Dick Bee

Hi all. I've got a lot of Poblano chillies that I've grown. I want to smoke them to turn them into Anchos. How long do folk think I'll need to smoke them for, and what smoker dust should I use? Anchos being  Mexican I'd think maybe mesquite? Thanks.

Sorry to take so long to reply, we've been away! I don't have cherry, but I'll get some and try it. I'm always glad to get recommendations from more experienced folk.

Update! The duck breasts got four hours due to unforseen circumstances. I seared them in the pan, then 15 mins in oven at 200c. Though I say so myself, delicious!

Thanks Smokin Monkey. Wade's brine mix was 6litres water and 316 grams of salt, (plus sugar and nitrite). The recipe I followed called for 1.5 litres water and 400gms salt! Little wonder the result was salty then! 

Wade's of course was hot smoked, and I'm cold smoking mine with the intention of pan frying it. I'll try it later, too late to brine now. For the future though I'll try Wade's brine for sure.

1 hour ago, Smokin Monkey said:

I Know @Wade is doing some Duck Breast trials at the moment.

That's interesting. If mine's not too good today I'll play around with brines and brining and smoking times myself. I've got mine in at the moment, I'm going for three hours with hickory dust in the ProQ maze.

I followed a recipe for cold smoked duck breast a coup!e of weeks ago, which called for 3hrs brining. Basically we had very expensive and salty bacon for dinner. Mrs B didn't finish hers. We cou!d'nt even give it to the dog with that much salt! I'm going to cold smoke a couple more today with no brining at all, intending to cook it straight away. Does that sound reasonable?

Don 't worry, I will Justin.

Indeed, and very nice it is too! Mine is now vacuum packed and in the fridge for a few weeks. We still have one of yours unopened. Won't stay that way for long!

This afternoon's cheese without billowing smoke looks ok! Time will tell! Duck breasts brining.

There you go. It takes two 30lb honey buckets. Ext dimensions 395 x 740 approx.

As I'm finding out! You live and learn, though I haven't actually ruined anything yet apart from my first lot of cheese which got too hot and melted!

Thanks Wade. I've got the ProQ one, it's smoking as I type! Doing some cheese. I'm planning Duck breast tomorrow! 

Justin, sounds much the same then. They probably all come out of the same factory in China.

OK, my ProQ should be fine then. I'll give it a try this afternoon. Obviously I've been overdoing it. I'm not renowned for my subtlety at the best of times 😁

Thanks folks! 

AMNPS? WSM? I keep seeing these, pardon my ignorance please, but I can't figure them out!

Quick amendment! Heat cuts out +/- 1°C. ie 39 - 41. May drop as far as 37° before heading up again. I'm considering adding a computer fan to eliminate hot / cold spots.

Honey warming cabinet is a plywood box lined with insulation board. Heating element is soil warming cables! 

I have an inexpensive Inkbird thermostatic  controller that I use to control the temperature in my honey warming cabinet as the thermostat in that is hopeless. That works well, maintains temperature +/- 1°C. (I want 40°C to liquify granulated honey without spoiling it). That should work with a reptile ceramic bulb type set up. I'm actually in the process of putting a biltong box together using this, though thermostatic control isn't needed for that.

18 minutes ago, Justin said:

What smoker were you using the pro q maze or a tube. heat out put from the pro q is really low

I was using a tube type half filled as ProQ  didn't seem to me to produce enough smoke in my incinerator type smoker. I may have been wrong! Being a beginner I wanted lots of smoke as I thought that was the way to go. I tried the ProQ again yesterday, in empty smoker as it should be adequate in a 90 litre space. Not exactly billowing but probably ok. I'll try it with cheese today, Tesco have half price offer on Cathedral City or something similar.

Guess I just got lucky with the salmon I smoked then! The temp was around 14° throughout. I was monitoring it to stop it getting too warm! I did check the weight loss, which was close to 30%.

Confused of Dover here! I know you need to make sure the temperature doesn't get too high when cold smoking. So, short of freezing obviously, why would you want to warm your smoker up?

Yes, that's what I have! My smoker must be too big for it as everyone else seems to like them!

Is that the smaller one or the bigger one? And what size smoker do you use? I couldn't get the little one to fill mine!

I used oak dust Justin. I started off with a ProQ smoke generator, but it quickly became apparent it wasn't man enough for the converted garden incinerator smoker! I swapped over to my " tube with holes in " one! Had to refill that a couple of times. I might have to get the bigger ProQ Artisan.