Hey what's up, I'm Tony Fatso Siciliano from On The Grill Radio. And today we're going to talk a little bit about how to smoke meat. You know smoking meat is gaining popularity all across the country, people love to cook in their backyard this way. I mean think of some of your favorite kinds of meat, especially the kind you get a barbecue restaurants, and you want that smoky flavor. You get it through using a smoker. Think about ribs, think about pulled pork, think about brisket, think about chicken. All can be cooked to perfection on your smoker. A couple of basic rules you have to remember no matter what kind of smoker you're using. The temperature. If you're over 225 degrees, you're not smoking. So we're keeping our temperature low. And when you actually smoke some meat you have to be prepared to make an investment in time because it doesn't happen in 5 minutes, it's not like cooking a little minute steak, you're going to be investing several hours into cooking the meat exactly the way you want it. And if you have a cheap charcoal grill you can make that into a smoker as well. Here we just have a kettle grill. If we use the coals all on one side and have our heat source banked to the side, we have the whole other side for using an indirect smoking method of cooking to cook our meat. All you do is put the hardwood chips on top of that heat source and you'll see the white smoke plume through, another great, cheap, inexpensive way to utilize a grill for a backyard grilling, backyard barbecuing, and backyard smoking. An important characteristic to remember when you're eating and looking at smoked meat, you'll see that there's a pink ring.The pink ring is not raw. A lot of people associate pink meat with raw meat. When the smoke penetrates the meat, you'll see that at least an eighth to a quarter, maybe even a half an inch into the meat from the surface will penetrate with a pinkish, reddish color. That means natural hardwood was used, smoke in the cooking process and you're getting real smoked meat. Smoking is a great way in using tougher cuts of meat, like ribs or pork shoulder, or brisket. Those pieces of meat are really tough for the most part. The smoking process cooks it at a low temperature. All of the connective tissues just kind of melts, just kind of evaporates. And everything that kept that brisket so tough in the first place, just lets it relax and mellow out and get some great smoked flavor. And you're going to end up with the best cut of the entire animal by letting it smoke, it's going to be fork tender. Same thing with ribs, same thing with pulled pork sandwiches. Think about pulled pork, it's a shoulder, it's a working muscle, it's tough. When you cook it nice and slow, with the smoke, at a low temperature, you get great flavor and you get a very, very tender piece of meat. If you're looking for a new way to cook some old favorites in your backyard, think about investing in a smoker. It'll give you years of service and countless meals to enjoy with your family. I'm Tony Fatso Siciliano. To learn more about me, go to OnTheGrillRadio.com.
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