I now have a slab of Pork Ribs cooking(going on 2 hrs.) using the Smokenator. I started with 24 lit Kingsford Briquettes and have been maintaining a steady temperature of 240F. I add 8 unlit Briquettes every hour and also some hickory woodchips that have been soaked in water. I also have been adding water to the waterpan every hour. I plan on pulling the ribs in 2 more hrs and will let you know how all turned out. This is the first time that I have cooked ribs with the Smokenator system.
Posts: 43 | Location: Costa Rica | Registered: May 08, 2008
I cooked my pork ribs for 4 hours putting BBQ sauce the last 15 minutes. Cooking Temperature was between 220-240F and the Smokenator worked like a charm. Ribs were tender and tasted of smoke, however, they turned out a little salty to taste. I marinated them in the "GOYA" Criollo marinade for 2 days and then just before I put them on the grill I put on a rub which contained too much salt. Oh well, experience is the best Teacher!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rick Garcia,
Posts: 43 | Location: Costa Rica | Registered: May 08, 2008
Has anyone tried cold smoking salmon using the smokenator? If yes, how did you go about it? I will be using the Weber Performer. I'm thinking if I use 6 or so briquettes and a chunk of alder that should give me a very low temperature. I have some salmon curing right now and plan on smoking it tomorrow. If it ends up more like hot-smoked salmon, well, I'm sure we can deal with that! I would position the lid vent over the salmon at the opposite end of the salmon to draw the smoke over it. Any and all help is appreciated.
Cold smoking salmon dictates temperatures well below 100 degrees in the smoking chamber. Ambient temperature's below 80 degrees is best.
You will do better with a very small smoke generator or a remote source of smoke.
You can use a soldering gun in a can of sawdust with a fire brick wall. I use an electric charcoal starter in a pot of sawdust with a duct for the smoke.
I cold-smoked some salmon the other day using the smokenator and my Weber Performer, with thanks to Don Thompson for all his help. I followed the instructions as shown in Michael Ruhlman's book Charcuterie. That is, I brined the salmon for 48 hours (his called for 36 hours - oops), let it form a pellicule for 24 hours, and smoked it for 6 hours. I have attempted to post a picture of it which you can view by clicking the link below.
I haven't used the water pan recently: it is quite small, and after it boiled dry once, it was difficult to clean the black crust out. Also, I agree that if the water pan opening were maybe a 1/2" farther toward the rim, it could be carefully removed thru the flip up grill grate for fire stoking. Once I was trying to remove it, while holding up the grill grate with the meat on it, and oops, I spilled the water in the pan onto the fire, putting out much of the fire. Took some reworking to get it going again.
Would it help to not use the small water pan at all and add a larger (bread sized) pan on the cooking grate above the smokenator? I know moving the pan to add coals is still a pain, but the water would last longer.
For my dad's birthday I smoked my second brisket with the Smokenator 1000.
This time bought a four pound flat from Publix. My first time was a test with a two pound flat (6 hours).
Started at 830AM and finished at 6PM.
Started with 38 unlit and 12 lit K Competition coals. For some reason had problem keeping the temperatures from running away. Finally got it under control at about the third hour. Lid was on, vents checked so I'm still not sure why.
Anyway, the most important part is the how great the brisket turned out.
Genesis EP-310 OTS 22.5 w/Smokenator
Posts: 3 | Location: South East | Registered: June 20, 2009
