Saucier Posted February 15, 2008 Report Posted February 15, 2008 Ok bbq brain trust. I have a friend who wants to smoke up some salmon, not like to eat right away but more like jerky. I have done this numerous times, and am familiar with the marinade and all, but have always smoked it at a lower temp than I normally run on the KK. If one is using a guru, how low do you think you could get the temp in the KK and maintain the fire? 150? 170? Speak oh mighty bbq Gods!!
Firemonkey Posted February 15, 2008 Report Posted February 15, 2008 I think I recall a writeup somewhere that details how to use the guru for smoking at low temps like that. I think it may be on TNWs site.
ThreeDJ16 Posted February 15, 2008 Report Posted February 15, 2008 You will really need a Guru controller to do it. The new DigiQ goes pretty low and so does the Procom. You can also use a small side device to hold the fire and smoke wood and tube it over to the KK. I have a pic of my setup on here somewhere...will try to find. If you use the main KK box, you will need be very diligent in charcoal management to keep a small fire going and for it to spread. I have gotten mine to 140 range with no problems. Jerky is typically 180. Cold smoking really needs an aux smoke box since you are looking for 80-100 with it. -=Jasen=-
jdbower Posted February 15, 2008 Report Posted February 15, 2008 Sounds like fun! Whizzy's page Guru's tips
TheNakedWhiz Posted February 15, 2008 Report Posted February 15, 2008 You can actually go down below 100 without too much trouble. My web page on cold smoking cheese shows how. Needless to say, you can probably add more briquettes to raise the temp. But check out the pages on jerky and cheese and see if that helps. Smoking Cheese Smoking Jerky Good luck!
tcoliver Posted February 15, 2008 Report Posted February 15, 2008 NW, did that recipe come from Darrell McCoon? I remember him posting about many successfull cheese smokes. I've done several jerky smokes at 100 - 120 without a Guru no problem.
Firemonkey Posted February 16, 2008 Report Posted February 16, 2008 Tony, did you use the coffee can approach? How did you do it - assuming you did it in your KK
TheNakedWhiz Posted February 16, 2008 Report Posted February 16, 2008 Tony, The cheese method came from Egret at the BGE forum, and he more or less got it from Old Dave. I don't know where Old Dave got it, but that's where I got it.
tcoliver Posted February 16, 2008 Report Posted February 16, 2008 Actually I did nothing fancy, just regulated the temp. at 120 and dumped a bunch of smoking wood in. Temp stayed steady for most of the time with just a little tweaking. Jerky came out very tasty.
Firemonkey Posted February 16, 2008 Report Posted February 16, 2008 You have the additional small (cylinder) lump basket, right? I am not sure i could get mine to keep that low of a temp without a guru. Shoot, the sun will get it that hot! Maybe a small hotplate (a la Alton) with some smoke wood on it would do it. I could put it on the floor, run the cord out the draft door, and open up the hat for more circulation and drying. With a drip pan on the basket handles, i could stack all sorts of meat in there.
Saucier Posted February 17, 2008 Author Report Posted February 17, 2008 Gee tanks Thanks for all the great ideas. I will give it a whirl. I am familiar with the outboard smoke generator, I made a big smoker out of a food service warming cabinet on wheels, about the size of a reefer one time, and had a sheet metal guy bende up a box on the side, and I punched a 4" hole through it. Put a hot plate and sawdust in it. Worked good. It had 9 racks in it. One of my favorites was to buy 25 lbs or so of the maple smoked bacon at costco, and lay it all out in slices, and resmoke it (cold) and give it out for Christmas bacon. FWIW there is a little smoke shop in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mtns near where we go camping / fishing that makes mahogony smoked bacon, hams, jerkly, etc. Their claim to fame is selling bacon to the whitehouse for Christmas breakfast. They mail order too. If you want to look its here. http://store.smokedmeats.com/index.html Thanks again for the info!
tcoliver Posted February 17, 2008 Report Posted February 17, 2008 Actually I do but I do not use it, just use regular basket. You guys got me fired up and I found a london broil in the freezer so I am marinating some jerky right now. I'll post pictures when I do the cook, either tonight of tomorrow night, gotta let it marinate. I looked back at my recipe and found that I actually use a temp. of 150 for four hours. I'll let you know how it goes.
Saucier Posted February 24, 2008 Author Report Posted February 24, 2008 TC TColiver, we await your jerky report!
tcoliver Posted February 24, 2008 Report Posted February 24, 2008 Sorry, got side tracked. Jerky came out excellent. Kept temp below 200 for 4 hours. The jerky came out kind of crisp so if you like it a little more chewy you probably should only go 3.5 hours. Here are the results.
Saucier Posted February 26, 2008 Author Report Posted February 26, 2008 MMMMMmm Looking mighty tasty!
