Smoking Food Washington DC

Smoking Explained
Smoking, or barbecuing, is an ancient method in which the food is cooked at a low temperature in a closed chamber. Hardwood chips, chunks, pellets, or charcoal produce smoke that envelops the food, which slowly cooks a significant distance from the heat source. This may or may not be “over” the heat. In some smokers, the heat source is off to the side and in some it’s down below—so it’s not exactly accurate to speak of food as “over” the heat. During the relatively long cooking time, the food absorbs both smokiness and the flavor of the wood. The entire process results in incredibly tender, fall-off-the-bone meat that is moist and fullflavored. Once you try it, you will likely develop a hankering for smoked food. You’ll very quickly discover how easy it is to prepare, too. At first, the terminology sounds foreign, but like anything, it makes perfect sense once you do it. In case you haven’t noticed, we never refer to grilled food as barbecued food. Food cooked on a grill is grilled; food cooked in a smoker is, authentically speaking, barbecued. Of course, you are free to call the food anything you like! Barbecue masters from Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina, and other locales where barbecue is king build elaborate, customized smokers in which they maintain their fires and smoke output as the food cooks “low and slow.” The best of these ‘quers find themselves at barbecue contests such as Memphis in May, their barbecuing apparatus in tow. We’ve been to the Memphis in May celebration and, take our word for it, the aroma wafting from the cookers stationed along the Mississippi River is positively intoxicating.

Tips for Smoking Success
Since putting out the first edition of Prime Time, we’ve become big-time aficionados of smoking, and we’ve added recipes to every chapter for smoked meat, poultry, and game. Here are few tips to help you achieve success with all our smoking recipes:

Whether you’ve rubbed it with spices, soaked it in a brine or marinade, or left it plain, you should pat the meat and poultry dry with paper towels before smoking it.

It might be easier to handle smaller cuts of food for smoking to cut down on cooking time. Cutting a large piece of meat in half (as we suggest for Smoked Brined Turkey Breast, page 190) will shorten cooking time but will not cut it in half.

We like to leave the skin on fowl when we smoke it. It keeps the meat from shrinking more than it needs to. You can remove it before serving.

If you can, include wings and backbones when you smoke poultry pieces. You can use them to add a wonderful smoky flavor to soups and bean dishes.

If you smoke sausage, make sure you begin with raw sausage and not any that is partially cooked or already smoked.

A lot of barbecue experts brine meat and poultry to make them even moister before adding them (patted dry) to the smoker. Whether you rinse it or not after brining depends on the recipe.

Smoked meat and poultry cooks at “low and slow” temperatures and will not overcook. Instead, it will become incredibly tender.

Use the amount of wood chunks or chips suggested in the instructions that come with your smoker. Even if sounds like too little, try it before you increase the amount.

Too much wood produces a lot of smoke, which can impart an unpleasant flavor or appearance. Chicken, for example, will turn an unappealing gray.

Try different hardwoods. The most common and easiest to find are alder, apple, hickory, maple, and mesquite. In some parts of the country, pecan is used for smoking.

Be sure the wood chips or chunks are completely cool before you dispose of them.

Use an accurate instant-read thermometer to tell when meat is thoroughly cooked.

Barbecue sauce is meant to flavor the meat after it’s smoked. In a few instances it’s mopped on the meat during the final hour or so of smoking but usually it’s prepared separately and passed at the table.

Smokers
Like grills, smokers come in many different sizes and shapes. There are large, expensive smokers that make their presence very much known, and then there are smaller ones better suited for small families, occasional smoking, or perhaps storing at a weekend or vacation house. You can smoke small amounts of food in kettle grills and some of the more elaborate gas grills have smoking capabilities in that they have pans for wood chips, but this is not authentic smoking. If you plan to “get into” smoking, it’s a good idea to invest in a good, freestanding smoker, also called a cooker. Food smoked in a kettle grill or a gas grill will taste good and be appealingly tender, but it will never rival the food you prepare in an actual smoker. Plus, tending to the low fire in a grill is time consuming and fussy and you may decide it’s not worth the trouble. If you decide to invest in a smoker, buy the best one you can afford, because we guarantee that once you start smoking food, you will be hooked, and a good smoker makes a difference as far as convenience and ease. Every smoker operates a little differently, so it’s important to read the instructions that come with your particular model. Some require preheating, others don’t. Some have more shelves than others. All have temperature gauges that let you know the internal temperature of the cooking chamber and all have chimneys so that you can tell if the wood is smoking nicely. Most will smoke up to 50 pounds of food, which makes them great for party planning. The aroma that seeps from the cooker is one of the best fringe benefits of smoking. It whets the appetite like nothing else and adds to the overall enjoyment of the meal in astounding ways. When you light up the smoker, even the neighbors will comment on the glorious smells wafting from your backyard. Smoking results in moist cooking. Even the leftovers are moister than grilled leftovers, and when mixed with other foods impart delicious smokiness to them. We also appreciate the fact that while you must tend to the food when it’s in the smoker, you don’t have to watch over it as closely as you do when you grill.

