New Smoker...need help with wood chips

[Alix]

Hey all, I got a little electric smoker for Christmas. I'm so excited! And I have my first batch of salmon in there smoking right now. My question is about the wood chips.

My smoker came with a bag of alder chips that I have been using to season the smoker and am using to do the salmon. However, I got a box of pressed wood chip disks as a gift too. I'd like to use these as well, but I'm not sure how that would work. Should I just put those in the chip pan as is or should I break them up to use them. Thoughts?

 

[Fincher]

you can put them in whole.. if its the disks I'm thinking of, they are built for the timed smokers. you load them up like bullets in a magazine on the side of the smoker. The smoker will toss them into the fire at timed intervals. That way you can smoke all day without having to fidget with the smoker.

of course if I'm home smoking I rather enjoy the "fidgeting" what else are you going to do while drinking some beer

as far as normal use they work just like chips, I've used them on my stove top smoker at the restaurant.

Some people are worried about pressed chips much in the same was as pressed charcoal. the fact that there is some glue that might be harmful. Thats why alot of people recomend natural charcoal as opposed to the pressed briquettes. I don't think there is anything to worry about. I've been using pressed chips for years and nothing is wrong with me. Of course my invisible elephant friend will tell you otherwise.

 

[Alix]

They have TIMED smokers? Geez! I'm just starting out with this...so much to learn! OK, so you think it would be OK for me to just load up the little chip pan with the pellets as is, I don't need to break them up to use them? I'm good with that.

 

[Fincher]

you can break them up if you want, it might be a great stress reliever! the ones I used were rather small, about the width of the bottom of a canadian beer bottle

can you post a pic of your smoker? I'd love to see it. The one I have back in Georgia is a charcoal one that I converted to gas. ( I put it on bricks above a turkey/fish fryer)

 

[Alix]

I haven't taken pics yet, but I will see if I can find one online. One sec.

True North Electric Food Smoker - Yahoo! Canada Shopping

Sorry, best I could find.

 

[Fincher]

hey small world, my wife is in mental health. She has her masters and is a therapist in Ontario. She does a lot of baking, in fact thats what all my neighbors got for Christmas from us. Chocolate mint cookies and caramel squares.

 

[Fincher]

oh I see now,, that pretty much cold smokes eh? espeacially if you keep it outside now, lol

you should make your own bacon!!!!!!! that would be great. I'm making some at work, but I only have a hot smoker. so basicly I'm making pancetta.

after you make your salmon get some pork belly, homemade bacon rules. and since you have your own smoker you can make your own double smoked bacon! not to mention just regular bacon with REAL smoke. so many companies use fake smoke now,,

wow I'm excited and its not even my smoker

 

[Alix]

OMG!! My own bacon!!! Holy crap, I'm drooling. Yes its a cold smoker, and it was 0 yesterday but -10 right now dang it! I suspect I'm going to be smoking this salmon a LOOOOOONG time!

(LOL to the small world thing, bet your wife is busy this time of year!)

OK, so I have a list going of things I want to smoke. Salmon was first on the list, and jerky is next up. I have now added bacon to my list. (Pork belly huh? Safeway?) Any other suggestions? I'm open and have two weeks to party before I go back to work.

 

[Fincher]

Smoked tomato jam!! one of my most popular condiments at work.. Goes great with our bar food. Burgers and things. also great on salmon or chicken

clean and slice some tomatoes so they are in 1 inch disks. smoke them for about 30 minutes (more or less depending on your smoke likes) You'll need about 10-13 tomatoes (the riper the better)

while they are smoking chop one sweet onion and in a processor mince 10 cloves of garlic, and three shallots. sweat all of this down in a heavy bottom sauce pot. then add your smoked tomatoes along with about 1 cup red wine vinegar and 2 cups sugar, and one ground chipolte pepper ( or teaspoon of chipolte in adobo) simmer mixture until thick. lighly puree with stick blender and allow to cool. It should get rather thick. If you know how to make jams this part should be old hat. You'll know if you need to add more sugar or reduce more.

this is a great condiment. also mixes well with mayo for a sandwich topper.

 

[Alix]

YUM!!! that sounds fantastic! C&P!!!!

 

[MJK]

You might want to try smoking some cheese. Just remember it only takes about 10 minutes once you get the smoke up. Start with an inexepensive store brand cheddar. I use a stove top smoker. I will create sawdust bu cutting up apple limbs with a circular saw. Never use a chain saw as bar lubricant can be poison. I'll put the sawdust in the pan and set it on the heat. When it begins to smoke I will get the cheese out of the refrigerator and put it in the smoker, close it and in about the time it takes to drink a beer the cheese is smoked. Remove it. Let it cool. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap. It generally tastes better the second day...if any survives.

 

[Fincher]

thats a good idea MJK, and with a cold smoker you don't have to worry about the cheese melting or cooking!

I'm going to build me a cold smoker I think.

 

[Poppinfresh]

I love cold smokers. Just wished I actually had the motivation to use it more often.

To get back to the original question-ish type thing....personally I prefer pellets. No risk of them catching fire and burning out too fast like dust, doesn't take forever to get them going like chunks, more versatile than disks.

But if you really get hooked on smoking, you're gonna have to go to either dust or chunks at some point. Reason being you're not going to find many disks or pellets in those really underappreciated woods like apple, pear, lemon, walnut etc.

 

[Alix]

Lemon? That sounds interesting.

 

[Poppinfresh]

Lemon? That sounds interesting.

It is. It's a really good wood to smoke with. Basically any kind of wood from a fruit or a nut has some form of useful application, though sometimes they're either too bitter or too sweet and have to be "cut" with a different kind of wood.

Lemon, surprisingly, does really well on its own.

 

[YT2095]

Alix, correct me if I`m wrong but weren`t you thinking about doing jerky too in another thread?

I`ll let you put the pieces together

 

[SmokedChef]

Alix,

Unless you are making Lox, you don't need to keep it in the smoker until it reached the 140 degrees. SImply keep it in there until you have the burned the chips you want on it and then transfer it to a low temp oven. This is a good time to drizzle honey or brown sugar glaze on it as well. I recommend using a non stick pan for this as the salty fish will try to absorb the metal ions from the pan (especially aluminum) and trust me this is not a good thing .

SC