How to smoke meat for the beginners

Smoking is one of the best ways to extend the meat’s freshness for the longer periods of time. Our ancestors often smoked the meat, but even with the development of newer techniques, the delightful flavorful, and rich taste from smoking never went away which is why we refer to smoking to this day. How to smoke meat? This is the question that we will answer in this article.

There are many ways to enhance and simplify the process of smoking. Whether are you brining your meat, or dressing it in a fine run, we are confident that these tips and tricks will be of great use to you. Read on!

What smoker are you using?

The smoking process relies on the smoker/grill choice you make. There is a large selection of options that you can choose from. Charcoal grills are ideal for people who want to try smoking for the first time. If you won’t like the outcome, you can always stop without losing too much of investing. However, owning other grills/smokers isn’t a problem. Basically, you can choose from the wood smoker, charcoal smoker, gas smoker, and the traditional electrical smoker.

If you are looking for the best option, we prefer using charcoal and wood grills, because they are appealing to either experts and novices. The outcome is much more flavor-rich than it would be the case with the electrical and gas smoker because meat gets involved with smoke and fire in the greater matter than it is the case with the other two.

What kind of the hardwood will you use?

Whatever you choose, it will provide equally unique taste. However, if you want to be specific, here is a little brief about the most used hardwoods for smoking.

If you are looking for hardwood that will give strong taste to pork meat, and the red meat, in particular, we recommend Hickory and Cherry. We believe that Mesquite is quite good either. But, we recommend it in smaller amounts because it is very strong, and your meat will be, perhaps, too strong in flavor.

If you are not a fan of Hickory and Mesquite, the Oak is very good for smoking the large slices of meat. Additionally, we recommend it for the long-time smoking that can last up to a whole day.

If you want to smoke the seafood and fish, we recommend Apple and Alder, for their sweet voice, and not being that strong in giving taste.

Choose your Meat

You shouldn’t encounter too many problems regarding the smoking technique. It can be used on any meat in particular. However, we should keep in mind that the meat that needs a long cooking time is the leading candidate suitable for smoking. Basically, you can use a great variety of meat including:

Beef ribs
Brisket
Beef Jerky
Corned beef
Ham
Turkey
Salmon
Lobster
Tuna and much, much more.

Prepare the Meat

Among many techniques that prepare the meat for bringing, there are the three that are the most popular. People usually brine, marinade, or rub the meat. This results in giving the meat the necessary, mesmerizing taste and flavor to the meat, but also extend its’ freshness, and keep it moist.

Brining is the most common for the ham or poultry, while the beef cuts are mainly marinated before the smoking technique. If you want to smoke the ribs, the best technique that you can use on them is definitely rubbing. Use favorite spices, and in combination with the salt, you can adjust your flavor accordingly.

Calculate the time needed for the smoking process

Smoking is the process that can last for a while. It is of the fundamental importance to check your recipe before you dive into the smoking. The longest time needed to invest in the smoking range anywhere between 20 and 22 hours for the large cuts of meat and brisket, while the ham, ribs, and seafood should take between 6 and 10 hours to smoke.

Baste it to keep it Moist

Like mentioned, depending on what you are making, it is important to keep the meat moist. For example, you can baste the ribs using a combination of water, vinegar, and spices to keep the moisture high during the smoking. However, if you are going to spend hours cooking your meat, and prefer the slow process overall, the basting process is not necessary.

Check the temperature

If you are going to dive into the smoking adventure, buying the meat thermometer is totally recommended. This way, you can keep the track about the meat temperature, and when is the time to get the meat out, or baste it. Depending on the kind of meat that you will use, it is important to remember the temperatures specific for that meat, and these temperatures range anywhere between 145 to 170 degrees, for the meats we mentioned above.