RSSSmoking Please: Hail to the Quintessential American Cooking Technique
By Steve Fortunato | December 08, 2008 | 12:06 PM | 1 Comment
My restaurant manager buddy told me one of the questions they're asking potential new-hires is this: "There are seven French cooking techniques, name 4 and describe them." Funny, it's an Italian restaurant they're opening! Answer should be: "Who cares, this place isn't French!!" The French have indeed introduced some phenomenal ways of preparing food (Braising and Sous Vide as 2 of my favorite). But here's a case for a cooking technique that has been in this land since before it was ours: Smoking.
Every year around this time, there's an ocean of articles on the ever-elusive challenge of: "Making the perfect turkey" A few years ago, brining hit the scene as the must-do step for a quality turkey. This year, Bon App and Gourmet both featured articles on simply salting the turkey as opposed to submersion in a salt solution. In a spirit of bucking the system, some ‘out-of-the-box free thinkers' have resolved that turkey is just a pretty average protein, no matter what you do to prep it or dress it, and have opted for another fowl form for the holiday centerpiece. At the Fort Holiday Table, we try to balance tradition and change, so this year I opted for what many have been doing for years: smoking the turkey.
I did a bunch of research on smokers, from the Big Green Egg, to the choice of competitive smokers, the Weber Bullet, to the (for the competitors) sac-religious Electric Smoker by Masterbuilt. Post-research analysis: The Green Egg is huge, and expensive. The Bullet is for sure a cult-classic, but like the Egg, temperature management is key, and in spite of the on-line videos that tell you to "light it and leave it" there is a measure of temperature maintenance required, especially something that cooks for a long time, like a turkey. Also, with the bullet, access to your product, mid-smoke is pretty challenging, due to the stacked nature of the shelves. So if you're smoking two things at once, for different time periods, with the Bullet, you have to remove your meat, then remove a rack to get to your other meat. When it comes to BBQ's I'm a firm believer that the simple Weber charcoal BBQ is far superior to gas grills for flavor, but when it comes to smokers, I've settled on Digital Electric Smoker by Masterbuilt. I like that it's small enough to move around easily (about the size of your college dorm-room fridge) but large enough to smoke a lot of food. I like the access there is to the meats-the door enables you to smoke multiple items, for different time periods, without having to move anything. This thanksgiving, I put the turkey in on one shelf, and put some salmon in at the same time to do a smoked salmon hors d'oeuvre. The salmon was done in an hour, the turkey in 5, but I could easily grab the salmon when it finished, without having to move the turkey. I also like the temperature control being digital. You set the temperature digitally, when the temperature drops after opening the door, it reheats until it reaches temperature your desired temp. This makes way for what I like best about the whole thing-the ease. The flavor packed into the food, compared with the ease of cooking seems like cheating the system. Throughout the 5 hours it took to smoke, the only maintenance was an hourly addition of a few chips. There are only two secrets to the Masterbuilt. 1. Do not use too many chips. 1 cup of chips is all you need to get it going, and from then on, I added about 2/3 a cup. If you use too many chips, they won't light, and therefore won't smoke. 2. All smoking recipes, (INCLUDING THE MASTERBUILT INSTRUCTION MANUAL!!) tells you to wet the chips. Don't. I spoke with a Masterbuilt Rep and they confirmed, with an electric smoker, you get better smoke with dry chips.
It's affordable, it's easy, the flavor is insane and hey, it's All-American to boot. Tell the wife you've got Christmas Dinner handled. Happy Smoking!
Fort
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