If you like to eat meat, chances are you like to get creative with your meals too. Should such creativity put you in a place where you like your meat with a smoky flavor, know that you are not alone.
In fact, we love a good ol’ strip of smoked meat more than the next guy.
That said, smoking your meat yourself is about as rewarding as any other thing. Of course, it takes a lot of practice to know what type of meat to use, how long to smoke it for, how tender the meat should be and all that.
In this piece, we are going to make up for the experience you might not have yet, giving you a foot in the door when it comes to smoking meats.
Where do we start?
What is the Cheapest Meat to Smoke?
To start smoking meat, it would be in your best interest to start with cheap cuts of meat. This will ensure you have all the freedom to experiment while not worrying about the cost of the meat you are using.
The best thing about this is that cheap cuts are not any less desirable. Combining less cost with desirability and applications for different smoked meat recipes, chuck roast is highly recommended.
The choice of chuck roast is not far-fetched. In fact, here’s a video showing you how to prepare and smoke a chuck roast for a pellet smoker.
This piece of meat is gotten from the shoulder of the cow – meaning you are getting a heavily exercised part of the beef. With that comes a lot of flavor, but also means you get a tough piece of meat on your hands.
If you ask us, this is just the kind of meat to start your smoking journey with.
Besides chuck roast, there are a handful of other cuts of meat that you can also consider. Of these, we especially love:
- Lamb shoulder chops
- Whole chicken and
- Flank steak
What Kind of Meat is the Best to Smoke?
We could go ahead and start a list of the best kinds of meat to smoke, but that would not cut it (all pun intended). What you need to know are the characteristics of the best meats, and you can choose your preferred cuts that way.
That said, you will want to look for pieces of meat that are well marbled as opposed to the lean options. By marbled, we mean those strips of meat having varying amounts of fat within the muscles.
Marbled patterns usually occur in red meat, so you might want to look out for that too. They are so named after the way the fat and meat align, giving off a marble design.
That said, our choice of chuck roast above doesn’t sound so out of the blue anymore. This is a piece of meat known to have as much as 20% fat to the 80% pure meat – making it highly desirable for a lot of process. In fact, the chuck roast is the best kind of meat for hamburgers due to this singular feature.
What is the Best Smoker For a Beginner?
If it comes down to a personal choice, Pit Boss grills do it for us all the time. They have been built with the best materials and to a high degree of quality.
We also love the stability and sturdiness of their units, among other things. Of course, none of that would matter if they were not functional for what they were made for – smoking meat. Fortunately, that is not the case.
However, we should tell you that they are not so easy on the wallet. Their offerings are matched to the price, but you might not be looking to splash all that money on a grill if you are just starting out.
Thus, know what you want and go out to look for it.
We could go on to list a ton of great smoking grills, and they will end up not being the one for you. At the end of the day, it boils down to you and what you want. Go online, check out available options and read what people are saying about them.
If it sounds like the right fit, go for it. On the off chance that you end up not liking it, there is always room for improvement until you get the best pick.
What Are the Best Wood Pellets for Smoking?
There are a lot of quality wood pellets out there, but no single wood pellet is best suited to all kinds of smoking.
Sometimes, the kind of flavor you want to get out of your meat should inform the choice of wood pellet. At other times, you want wood pellets that will last long enough through the smoking process.
We have put together a short guide below to help you choose the best wood pellets for different kinds of meat:
- Almond – When smoking birds (chicken, turkey, etc.), you want almond pellets. They bring a nutty and ashy flavor to the meat, so much that they give ham a special flavor too. Whatever you do, though, don’t pair almond with red meats.
- Alder – If you have been eyeing those alder pellets for a while now, the sweet taste they bring to the table works with any and all kinds of meat. That means you can pair alder with chicken, birds, lamb and even seafood.
- Hickory – There is a reason why hickory is referred to as the king of all smoking woods. Carrying a pungent flavor which mixes well with the natural taste of chicken, turkey and beef, they are a choice you don’t want to skip out on. They are an equally great pick for lamb or pork, but especially bad when it comes to fish.
- Apple – Some people might like to pair apple wood with their red meat, but we find it especially useful for poultry meat. There is no way you are missing that fruity flavor in your finished meat
- Walnut – Only experienced users can effectively maximize the functionality of walnut.
It should only be used in small amounts lest its smoke take over the place. That is not to mention the fact that too much of walnut can make the meat bitter. Using it in just small quantities while paired with other woods, though, they give a combined unique taste to your red meat.
- Cherry – Hickory might be the king of smoking woods, but it is nowhere as popular as Cherry. Its strong, smoky flavor makes it a natural darling for many. That, and we have not even mentioned the fact that it packs a sweet flavor out of the box.
Lest we forget, cherry wood pellets go with almost anything – all the way from chicken valley to pork island.
Now that you have an idea of what wood pellets to pick, it would be in your best interest to go for quality ones. They usually cost more than the cheap variants, but you will be grateful for it in the end.
Besides producing less smoke overall, they also hold their own well and don’t mess with your temperature settings.
Conclusion
There you have it!
Everything you need to know about smoking meat for the first time. How about you go get a grill fired up and have your meat smoking in no time?