What do you call your Smoker?
No names for my custom smokers. I have 2 cajun grills, Molly and paintball.
How was your smoker built?
Every smoker I looked at had some things i didn't like so I finally designed our own for my wife's restaurant Johnson's Boucaniere. The smokers are composed of a combination of solid filled C.M.U., fire brick, steel, stainless steel and stainless clad wood insulated with radiant barrier technology
What kind of Capacity does it have?
There are four chambers. Two chambers are for smoking Sausage which smokes 150-200 LBS of sausage each. The third chamber is for smoking beef jerky and tasso (capacity prior to smoking is about 100-125 LBS. The third chamber is a rotisserie, which has 6 racks capable of smoking 6-7 Butts per rack.
Won any Competitions? When and Where?
I have never competed, but all of our Sausage,Tasso and beef jerky recipes stem from my father-in-laws world famous Johnson's Grocery which opened up in Eunice,La in 1937(now closed). We have added Smoked brisket, pulled pork, smoked country ribs and chicken to the menu and make our own BBQ sauce.
What Style of Smoker is it?
Our smokers are designed for cold smoking, hot smoking and for smoking bigger cuts of meats. That is why we partitioned off the smokers because we needed to achieve different temperatures for different types of food. We smoke our Briskets, chickens, pulled pork, country ribs, turkey legs, and lately pastrami at 225 degrees. Our larger cuts of meat stay moist via a large stainless steel water tray directly above the fire. Our sausages our hot smoked at 150-175 degrees. When we smoke bacon, it is cold smoked at 100-125 degrees. We have cajun grills for our pit grilled chickens which we cook at about 300 degrees.
What kind of Fuel does it run on?
Our smokers are fed by natural gas log lighters and the exclusive wood we use for the traditional meats we smoke is oak wood. The units are insulated extremely well. We start out our smoke with 4-5 logs and then add about one log per hour after that. All in all our monthly gas bill, including our indoor griddle and oven and all 4 smokers is about 175/month. We will typical go through about 8-10 pieces of oak wood while smoking sausage, beef jerky or tasso, and about 12-14 pieces of wood while smoking are larger cuts of meat.
Tips and Tricks
- We use a natural gas log lighter to keep temps consistent
- insulate insulate insulate to keep temps. consistent
- We use oak wood because we tend to smoke for long periods of time. woods like hickory, pecan and mesquite and overpower your meats if you are not careful.
- always write a journal of everything you do until you have your smoking techniques down for that particular item you are trying to master.
- Go to about.com. Whenever I want to bbq or smoke or develop a new rub I always go to Derrick Riches' site first (shhhh don't tell too many people that great tip)
