Content
Hot smoked brisket is a real delicacy. The flavorful meat can be sliced into sandwiches, served as an appetizer for the first course at lunch, or as a full dinner along with potatoes and salad.
Benefits and calories
Hot smoked brisket is rich in useful substances: phosphorus, calcium, potassium and B vitamins. In addition, the meat contains proteins and fats that are easily digestible by the body, which are involved in the regeneration of hair, nails, muscle restoration and skeletal development.
The only disadvantage of smoked brisket is its calorie content. 100 g of product contains about 500 kcal, which is one fourth of a person’s daily calorie intake.
Hot smoked brisket tastes like baked meat
Methods for smoking pork belly
There are several ways to smoke pork belly. The cooking process can take place both in a vertical position and in a horizontal position, depending on the functionality of the smokehouse.
In a vertical smokehouse, meat is hung on hooks over smoldering wood chips. In this position, the meat does not need to be moved, since the smoke evenly imparts its aroma to it. A horizontal smoker also has its advantages; the pork belly does not need to be tied with twine to hang over the wood chips. The meat is placed on a grill and smoked this way. During cooking, the meat must be turned over periodically.
How to prepare brisket for hot smoking
Before you start smoking brisket, you need to choose the right one. It is worth paying attention to the appearance of the meat. It should be pink, with a small number of veins and a thin skin.
Before cooking, be sure to rinse the brisket and pat dry with a paper towel. Then rub the meat with salt, pepper and other spices to taste.
Marinade for meat can vary depending on taste preferences
Pickling
Pork belly absorbs the flavor of the marinade well, so it may vary depending on preference.
You can use soy sauce, lemon or orange juice, and even beer as a marinade. A dry marinade is also perfect for meat. Mix salt, pepper, rosemary, basil and finely chopped garlic and coat the brisket with the resulting mixture.
Pickling
Brining is important for making delicious pork belly. Firstly, salt guarantees safety. Secondly, it saturates the product.However, when salting meat you need to be careful, because the preservative tends to overdry the product, the meat can become tough, so you need to follow the proportions.
How to knit brisket for smoking
Before you start smoking hot smoked brisket, you need to secure it so that the meat does not fall onto the tray. Professional chefs prefer to tie the brisket with twine in squares - lengthwise and crosswise, as they usually tie parcels. The pieces of rope must be intertwined with each other to provide reliable protection.
Hot smoked brisket recipes
Recipes for hot smoked pork belly are divided into wet and dry depending on the type of salting used.
Wet salting recipe. In 1 l. drinking water mixed:
- 3 bay leaves;
- 1 tsp. Sahara;
- 3 tbsp. l. salt;
- 4 finely chopped garlic cloves;
- allspice black peppercorns.
1 kg of meat is transferred to a container and filled with the resulting brine.
The container must be covered with plastic wrap and placed in the refrigerator for 5 days. During this time, the meat should be saturated with spices and become soft.
Before cooking, the meat must be dried, for example, by hanging it, the excess liquid should drain.
You can start smoking the pork. The cooking process will take about an hour.
To obtain a crust, the meat must be cooked for more than 1 hour.
Fans of spicy food will definitely like this recipe for dry-salted pork with red chili pepper:
For dry salting you will need the following ingredients:
- 3 tbsp. l. salt;
- 4 minced garlic cloves;
- seeded and finely chopped red hot pepper;
- black pepper to taste;
- chopped bay leaf.
All ingredients must be mixed.
Rub 1 kg of pork with the resulting mixture, wrap the pieces of meat in gauze and leave in the refrigerator for a day.
Place the brisket on the grill in the smoker or hang it. Preparing the dish will take about 1.5 hours.
Pork is marinated from several hours to 2-3 days
What kind of wood chips are best for smoking pork belly?
When pork is smoked, it absorbs not only the taste of the marinade, but also the smell of wood chips. The most suitable wood for smoking pork belly at home are juniper, alder and oak. You can also use wood chips from apple, oak, pear or birch. To obtain a rich and intense aroma, it is recommended to make a mixture from different trees.
You can either buy wood chips in a store or make your own. The wood is split into small squares or chips no larger than 2 cm in size and dried. The difference between wood chips and ordinary logs is that they do not burn, but only smoke, giving off their warmth and aroma to the meat.
How to Smoke Brisket in a Hot Smoker
Depending on the type of smokehouse, the process of cooking meat may differ slightly, but the smoking method does not change.
You need to lay out wood chips at the bottom of the smokehouse, moisten it a little with water to get thicker smoke, and set it on fire. The hot smoking process is possible at temperatures from 80 to 100 degrees inside the smokehouse.
