Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

SO I obtained something very nifty in trade for potatoes etc (thanks for taking the damn squash)! So I feel the time may be right to try smoking something (no not that) but I've never done it before. I would like to smoke maybe my own ham or bacon and perhaps turkey breast. I know nothing and don't want to spend a fortune. I do have a charcoal BBQ could I do something with that? Any suggestions welcome.

it's easy with a charcoal bbq....just light it and get it going but not too hot (you can spritz the charcoal with water to cool it), then wet wood chips - or smoker chips you can buy...you want to char the wood, not burn it. put your meat on the rack, close it up with a little bit of ventilation (unless you LOVE smoke taste) and let it go until the meat is the flavour you want. it is a bit of trial and error and it's okay if you need to actually cook the meat more after smoking, because smoking won't necessarily get the internal temp of the meat up enough in a big fat piece. you might want to start with something thinner, like homemade jerky or fish until you get the "feel" for how to do it. usually less is more too with smoking, it is possible to make a piece too smokey LOL. yes, i speak from experience. i have a smoker though-but you can use a bbq to smoke, even a gas bbq/propane one will work, as long as the heat is on low and enough to char the wood, not burst it into flame.

a nice one to start with-sweet maple chicken breast (also good with porkchops)-marinade your chicken in a mix of water and maple syrup overnight in the fridge. drain and place in the smoker with maple chips and smoke for approximately 30 minutes with the smoker set at 250F. remove from smoker and finish in the oven until chicken is "well" on a meat thermometer.

make sure you have a drip pan a rack below your meat when you smoke it (if you aren't over charcoal), quite a bit of liquid will come out of the meat while smoking.

It will for sure be cooked afterward so not worried there. Great! Oh and what type of wood chips would I use for that bacon type flavour if I do some pork belly?

Very curious to hear how it works for you, on of those things that's still on my bucket list.

Well maybe you two should be my guinea pigs?

You mean a delicious way to put us out of our misery? :D

Just don't inhale . ⚖

For bacon, traditional is hickory but apple or maple also great.
Turkey mild apple, maple or pecan. Bolder hickory, mesquite or oak. Or a mix of any.

Yeah i would do maple or hickory for the bacon like longcrow suggested. Mmmmmmmmm

OK so today was the great experiment and........ it went fine, sort of. Need some fine tuning, I did a piece of pork slab with apple wood in our charcoal bbq. It's usually a nightmare to keep going but not today! I'm fairly sure there are not supposed to be flames however. Tough to keep the temp down and the slab did actually cook in the middle. We did taste a piece and it's fine! I will use the same cure next time.A learning experience but we'll try again with a larger/thicker piece of meat. This will be sautéed with potato pieces and curd cheese thrown in at the end.
Thanks all!