How do you get a great smoked meal started?

Smoke cooking requires a good plan.  It takes a pro to just conjure up a meal to cook for six hours on a moments notice.  So, don’t just jump into the fire without a hose, bring a thunderstorm! Grill/smokeing requires somewhat less preparation, but you still may want to marinate, rub or otherwise get ready.  So as the Boy Scouts say “ BE PREPARED”

Plan Your Meal.

Decide what you want to cook a couple of days in advance if you are going to Smoke so you can shop and season your stuff ahead of time. Grill/Smoke planning can be done in the AM, but be sure to adjust for seasoning time. Don’t expect to find deer tenderloin at the last minute either.

Shop Your Meal.

Beef, poultry and pork are best smoked or grilled from the fresh condition, rather than frozen. Fish on the other hand, smokes better after being frozen for a couple of days but grills better fresh. Choose dead animals with a moderate amount of fat to keep your entrees tender. An eye round of beef will be a bitch to eat should you not cook it rare. Grocery butchers are usually more than happy to share their cooking tips if you wind up in a tizzy due to a “what the hell am I going to do now” episode.  Whatever you do, donut buy the pre-marinated, heat-and-eat, BHA/BHT/XYZ  vacuum-packed ditch rot, that you would not feed to a starving dog entrees. YOU ARE THE MAN! Take control Smedley, and chart your own ‘cue.

Prepare Your Meal.

Best practice is to season or  marinade your dead animals the night before smoking. Grill/somke seasoning may be executed as little as two hours prior-to-fire, if left at room temperature.  Leave yourself enough time in your venture to select the right serving dishes, prepare the ALA-carte items, appetizer time and bring-the-whole-damn-thing-toghther ventures.

And Now for Some Food News....