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As far a brine goes, I agree less is more. I go with a gallon of water, a cup of salt, and a cup of sugar (half white, half brown). For fish and birds I use alder, apple or corn cobs. For meats, I use hardwood. The tough part is deciding on the beer to wash it down with.
My Grandfather, Dad, and 3 Uncles were Butchers.I'll have to dig up some of their old recipes and post them.One thing they insisted on was to smoke strictly with Hickory or Applewood.My Uncle Walt's Kielbasa was fabulous!!!! Good Memories!!!!
What is your favorite piece of meat /fish do you smoke and is so what brines or rubs do you use
When it comes to fish, i smoke both trout and salmon on a regular basis, in the winter lakers or splake that I keep usually hit the smoker, as for brines or rubs, most times less is more, let the smoke do it;s thing. When i do use rubs I like sweet over salty, I use a lot of granulated maple suger or honey.As for meats, In the summer i smoke almost anything, but my fav's are Brisket and While Chickens. the Brisket is rubbed with a spicy mustard and a home made rub, then slow smoked for atleast 8 hours, then sauced up and toss on the BBQ to get some grill marks...
for fish i use enough salt to float an egg and a half bag of brown sugar for a brine.
A real tasty treat is to take thick sliced bacon and rub brown sugar all over it and smoke untill done. just be carefull and use a drip pan and watch out for fires
i smoke like to smoke anything....all species of fishbrisketboston buttspork loinsmeatloafs..yes meatloafsi use a dry brine/rub for them allsweet is always good but thats mostly a northern thing....the further south you go, the less sweet they like it...bbq, u mean grill right?..lolthats wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy old school and for my own personal taste, ends up way salty... they use to use that formula because way back when they didnt have proper refridgeration... i dry brine/rub .... 3 parts brown sugar - 1 part kosher salt plus spicesYUMMMMMMMMY...in the bbq world we call this "Pig Candy"i mainly use cherry wood because right now it is my new favorite wood but i have used them all including peach and most any fruit or hardwood i can get my hands on... for beef i use oak