Most people know about smoked ham, bacon or fish. In the world of traditional barbecue, whether it is Texas or North Carolina, smoking means something else. In barbecue, smoking takes anywhere from 1-2 hours up to 20 or even more. To do the really long smoke will require the right kind of equipment. To get a feel for the kinds of smokers on the market, check out my article on buying a Smoker.
To smoke something you need a container to hold in the smoke, a source of the smoke, and something to smoke. A smoker can be anything from a hole in the ground to a $2000 smoker. The source of the Smoke is typically hard wood. There have been people who assert that what you burn to make the smoke really doesn't matter. Long time ago there was a guy in Kansas City who claimed that he had fed people in his restaurant ribs smoked with Hickory and some smoked with corncobs. Supposedly no one could tell the difference. He passed on a while back and the restaurant that bares his name denies that it ever happened. Believe what you will. I myself stick with the traditionally hardwoods like Hickory, Oak and Apple.
What to smoke is purely a matter of taste. The most popular items smoked by enthusiasts are ribs, brisket and pork shoulder. But don't limit yourself to these. You can smoke just about anything, from nuts to cheese to steaks. However, the process of smoking has grown around cuts of meat that traditionally don't come out well in any other cooking method. A good example of this is brisket, which is very tough and not very easy to eat if you bake it in the oven.
The basics of smoke are as follows. You need to practice good temperature control. Meat smoking is best done in the range of 200-220 degrees. You need to bring the internal temperature of the meat to at least 165 degrees to be safe for consumption, but you don't want to go too far above this. I recommend two accurate thermometers for smoking. One inside the smoker in the area where the meat sits to tell you the smoker temperature and one meat thermometer in the meat to tell you the internal temperature of what you are smoking. Whatever it is, take it out when it hits a safe temperature.
There are two reasons to keep the temperature low. One is to give the smoke enough time to sink in and the other is to naturally tenderize the meat. Slow cooking gives the natural fibers in meat time to break down and become tender.
Another basic rule of smoking is to place the meat inside the smoker so that it is surrounded by smoke. You want a good thick stream of smoke around the meat at all times to give it the kind of exposure you need to enhance the flavor. The smoke needs to be moving, always moving to maximize exposure and prevent the smoke from making the meat bitter because of a build up of creosote.
The last thing to remember is that smoking is far more an art than it is a science. Practice and patience are the secret. For specifics on different types of meat to smoke you can read up on Brisket, Ribs and Pulled Pork.
