Smoking a Wild Hog Ham

Cherie asked:

My husband and I were wanting to smoke a wild hog ham and were wondering if there was anything special I needed to do and for how long do I need to smoke ?


 Hello Cherie,

 Thank you for the question and congratulations on your hog harvest! I love processing wild pigs and one of my favorite products is smoked wild boar ham and I would be happy to give you a few tips. I've had allot better success injecting my hams rather than simply submersing them in brine. I feel it gets the brine in next to the bone allot better and making sure the ham is well cured next to the bone is very important. If you don't get enough cure/brine down next to the bone you can actually sour the meat down near the bone and no one likes that!

I mix my ham brine and use a Weston injector to do the job, I inject ample amounts of brine along and around the shank bone that travels down the center of the ham. Next I inject the rest of the ham in a 1" grid pattern on the front and back. Next simply cover and place in a covered pan, place the ham in refrigeration and then in 5-7 days you can remove the ham, rinse it well in cold water and then place it in your smoker. I always begin by setting the smoker at 165F for 1 hour just to dry the surface of the ham slightly, this will prevent the smoke from adhering to the surface to quickly and creating a "muddy" appearance to the ham. After drying the surface for an hour at 165F then increase the temperature to 175F for 3 hours while smoking, then increase the house temperature to 200F until an internal temperature of 156F is achieved.

 Good luck and let us know how your product turns out!

Brad Lockwood
Koola Buck Inc.
Outdoor Edge Cutlery

Can I Smoke Sausages in Synthetic Casing?

Steve M. from New Market, AL wrote in:

I have always used an oven at a low temp to make sausage and had just figured that with the synthetic casings I use, smoking would just be a waste of time. My thinking is that the smoke would just stick to the casing and not actually penetrate into the meat. Having not ever smoked sausage, I was hoping you could advise if smoking would be worth the extra effort, or if a natural casing is needed to enjoy that great smoke flavor. 

Thanks for the question Steve,

Yes you can smoke fibrous casings. The smoke will penetrate the casing as long as the casing remains moist. Always remember moisture is the medium that smoke uses to penetrate through the casing and into the meat. Believe it or not, fibrous casings are perforated and the smoke will penetrate into the meat. Of course natural casing will work much better, but fibrous will absorb smoke also.

Good luck Steve and have a great fall.

Brad Lockwood

How Long to Cook Stuffed Back Strap?

Fred Heydorn from Burlington, NJ asked: 

On your show this week, you cooked a stuffed back strap. You said 280 degrees, but never how long. So my question is: how long did you cook it?


Thanks for the question Fred,

The length of cooking time really depends on how thick the meat is that you have wrapped around your stuffing. If you're working with a thin back strap you may only need 60-90 minutes. Also remember that preparing your wild game on the medium to medium rare side never hurts either. If you want to get technical, you can always use a thermometer to measure the internal temperature. 156°F is going to be well done, and around 140°F will give you that medium texture with a little pink in the middle.

Good luck Fred and thanks for the question.

How to Use a Bradley Smoker Indoors

Dion from Manitoba, CA asked:

I noticed on a recent show you had a Bradley smoker going indoors - how did you pipe it outside? I do a lot of home processing but working around the Canadian north's weather is a challenge. I have plenty of room in my shop/garage, just need some advice or ideas for venting!

Thanks,

Dion




Thanks for the question Dion,

I simply put a triple wall pipe up though the ceiling, just like pluming in a wood burner. The only downfall is: on damp days it has a little trouble drafting. So I warm the pipe up by turning the smoker on to 160F for 30 minutes before I turn on the smoke generator. 

If you don't, you'll have a building full of smoke. On of top my Bradley Smoker, I have a piece of flex pipe screwed directly to the top of the smoker over top of the dampener.

Good luck and happy all year smoking!!!

Brad

How to Use a Bradley Smoker

Dan Trout from Spencer, WI wrote in:

Brad,

I just bought a Bradley Smoker secondhand and couldn't find a recipe & instruction book. Could you help please?

Dan,

I know you're going to love that smoker with the self feeding smoke bricks! I would recommend contacting Bradley to order your next box of wood bricks and ask for a recipe book - they have them there. Or simply continue to check out the videos on this blog that put the Bradley Smoker to work. Here are a few to start out with:

How to Make Summer Sausage in A Bradley Smoker (4:34)

Moose Jerky in a Bradley Smoker (2:00)

Smoked Cheese in a Bradley Smoker 

I use the smoker at the end of course, so you'll be able to pick up some tips when you get to the end of the videos.

