tying or by using a dry aging bag. Leave to air dry in the refrigerator for 2 weeks - until the weight has reduced by 15-20% They can then be smoked for 4 hours in the smoker, ensuring that the temperature does not exceed 30 C Leave wrapped in clingfilm in the fridge for 24 hours before slicing and eating. It will then keep in the fridge for about a week.

I have a 700 Litre stainless steel freezer that would make a great cold smoker. It is almost identical to the one that I converted and use as my commercial cold smoker. It has been a trusty freezer for some time but has been treated well and some of the original white shipping surface protection hasn't even been removed yet. I don't want anything for it but if you want it you will have to come and collect it. Cheers Wade

Have replied to your question here Cheers Wade

Hi Agatha and welcome to the forum Often the choice of smoker is down to an individual and, with regards to the end product, either of the ones that you mention will produce great BBQ. The main difference is often the skill of the person doing the BBQing (meat preparation, rub selection, coking times etc). Both of these brands are widely used at professional BBQ competitions, however so is the ProQ Excel. Often a competition team will have more than one brand of smoker running at the same time. WSMs and ProQs in adjacent stands at BBQ competition The Bristol Drum, ProQ and WSM are all good for maintaining temperature control however there are differences when it comes to ease of use - mainly when it comes to getting access to the fire and the food. With the Bristol Drum smoker all access is from the top and in order to get to the lower cooking grate you have to remove the top grate with whatever is cooking on it. To get to the fire basket you first have to remove both cooking grates. On the positive side it is a very simple design with few moving parts and minimal opportunity for leaking seals. These are generally the most fuel hungry smokers. The Weber Smokey Mountain gives you more flexibility when accessing the fire basket as the main smoker body lifts off to give access. Limited access for adding more coals is also available during the cook through the large side access door. Because the main cooking chamber is a single barrel though, in order to get effective access to the food cooking on the bottom cooking grate you first have to remove whatever is cooking on the top grate. As with most Weber products the quality of manufacture is great and the seals between the base, main chamber and lid are good. The door seals well too and if you do find that over time there is some leakage this is easily rectified with some self adhesive stove rope. The ProQ Excel is a similar general design to the WSM however the cooking chamber comes in two round sections that are firmly held together by spring clips. There are doors at both grate levels giving limited access to each cooking grate from the side. The modular rings construction though allows the main cooking chamber to be opened at multiple levels giving direct access to the fire basket and also to the food cooking on either of the cooking grates. Build quality is also good and, as with the WSM, any slight seal leakage over time can be easily rectified using stove rope. There are others like, the Fornetto Razzo, which have recently come onto the UK market. The Razzo has a very similar design to the ProQ. Some members here have them but I have not used one and so cannot vouch for their build quality. I have seen them on display in a garden centre and it looked to be good. Which one to go for? That is the question... I have used the drum smoker, WSM and ProQ with equally good results. Personally I prefer the ProQ as the greater flexibility makes it considerably easier to use. A possible perceived "down side" with the ProQ is that the diameter is only 50cm (19.6 inches) whereas the Bristol Drum is 21.5" and the WSM is 22.5". Don't let this worry you though as these are all BIG cooking beasts. Unlike a grill BBQ, where you may want an extra few square centimetres for those extra couple of sausages, when smoking large lumps of meat (including brisket and meaty ribs) in a vertical smoker that is not an issue. I hope this helps

Yes it is a very capable entry level smoker. I have used several of them over the last couple of years for BBQ training courses. The temperature management is good and they are good for both hot and cold smoking. The only limitation is the size of the cooking racks. They size is fine for brisket, pulled pork, chicken etc. however you will need to cut a full rack if meaty ribs in half or cook them as a coil on edge. This is not a problem, merely an inconvenience. They are more than big enough to smoke the meat for a good size meal for a family and friends.

Kielbasa is a good sausage to start with. Lots of variations of the recipe to choose from and straightforward to make. Tastes great too.

Hi Edward and welcome to the forum. The ProQ smoker us an excellent place to start. It is versatile and easy to use. Before you use it for the first time look through the site for "Minion" to find out more about how best to control the temperature and you will be set to go. If you still have any credit available from the Bank of SWMBO you might see it would also stretch to a twin probe digital thermometer... she will enjoy the food you cook even more in the knowledge that you have all the equipment you need 😎

It looks good and I am sure it will do a great job. The first couple of times you use it I would pop a couple of digital thermometer probes in (one at the top and the other at the bottom) to see what kind of temperature gradient you are getting with the smoke generator lit. The small ProQ maze smoker creates less heat than the Amazon pellet generator however it can cause a confined space to warm up quite quickly. The thin walls of the smoke chamber will hopefully dissipate this effectively. Looking forward to seeing how you get on with it 👍

Welcome to the forum Sean 👍

That sounds good. 70 F (21 C) is the perfect temperature for cold smoking salmon. 75 F (24 C) is at the top end. Make sure you have a good air flow through the smoke chamber too. The smoking process is all about removing the water from the fish and this is done by passing warm air (including smoke) over the fish to dehydrate it.

You do not need to use a lot of the cure. For a single side of salmon just make a mix if 250g salt and 250g sugar and mix well. Wash the salmon fillet and allow to drain dry for a few minutes. Cover both sides of the salmon with the mix and then lift it up and shake gently. What remains on the salmon surfaces is sufficient. Dont forget to place it on a wire rack in the fridge to cure to allow the brine produced to drain away. This prevents the final salmon from becoming too salty.

Leave it in the fridge for 24 hours then rinse it off well. Wrap it back in film or vac pac and it can stay in the fridge for another 24 hours or so before smoking.

Yes, they were relocated to a brand new building as part of the London Olympics construction. I used to go to college in that area 40 years ago and it was an area you did not want to walk around alone at night. What a transformation... it is a lovely area now. I learned my smoking and slicing from Daren - here he is being challenged to a salmon slicing contest by Gordon Ramsey

It is always good to start the day with a smile 😃

You need to talk to James at https://www.smokewoodshack.com/. Tell @Smokewood you are on Woodsmoke Forum and he will advise you of the best sawdust to buy for your pellets.

BTW. The burgers I cooked were wagu burgers from Bookers. I have generally not been impressed with the wagu burgers I have eaten in restaurants over the years or have bought from supermarkets... but these were AMAZING. I would thoroughly recommend them.

It also does great smoked nuts. For some reason Cookshack seem to have inadvertently forgot to mention this in their advertising literature... think of all those additional sales they have been missing out on... 😄