Smoking Meat for Beginners: 3 Expert Tips You Must Learn

If you love meat, you surely know how delicious smoked meat is. If you’ve never tried one before and want to give it a try, there are a few things to consider and prepare before you smoke your first piece of meat. It takes time, knowledge and experience to do it correctly.

Here’s a little guide for beginners – follow these expert tips on how to smoke meat at home:

Choose the right smoker

There are different types of smokers on the market and each type has its own advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the right one for you depends on your own personal needs. Here is a quick list of the different types of smokers:

• Wood – Produces the purest flavor of meats, but requires the most attention because it is difficult to maintain a constant temperature. It is not ideal for beginners.
• pellet – It works in a similar way to a wood smoker but easier to use. Simply load the granules into a compartment and it will instantly do the job. However, these can be expensive.
• Electric – Easy to use and the easiest to control in terms of temperature. However, they provide the least smoky flavor to foods and are the most expensive of all smokers.
• Propane – It works similarly to an electric smoker but instead of electricity, it uses a gas-powered flame.
• Coal- A favorite of many because it’s cheap and gives more smokiness to food compared to electric and gas varieties. The downside is that you have to keep buying charcoal and also build and maintain a fire manually.

Choose the right type of wood

There are different types of wood that you can use for smoking and each affects your food differently. Some woods are better for certain proteins, while others are better used with certain cuts of meat.

A popular type is alder, which is best used for any white meat. Maple works great for poultry and ham. Cherrywood is great for pork and other red meats. Oak is best for larger, thicker cuts of meat that take a long time to cook.

Choose the right cuts of meat

When choosing cuts of meat, choose the ones that would benefit the most from smoking. Those fatty cuts will cause a beautiful marbling therefore ideal. Pork shoulder and beef brisket are good cuts of meat to start with if you are a beginner.

Follow these 3 expert tips on how to smoke meat for beginners!