Smoking meats is all about basic principles. You can learn about natural smoke application, water activity, relative humidity, and surface moisture from our Sausage and Jerky Processing DVDs. Once you have the basic smoking principles down you can develop your own products & recipes and be smoking like a pro in no time!

Brad Lockwood

Making Sausage & Smoked Products from Frozen Meat

Tom from Pekin, IL asked:

Can you make sausage and smoked meat from frozen meat?


Tom,

For sausage, so long as the meat is not already ground, then yes, you sure can! You can simply watch any of our online Sausage How-To Videos and make a great product. You'll simply drop your frozen, cubed meat into the grinder just as you would unfrozen and go from there! 

If it has already been ground, then you're limited to the products that you can make. You'll have a texture issue with sausage, so no, I do not recommend making sausage from frozen ground meat. Most ground products where the texture matters - I would not use frozen ground meat.

One smoked product that I like to make from already ground and frozen hamburger is ground jerky. You can simply add your seasonings, grind it one or two more times to get it to a nice fine texture, and get your seasonings mixed well. Then, you push it out through the Weston Jerky Gun and load it into your smoker. That's one of my favorites - Here's the post and video about how to do it: Hamburger Jerky.

As for making smoked meat from frozen meat...

The issue with freezing any meat is that it damages cells. When you freeze meat, the moisture inside turns into ice crystals, which puncture the muscle cells. When the meat thaws, all of the fluid - holding those good salts and proteins - floods out of the holes that were made. The result is more loss of moisture when you cook the meat than you would have lost starting from raw meat. That said, this isn't really a problem in sausage making because you're going to grind the meat anyway. 

It comes into play more with roasts and steaks. If you're talking about smoking a chunk of frozen meat, then no, it's not the best way to do things. It's not unsafe, and it will get the job done. However: the point of thawing is even cooking. If the meat is frozen, it will take longer for the internal temperature to rise - so the outside of your meat will be overcooked by the time the inside of it gets to where it needs to be for safe eating. The moisture will also have left so quickly that you'll be left with a tougher product. Obviously, it's frozen, so it's going to take quite a while to cook. At that point, you'll probably have been better off just taking the time to thaw it.  But my advice is this: If you're going to smoke frozen meat, use a thermometer to check the internal temperature, and go low and slow. You can do it, it's just going to bring the quality down. 

Finally, if you're talking about the age-old myth that you can't freeze and thaw meat, then make anything from it - that's just an old wives' tale. Most of the meat products we receive in the commercial processing industry have already been frozen before we ever receive them. Like I said before, there's some damage caused by freezing, but if you're not cooking a filet mignon, it won't make enough difference to truly affect quality so long as you're thawing it first. The way you prepare and cook it will be much more important. 

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

Brad Lockwood

Meat Smoker Recommendations

Kenny from Shenandoah, VA wrote:

I would like your recommendation on a durable smoker that is dependable, rugged and not terribly expensive. It should be easy to use, hold a consistent temperature and have large capacity, as I would like to smoke whole hog hams and sides. I have looked at many brands and spoke to some friends but I just can't make up my mind. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Kenny thanks for the question,

I apologize for being late on my reply, hunts and the holidays have me running behind. Sorry about that! 

There are several things to consider when looking at a new smoker:

