Hi Reader,

The One likes an agenda on Saturday mornings. I like a project.
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There’s a difference.
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An agenda involves errands, tidying, perhaps something involving the gutters. A project involves me announcing at breakfast that I’m going to make pastrami. Or bacon. Or smoke a pork shoulder for so many hours it becomes less a recipe and more a domestic relationship.
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This is my idea of a Saturday well spent.
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Smoking and curing force me to do something I’m spectacularly bad at: wait. You season, cure, brine, rub, smoke, and then you walk away from it. No poking every four minutes. No turning up the heat because you’re hungry. The transformation happens slowly, while you go about your day, and that wood smoke drifts around the yard like the world’s most effective dinner invitation.
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Eventually, you lift the lid, and there it is: brisket under a dark, dry bark, pork yielding beneath your fingers, salmon burnished and smoky, bacon that makes the supermarket stuff seem vaguely beside the point.
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Yes, it takes time.
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But it’s Saturday. Where the hell are you going?

Smoke Signals: What I’ve Learned

• Plan backward. Curing and smoking operate on their own timetable, not yours. Read the entire recipe before starting and work backward from when you want to eat. Nothing humbles a hungry person quite like discovering the pastrami needs another day.
• Measure curing ingredients precisely. This isn’t the moment for my usual “Eh, that looks about right” approach to cooking. When a recipe specifies amounts and curing times, follow them.
• Keep the smoke under control. You want a steady, fragrant stream, not enough billowing white smoke to elect a new pope. Too much can make food bitter rather than beautifully smoky.
• Trust temperature over time. Weather, the size of the meat, and your smoker all affect how quickly things cook. A reliable thermometer tells you far more than staring accusingly at your watch.
• Don’t rush the finish. Rest smoked meats when the recipe calls for it, slice them properly, and savor what all those hours bought you. Homemade bacon, pastrami, brisket, and ribs. These aren’t convenience foods. That’s precisely why they’re so satisfying.

WHAT'S INSIDE...

• ​Homemade Maple-Espresso Bacon​
• ​Homemade Pastrami​
• ​Smoked Cheddar Cheese​
• ​Smoked Pork Shoulder​
• ​Smoked Coffee Brisket​
• ​Smoked Salmon With Bourbon Marinade​
• ​Smoked Beef Ribs​
• ​Smoked Chicken​

​Homemade Maple-Espresso Bacon​

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.85 from 13 votes

This homemade bacon is made from scratch with pork belly and cured with maple syrup, espresso, brown sugar, and black pepper. It's then smoked to perfection. Here's how to make it.

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​Homemade Pastrami​

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.84 from 56 votes

For this homemade pastrami, beef brisket is brined (or corned) in a pickling mix for 5 days. The now-corned beef is rubbed with black pepper, coriander, and smoked paprika, and baked in the oven. If you must smoke it, see the variation.

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​Smoked Cheddar Cheese​

This smoked Cheddar cheese explains, step by step, how to smoke cheese at home into smoke-imbued exquisiteness. Hickory Farms, be worried.

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​Smoked Pork Shoulder​

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.75 from 20 votes

When slow-smoking a pork shoulder, you should figure 1 1/2 hours per pound of pork. A 10-pound, bone-in pork shoulder takes a long time to cook, but for the majority of that time it is in the smoker. You can get it started right after breakfast and have it ready in time for dinner.

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​Smoked Coffee Brisket​

Smoked brisket with coffee takes a few of our favorite things and combines them into a meltingly tender, spicy, and smoky masterpiece.

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​Smoked Salmon With Bourbon Marinade​

Most people I know have a love-hate relationship with salmon. Here’s one way to make everyone fall in love: add smoke, bourbon, and sweet tea. You’ll need to cure the salmon the night before, but the process is totally worth it. I like to start smoking as the fire is burning down from a different smoke and there aren’t many coals left.

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​Smoked Beef Ribs​

You can smoke the ribs as individual ribs, or you can have your butcher leave them as one large rack that you carve when done. These are sometimes called dinosaur ribs, like what Fred Flintstone eats at the drive-in.

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​Smoked Chicken​

Brining in a very simple salt and sugar brine makes the chicken juicier than a typical bird and it’s seasoned throughout. The addition of the dry rub makes it even more flavorful.

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