Stove-top Smoker: Favorite Things to Smoke?

[MargyB]

I recently acquired a Cameron stove top smoker....so far I've done cheddar cheese (fabulous!) and salmon (a little dry). What are some of your favorite uses for the smoker?

Thanks!

Margy

[PicnicChef]

Add a little cinnamon stick to your chips. Then, for a short time, smoke a nice pork tenderloin with a dry rub on it. Delicious!

[chezcherie]

i second the pork t-loin suggstion. also trout. i love my stovetop smoker.

[Eastgate]

I've had a dandy time with my Cameron Smoker, ever since Heidi at 101cookbooks.com talked me into it. The best meal so far was tea-smoked duck breasts, but it's also given a new dimension to the salmon steaks and filets that are a staple here in Malden.

Smoking smallish portobellos over alder, having sprinkled them lightly with oil and minced garlic, works nicely too and is a good way to use any leftover space on the grill rack.

Smokinghttp://www.markbernstein.org/Feb0601/]Smoking.html

Smoking with Herbs

Tea smoked duck breasts

Duck Sausage

[Sam Salmon]

I want to Thank whoever started/contributed to this thread you helped me make up my mind about buying one-they really do work well.

Using a medium sized Coho fillet I first made Gravlax using a standard 50/50 salt/sugar mix + dill and some pickled Lemons laid right on the fish-48 hrs.

Next- using Alder chips that had been soaked in Amber Rum for 24hr then air dried-I steam/smoked the fish as per instructions.

Heavenly absolutely Heavenly!

Maybe a tad salty next time only a 24 Gravlax cure but this smoker is a winner and has a permanent place in my kitchen.

[SugarJ]

I am about to rub 8 - 10 lbs of pork spare ribs tonight and then smoke them on Saturday morning in the stovetop smoker (creating a foil cover, and also layering in foil "sticks" to prop up the racks of pork). going by the book, i think its an hour for the first 2 or 3 lbs adn then 15/20 min for every pound after.

I'll finish them on the grill and sauce em later

Does anyone have any other tips on length of smoke, type of chip (i think we have cherry, alder, mesquite, and hicokry at home)? many thanks.

[snowangel]

I am about to rub 8 - 10 lbs of pork spare ribs tonight and then smoke them on Saturday morning in the stovetop smoker (creating a foil cover, and also layering in foil "sticks" to prop up the racks of pork).  going by the book, i think its an hour for the first 2 or 3 lbs adn then 15/20 min for every pound after.

I'll finish them on the grill and sauce em later

Does anyone have any other tips on length of smoke, type of chip (i think we have cherry, alder, mesquite, and hicokry at home)?  many thanks.

←

Be sure and visit the big topic on Ribs -- all sorts of advice on rubs, wood, times, temps, etc. Although the topic to which I linked deals more with outside smoking, the advice is solid!

[FoodMuse]

Reviving this thread.

Using a medium sized Coho fillet I first made Gravlax using a standard 50/50 salt/sugar mix + dill and some pickled Lemons laid right on the fish-48 hrs.

Next- using Alder chips that had been soaked in Amber Rum for 24hr then air dried-I steam/smoked the fish as per instructions.

Heavenly absolutely Heavenly!

Maybe a tad salty next time only a 24 Gravlax cure but this smoker is a winner and has a permanent place in my kitchen.

Grrr. "As per instructions." ??? I can't find any instructions online.

Anyone else making salmon with a stovetop smoker.

I have pork spareribs in my Cameron smoker going now.

[andiesenji]

Pork chops, sausage; any meat, corn on the cob, cheese, sticky buns (a bit tricky but worth it), bananas, fresh ravioli, fresh noodles.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've used a wok as a stove-top smoker, and have gotten pretty good results following this basic procedure--

I've done salmon, pork ribs, pastrami, and chicken, and I've been quite surprised that it works as well as it does without smoking up the house.

[nickrey]

I also use a wok as a home made smoker, predominately to tea-smoke duck breasts. Unlike the post above, however, I only use the contents of a tea bag for the smoking, which gives a very tasty result.

[FoodMuse]

Well, last night I made a mess of the spareribs. Actually they were Sparerib bone tidbits. Imagine spareribs hacked into bits about 1 1/2 inch by 1 inch.

I smoked 2.3lb of them for about 1hour 45 minutes. They are tough! Horrible. We didn't eat them, instead reheated some braised short ribs in the hopes I can save the sparerib bits by braising them some time this week in some beer.

I'm looking forward to tea smoking duck breast. That sounds fantastic. It seems there isn't alot of good information or recipes for that matter on the Cameron stove top smoker.

What I would most like to make is Nova smoked salmon. I've read up on Gravlax which is just salmon cured in a salt and sugar mixture. I wonder if there is a way to cold smoke the gravlax with my stovetop smoker, turning it into Lox.

Maybe fill the smoker with smoke, let it cool and quickly get the salmon in there and close lid again. I suppose I would lose all the smoke, but maybe the smoke residue could impart some flavor.

I'm thinking of smoking some kosher salt this evening. I'll let you know how that goes.

