How to smoke chooks and hams in Aldi Smoker.

[rayke1938]

Before commencing you need to get in a few things which I will list and also where I source them from.

Hand meat pump. Mine belonged to my grandmother but you can source them from ebay cheaper from china or else the states

Next thing is some netting to hold the chooks in the smoker while you smoke them. This is available from ebay. Look under butchers netting or from a butchers supply house such as www.yellowpages.com.au/.../heathwood/denco-trading-12388667-lis. /]http://www.cqbutcherssupplies.com.au/ I didnt need any this time as I already have half a roll.

Denco are at heathwood and CQ are at mackay and will post.

Then you need some cure for pumping the chooks and hams. I used Heimann ham cure from CQ at mackay as I was too lazy to drive to heathwood,

If you use the heinman ham cure be aware that there is a mistake in the directions on the label. You only need 100 grams of salt to 1kg or cure NOT equal parts as the label says.

You will need a large food grade container to soak the pumped chooks and ham in for 4 days.

Be careful mixing the pumping mix as it contains salt petre which is poisonous if mixed too strong.

To insert the chooks into the netting I push the netting over a short length of around 6inch poly pipe and tie a knot in one end of the netting and then drop the chook down the inside of the pipe and then cut and tie the other end of the netting tube. The netting is elasticized and holds the legs and wings in close to the body and the finished product looks a lot better than if you just place the pumped chook on the tray of the smoker.

Once this is done it is time to pump the chook.

You just suck the brine up into the pump and then insert the needle into each part to the chook and pump the syringe.

When pumped the chook will have increased in size by about one third.

I do not bother pumping the tips of the wings as we usually chuck them away when smoked and anyhow the brine does spread inside the body while the chook is soaking.

The leg of pork that I pumped was very large and the butcher did not have any netting large enough to hold it so I just had to pump it and smoke it whilst it was sitting on the shelf of the smoker.

Next year I will get the leg of pork boned out and ask the butcher to net it for me,

The leg of pork is very tedious to pump using just the small hand pump but when I sliced up the ham today I had not missed any spots with the brine.

Once pumped the chooks and ham have to be immersed in the cure for a period of at least 4 days and kept in the fridge.

I use hickory shavings to smoke mine but any hardwood shavings or sawdust works well.

You can experiment with the different timbers as they all have their unique flavors just dont use any treated timber or any resinous or poisonous stuff such as oleander. Safesty way is to either buy prepared smoking sawdust ( Expensive) ,make your own( Get a length of fallen ironbark or ti tree etc and debark it and attack it with an electric planer or electric saw or else if you have a hardwood sawmill handy they are usually happy to let you take a few bags. ( Sawmill at esk will either have ironbark or spotted gum depending on what they are milling at the time)

Then the fun starts.

Here are a couple of netted and pumped chooks hanging in the smoker.

Start smoking . I wrapped the hickory in alfoil and just used the one charge for the chooks. It took around 4 to 5 hours before they were done, I use a heat probe thermometer and when the internal temperature of the chook reaches 185 degrees . ( Check the breast section) I then remove the chooks from the smoker and drain them of any liquid that may be in the internal cavity and then quench them in iced water.

The ham was a bit of a pain being so large and un-netted so I had to juggle it around so that it sat on the shelf while it smoked. ( I actually sat 2nshelves together as the weight of the ham put a large bend in the shelf and I thought that it might collapse.)

I recharged the smoke container 3 times during the smoking but did not wrap the shavings in alfoil.

Because hte ham was sitting on the shelf and also partly against the side of the smoker it did not smoke evenly but this was only cosmetic as you trim off all the skin etc when you slice the ham.

The ham took around 9 hours to cook to an internal temperature of 160 degrees and once again was quenched in iced water when finished.

Once completed you then have the task of cleaning up the smoker and shelves.

I have found that a good spray of engine degreaser works very well and then a gurney off removes 98% of the baked on fat etc with then just a spot clean with oven cleaner to remove any stubborn spots.

Just spent a few hours slicing up the chooks and ham some to take up to daughters place at ESK for xmas dinner and the rest into the freezer.

Son in law has a haunch of venison in the freezer for me so looks like smoked venison thread to come next.

Cheers

Ray

[Keen-as-fisho]

Thanks for the post Ray, I have been wanting to smoke meat for a while now. The smoked venison sounds great some of the best meat I've eaten.

[adambris]

how much was the aldi smoker ray? is it run on LPG?

have been dabbling in smoking in the webber lately, and looking at buying a smoker.

and how long do u quench the chooks in iced water?

thanks for the info!

[rayke1938]

The smoker was on special a couple of weeks ago for just under $200 and it runs on lpg.They are exactly the same as the Hark smoker that usually sell for around $300.

Just quench for around 10 minutes to stop them overcooking.

Cheers

Ray

[BassTracker]

Excellent work Ray and thanks for sharing how to do it.. Im drooling

[moses]

Thanks for the info Ray I will try my new smoker in the newyear by the way all the best to you and yours will see u in 2012

[maccatuna]

ive got a cheaper way to smoke chooks.... buy some tallyho,s 60c and roll the chook in the papers and use a bic lighter $2 to light it and there u go smoked chook $2.60