Other Useful Grilling Equipment
Grill manufacturers gladly will sell you any number of accessories for the outdoor grill. If you like gadgets, collect them to your heart’s content. But for the rest of us, there are only a few pieces of equipment that are almost crucial. Every backyard chef should have long-handled tongs, spatulas with heatproof handles, as well as several long-handled, soft-bristle brushes for brushing marinades and sauces on the meat. Using tongs to turn meat is preferable over a fork because it prevents piercing the meat and releasing juices. We also like mesh grill screens and perforated silicone mats, which can be laid on the grilling grid and used to grill delicate foods, such as ground-chicken burgers or anything that might slip through the grates. Lots of grill cooks like grilling baskets or grate toppers with slanted sides for vegetables and small pieces of meat, too. While we believe the joy of grilling lies in its simplicity, we also know that the right tools make all the difference. Other than the above-mentioned, you might want to consider any of the following accessories to make your grilling experience better than ever:

A grill mat to protect your deck or patio from drips

A heavy-duty plastic grill cover to protect the grill from rain (it will look nicer and last far longer than the cheaper varieties)

A tool caddie or utensil rack

Skewer holders for kabobs

A lid holder that hangs from the side of the kettle grill

A stainless-steel or silicone basting brush

Firm-bristle brushes to clean the grill

A fork with a temperature probe (doubles as an instant-read thermometer)

A metal smoker box for wood chips

An indicator to gauge the gas level in the propane tank

An extra propane tank Smokers, which are self-contained and freestanding, require less equipment than grills.

Primarily, other than the cooker and the wood, you need heavy-duty aluminum foil and some disposable aluminum pans to catch the drippings—a better choice for placing in a smokefilled cooker than your best bakeware. Regardless of how delicious the smoked food is, the pans will darken in the smoker and be tricky to clean. The smoke’s residue will cling to the surface of the pans, so unless you want your next batch of brownies to taste like smoked pork, we suggest disposable pans when a pan is recommended. For both grilling and smoking, we recommend you invest in long, heavy oven mitts and, as previously mentioned, an accurate instant-read thermometer. Calibrate the thermometer and if you’re the least bit unsure of its accuracy, buy a new one. They are easy to find and not expensive. Along with some good, sharp knives, which every good cook likes to have, and large cutting boards, that’s about it. As butchers, we pay careful attention to our knives and recommend you do the same. Invest in good knives with high-carbon stainless-steel blades. Choose knives that feel right in your hand and build your collection as you go along and become a more accomplished grill cook. For most home cooking and grilling needs, you should have a cleaver, a 10- or 12-inch chef’s knife, an 8-inch chef’s knife, a 6-inch utility knife, a slicing knife, a boning knife, and a serrated knife. They don’t need to match, and the choice of wood, plastic, or rubberized handles is yours, as long as the steel extends all the way through the handle. Poultry shears are terrific investment, too. Don’t put your knives in the dishwasher but instead hand wash and dry them. Use a sharpening steel every time you use them and refine the edge every so often with a sharpening stone or send them out to be professionally sharpened. Butchers and chefs reach for the sharpening steel without thinking about it; home cooks should get into the habit as well. We have a large wood butcher block in the store and we use wood cutting boards at home, too. Plastic and rubberized ones are also good. The important thing is that they protect (and don’t dull) the knife blade. We also suggest you stock the kitchen with shallow glass or ceramic dishes for marinating or with several large rectangular, inflexible plastic containers with tight-fitting lids, or both. Heavy-duty resealable plastic bags are handy for marinating, too. For kabobs, have six or more 10- to 12-inch-long metal skewers. Metal skewers get very hot on the grill and have to be handled carefully with oven mitts and long-handled tongs, but they are reusable, lasting virtually forever. Bamboo skewers are esthetically pleasing to many people, and when you are grilling numerous kabobs or short kabobs, they may be preferred because they are inexpensive and disposable. The short bamboo skewers are also useful for skewering chickens and quail when preparing them for the grill. Bamboo skewers must be soaked in cool water for at least 20 to 30 minutes, until they are saturated. They must then be drained just before the food is threaded on them. This helps prevent the bamboo from scorching on the grill.

Cleaning the Grill
It is important to keep the grill and the grill rack clean. For this, you’ll need a stiff metal bristle brush for scrubbing the rack. Scouring pads are also good for keeping the racks clean. If you aren’t too busy enjoying the meal, brush the grill rack while it is still warm—any burned-on food will come off easily. Spray the grill rack with vegetable oil cooking spray before you light the grill. This keeps the food from sticking and so helps with cleanup. The firebox does not need frequent scrubbing, although the built-up ashes should be emptied out and the inside periodically sprayed clean with a hose and left to dry in the sun or wiped dry with paper towels.

