Does anyone know about REAL hickory smoking?

Question

I want to know how to smoke ribs over hickory. I'm not interested in cooking it in the house first, or using charcoal. I'm talking about ribs that have been smoked in wet heat for about eight to 12 hours.

I have the ribs, some hickory chips, and a round barbeque thingy with a metal grill and an air vent.

I ate real hickory smoked ribs recently, in Arkansas, at a place that had a smokehouse in the back.

How can I approximate this with basic and simple equipment?

Answer 1

We smoke a lot of meats. Some smokers have water pans, others do not. We do not use a water pan any longer since we started smoking meats this way. Put your hickory chips in a foil pack, puncture with an ice pick to create subtle hickory smoke flavor. If what you have is, in fact, a smoker, build a slow fire, place your ribs on the grill and place the foil packet in the coals. Too much wood smoke can make the meat taste bitter. Smoke the ribs for about an hour. Then, remove from the smoker, put into a pan, cover with foil and cook in your oven for about 4 hours on 325 degrees. You can continue to cook the ribs in the smoker, but do not add hickory as you want to taste a subtle smoky flavor, not bitterness. You can do this with pork shoulder roast, beef brisket, tenderloin. Good Luck!

Answer 2

Hickory is the most favorite wood used to produce smoke- and smoked foods are still cooked low and slow exposed in the smoke produced by burning wood. I don't think you can honestly say the process causes cancer though. If we eliminate all the foods that various studies have poisoned little lab mice with, we'd all be reduced to vitamin tablets. And those probably aren't safe either, produced in a factory with *gasp*, chemicals. A lot of foods are actually flavored, not actually smoked. However, smoke flavoring is made by distilling smoke through water- so smoke is still involved in a way. Given a choice, I think the actual smoking process is probably better. Some of those smoke flavorings are really just chemical cocktails- made of who knows what, and they taste nasty to boot. If my smoked brisket is going to cause me cancer, I may as well die with a contented stomach after a meal that at least tasted good. I can at least pronounce the words smoked and hickory. I try not to eat things with ingredients I can't identify, pronounce or spell.

Answer 3

Soak your hickory chips in water for several hours then place them on the charcoal, add a pan of water on top the grill and leave the lid down till they're done- you may have to use quit a bit of charcoal and make sure you keep water in the pan-good luck!

Answer 4

Linda's answer will work-but if you have $25 you can buy a Brinkman smoker at Walmart and smoke anything your heart desires.