• Gas heats faster than electric, but electric has much less maintenance and is a lot more convenient.
• Will you be smoking in an area where electric is conveniently located, or would a propane tank be easier to use at that particular location? 
• How well is the cabinet insulated? The heavier the steel and thicker the walls are, the less heat you'll lose when smoking during cold temperatures. 
• The most important topic for me is the method that the house uses to create smoke. I like the smoke generator on the Bradley Smoker. Because it has a separate heating element, this smoke generator allows me to smoke products like cheese (which would ordinarily melt) and cold smoked sausage. It also allows me to smoke a lot longer at lower temperatures. The issue with many of the smokers on the market is that the heat source that creates the heat inside the cabinet is the same heat source that creates the smoke. So with that being said you have to turn up the cabinet temperature to have smoke, so you can't properly smoke salmon and other cold smoke products so you can't have smoke inside the cabinet without a lot of heat. 
• Another great feature of the Bradley smoke generator is the way the wood pucks only remain on the heating element for a selected period of time. They are then pushed off into a pan of water and drowned out. This keeps from burning the same old wood chips over and over again, which causes that bitter, sharp smoke flavor that you don't want in your products. When you can burn fresh wood chips you'll get a smoother and cleaner smoke. Having a smoker with a separate smoke generator is a very convenient feature to have. 
• If you're not worried about cold smoking products or smoking cheese, and you'd prefer a propane-fueled smoker, I'd recommend a Weston. They're all made of thick steel, some of them have stainless steel doors, their fuel delivery systems are solid, and they come with sausage hooks, which are mighty handy. They have different sizes, the largest being the 48", which will surely fit your hams. The thing to remember about the propane-fueled smokers is that the larger they get, the harder they are to heat and maintain. A 48" smoker is quite a beast, so you have to make sure you preheat it and monitor the temperature every so often. Anything that large is going to take some care to heat. If you look at the 36 inch and think that will fit what you're trying to smoke, then I'd go with that one since it's easier to keep hot.

I don't know how much this helps, but hopefully it will give you some ideas to consider when making your selection.

Smoking a Whole Turkey

David from Riverside, Ohio wrote:

What do you suggest as far as temperatures and length of smoking times for smoking a whole turkey? I have a Bradley Smoker.



Thanks for the question David,

Smoking a whole turkey can be really tricky, so you do need to be careful. I recommend injecting the bird with your favorite marinade or just using melted butter and inject the breast, legs, wings and thighs really well to increase the moisture content.

When I inject, I usually do it at least 24 hours prior to smoking to allow the muscle fibers to absorb the marinade that I have injected in. When smoking large products like hams, turkeys or geese, I always let them sit at room temperature for at least an hour to get all that ambient cold out of the meat before placing it into the smoker. It's such a battle for the smokehouse to take such a large, cold piece of meat and heat it up. I also preheat the smokehouse to 180F and let the cabinet remain at that temperature for 15-20 minutes before I ever place the turkey in the smoker. The best way to explain this is like warming up your house or hunting camp after the heat has been turned off or down low for several days. It just takes time to get the temperature of the walls, furniture, floors, cabinets and internal fixtures up to temperature. 

Let's get up to speed here! So we inject the bird to keep it from drying out, let the marinade soak in for 24 hours or so, then set the bird out to warm up to room temperature, preheat the smoker to 180F and allow it to remain at that temperature for 15-20 minutes.

Now you're ready to load the bird into the smoker. Place the turkey in the smoker with no smoke turned on. Large pieces of meat have so much moisture, you really don't need to be in a rush to begin smoking. I will typically dry the surface of the bird for at least one hour before applying smoke. Remember: The skin of your turkey is very moist and it's going to pick up smoke very fast! So, unless you want a really hard-smoked bird, you better dry the surface a little to keep smoke from sticking too quickly to the surface of the skin. 

After you dry the surface, you're ready to apply some smoke if you would like. I like to smoke for 2 hours at 190F. Next, you're ready to begin finishing the bird. At this time, I remove the bird from the smoker and place it into an oven bag. This oven bag, which you can purchase at any grocery store, will do wonders to keep your bird nice and moist. Place the bird into the bag and make one or two small holes in the top of the bag to allow the bag to breathe. 

Now, increase the cabinet temperature up to 300F until the timer pops or the bird reaches 180F internal temperature.

Enjoy your turkey dinner and thanks for the great question!

"The Meat Man"

Brad Lockwood

Cold Smoking vs. Hot Smoking

Steve from Billings, MT asked: 

Brad, what’s the difference between a cold smoked wild game product and a hot smoked wild game product?


Thanks for the great question Steve!

Cold smoking sounds pretty simple but doing it properly takes a little work and monitoring. Let's begin with "Hot Smoking," which is the standard practice of smoking & cooking meat products at the same time.

Generally, you will place your products in the smoker and turn the cabinet temperature up to 140F - 160F, add your wood chips and smoke for 2-3 hours depending on how many pounds of product and the diameter of the product in the smoker. Next, you will begin increasing the temperature in the cabinet until a final determined internal temperature is reached. This is the standard practice of "Hot Smoking" - defined as applying heat to the product while smoking at the same time.

