The Smoke House Blog

OK so the story goes, our good mate Ashley rang one day and said, she finally got some Venison.

Well to Karls and My surprise a chillybin turns with of 30kg of Venision

So the plan was set, we are going to make a feast out of this and do what no man has done before.

On the list was of course the Famous Jerky, Pastrami, Salami and Beer Sticks Saturday arvo was huge and this is how it all evolved.

Karl turns up, first order was to prepare the meat for various tasks, we  Cured down Pastrami and jerky for 5 days and them the segments unfolded.

Then came the mission of salami’s 30kg to be precise buy the time the ingredients were included

Out with the trusty salami stuffer

and 2 hours later we ended up with this including jerky and beer sticks

At this stage we had already cured down the Jerky and Pastrami using the our recipes on the website

http://www.bradleysmoker.co.nz/sugar-cure-recipes.asp#4

http://www.bradleysmoker.co.nz/sugar-cure-recipes.asp#6

http://www.bradleysmoker.co.nz/sugar-cure-recipes.asp#9

So stage 2 was leave in fridge overnight and fire up the Bradleys the next morning, smokers were set to smoke for 4 hours and cook for 9 hours at 92C

At this point the smell was oozing through the neighbour hood and neighbors were asking what was for lunch and even the cat was enjoying it

The next day after everything had time to cool and settle in the fridge it was decided it was time for a afternoon feast over a few beers

So there you have it all compiled in a few hours Jerky, Salami’s, Pastrami and Beer Sticks and out of one deer it opened up a whole new dimension on what you could do with Venison and Bradley

A plan hatched ever since we have done Bradley Smoker down here in NZ, and that was

to create the old kiwi smokehouse with the Bradley Generator System

We used the instructions and plans that come with this full kit and extended the plans to

make up a 2 metre x 2 metre walk in smokehouse

And the results are as follows using untreated plywood

we put x3 Generators on but after we realised that x2 was sufficent for this size unit,

but hey the more smoke the better the flavour 

Then there was the rack system we used the bradley racks so we could take them out

easily and wash them for ease of use

Designed a drip tray system so this smokehouse will stay perfectly clean,

just empty the bucket

Added a vent to the top that is fully adjustable

Then decided to add a commercial heating element so this unit will cook anything and made it fully controllable

(Black Heating Bar)

Now for the ultimate test 20 minutes later

and what a system so the next test was to see how it performed

We first managed to get hold of some kahwai from a local fishing competition and the end result was this

Smoked Kahwai is one of our most popular fish due to the oily flesh

Since this all began last year a month ago we did a rather large batch of sausages for we put it up to the real challenge

and 8 hours later we have the best sausages one could produce at home

Just one of the Great things Bradley has to offer

As like most people, ducks are a very lean meat to say the least so since we were privileged enough to get hold of some duck breasts, we thought it would be a good idea to show what you can do with them

Firstly were are following the duck recipe http://www.bradleysmoker.co.nz/sugar-cure-recipes.asp#7

This morning we mixed together the ingredients and put in the fridge to cure for 12 days

stay tuned over the next week as we will do live updates

Round 2 after 14 days the duck breasts were taken out of the fridge and washed

then they were pat dryed and some were left as they were and some covered in maple syrup and rolled in cracked peppercorns to make pastrami

and them left overnight in the fridge to settle

the next morning they were loaded into the Bradley using Mesquite wood and the smoker was set to smoke for 4 hours and cook for 6 hours at 92C

and late afternoon there you have it a whole new dimension on what you can do with ducks

We the ITM Fishing Show had one of it’s annual trip to the kings this year and they were lucky enough to land a nice striped marlin on there way home, a phone call was made and asked it they could use the V8 Smokehouse to smoke it

Sure was the reply as i was keen to put this to the real test

Firstly we cut the marlin into chunks and rubbed them with Bradley Maple Cure and Maple Syrup

Left in the fridge for 2 days and laid them out on racks and this fish actually filled the smoker

Setup the V8 Smoker to smoke for 5 hours using maple wood and slowly cook for 11 hours at 72C

and after inspection it was perfect and time to vacuum pack it up and ready for the boys to pick up

These smoke generator kits are absolutely awesome for building your own smoker and life couldn’t get any simpler!