Cool, yeah, I rinse it really well and the salt still comes through a little in the meat.

It amazes me how much water the dry brine removes from the fish.

 

O'rlly?

 

Mine was still juicy after smoking it with the dry brine...

 

If you dry brine, after about 12 hours of brining your dry brine pan should be full of syrupy goo, and the salmon should be reduced in moisture content by about 1/3 to 1/2. it concentrates the flavor of the fish. I think if you just smoke the salmon w/o the dry brine, you will get a smoky flavored grilled fish. Dry brining for 12-24 hours with a 1:4 Kosher salt to brown sugar mix changes the consistency as well as concentrating the flavor.

 

Right on, wasn't trying to argue, just thinking outloud...

 

Ah, I remember, I drizzled lime juice over the salmon as part of my "dry brine" that's why the moisture stayed I think

 

Thanks for the link to the recipes, much appreciated. Smoker is on the truck for delivery!

 

Smoked some pork tenderloins for dinner yesterday. Rubbed with mustard, spiced, smoked for an hour at 350, wrapped up with some watered down BBQ sauce for 30 min, and then sliced thin.

 

Inaugural run tomorrow. Just dry brined a 5lb pork butt, ready to rock tomorrow. I had some pecan wood on hand so that'll have to do for now.

 

Had a great time smoking yesterday despite the herniated disc in my neck that bothered me most of the day. I smoked a nice 2.25 lb fillet of salmon. It was actually folded over in the package and the piece that I bought was just big enough to fit in my casserole, so I had to improvise.

IMG_20160703_164438309_zpswjlzxh6c.jpg

Shown here with my "dry brine" with fresh squeezed limes over top

IMG_20160703_164920871_zpsmawyyndm.jpg

Also smoked 3 full racks of baby backs

First I coated them with olive oil

IMG_20160703_223920268_zpsrgtcyui0.jpg

Then applied the dry rub to let them sit over night

IMG_20160703_224520253_zps58shemsb.jpg

Rinsed the brine off and got the salmon ready for the smoker

IMG_20160704_124751864_zpsmzq8zxek.jpg

Here's the ribs after they sat over night with the rub on getting up to room temp before going on.

IMG_20160704_140900953_zpsq6blrl9g.jpg

I used jumbo lump charcoal, chunks of cherry wood and soaked cherry wood chips for the salmon

IMG_20160704_145331680_zpspos2kltk.jpg

I didn't think to get an after pic of the salmon right away and next thing you know it was half gone! So I hurried up and snapped a quick pic

IMG_20160704_150213358_zpspwhh4f0f.jpg

Yesterday was the farewell tour for my Brinkmann smoker, I've had it for 9 years ever since I bought my house and the lady that I was buying it from left it for me after telling me that she was going to throw it out. It served me well over these last 9 years, but this week I am ordering it's replacement. Here it is with ribs smoking away.

IMG_20160704_150511100_HDR_zps9qmmuij1.jpg

And here's the finished product of the ribs, I had to cut the racks in half to fit them on the smoker, but they turned out to be the perfect serving size. My gf was impressed with the depth of flavors that I was able to cram into the meat.

IMG_20160704_183116918_zpsvmk8gahf.jpg

And check out that smoke ring!

IMG_20160704_184444704_zpsvg89xraf.jpg

 

Smoked salmon and ribs

 

Having it again for dinner tonight!

 

Looks like they turned out great! What smoker are you replacing it with?

 

is there a rule of thumb for how much wood chips to use for smoking meat? Like curtain amount of ounces of chips per pound of meat?

 

Awesome work, that looks really good. I can only hope my pork butt turns out half as good...

Anyway, here's a pick of the cook in progress. I have a small deck and an uncovered patio so I thought it would be best to keep an electric smoker indoors and dry. I vented it out the garage window so my whole garage doesn't get smoked out...

Pics later if it turns out. No pics if I end up going out to dinner.

