What have you smoked lately? Q-view...

Just before Thanksgiving, wanted to smoke some snacks to take to my Mom's....did a Spiral ham, couple pound of mixed nuts, and I usually throw on some red taters just because. I rub a little EVOO on the taters, some seasoning, and pull them out when the main course is done. Sometimes they're not cooked all the way through, but can always be finished off when you decide how you want to cook them. I either chop and fry up, or finish off as a baked tater...red taters cook quicker... Good stuff.

I used up some leftover grinding meat from other recipes I did this winter. Had 10 lbs I made into trail bologna. I added encapsulated citric acid to the meat mixture. That provided a nice tanginess to the flavor however it is soon lost in the bite from the cayenne pepper in the seasoning mix. I sure hope the bite mellows after it hangs and ages a few days. 

Has anyone here ever smoked smelt?  My BIL had a recipe for them and used to do a bunch of them in the springtime.  It was his own recipe and none of us thought to ask him about it before he died.  

Finished our summer sausage last week. Turned out great.  We use a cold smoke process and had the sausage hanging in the smoke house for 5 days. Old time/age tested process that I grew up with on the family farm. 

Picked up 2 pork butts on sale for $1,.99 per pound and smoked them for 9 hours on Saturday.  Made my own rub - the pulled pork turned out great.  Had some friends in town that tried it and they thought I should be selling it.  Sent them home with about 2 pounds.  Saturday night I reverse seared a whole beef tenderloin - AWESOME results.  All on my Traeger.  I kind of like the mild temperatures and the neighborhood smells good too.  Probably smoke some Salmon this weekend.

Fishlovme, I get most of my meat processing supplies from PSSeasonings.com. I use their venison bacon cure. It is a blend of spices and a maple sugar based cure. While venison bacon is more of a sausage type product the seasoning, maple sugar cure and smoking it has a flavor similar to traditional bacon. 

Eyesman is your bacon basically the same recipe as the summer sausage or do you use different spices in it? If only I could get two deer in a season id explore more with making things but I love my 12 to 15 pounds of trim I get off a deer to go to Maplewood Meats in Howard or Bavaria in Fitchburg.

44/45, that summer sausage looks good. The more you make the better it gets. Rattle em up, I’ve made venison bacon many times. I use a 9”x9” baking pan to form the meat block. I line the pan with plastic wrap, pack in the meat and cover with plastic wrap. Age 12-24 hours in the fridge. Remove the plastic wrap and dump the meat block on the smoker rack and remove bottom plastic wrap. Smoke at 110-120°F with no smoke for 1 hour in surface dry the meat, add smoke and gradually increase temperature to 160°F for 3-5 hours, raise temperature to 180°F and hold until internal temperature is 152-155°F. Rack cool and then refrigerate a day or two before slicing. Vacuum seal and freeze what I don’t use in 10-14 days. 

I have been out of the smoking meats world for many years due to no time. I am surprised of how fancy some of the smoking equipment has gotten. Decided to pull out my smoker and try some venison bacon. Came out good for the first try. Been doing a lot of research on the process for summer sausage. Lots of good tips on this site.
Bought a smoke tube to try smoking cheese, worked great. Had to throw some italian sausage on and finish on the grill.

eyesman, so for my latest batch, I stuffed the casings myself and really held back to the force of the stuffer I have. Much better results than when my wife helped me. 

44/45, this is a couple of the sticks of summer sausage I made. Stuffed and smoke this past Sunday, cold water bath and then rack hung in the unheated garage, 35-38°F until Thursday morning. Put in a sealed container now and vacuum seal this weekend and freeze. 

At the start of last fall I ordered my usual venison processing supplies. Early November I found some whole pork butts for $.99 a pound, cut them in grinder size pieces and froze them. Well no deer for me in the regular gun season ,antlerless season or late archery. So I had to break out some coin and bought a whole beef chuck, almost 25 pounds. Cut, ground, mixed, stuffed, smoked and ended up with summer sausage, hot sticks and a double batch of smoked polish kielbasa as well as 5 lbs fresh ground chuck. Age them a few days yet and then fire up the vacuum sealer. 

Thank you for the recommendations so far. At this time I'm just thinking about getting a new smoker. I will be getting one soon though.

Emptied freezer a few days ago and had enough for a full batch so I cold smoked some coho salmon, brown and lake trout and a few whitefish. Yummy!

Esox-   I have a brand called Smokin-It for 9-10 years now and I have been very happy with it. A buddy had a one for several years and that is how I came across this brand. It is going to be more expensive than brands like Bradley/Masterbuilt etc but in my opinion worth the money. One of the best features is it is insulated so the unit holds temperature very well and I can smoke year round. Have smoked down to single digits in Jan/Feb etc. Also very reliable when it comes to the internal box temps and heat probe temps (I have checked manually to confirm). My buddy has not replaced a single part in 12 years and I replaced an internal heat probe last summer.  I smoke all the basic proteins (Brisket, pork loin, butts, ribs, chickens, turkeys, Canadian bacon. They make accessories to allow you to make jerky or cold smoke items. I use mine to make my home-made bacon where I use both a cold smoke and hot smoke process.  I do not smoke summer sausage in this unit. Have an actual smoke-house for that process.  

I know family members/friends who have Bradley;s/Masterbuilts etc and I am not going to knock them. They do have some drawbacks (IMO) but they are more affordable options.

Smokin-It has a wide selection of smokers going all the way up to commercial units. I have the 3D model and I paid $700 dollars, I believe that version is up to $1200 now. They do have some smaller units in the $400-$700 range.  There is a brand called Smokin-Tex that is also fully insulated and has a pretty good reputation. In fact the two brands look very similar with similar features. I know there are other insulated Electric brands on the market but these are two I am familiar with  
 

I have a 3 year old 6 rack Bradley digital smoker. I am not happy with it. The stock heating element is undersized, the temperature sensor is not accurate. When using all six racks the back of the bottom 2-3 racks get overcooked. It does provide a good clean smoke flavor. I now use it for the beginning part of the smoking process. Once I’ve smoked the product to the point of getting the smoke flavor I want I move the product to the house oven to get it to the necessary finishing temperature. I do summer sausage, hot sticks, polish kielbasa and venison bacon that way. I also do pork butts for pulled pork and pork ribs the same way. There are aftermarket upgrades I’ve seen but I’m not spending $300 plus dollars for that. I still can get a very good finished product by using the oven.