Smoking sequence

[Smithy]

Over in a thread on lamb ribs, two fine cooks reverse the sequence of when they'd put the meat in the smoker. In that thread, Dave would smoke first, finish later; Chris is thinking to cook first, finish in the smoker.

I've been wondering what difference the sequence makes, if at all. I haven't used my smoker enough to really know what I'm doing yet, and I haven't worked my way through the entire smoking thread. I have learned that smoke can be overdone. I'm planning to experiment as I can, but as of this week Northeastern Minnesota is under a complete burning ban. No charcoal fires, no wood fires, no blow torches unless you're within a mile of Lake Superior. (Those of you living with flood watches may marvel that we're in the worst drought since the 1930's.) I don't care to test our sheriff's vigilance quite yet.

So.. help me out, here. If you aren't going to cook a piece of meat entirely in the smoker, when do you do the smoking? What are the considerations and tradeoffs? What experiments do you suggest for me, when I can get back to smoking?

[Chris Amirault]

Thanks for the props, Nancy!

The key issue is temperature, I think. I'm going to grill the ribs, which will impart some smokiness, but I'm not going to smoke the ribs. I'm doing a low-n-slow cook in the oven (now, in fact), and when they're ready for the grill, they'll be at about 200F. Since I want them for dinner tonight, I won't have had a chance to let the cool meat develop a pellicle in the fridge, which gives the smoke something to cling to and which chills it so that it doesn't reach warmer temperatures so quickly.

Smoke stops flavoring meat when the surface temp is around 140F, so If I put those 200F ribs into smoker, very little of the smoke would flavor the meat, though some would be absorbed by the glaze I'm making, which will be cool by the time I use it. So I'm just going to grill them, and let the high-heat char and a bit of smokiness work its way through the glaze.

With Dave's method, as with most smoked meat methods (bacon, pulled pork, pork ribs), you want to start smoking with cold, dry meat for the maximum smokiness.

[Abra]

I smoke first then finish in the oven, when necessary. If you smoke meat to at least 140, then wrap it in foil tightly and put it in a very low oven, maybe 200 degrees, you can let it slowly cook for quite a long time without worrying about it. Or, you can get it cooked through on the smoker, wrap tightly, and pop it into a cooler (no ice!) to keep it warm for a couple of hours.

[Joseph Fenush]

Dave's method also involved sous vide following the smoking, which would help to intensify the smoke as well as any other flavors imparted previous to it...

We usually smoke large batches of ribs in the cookshack and then foil tightly and finish in the oven as described by Abra