Now let's discuss "Cold Smoking," which is a favorite practice of mine! Cold smoking is the art of applying smoke to a product without applying heat. To do this, you will need a smoker with a separate smoke generator, like the Bradley Smoker Series. This smoker has two separate heating elements: one for the cabinet heat and one for the smoke generator. In this situation, you can simply turn on the smoke generator and leave the cabinet heating element turned off. I also add ice to the cabinet to be sure the temperature doesn't raise above 41F during the smoking process. Now you can smoke for extended periods of time without drying out or overcooking your product and the ice will keep the product cool to prevent the growth of bacteria. This technique works very well for heavy smoked products and smoked cheese!

Thanks again for the great question! I enjoyed it.

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

Making Snack Sticks: Dehydrator or Smoker?

Jack from Eureka, UT wrote:

I’m making snack sticks for the very first time. Should I make them in my smoker or in my dehydrator? Any other tips for a first timer? Thanks!


Jack,

Thanks for the question and certainly you will want to use your smoker. This would be the correct choice for several reasons.

First, the final internal temperature will be difficult to reach when you are running at the low temperatures in a dehydrator. You will be looking for a final internal temperature of 158F and this will be difficult to achieve if your dehydrator oven only goes to 155F.

Also, remember dehydrators are designed to remove moisture from the products that you place inside of them. Doing this to your snack sticks is going to make for a very dry product.

Fire up your smoker and run the temperature at 130-140F while smoking for about 2 hours, then turn the smoke off and increase the cabinet temperature up to 170F for 45min to an hour.

Check your temperature. If you have not achieved the 158F internal temperature you are looking for increase the temperature in the smoke house to 190 - 200F and watch your product temperature closely. The internal temperature will rise quickly at higher temperatures and you don't want to over do it and ruin the product.

After the temperature has been reached, remove the sticks immediately and begin cooling them down as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the question and good luck!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

How do I make Smoked Duck Bacon?

Bob from Lincoln Park, MI wrote in:

Brad,

I would like to see a video on making and smoking Duck Bacon. I have a Bradley Smoker, but I'm not sure if it can be used to cold smoke the Duck Bacon. Thank you for your how-to videos and the DVD's. Great job, they are very helpful.


Thanks for the question Bob and you have truly stumped me my friend! I have never heard of "Cold Smoked Duck Bacon."

I do have a segment in my Mastering Marination DVD on making restructured venison bacon that you could use and apply the same principles and techniques to waterfowl. As far as cold smoking it, you will need to apply the standard heat required with any bacon product to make the product nice and firm so it binds together and can be sliced easily.

Thanks again for the great question.

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

Freezing Smoked Meats

Tim from Paxton, IL wrote:

Hello Brad,

Love the show and really enjoy the hunts. I made some summer sausage using a Sausage Kit. Followed the directions as close as possible.

My question is: Now that I've smoked/cooked the sausages, is there any harm in freezing them? I bought a vacuum sealer and have plenty of bags.

Thanks for the advice and keep on cook'n.

Tim


Tim,

Thanks so much for the question, and yes you can freeze your summer sausage! The only issue with freezing smoked products is the cure. Smoked products tend to have much shorter freezer storage times than fresh meats. I never keep smoked products in a frozen state for over 3 months.

Try to eat fast my friend and thanks for the question!!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood
Outdoor Edge's LOH TV

What kind of wood should I use in my smoker?

Ron from Yelm, WA asked: 
What kind of wood would you recommend for smoking fish, venison sausage, and jerky?

Very good question Ron! I'm glad you asked! The type of wood you use will depend on several factors...

First: Is the product traditionally hard smoked?

Second, and most importantly: Do you like a heavily smoked product?

Third: How wet is the surface of the product and how much moisture is in the product?

Finally: What is the surface area of the product (diameter)?

Let me explain: If you're making a black forest ham, you will want a deep penetrating strong flavor that would come from a wood such as hickory or mesquite. If you want a light smoke, you may want to use apple or alder wood.

When I speak of how wet the surface of the product is, I am meaning: When you touch the surface, is the product wet or dry? If the surface is wet, like fish or waterfowl, the product will absorb a lot of smoke. If the surface is dry, it won't matter what type of wood you use. You will have trouble getting a strong smoke flavor and getting good penetration of smoke into the meat. Always remember that moisture is the way smoke travels into the meat. No moisture = no smoke penetration, little moisture = little penetration, a lot of moisture means a lot of smoke penetration!

