Wet Spaniel

I tend not to add extra wood in the latter stages of smoking as once the the internal temp of the meat gets into the 60's it won't absorb any more smoke so I'd rather save my chips for another cook.

Steve, we have hot smoked mackerel a fair bit, I'm lucky that is have a nice spot to catch them from whilst visiting Scotland so I tend to fill the freezer when I can.  I give them a quick dunk in a basic brine and then often cook them whole and horizontal in a snowbee type hot smoker (metal box with grill you put sawdust in and place on heat source).  I'm not sure if temps and time as its a bit of a 'suck it and see' process but they get smoked/cooked quickly over fairly high heat from a gas barbie, then served still hot.  There's no exact science to how I do it, but the wife and kids love it.

It was pretty massive, much bigger than I could justify at home, I love the prinviple,on how they work with thneflames rolling across the top of the domed roof,  your oven looks pretty substantial SM, more so than some that I've seen.

I loved it, can't beat cooking with wood.

Excellent ! Was on holiday in Sardinia last year and we had a massive pizza oven in the villa, didn't do pizza in it but we roast a small,pig in it, I vowed to myself after that that there would be an oven appearing in my garden. I need to pull my finger out and get building.

13 minutes ago, Wade said:

This is the ratio for a ready-to-use cure like Supracure (0.6% Nitrite).  When using Cure#1 or 2 (6.25% Nitrite) the rate is only 2.4 g per Kg meat.

Well spotted Wade, thanks, blinking IPad and fat fingers = missing decimal point, should read 2.5g per kg

Hi Martin, from my own experience, there are only a couple of basics relating to safety if you are going to try to make a chorizo or salami, you need to use Cure#2 at the recomended rate (usually 25g 2.5 g per kg of meat) and salt content of 2.5% to 3% , everything else that goes into the mix is flavour related ingredients so you can play with those yourself.  A mix of 75% lean pork to 25% fatty pork will do meat wise and obviously the main spice needs to be paprika, but some onion powder and maybe a splash of red wine would go well. If you can find somewhere cool and airy to hang the sausages, weigh them before you hang, then keep weighing them till they lose 25%-30% weight they are done.  After you've had a go or two using a very basic metjod as above, then you can look into using starter cultures to change the PH, and humidity/temp monitoring, but to start with, keep it simple, it's not the dark art it's made out to be.  Obviously my suggested route is the 'bloke in a shed' method but it's not killed me or my kids yet.

That looks good, I was just talking to the wife (well asking permission really) about adding a couple of turkeys to the menagerie this year. Looks like one of them wil be having a nice soothing honey/allspice bath come December 

C'mon man, don't leave us in suspense..... You must have your tea really late.... How was it??  They look very good from here.

17 hours ago, sotv said:

Thanks for that Wade, will have a look around and see if I can find any larger trout.

Visiting family In Brixham next week, . I have a favourite fishmonger on the harbour front down there, so going to pick up some Mackerel and Whiting (and anything else he recommends smoking from the sea) and have a first time go at hot smoking them when I get back. 

I've just taken a few mackerel out of the freezer that we caught a few months back, they're going in the smoker later today.  If you are hot smoking them, a quick dip in brine helps take the smoke and then I like to smoke mine quite hot and fast.  I often do them in a snow bee type smoker sat on top of the gas bbq.

if you can get some herring from your man at Brixham,  have a bash at making some kippers, I made some a few years back and they turned out really well.  It was a recipe from Keith Earlandson's book and they were great fun to make, I imagine they would be even better with fresh caught fish rather than the supermarket jobbies I used 

On 18 January 2018 at 5:35 AM, Smokin Monkey said:

Spatchcock the Chicken, lift the skin

I use fingers first to lift the skin over the breast, then a spoon to get right down over the legs etc.

Then mix butter with what ever Flavours your Mother likes. 

Push the butter under the skin, use the spoon to get it right in.

Then cook as you normally would, but it will cook quicker as it is Spatchcocked.

Smoking monkey, from the look of the legs and wings in that pic the bird looks like it's been split along the breast?  When I spatchcock a bird I do it by cutting either side of the spine and keeping the breast intact.  I'm not 100% it's just the legs look to be in a different orientation 

Beer can chicken is good as it keeps the meat moist.  Open a can of beer, slide the chicken onto it and cook upright. 

30 minutes ago, Wade said:

I agree. Commercially, in the USA the use of Nitrate has been banned for use in bacon due to the potential formation of cancer causing Nitrosamines when it is cooked at high temperature. The risk though is derived from animal testing (rats) and even this is not definitive. The EU also recommend that Nitrate is not used in meat products that are going to be heat treated/cooked, however they have been unable to ban it as there are a lot of traditional regional cured products that have always contained Nitrate. 