Grace

[andiesenji]

I have gone through my bookmarks files and found the following sites with recipes for the stovetop smokers.

gourmet sleuth

made the smoked black bean paté

mendoza/chana dal /tomatoes & cauliflower

smoker recipes/stovetop

global gourmet

Where I got my "recipe" for smoked trout.

veggie venture

[FoodMuse]

andiesenji

Thank you so much for posting these links. Smoked trout sounds delicious.

[Andrew Fenton]

Be sure to check out this earlier thread.

I've smoked lots of things on my stovetop smoker (though less now that I've moved to a place where I can smoke outdoors.) In my experience, 1 hour 45 minutes is way too long to smoke anything in one. Since there's no place for the smoke to go, the food gets bitter from creosote buildup.

That means the smoker works best for recipes that only need a light smoke- 30 minutes or so. Chicken wings are great (finish them in the oven or broiler). Fish is terrific, as is duck. But I'd never use it for brisket, ribs or a pork butt.

I'm not sure about using it as a cold smoker- it'd be tough to get the smoke without the heat. But if you have the wood chips, it's not hard to get them smoldering inside a larger smoke chamber. Here's

showing how.

[andiesenji]

andiesenji

Thank you so much for posting these links. Smoked trout sounds delicious.

I forgot to include this link for the Tea-smoked duck breast I have been using for a few years.

It also works with a small turkey breast.

[Kent Wang]

That means the smoker works best for recipes that only need a light smoke- 30 minutes or so. Chicken wings are great (finish them in the oven or broiler). Fish is terrific, as is duck. But I'd never use it for brisket, ribs or a pork butt.

Could you give something like brisket a smoke and then finish it sous vide? I think I've read somewhere that only the first 30 minutes impart the smoke flavor, it doesn't absorb more after that and then it's just cooking.

Edited February 21, 2011 by Kent Wang (log)

[Andrew Fenton]

I've heard that same theory about smoke absorption, though with different times: four hours is what I remember. Thirty minutes seems way too short.

Still, it would be worth a shot. In the past, I've smoked something for 30 min and finished in the oven; cooking it SV would keep the smoke flavor more intact.

[David A. Goldfarb]

The pastrami I smoked for about 3-1/2 hours, with the intention of cooking it fully in the wok/smoker, figuring that a stovetop smoker probably imparts less of a smokey flavor than a regular outdoor smoker, and with a conventional smoker you might smoke the pastrami for 90 minutes or so and finish cooking in the oven. The results really were astonishingly good, and the meat had a nice smoke ring. I would definitely do it again.

[technophile50]

Pecan, apple, and pear wood chips or prunings. I've never used a stovetop smoker, just a charcoal grill. I use Felco pruners to cut small branches into inch long pieces, and soak them in water for half an hour or so before adding them to the coals.

[andiesenji]

I "cheat" in that I cook meats first, often braising them until nearly falling apart, and then I transfer them to the stove top smoker and "finish" them with smoking.

As my exhaust system is pretty powerful, I just slide the cover part way off and taste a bit to see if it has the desired degree of "smoke" flavor.

Yesterday I smoked a thick slice of ham topped with pineapple slices and then sprinkled the top with a little granulated maple sugar and slid it under the grill to finish.

Edited February 22, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[BillyBon]

I don't use a stove top smoker but I do cold smoke brisket in the Green Egg. I trim a packer, separate the point from the flat, and put both pieces in the Egg before applying any seasoning. For smoke I use a mixture of hickory and cherry. After smoking for about 4 hours the two brisket pieces are seasoned and vacuum packed. Next the bags go into the SV bath at 64c for 48 to 72 hours. When finished the brisket is chilled in an ice bath. Both cuts are eventually returned to the egg before serving. The point is cut up and cooked further as "burnt ends" and the flat is seared. The flat will not have a traditional bark.

[kitchensqueen]

I love my Cameron. I have the smaller sized one, and I'm just itching to get the larger model so I can do whole birds and racks of ribs.

Still, we get a lot of mileage out of the small one - my two favorite things to do are apple smoked chicken thighs (served with my home made barbecue sauce) and mesquite smoked burgers. We also do salmon a fair bit and have done pork chops a couple of times as well.

[slkinsey]

I wonder how the soldering iron trick would work with a stovetop smoker to keep the heat down.

[Borgstrom]

I've got a Camrons as well for my first forays into smoking. So far I've only done seafood -- mostly trout, some salmon. A couple of weeks ago I did a "vertical" tasting of smoked trout, smoking different fillets individually with Alder, Cherry and Oak. I have to say my favorite is Alder, but all were really fantastic. I had no idea how easy and delicious home-smoked trout is. Brine the fish, let it dry a while to form a pellicle, and throw it in the Camrons for 30 min. Could hardly be easier.

While exploring Modernist Cuisine, however, I've found there's a lot that you can't really do with a Camerons, namely cold smoking and smoking for longer than about 30 minutes. Right now, I'm making pastrami following the MC recipe, which calls for 3 days of brine, 4 hours smoking at 77C, followed by 3 days sous vide at 62C. I obviously can't use the Camerons for this -- the sawdust is typically gone after 30 minutes and I doubt I could keep the temperature low enough.

What I'm going to try for this is a ProQ Cold Smoke Generator, which I'll put in my large-ish gas grill (away from the flame) to generate smoke. I'll then use the furthest-away burner to try to keep the interior of the grill at 77C. We'll see how it works...