or perhaps... the problem of moisture control in an electric smoker.
As I rummage through the forum files for intersting tidbits I notice a recurring theme, what to do about moisture.
How will I keep my meat from drying out during cooking? Should I wrap it in foil? Should I use a mop? etc...
I'll put this here in the Anything Goes folder as it really applies to any type of electric smoking utensil, although
it would seem most of these questions appear under the Model #1 topic for some reason.
Perhaps a little review will help keep things in perspective for us;
> Food is made up of proteins, fats, starches, sugars, and water.
> As heat is applied to cook food proteins coagulate, fats melt, starches gelatinize, sugars carmelize and of course, water evaporates.
> Barbecuing is a dry heat cooking method (as are grilling, roasting, baking, saute'ing, and frying).
The electric heating element in your smoker produces a dry heat. If left to cook long enough it will eventually drive all of the moisture
out of your product. This is what happens when we intentionally produce jerky. By removing all of the moisture we have reduced the ability
for bacteria to grow. Drying meats is one of the oldest food preservation methods known to man. But certainly now what we're after here.
To overcome this we can either attempt to control the moisture loss, or compensate for it by adding additional moisture during the cooking process.
...so then;
> Should I wrap my product in foil? If you've ever been to a babecue competition you've no doubt seen a lot of aluminum foil being used.
It can be done, and apparently with competition quality results, but I see two problems with this.
First, foil doesn't belong in a real barbecue pit. But then, a box with an electric heating element is not really a barbecue pit,
its a meat smoking/cooking device. I'll leave it at that.
Second, by wrapping your product in foil, you have reduced the amount of atmosphere surrounding the meat and trapped in the moisture.
So far so good, but you've also trapped in the rendered fats, not so good. The meat will quickly re-absorb these fats as it comes to rest if you
leave it to squander in the foil drippings. You can remove the foil and let the meat rest, but then your tossing out all that good moisture
you trapped. Also, by wrapping your meat in foil you're sort of defeating the Maillard Reaction. This is the reaction that occurs when proteins
and sugars in food are exposed to heat and merge together to form a brown exterior surface. You want this nice bark on your smoked meats.
As someone else here has pointed out, the bark gets soggy when you wrap meats in foil.
> Should I use a mop? By all means do, just do it right. NEVER, ever, touch your mop brush to the meat and then put it back in the mop pot to
set at room temerature until the next mopping. You're gonna make someone sick. You need to keep the mop heated to prevent bacteria growth if your
gonna use a mop brush. Instead, get a food grade sprayer and use it to mist your meat during the cooking process. You won't be able to put
spices in your mop as they will clog the spray nozzle, but you don't need spice in a mop, you need moisture.
The spice should be coming from your rub anyway, not your mop.
Here's a good basic mop recipe;
--- Basic Mop ---
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup beer
splash of worchestershire sauce
You can open the door of the smoker every 45 mins or so and spray the surface of your meats until they appear damp. Stop mopping the meat
when it comes to temp and your ready to let it finish carry-over cooking and come to rest. Leave ribs alone, they should cook bone side down
the entire time, just mop the meat side. For pork shoulders, briskets, etc, you probably want to turn the meat at least once during cooking
so the bottom doesn't dry out. I don't mop poultry, I brine it, but that's a different topic.
> Should I add moisture to the smoker? Most definitely. I use an empty #4 can, which is smaller than a standard soup can.
It fits neatly in the back corner of my Model-1. I fill it about 1/2 of the way with my basic mop. I never have to refill it during cooking.
I put the remainder of my mop in my sprayer. Even without mopping the meat with a sprayer, the moisture evaporating from this little
can will produce a nice moist atmosphere for cooking your meat. Hold your hand over the smoke vent, you should be able to feel the
moisture escaping from the smoker. Naturally, you would use a larger can in the bigger smokers.
I mentioned carry-over cooking, and letting the meat rest. Let's be clear about these. Meat continues to cook after you remove it from the heat
source. For this reason, you should remove items from the heat as they get close, say within 5 degrees of your target cooking temperature. For
example, you would remove poultry products when they reach an internal temperature of about 160 degrees, and allow them to carry-over cook
to 165. When you cook meats, you not only lose some of the moisture through evaporation, but you also drive some of it to the center of the
meat. This phenomena is familiar to anyone who has grilled a hamburger and noticed that it bulges up in the middle after you flip it over once.
This is the moisture being driven into the center of the meat by the heat being applied. Letting the meat come to rest allows the meat to
re-absorb this moisture and improves the overall flavor of the meat. As my product gets close to temp I begin to turn the dial down on the smoker,
and eventually I turn the smoker completely off, leaving the meat in for another 20 minutes or so. I then remove it to a pan and cover that with
foil to let the meat rest.
Well, there you have it, my thoughts on controlling the moisture content of your product using an electric smoking device.
I'd be very interested in hearing from those who feel they get good results using aluminun foil and how it should be done.
mike...
