basically a couple huge flower pots and some racks. has many many delicious meals, the best probably a pork shoulder for pulled pork. briskets are fabulous, too.
the big bonus as far as certain family members are concerned is smoker cow's feet and femurs. they keep a long time that way. nom nom.

So good. Nothing like freshly-smoked homemade bacon.
Since I move around a lot I haven't ever invested in one of my own, but I've done enough of it through work to really learn to appreciate it. Maybe his will be the summer I change that.

It's about the size of a microwave oven that's not as wide, but taller.

I did a dry cure for less than 24 hours, rinsed really well, and smoked it in the past. Then, I've done a whole salmon other ways.

The nuts sounds really good. I've never done this or cheese, cause I've always hot smoked or done things like my Thanksgiving turkey.

Any suggestions for pistachios? I do love them.

With my smoker you can't cold smoke for extended periods. It has a cold smoking plate which blocks the heat from the heating element, but this only works for short periods. So basically you leave the smoker on for 15-20 minutes and then you turn it off and leave the door closed for another 45 minutes or so.

After smoking you need to wrap whatever you've smoked in plastic wrap, ziplock bag, vacuum pack or whatever for a day or two at least so the smoke flavor has a chance to penetrate more deeply. This is especially important for pistachios which tend to collect the smoke more just on the shells.

I think if I did some type of cure on the salmon at least overnight if not longer, I would be much better off.

I've never used one so you have my respect.

I'm curious if you think perhaps brining the salmon for a bit might help.

I know nothing of this method.

I basically have two problems. One is that white globs of fat cell liquids are leaching to the surface during cooking. I suspect this is due to my method of seasoning right before smoking and the low cooking temperatures which allow this to happen without enough heat to coagulate the proteins contained in the liquid before it leaches to the surface. Salt on the surface just before cooking is going to have the effect of drawing these liquids to the surface more easily. The other problem I have is the salmon turned out a bit mushy for my tastes. I'm pretty sure the reason for this is because certain protein digesting enzymes become very active during the cooking process. The temperature is not high enough to destroy those enzymes and the long cooking time gives them plenty of time to work.

Hopefully brining will solve both of those problems. If not, there's quite a few other things I can try. I can try cold smoking or short duration hot smoking and finishing in a hot oven or broiler. Smoking at higher temps might work also (I was smoking the salmon at 160F).

This is supposed to be enough for ~10 lbs of fish.

1 C pickling salt
1 C packed brown sugar
3/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp crumbled bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, pressed

Combine the ingredients, and rub well into fish. Place in a non-metal container for several hours or overnight, depending on the size and amount of fish. Rinse fish well in cold water, rubbing slightly to release excess salt (I didn't do this as well as I should have the first time, and it was too salty). Pat dry, then allow to air-dry for several hours until fish acquires a glaze.

Smoke!

Right now I have just one dry cure that I use for all fish, but it centers around some very good smoked paprika. For smoking I'm going to have to figure something else out, so this gives me something to work with. This one looks like it centers around allspice and ginger, which are both great with fish. For pickling salt I just run Kosher salt through my Blendtec for a few seconds and voila, pickling salt.