How long for Smoke?

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dave from mesa

Meat Mopper
Original poster
SMF Premier Member
Dec 8, 2009
279
14
Mesa, az
Reading all this fattie talk got me in the mood to try one. Got some sausage (frozen)from a pork shop to try. haven't figured out what to put in it yet but I have a day or so.
Think I got everything down except how long to actually use smoke. Do I use smoke for a short time and then just let the heat take care of the rest of the cooking? Or use smoke the whole time?
Don't want to have too heavy a smoke taste.
Have read not to smoke a meatloaf too long and think this is about the same thing.
thanks
 
The conventional wisdom seems to be that you apply smoke until the meat reaches around 140 degrees internal temp. But in reality, if you can smell smoke while it is cooking, it is still smoking and probably still absorbing smoke.

I recommend a simple fattie to start with. Fry up some scrambled eggs, chopped peppers and onion and make a nice breakfast fattie.
 
In general, if you are concerned about too heavy of a smoke then go with a milder type wood like hickory. Woods like mesquite have a much stronger flavor. Without knowing what kind of smoker you have, I would suggest using chips. You can soak them or not (I soak but a lot of other don't).

For this fist smoke use just one heaping handful of chips. Wrap them in a foil pouch & poke a fews holes in the foil with a fork. Place the pack on or near your heat source. Don't add any more during the cook so you can sort of establish a baseline for your personal smoke flavor preference. If it is not smokey enough for you, then you can use more chips for a longer period of time on your next smoke.
 
When doing a fattie I always let the smoke go for as long as the smoke last and thats till the fattie gets too 165 internal.
 
I just read a post this weekend that stated that meat takes smoke until the internal temp is at 120 degrees. After that it is just cooking. I guess this holds true for all meats but am not certain of that.
 
Ok Thanks guys. I will smoke till it's done. Just didn't want to over do it.
thanks again
 
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