Smoked Meat....Guam Style

Smoked Meat....Guam Style

Well folks, it's been a while since I have posted. Been so busy planting my veggies in the yard (2 acres) and everything else that goes with that. Very time consuming. But we gotta eat so I have a lot of BBQ and other cooking posts that I need to catch up on. So don't forget to pay a visit to my other food blog, Guam Firehouse Cook.

I love smoking meat. Whether it is beef, pork, chicken or fish, I just love the taste. I use my old homemade open pit for most of my smoking needs. The openness flavors the meat with a mellow, smokey flavor. I don't like a taste where the smoke overpowers the meat.

I just smoked some beef roasts. I cut them up into 1 inch wide by about 8 inch long strips. The thickness was about 3/4 of an inch. Then I brine this meat overnight in the following mix:

• 1/2 cup Kosher salt;
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 3 tbsp Mortons Tenderquick Home Meat Cure
• 3 tbsp minced fresh Ginger
• 1/2 cup of soy sauce
• 4 quarts of water.

You should make sure that you adjust the saltiness to your liking.

I then fire up the smoker using one week old 6 to 8 inch logs providing for indirect heat. The one week old logs are not dried out yet so they provide enough smoke due to their moisture content.

Here are a few pictures of the setup that I use:

Here is my pit. You can see the meat hanging. The suspended grill is to catch anything that may fall off the hooks. When I smoke I close up the front with another piece of sheet metal.

Here is my fire. You can see that it is offset to the left of the hanging meat for indirect heat. The heat is keep at around 225 - 250 degrees F. That's close enough for government work!!

I'd say, after about 8 hours of smoking, this meat is done. Of course I have to test the tenderness by tearing off a piece.  But if you can tear a piece off you know it's done.

I fashioned some thick, stainless wire for a skewer. I skewer all the small pieces that I trimmed off onto this. Works just great.

So, as I mentioned, I smoked this batch for about 8 hours, adding more wood when needed. As the cover photo shows, and here it is again, this meat is super tender and moist and loaded with mouth watering flavor. 

Better have some hot pepper and ice cold brews to totally enjoy this.

Until next time....