Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
We are very serious about our search for the best meats to smoke because smoked meat rules. It’s incredibly tasty and because smoking is generally a slow cooking method, it also means you can use some cheaper cuts of meat without compromising the quality of the finished product.
Now, everyone ought to have a home smoker but when they buy one, the big question becomes what meats will work best with it?
Well, Kitchen Authority has you covered on this and we’re here to lay out the basics of the best meats to smoke for you.
Unless you’re prohibited by your religious beliefs from indulging, pork is by far the best meat to smoke. It becomes so tender and juicy when slow cooked and the smoky flavors really permeate the flesh.
We’d also note that you get a lot more wiggle room when smoking pork than other meats, so it can be the perfect place to start your home smoking education before progressing on to other things.
The most popular cuts for smoking include:
However, while these may be the most popular – there’s not a single pork cut that can’t be smoked.
We love bacon and ham in our smoker. Yum!
You need so spend a bit more time nurturing beef through the smoking process than you do with pork. Most people find that their first go leaves the beef a little drier than they’d like, don’t worry – you’ll get there.
We find that beef is the superbly tasty when it’s done right and we’d suggest that you look at the most popular cuts to give yourself an easier start before tackling more challenging smoking tasks.
Once you’ve mastered ribs and steak, it’s time to experiment with other cuts.
There’s no denying that poultry is cheap and it’s one of the best meats to smoke. If you’re not into pork – then a chicken is the perfect starting meat for you.
Chicken when cut up cooks incredibly quickly in a smoker too.
So, if you’re looking for an end of day meal – this is probably the right place to look.
We also love turkey in our smoker. We’ve found that Thanksgiving is the perfect time to treat our friends and family to smoked turkey.
We’ve saved the best for last. Lamb is amazing when it’s smoked, and we think it’s definitely one of the best meats to smoke but… it is much harder to learn to smoke well and that means it’s the meat you see least often when dining out in places with a smoker.
That made us determined to master the art of smoking lamb and we’ve got there now. Here are our preferred cuts:
These are the best meats for our smoker at Kitchen Authority but maybe you’ve got some other more exotic meats that you can recommend? Why not let us know in the comments below?
If you’re an absolute beginner when it comes to smoking meats then check out this article at Delishably: Tips for Smoking Meat for Beginners