JkbWorld

So far, a few of my posts have mentioned my smoker, so I thought it would be appropriate to write a gear review about it, in the event anyone out there is considering picking up an electric smoker.  Mine is a Smokehouse Little Chief Electric Smoker.  It’s an aluminum, front-load unit with an heating element on the bottom, a drip pan above that, and five shelves for smoking goodness.  Just like the picture, the Little Chief comes with a bag of Alder Chips as well as a smoker recipe book.

So far, it has been put to use smoking beef jerky, trout, steelhead and salmon, nearly all of it has been excellent.  I’ve even skipped the smoking chips and have used it as an outdoor dehydrator to make all-natural banana chips.  However, the smoked meat has been, by far, the most delicious outcome.  Let me just come out and say that this smoker is AWESOME!  It’s virtually foolproof!  You can make up a nice brine, toss in your meat and let it go unattended and you’ll still get something good–obviously, the more attention you pay to it, the better quality you get, but it takes all the work of a Traeger or a traditional wood or pellet smoker, and packages into a useful and handy unit for people who want quality, in less time.

One of the gripes that I have about the Little Chief is that on the racks that come with it, there is a little too much space between the rungs, which means you have to have long enough strips of meat to reach all the way across multiple rungs to keep it from falling down.  For banana chips, I had to go out and buy some plastic grids to put on top of the metal rungs.  These worked properly and my banana chips came out well.  I’ve also been able to use this same setup for smoked fish.  The other gripe that I have is that if it is cold out, or windy, it is hard to keep the smoker warm enough to do its job.  I’ve been experimenting with a briquet of charcoal and hardier wood in the smoking chip pan to keep the heat smoldering.  There are lots of sites on the Internet with contraptions and smoker wraps to keep the smoker warm in the winter.  I’ll post a few links when I get some time to find them.

Little Chief Smoker

Here are some specs on the Little Chief Smoker from the Cabela’s Product Detail Page:

• Create tantalizing meats that will make your mouth water with this Little Chief Electric Smoker. This front-loading unit includes a recipe book, instructions for use and hickory chips for up to six loads. It uses 110-volt household current and holds up to 20 pounds of meat.
• Dimensions : 11-1/2″ x 12-1/2″ x 24-1/2″.
• Weight: 16 lbs.

The Smokehouse Little Chief Electric Smoker is only $119 at Cabela’s.  Bass Pro Shops has the Masterbuilt Electric Smokehouse Smoker which is supposed to be pretty good, although it is $229.  This is current pricing as of 1/5/2010.

A few things that I have done with the smoker recently is trying organic meat versus regular meat, which has not produced significantly noticeable results.  I’ll post some more if we get anything good.  The other interesting variation that I’ve done is use dried clippings of branches from my fruit trees and using those in the smoker.  Those add a very nice, light and fruitful taste to the smoked meat, especially when mixed with some alder chips.  The fruit trees are all organic, so the smoke in the meat is certainly chemical-free.  Please post a comment below if you’re interested in buying some of my organic fruit tree chips.

Here are a few pieces of advice for anyone wanting to buy a smoker:

• Teriyaki is an extremely complicated flavor.  Whatever you do, do not try to make smoked teriyaki flavored anything until you’ve smoked at least 10 different things.
• Mesquite Smoking Chips are really good with beef, but are a little overpowering for fish.
• Allow at least 8 hours for your smoker to smoke the meat–less in the summer, more in the winter.
• Modern refrigeration is easily accessible, so you don’t need to make shoe-leather jerky.
• It’s always good to lightly rinse off the super-salty brine from the outside of the fish.
• A lot of people have asked, so I wanted to point out that the Little Chief, and Big Chief, for that matter, are made for smoking small amounts of fish or jerky, and for adding smoke flavor to meats to be finished off in the oven. The Chief smokers have a permanently set thermostat that maintains a temperature of about 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which isn’t hot enough for most types of smoking, and is too hot for real cold smoking.

Here’s one of my more recent smoking attempt on the Little Chief Smoker, smoked tuna!  These went REALLY well with medium to dark beer while watching football.

Smoked Tuna

OK, try THIS on for size:  Alder-Smoked Albacore Tuna, attempt number 2!

Alder Smoked Albacore Tuna

Here are some other links to some of the fish that have been on my smoker:

• Clackamas River Winter Steelhead
• Nehalem Bay Coho Salmon
• Estacada Lake Rainbow Trout
• Lake Simtustus Rainbow Trout
• Albacore Tuna from the Oregon Coast

Here are some places to buy a Smokehouse Little Chief Electric Smoker: