SC - Lenten feasts (Selene's fish feast)

[kathleen.hogan@juno.com]

> Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 16:01:47 PDT
> From: "Bonne of Traquair" <oftraquair at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re on getting a Smoker Grill ...snip... When I went to the local
>
> I really lucked out summer before last, got one for $25 at a thrift shop.
> But, I could never manage to get the end product I wanted.  Instead of
being
> smoked, things were just covered with soot.  Yuck!  We tried wood as the
> fuel and from charcoal-made-from-wood, but only got sooty not
> is-that-really-cooked? food instead of smoked and cooked food.  In the
end,
> we only grilled on it, and it wasn't satisfactory for that as the distance
> from coals to grill was not adjustable and the grill was so small.
> Finally, I sold it at our yard sale before we moved for $30 . . .
> Bonne
    I suspect the book you needed on how to use the Smoker was not included
in the $25 price.  As with any piece of kitchen equipment it takes both some
experimentation & some direction to learn how to best use it.  The trick is
to use the fire door, the smoke stack throtel & the smoking wood  to balence
each other out.  The amount of air coming through the fire door on the end
controls how much combustion is going on & consaquintaly how hot you can get
the smoker part of the grill.  The amount of smoking wood (this should be
either green wood chips or wood chips that have been soaked over night in
water) put on top of the coals controls the amount of smoke.  The amount of
smoke & heat retained in the smoking chamber is controled by the smoke stack
throtel (which can be as simple as a movable plate on top of the smoke
stack)  There should be a thermometer in the front door so you can keep
track of the heat in the smoking chamber (I usualy try for 300-350 when
cooking & check the meat with a meat thermometer to determin when it is
done). You judge by color & amount how much smoke is in the chamber by what
is coming out of the smoke stack (hint if it is black your food will be
getting covered with soot- it should be a whiteish gray). You should also
avoid opening the doors on the front of the grill unless you have to because
this lets all the heat & smoke out.  They should only be opened to add fule
to the combustion chamber or to baste & turn the meat about once an hour.
For my application as using them as ovens I will not be using smoking wood
just real charcoal.
    Hej!
Olaf of Trollhiemsfjord
East Kingdom