When I speak of surface area I am meaning: How big is the product you are smoking? A ham will have a lot more surface area than a snack stick, so you are going to have less time to apply smoke to a snack stick than a ham because the surface of the snack stick will dry out much faster than the surface of a ham.

Thanks again for the question Ron, and I would really recommend the Advanced Sausage DVD (click to check it out) for you! Judging by your question, I believe you would really enjoy the content of that DVD.

Brad Lockwood
"The Meat Man" 

How do I control the smoke flavor, temperature, and humidity in a barrel smoker?

Fred from East Rochester, New York said:


I have repeatedly watched ALL five of your advanced processing videos. Thanks for all the information and advice!


I do have a couple of questions:


Instead of using non-fat dry milk in sausage, could I substitute bread crumbs?


Also, in your videos, you use a Bradley smoker with all the digital controls to control smoke and temperature. For those of us with a barrel smoker that uses the fire to heat, do you have any advice on how to control the smoke flavor, temperature, and humidity in these "old school" smokers?


By the way - love the videos and even bought an  Outdoor Edge Flip n Zip knife for the next deer season!!!!!


Thanks,


Fred

Thanks for the question Fred!

Brings back old memories of the clay brick smokers we started with in the meat industry 25 years ago. We made some incredible products in those houses. Just takes a little more work and talent, that's all. We would use charcoal on the bottom of the grate and then place slabs of hickory wood on top; take a torch & get the fire going really well and then smother it with hickory saw dust. Hurry up and place it in the smokehouse and close the door and all the dampers on the house. Be sure there are no flames and just let it set and smolder. It keeps the temperature down and smokes like CRAZY. After an hour of solid smoke rolling out of the house, we would begin to open the damper and let the flame catch up to create the heat and bring the product up to final internal temperature. 

No bread crumbs, they are for baking not smoking.

Good luck Fred,

Brad

Do I fill the water bowl and open the dampers in an electric smoker to make sausage?

Paul from Waxahachie, Texas asked:

When using an electric smoker to make sausage, how open or closed do I leave the damper on top? And also, when smoking, do I fill the water bowl, or leave it dry?

Thanks Brad!

Great question Paul,

The damper on the smoker is often overlooked and it's a very important aspect of smoking meats. We talk about this in several segments of The Advanced Sausage Processing DVD. 

By opening the damper, you allow moisture to escape the smokehouse. You make the burner run harder to keep the temperature up, and this dries both the air and your product. 

By closing the damper, you do the opposite - hold moisture in. The heating element runs less to maintain the cabinet temperature, creating a high humidity environment. This will also allow natural smoke to stay in the cabinet and penetrate into your sausage product. 

You may want to dry the surface of some products a little before you begin smoking. To do this, open the damper and let the moisture out. You can also experiment with opening the damper 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 of the way. 

The general purpose of the damper is to control the amount of moisture and smoke in the cabinet. The purpose of the additional water from the pan serves the same purpose - to put additional humidity into the cabinet. 

Thanks Paul,

Meat Man! 

Do I need to use water when smoking snack sticks?

Brad:

Do you recommend using water when smoking snack sticks in my Bradley smoker?

Thanks!

Keith

Keith,

Yes, I do recommend using water for a couple reasons. First, the water in the pan placed below the smoke generator feed is very important for extinguishing the old brick of sawdust. If the brick is not drowned out, the brick will keep burning - releasing a bitter burnt flavor into the smokehouse and into your meats. 

This water and the brick feed are a very important part of savoring the flavor of your Bradley smoker. This way, you are burning a fresh new brick of sawdust and not the same old burnt dust (similar to cleaning a pipe so you don't get the resin flavor).

Secondly, the water will create moisture in the house, giving you a good moist product.

Brad

What's the proper temperature and timing for smoking summer sausage?

Brad-
What starting temperature would you use when using a 4 inch casing for summer sausage?

Thank you,
Dan
Aylmer, Ontario CA


Dan,

The protein in the meat will begin to set from the outside in as the heat penetrates the product. So the larger the product, the higher the starting temperature can be. A good example for your summer sausage would be:

155 - 1 hour with smoke
165 - 2 hours with smoke
180 - 1 hour
190-200 - until an internal temp of 158 degrees F is reached

If you can, place a pan of water in your smoker. This is a good idea on large diameter products (like summer sausage) to hold the moisture in the product.

Good Luck Dan!

Brad