I have had my Amerique for about one month, and I am very happy with my purchase. Here are a few observations:
Chicken - First try at 225 produced rubber skin, but edible flesh. Poultry really does take on smoke so watch the wood! (2.0 oz used first time)
Chicken II - Cooked at 300 with only 1.0 oz of wood. Fantastic all around and edible skin!
Babybacks I - Cooked as per the Cookshack Recipe. I tend to go heavy with the rub, and this was intense as I think the smoker never got hot enough to render some of the fat which in turn melts off some of the rub. They were OK but I didn't buy the Amerique in order to foil product, I wanted to skip that step!
Babybacks II - Cooked at 250 for exactly 5.5 hours without opening the door, they were perfect! I wish I had applied more rub to these!
Brisket I - A fifteen pound brisket done in about 18 hours. I was more conservative on wood (2.5 oz) and next time will use 4.0 oz of Hickory. The addition of one chunk of Kingsford Charcoal did nothing for a smoke ring. Flavor and moisture was good, I took it to 195 degrees, and next time will start checking at 188 to see if I can get it out with a little more moisture.
Spare Ribs I - I used 4 lbs and under Restaurant Depot fresh pork spare ribs with the brisket still attached. When I was in culinary school we were told to rub our meat and refrigerate it uncovered in the refrigerator overnight to develop a pelicle. Smoke adheares to dry meat more readily and the fridge drys out the surface moisture. I also rubbed two racks the day of smoking for comparison, and sure enough the ones left uncovered in the fridge overnight had much more smoke flavor, unfortunately too much smoke flavor! Again I used one chunk of Kingsford, and three pieces of Hickory but saw no evidence of a smoke ring. 5.5 Hours at 250 was all it took for fall-off-the-bone goodness!
Hot-Smoked Salmon - I used the Cookshack recipe and the only modification was basting the salmon filet waith honey about one hour into smoking. The fish was FANTASTIC and I will be doing this again soon for company!
The best part about this product is setting it and walking away! No more worry's about burning down the house.
I first used Cookshack in a restaurant back in the mid-nineties for making cold-smoked salmon, then I would see their booth at every trade-show known to man, and I finally had the money to buy one!
My wife thinks I have a new love!!!
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