Barbecue Season is Officially Here!

Happy Memorial Day!

For most, it’s been a long weekend filled with steak, hamburgers, chicken, hot dogs, brats, maybe even some fish…in other words, barbecue city! Mmmm meat!

And for a lot of people, the common grill is the meat cooking method of choice, but maybe that’s because they have yet to experience meat from a smoker.

I have a friend who’s husband is obsessed with his smoker. He owns a Cabella and he thinks it’s amazing!

Because of his obsession (and because I love meat), I bought my dad a Great Outdoors gas smoker this past Christmas and he is now also obsessed with it. So far he’s smoked our Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas ham and most recently, some rainbow trout that he caught in Wisconsin a few months ago. He loves being able to use different flavored wood chips, most recently trying the apple wood chips with the rainbow trout. It’s pretty cool and something that a regular grill just doesn’t do.

I mean just think about it, all the great places people love to eat: Smokey Bones, Bandana’s, Pappy’s…all smoked.

I think a smoker just gives meat something that no other cooking tool does. It keeps meat moist because it doesn’t expose it to the extreme temperatures that cooking on a grill does and the meat is always more flavorful. Sure you have to cook it longer than using a grill, but it’s worth waiting for!

Some tips to get you started from the smoker experts (or from the 2 people I know who own smokers):

• Brand doesn’t matter. All smokers do the same thing
• Apple wood chipswith rainbow trout is delicious
• Mesquite and Hickory wood chips are generally best to use for beef and pork
• Mixing wood chips is acceptable: a little apple with hickory or pecan, maple and hickory =deliciousness
• Don’t use Peach fruit wood chips. They do not make your meat taste good.

Brought to you by Mills Properties