 

Welp, we lost power for 12 hours yesterday so this whole thing was stalled. I pulled the meat, covered, and put in the fridge. Will continue the cook today or tomorrow. Only got up to 156F before losing power.

 

I don't know about any scientific ratio like that, I only follow smoker cook temp and internal temp, it's really by feel since every smoker is different. Also what kind of wood chips are used, and how much smoke you are going for.

 

Smoked a 5lb pork butt a few days ago. Pics as required.

 

Looks great!

 

Ack, that meat looks amazing...

Did you have any texture issues with the salmon? I only ask because the acidity in the lime juice marinade actually cooks the flesh as soon as it contacts it, and the longer you leave it on, the more "mushy" it can make the flesh. Your "pre" photo salmon looks like the flesh got a little white from the acidity cooking it. Did it affect the outer texture at all once it was done?

 

Wow, that looks amazing!

Nope, it was still soft and moist

Texture was perfect

 

Vent is cool and all but what happens when you open the door? Smokey house? Lol

 

for those of you that use electrical smokers like the Masterbuilt 30" how is the smoking flavoring? I have did some research and some people are saying that the smoke flavor is weak because the wood chip tray is too far up from the heating element. I was really planning on getting a masterbuilt 30" electric smoker but if it is weak on the smoke flavor than i might have to look for something else.

 

For flavor, nothing beats charcoal. I had leaned toward a masterbuilt electric, but just couldn't make the change from charcoal

 

It's in the garage so I leave the big door open when I want to take stuff out. And you don't open the door fool!

Plenty of smoke and flavor from the smoke. Not as good as charcoal but a crap load easier to manage and deal with. Chip tray is right on top of the element? Not sure what people are talking about. You can always add the Amazen tray if you want more smoke.

 

Of course charcoal will give out more smoke but as long as I can get a nice smoke flavor from electric smoker i am fine with that. I agree the amazen tray is always a good option.

 

Never open the door hmmm?

I have no issues with smoke flavor with my MB. And that's with using mild woods. Throw something stronger in there I imagine it could be overpowering.

 

which ones would you say are mild and which ones are on the stronger side?

 

x2

 

Like apple or pecan is mild. Hickory or Mesquite is 'strong'...

 

Just remember you're not going to get competition level smoking out of a MB electric. But for home smoking it's ease of use and convenience is great.

Also remember ANYTHING that is slow cooked and smoked is generally going to be good.

 

I know i am looking to start off with a MB electric smoker for the convenience and ease of use and further down the road i'll possibly looking into a good charcoal smoker (big green egg if i hit the lottery)

 

That was my idea as well. Maybe eventually just building my own 'pit'...

 

I cooked my pork shoulder for 7 hours without opening the door. Wireless thermometer fed in through the exhaust vent let me monitor temp the whole time without opening the door. For ribs and such where you have to remove and wrap then sure but there's not THAT much smoke in the box with the vent going. I don't heavily smoke my meats either, so I don't put that many chips in.

Cherry, apple, pecan, etc are all light. Hickory is pretty strong and mesquite is VERY strong in flavor. You usually cater the wood to the meat, you wouldn't want mesquite on beef because it would overpower the beef flavor. Similarly, you wouldn't want hickory on fish because it would be too much. Chicken is fairly universal.

 

Speaking of ribs...pecan smoked with the 3-2-1 method. Turned out awesome.

 

You take this one Ack... I'm tired today.

 

Those look great!

 

Ribs look great!

 

, never heard of that technique before and Googled it and will try it this weekend.
Do you use mustard first for smoking and honey/brownsugar second (in foil)?

 

Everyone has their own style and flavor setups, I personally am not a fan of using sugar, the only sugar I use is in the bbq sauce. A lot of people use mustard but I've never tried it, I use olive oil as my liquid base because I use more flavor profiles in my rub. I pretty much do the same method as 3-2-1 but I don't wrap the ribs for 2 hrs, more like 1-1.5 max. Definitely may try going longer next time though