Then you need to hang or place the pieces of meat over the smoking wood chips. The brisket must be turned over periodically so that it is evenly smoked on all sides. Preparing the dish takes about 40-60 minutes.10 minutes before the end of cooking, you can increase the temperature in the smoker to 100 degrees Celsius so that the brisket has a crispy golden crust. You can check its readiness by piercing it with a knife. If clear juice flows from the meat and not blood, then the dish is ready.
How to smoke brisket at home in a mini smokehouse
City dwellers do not always have the opportunity to go out of town to enjoy meat smoked outdoors, so smart entrepreneurs have released home mini-smokehouses.
The operating principle of a home mini-smokehouse is no different from a stationary one, however, the heat source is not an open fire, but a gas or electric stove. The smokehouse is placed on the stove that is turned on, wood chips are poured onto the bottom, and the brisket is placed on the grate. The smokehouse box must be closed with a lid with a water seal, through which excess smoke will escape without the smell of a fire.
You can make a homemade mini-smokehouse with your own hands
Smoking is so popular that some manufacturers of multicookers include this mode in the functionality of their devices. Housewives just have to prepare the meat, pour wood chips into a special bowl and turn on the smoking function. At high temperatures, the chips will begin to char, smoke will appear, and the hot smoking process will begin.
Smoking brisket in onion skins
Marinade for brisket on onion skins is very popular among smoking lovers, because it does not require large financial expenditures on products. The recipe for hot smoked brisket at home in onion skins is quite simple.
Pour water into a saucepan and add onion peels. For 2 liters you will need approximately 100 g. During the cooking process, add honey, salt, pepper and bay leaf to the pan to taste.As soon as the water boils, transfer the pork belly into it. The meat is cooked for about 15-20 minutes. After the time has passed, turn off the stove and leave the product in the marinade for 4 hours. The next morning, the brined brisket can be smoked.
Onion peels will give the meat an extraordinary taste, and the marinade will make it soft and juicy.
Advice from professionals
Professional chefs and simply smoking lovers often share the secrets of cooking hot smoked pork with beginners. Here are some of them:
- To prevent the tender pork flesh from burning, the meat must be rinsed under running water before cooking.
- The reason why a black and tasteless crust appears on pork instead of a golden one is wet flesh. The process of drying the brisket takes from a couple of hours to several days. Don't miss this stage.
- To cook the dish faster, you should raise the temperature in the smoker to 100 degrees, but it is important to constantly ensure that the flesh does not burn. The ideal temperature for pork is 80 degrees. If excessive smoke appears, lower the temperature to 60 degrees until the end of cooking.
- Pour some water into the grease tray to allow the fat to burn.
Smoking professionals believe that there is no single ideal recipe for cooking pork. Depending on taste preferences, the marinade, cooking time and temperature can vary significantly. Only through trial and error can you find the right recipe.
Brisket can be stored in the cellar for no more than 2 days.
At what temperature should you smoke brisket?
Temperature also plays an important role in proper smoking of pork. Hot processing involves exposing meat to temperatures from 80 to 100 degrees Celsius.Depending on the volume of the raw product and its fat content, the temperature will depend. At home, pork belly is usually processed at 70 degrees.
How long does it take to smoke hot smoked brisket?
The hot smoking process will be appreciated by those people who do not like to wait for a long time. You can smoke brisket in a hot smoker quite quickly; the process will take 40-60 minutes. Cooking time for meat depends on several factors:
- meat quality (a pig will cook much faster than an adult pig);
- time spent in the marinade - the longer the meat is marinated, the faster it will be ready;
- desired level of doneness – crispy crust lovers will have to wait a little longer than 1 hour;
- temperature.
Storage rules
You can store smoked brisket in the refrigerator, freezer or cellar.
Hot smoked pork belly can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. The freezer keeps the product fresh for up to 10 months at a storage temperature of -10-18 degrees. In a cellar or attic, meat must be stored in a suspended state. The shelf life of the product under such conditions does not exceed 2-3 days.
Salt is an excellent preservative. To extend the life of hot smoked meat products, they can be wrapped in gauze soaked in a saline solution (put 1 tablespoon of salt per ¼ liter of water). The meat in gauze is transferred to parchment and stored in the refrigerator or cellar for up to 2 weeks.
Conclusion
Hot smoked pork belly is a favorite delicacy of many adherents of this processing. Under the influence of temperature, the meat becomes tender and juicy, with the aroma of wood chips and fire.Smoked brisket will be an excellent appetizer for both the holiday table and every day.