As we also have a large daily intake of Nitrate from leafy vegetables and fertiliser residue, and as Nitrate is not required from a safety perspective in bacon (the flavour and colour is achieved through the Nitrite) there seems little point in adding it. Even though the risks are not proven it still seems sensible to avoid it where possible.

Just to avoid worrying Matt, I think the temperatures involved relating to Nitrosamines was around 300 deg Celcius, so unless he is a really, really bad cook, hopefully we will still be seeing him posting after he's had a bacon butty or two.

Hi Matt, from another new member.  You'll love the CSG.  Does your wife eat fish as cold smoked salmon is an absolute breeze to make and a real winner in my house.

11 hours ago, Matt said:

The bottom pic shows nitrate and nitrite.  

Thanks again for more advice.  There was a bit of leakage for the supplied bags, so will vac pack the next ones. 

The instructions say cure for 2 days, turn over and sit for another 2 days, but as you explained, only because it is only 500G of belly.  The day I got the itch to start the process my local butchers was closed, so I got a piece outdoor bred British pork from Sainsbury's, it is very much on the thin side, so definitely speaking the a proper butcher about the next piece, from a more porky pig!

Matt, a good rule of thumb I tend to,use is allow two days for every inch of thickness of the meat, plus two extra days for good luck.  Ive always found this works for me and I've never had what an American friend of mine calls "a silver dollar" - the disappointing circle of uncured pork in the middle of the joint when you slice it.

Matt, are both packs in the pics bacon cure?  I'm no expert but I would expect to see only Nitrite in a cure fore something you were going to cook such as bacon and a mixture of Nitrite and Niterate something you wouldn't cook such as a salami cure. im not picking fault or criticising, just thinking through my own tnought process an understanding.  Your bacon looks good by the way!!

if you talk to yout local butcher, explain what you want to do and ask them for some "thick end of belly" you'll probably have to pre order it as they may well already use that themselves and sell on the thinner ends as belly pork.  I was initially a little embarrassed asking my butcher for raw ingredients for things he already sold such as bacon and sausages etc but he was genuinely interested and after a while, I could go in with a book describing a particular cut or joint such as an American brisket and he would cut them for me so it's well worth having a word.

Looks like it's time for me to stop eating Finnebrogue bacon, and also broccoli and celery etc... Grrr!!

On 3 January 2018 at 5:02 PM, Martyn Catanach said:

Well done Mark, I love to make bacon as well , I also have around 30 chickens so do not have to travel for my eggs  

Blimey, I have 4 and they keep us well fed, I bet you must really like omelettes !!

A little bit late, but Happy New Year all

Valve90210, I'm a home brewer making all grain brews rather than kits though.  There is a beer fining called clarity ferm which you add to beer to stop it getting a chill haze. It also has very fortunate side effect that it drops the gluten content of the beer down to under the (I forget the ppm) threshold that means it can be classed as gluten free.  I used to brew for a celiac friend, make regular brews then add the clarity ferm and she was absolutely grand drinking it with no ill effects. I can't see why it wouldn't work with a kit beer - the only difference being the malt extraction has been pre-done for you, but I couldn't guarantee it - it might be worth you doing a little bit of reading up on it.  

Flavour was lovely, not too strong and the brine was mild enough to help,with the smoke but not overpower the fish.  What was really good was the texture, I've never cooked fish to an internal temp before, I did with this one and it left the texture of the fish perfect. 

Dredging up an older thread here, but as a basic, yet very universal bacons cure comprises of cure#1(Prague powder#1),salt and sugar.  I'm sure if anyone wants to have a go, we can put you right on mixes and ratios etc.  I think that making bacon is an excellent introduction into curing and the understanding of calculating safe cures.

Six hours in the smoker - sublime

I finally got around to getting my xmas salmon in the smoker last night. As with most supermarkets, morrisons were doing whole salmon at a fiver a kilo. I really need to take a leap of faith and buy one whole next time as I am always disappointed in the state of the sides when I ask for it to be filleted in store - I'm not sure I could do a bett job but at least if I'd wasn't a great job, it would be my own fault .

i use a very similar method to Wade, the only real difference is my cure mix is a little saltier at 70:30 salt to,sugar and. I like to use light brown sugar.

i have blatantly nicked your 'tilted up cooling rack in a tray' method for storing the fish during curing, it's much tidier and efficient than how I used to store mine before I read this post - thanks for that!  I also like the look of your pliers with the little Spring on them, I've been using the snipe nosed pliers on a Leatherman tool for years and every time I pull the bones, I think what a faff it is to hold the pliers with my pinky on the inside to re open them - time to replace them I think.

My last cold smoker was a 220l food grade oil drum with an bulb as a heat source.  I'm using my new electric smoker with a pro q csg tnis time round.

Having a little get togethblater today.  I did a quick brine using some black treacle and smoked using oak chips. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turned out.