Recipies & Cooking
What have you smoked lately? Q-view...
Fowler- I have an electric Smokin-It model and like you I keep things like the removable racks clean after each smoke. I line the bottom with alum. foil and the unit is contoured to have fat drip out of an outlet port. I just rub down the sides and top every 3-6 months but have never done a "deep-de-greasing" process. The seasoning on the sides/top all add to the "meat-smoke" goodness that you mentioned.
If you were to do a deep clean on a well used smoker I don’t see where it would hurt anything. It would be important to make sure it is completely cleaned and then do the seasoning process over again. A well designed smoker will have vents to remove moisture as it is created. That moisture and smoke residue are what can cause flavor problems. Most smokers have removable drip pans, baffles and racks that can be kept clean which with moisture build up control should prevent any flavor problems. I have found a couple of Bradley Smoker fan pages that provided a lot of information to get a head start on getting good results. There are likely pages for your brand of smoker as well. If not the info on the Bradley pages could easily be adapted to the Masterbuilt.
Back to add to my original post....
My unit has produced about 10 years of meat greatness. I still do a pretty good cleanup job on the removable components (racks. drippan, ash hopper,etc)
The concern I was wondering if i should be going thru the inside core unit and really follow through on a deep de-grease cleanup. Hate to be creating an unsanitary situation but also don't want to interrupt a good working unit.
I have a Bradley 6 rack digital smoker. Started using it last fall for some venison sausage products. Have also done a pork loin for Canadian Bacon and a pork roast for pulled pork. Following each use I wash the racks, drip pan, deflector shield and water pan. I also clean off the smoke generator hot plate that the wood pucks burn on. I do wipe clean the cabinet face where the door seal contacts to prevent it from sticking. I allow the smoke discoloration to remain on the cabinet interior. After enough uses I may elect to wipe down the cabinet interior with a clean damp towel. An important tip is to keep the vent open during use to remove any excess moisture which will condense and drip “black rain” on your smoking product. I do want to do a pork belly for traditional bacon as well as starting to experiment with smoking chunk meat like roasts and steaks. If I do eventually smoke some fish I may need to rethink how I clean up after a smoke.
buckbin, I have been using the PS Seasonings brand venison bacon cure for several years with great results. I have made the smoked pan formed cakes in my old homemade smoker as well as in the oven. In the oven I added liquid smoke to the mix. This year was the first using a Bradley 6 rack smoker with the puck feed smoke generator. I used apple wood pucks and the finished product had a good smoke flavor. I ran the smoker at 160 for 3 hours with smoke and then raised the temp to 180 and held until the internal temp was 142. I grind pork butts and mix it 50/50 pork to venison. It still comes out quite lean and needs to be fried low and slow to prevent it from getting crispy. Will be trying it with a beef pork mix to use up the balance of the seasoning kit I have. Didn’t get a second deer this season so I have to use beef.
