Anyone ever smoke...

[oldksnarc]

shrimp?

Tried it yesterday. It was awesome. Had the kids and their spouses over to grill steaks and smoked shrimp for an appetizer. Steaks were great but shrimp was all gone. Did 1 lb of 9-12 size - almost the size of small lobster tails with 3-4 bites each. And a pound of 51-60 size - bite sized. Used wet bamboo skewers and sprinkled each with my own spice mixture. A little spice with the hickory chip smoke flavor. Going to try apple chips next time.

My previous smoking efforts was a thanksgiving turkey 20 years ago on a long-gone Brinkman vertical.

Wife got me a Char-Griller Duo back in May for birthday/father's day. It has two grills on same frame. Left side is a 1300 sq in gas grill and right side is a 1300 sq in charcoal grill. I bought and installed the side fire box to make the right side a smoker only - won't be any charcoal grilling on that side.

After I seasoned the smoker side my first project was to smoke a meatloaf. I have an awesome meatloaf recipe and saw someone smoking meatloaf on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives - so figured I would try it. Absolutely the best meatloaf I ever had. Awesome squared. Fantastic meatloaf sandwiches the next few days.

Next was a brisket. Good flavor but I didn't smoke it long enough. 6 hours and it was pretty tough. Checked a link to a smoking forum found on here (http://www.smoking-meat.com/index.html) and realized I hadn't smoked it the 14+ hours I should have.

My brother has been smoking for years and everything he's done has been good eats. Figured I'd get into smoking so I'd have it more often than the 3-4 times a year we get together. But, want to do something different each time.

My family thought I was nuts for smoking the meatloaf. They're now believers. Shrimp will be an every time event. Thinking next project will be a bologna. Daughter said she wouldn't put it past me to try smoking a cheese cake. Now that she mentioned it....

[HUNTINGMAN]

Havent thought of the shrimp before but may have to give it a try.The meatloaf sounds good to,how long to cook the meatloaf?

[oldksnarc]

You owe it to yourself to try the shrimp.

As for the meatloaf I read somewhere: 1 hour per pound or 1 hour per inch of thickness. I tripled my recipe (from a 2 pound recipe to 6 pounds). It was about 6" thick and 6 pounds so I smoked it for about 6 hours - after 6 hours probe thermometer showed 160 degrees internal and figured it was good.

If you're interested in my recipe let me know and I'll post it.

Never mind. I'll post it anyway.

1 lb Ground beef – lean (93/7 or leaner)

(if I'm using venison instead of beef I add about 1/2 pound of mushrooms - the liquid from the mushrooms adds some moisture lost because of the leanness of the venison)

1 lb Sausage

1 c Breadcrumbs - fine

2 Onions - medium, chopped fine

1 tbsp of your favorite seasoning

1 tbs Curry powder

1/2 c Water

1 Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbs Parsley - chopped

1 Egg - beaten

2 Garlic clove - minced

1/2 c Milk

Sauce:

1 Onion - chopped very fine

1/4 c Water

1/2 c Ketchup

1/4 c Dry red wine or beef stock

1/4 c Worcestershire sauce

2 tb Vinegar

1 tb Instant coffee

1 tbsp Murphy's Montana Red Seasoning and Dry Rub

1/4 c Brown sugar - packed

1 oz Margarine

2 ts Lemon juice

Combine meats, breadcrumbs, onions, salt, pepper, garlic, parsley, curry and egg in large bowl. Mix well. Mix milk and water and add to meat mixture a little at a time until smooth but firm. Shape into loaf and put into greased baking pan. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes at 375 degrees F (or until center is no longer pink).

For the sauce:

Saute onions in margarine until golden and add all other ingredients. Bring slowly to a boil, lower heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. (also great with ribs or chicken). After loaf has cooked for 30 minutes, pour half of the sauce over the meat, return to oven and bake 45 minutes more, basting often with remaining sauce. Serve loaf hot in thick slices with remaining sauce. Also makes great sandwiches.

The recipe is for an oven. In the smoker cooking times is longer and I didn't add the sauce until the last hour or so and then basted a couple times before pulling it. I also use one of them metal cradle things that allows the grease to fall off the loaf. If you do it in a smoker you could do it on the grate with a grease pan below it to catch the grease.

Edited July 28, 2009 by oldksnarc

[redkneck]

Sounds good, never done shrimp either.

[stevebeilgard]

i've done fresh alaska shrimp, but not since about 1990. but i sure do remember how good they were.