Buy Meat Cold, Cook It at Room Temperature
Always buy cold meat and poultry. In supermarkets, meat is stored in refrigerated cases and in butcher shops some is displayed in chilled cases, but most is held in the meat locker. When shopping for groceries, buy the meat last and when you get home, unpack it first and transfer it directly to the refrigerator or freezer. Remember that summer humidity and higher temperatures are hard on meats, so in warm weather, plan to grill the meat soon. Keep the meat or poultry in the refrigerator until just before you are ready to cook it—30 minutes at most, less if it’s a warm day. You may have taken it from the refrigerator to marinate or rub it with a seasoning mix, but we advise returning it to cold storage as soon as it has been prepped. It is simply not safe to hold meat or poultry at room temperature for extended periods of time. Meat, in general, should be at room temperature when you grill it, because it cooks more evenly than chilled meat. Take it from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you are ready to grill. In hot weather or with small cuts of meat like chicken breasts, the meat may only need 15 or 20 minutes to come to cool room temperature. As soon as it no longer feels cold to the touch, put the meat on the grill. If for some reason your timetable changes, return the uncooked meat to the refrigerator. Ground meat is the exception and should be cooked when still chilled, for two reasons: the greater surface area of ground meat would make it more susceptible to bacteria at room temperature, and on the plus side, ground meat patties or meatballs will keep their shape better when previously chilled.

A Word on Food Safety
It is just as important to maintain sanitary conditions when cooking meat and poultry outside as it is in the kitchen. Clean the cutting board and all utensils that have been in contact with uncooked meat or poultry with warm soapy water. Wash your hands, too, after working with uncooked food (chicken, in particular) to avoid salmonella contamination. Many grill cooks continually slather the grilling meat or chicken with its marinade. This is not a good idea except during the very early stages of cooking. The marinade can contain bacteria from the raw meat and poultry, and the heat of the fire will not have time to render the bacteria harmless if the marinade is brushed on the food in the final stages of grilling. If you want to brush the food with the marinade, make a little more than the recipe requires. Keep it separate and then use it to baste the food with a little extra flavor. Grilling is a casual and relaxing way to cook and entertain. Once you have the basics in hand, don’t worry. Half the fun is improvising when necessary—but the best part is eating the delicious food that comes from your grill.

Practical Freezing
We prefer to grill fresh meat and poultry, but we appreciate the fact that meat freezes well, which is a practical consideration for many people. Although we never sell meat that has been frozen, we are well aware that our customers often freeze the meat we sell—and because we want them to enjoy their purchase, regardless of whether they eat it right away or freeze it, we have some suggestions for successful freezing. If you plan to freeze meat or poultry, do so as soon as you get home. If it’s wrapped in supermarket plastic, leave it in the original packaging. The same goes for butcher paper. Wrap another layer of sturdy plastic wrap around the package, making sure it is well protected. Do not use foil for over-wrapping, because it becomes brittle in the freezer and can rip. Put the package inside a heavy freezer-quality resealable plastic bag, making sure the bag is large enough to hold the meat comfortably. Press as much air from the bag as you can before sealing it so that it collapses around the meat. Clearly mark the bag, making sure to date it. Stash the bag in the far reaches of the freezer, which is the coldest part. When it is frozen solid, you can shift it around to make room for other foods. If you are concerned that your freezer may not be cold enough for meat, consider this: If it is cold enough to freeze ice cream hard, it is cold enough to freeze meat and poultry. But even having the coldest freezer does not mean you can leave the meat in it indefinitely. For the best texture and quality, do not leave meat in the deep freeze for longer than 30 days in the winter, or 15 days in the summer. Let meat thaw slowly in the refrigerator. This can take from one to two days, depending on the time of year and the size and cut of the meat. If you are planning to slice the meat for kabobs or stew, keep in mind that it is easier to slice when partially frozen. Even with careful wrapping, sometimes food develops freezer burn. We don’t advise grilling the damaged meat, but don’t discard it, either. Cut it up and stew or braise it.

Leftover Strategy
Who doesn’t love leftovers? Especially grilled or smoked leftovers? The charred or smoky flavor remains with the meat or poultry, making it nearly as enticing the next day as it was right off the grill. For this reason, cook extra when you can. You will never regret it. As soon as you realize you will have some leftovers, put the food away in the refrigerator. It is never a good idea to leave any food, even cooked food, at room temperature for more than an hour, and this is particularly true in the hot summer months when we tend to fire up the grill and smoker most often. Room temperatures are the most dangerous for food because it is at these temperatures that bacteria thrive. Wrap the leftovers well in plastic or put them in rigid plastic storage containers with fitted lids. Eat them within a day or two, at the most. If you want to reheat the leftover meat on the grill, wrap it in foil first. The coals should be arranged for indirect cooking and they should be only moderately hot. However, most grilled meat and poultry tastes terrific cold. Slice it for sandwiches or salads. To heat up leftover smoked food, sprinkle it with a little liquid and heat it in the microwave, low oven, or a saucepan.

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