Choosing the Right Commercial Smoker for Your Business
The popularity of barbecue and smoked foods in the UK is growing, and there are significant opportunities for restaurateurs, caterers and other foodservice operators to take advantage of this trend.
Excellent quality smoked foods are surprisingly easy to prepare, and can be highly profitable. If you have the right smoker the job can be as routine as using an ordinary oven.
Most UK catering professionals are familiar with the technique called barbecue (slow cooking at low temperatures over wood smoke), as opposed to Southern-style BBQ, which is a cuisine. However, awareness of the different types of commercial smokers or ‘pits’ that are available, how they cook, and how best they meet particular concepts or business needs is still low. And nobody wants to make an uninformed investment no matter how fantastic the equipment is.
Here at The American BBQ Company, we believe our 30+ combined years’ experience has given us invaluable insights into commercial smoker features that are best suited to the UK market.
Some of these insights are shared below. We hope they will help you make a more informed decision about what will work best for you. And please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0800 644 4141 or info@americanbbq.co.uk if you have any questions or need more information.
Excellent quality smoked foods are surprisingly easy to prepare, and can be highly profitable. If you have the right smoker the job can be as routine as using an ordinary oven.
Most UK catering professionals are familiar with the technique called barbecue (slow cooking at low temperatures over wood smoke), as opposed to Southern-style BBQ, which is a cuisine. However, awareness of the different types of commercial smokers or ‘pits’ that are available, how they cook, and how best they meet particular concepts or business needs is still low. And nobody wants to make an uninformed investment no matter how fantastic the equipment is.
Here at The American BBQ Company, we believe our 30+ combined years’ experience has given us invaluable insights into commercial smoker features that are best suited to the UK market.
Some of these insights are shared below. We hope they will help you make a more informed decision about what will work best for you. And please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0800 644 4141 or info@americanbbq.co.uk if you have any questions or need more information.
Cook Smart
Meat temperature control
There is no catch-all time by when the large cuts (e.g. pork butt, brisket) are ready. It's all about the meat's internal temperature - typically around 195F/91C. And because 'meat is meat', the time it takes to get there will vary from load to load. A smoker oven that will cook meats to a USER-DEFINED INTERNAL TEMPERATURE will help prevent costly under-cooking or over-cooking of product. And because most operators cook large cuts overnight, being able to cook to internal temperature before automatically switching to HOLD MODE saves having to pay staff to come in early to check if the meat is done (or enables you to gain a few more valuable hours' rest). Ease of Use
automatic operation
All you should have to do is load the smoker, set the cooking temperature/time, set the holding temperature, close the door, and leave it to get on with the job. Do you or your staff have the time or opportunity to keep an eye on how logs are burning and adding new ones by hand when needed? low labour intensiveness
Your smoker should require as little manpower as possible to run and maintain. Automatic cooking control is clearly important, but there are equally important but less obvious considerations. For example, If wood needs to be added during the cooking process, how much and how often? When cleaning out ash, how much will there be, will it still be hot and how will you dispose of embers that could be a fire risk? Simple cooking process
Busy kitchen employees do not have time to remember elaborate procedures, and those with high staff turnover are at a greater disadvantage. A smoker that allows you or your chef/pitmaster to programme smoke-cooking variables that can be actioned at a touch of the button takes a lot of risk and training costs out of the equation. Scalability & Consistency
scalability
A half-full smoker is expensive to operate, an overloaded one will not work efficiently. So you need to consider how your intended menu will influence your smoker needs. Different foods cook at different temperatures for different times. If you are likely to have a broad smoked-foods menu, then you need to think in terms of a series of smaller smokers rather that one,, large, catch-all machine. If running a broad menu, a series of smokers gives you the flexibility to run your smokers to meet demand across the year. An underloaded large smoker is both inefficient and expensive to run. Consistent results
Both you and your customers need to know that your smoker will produce consistent results. Taking human error out of the equation is obvioulsy important. How auomated does your smoker need to be? Does it need people to remember to add fuel or logs? Can you set it and forget it? Hardwood BBQ pellets go through a manufacturing process; they will have a consitent density, moisture, bark content - the key ingredients for consitent smoke flavour. With pellets; the smoke you get today is the smoke you get tomorrow. Given the low likelihood of two logs being the same, a lack of consistancy over time becomes inevitable. Smoke & Flavour Management
smoke source
Woodchips and sawdust just can't do the job. They quickly release all their flavouring resins, leaving lignite, which does not have flavour. Logs do not burn evenly and smoke flavour varies relative to the ratio of wood to bark. Some gas-fired ovens require the log to be moved manually in to the flame as it burns down. A cycle of burnt-fresh-burnt logs can produce inconsistent results. Food grade hardwood pellets or small wood chunks do none of these things because fresh resin is constantly being exposed to the heat source, and released into the cooking chamber as flavouring for your products. Beware of tiny smoke boxes added to what are to all intents conventional commercial ovens. They just can't put out enough smoke to flavour the product well. At best you'll get a slight smoke taste on the outside of the product, and no smoke flavour inside, where it counts. smoke movement
Smoke must escape from the chamber during cooking or food will have an unappealing grey colour and a bitter “off” taste from sitting in stale smoke for hours. Look for a smoker that allows smoke to escape and is constantly exposing product to fresh smoke. Conventional commercial ovens supposedly enhanced with an 'added smokebox' will not move smoke as they should. smoke flavour
Many different types of hardwood are used for smoking food, but you need to be sure that the one(s) you want are readily and continually available in the UK. Because hardwood pellets are easy to store, they are equally easy to ship. Consequently, a great many varieties are available over here, e.g. Hickory, Mesquite, Cherry, Apple, Oak, Maple, Pecan, or Beech. Pellets can also be bought pre-blended (e.g. Red Oak + Hickory + Maple), or you can combine different varieties to create your own unique flavour profile/house blend! Avoid pellets that contain a 'secret ingredient'. It certainly won't be wood, and at some point your EHO is going to ask to see what you're smoking with. If using pellets, only use ones that are food-safe and 100% hardwood. If you want to smoke with non-wood products such as dried citrus peels, vine cuttings, old whiskey barrel wood, nutshells, etc., you should consider an electic smoker. |
Cook Safe
Food holding capability
When the cook cycle is finished it is essential foods are held at a food-safe temperature if left to rest in the smoker oven. And it is equally important that this can be demonstrated to your EHO. A smoker oven with COOK-AND-HOLD functionality will help support this, especially if the cook cycle ends when the smoker oven is unattended (e.g. overnight cooks, busy service). Better still, a smoker oven that also enables you to DOWNLOAD key cooking variables on a minute-by-minute basis such as oven temperature and internal meat temperature. Ease of Installation
Footprint
Kitchen fllor space is highly valuable, so make sure that your smoker will produce the most product for the least footprint - please read of FAQ about Scalability. Alternatively, would a smoker that does not need to be sited directly under an extraction canopy be a better solution? If so, look for smokers with smokehood or flue collectors. Ventilation
Ventilation should not be an installation aggravation. Choose a smoker that can be used under a conventional commercial hood (with emission filters relevant to your locale) or with a compatible smoke hood. Remember that a gas-burning smoker will require additional safety features. Storage
As well as making space for your smoker, consider how much wood product you need to store at any one time, and plan where and how. If investing in any type of wood-burning smoker you will probably be buying in bulk. Do you have the space to handle and store logs, ensuring they don't contain or attract insects or other contaminents? If not, a smoker that uses small wood chunks or clean, packaged, and easy to store wood pellets may be the answer. Versatility
versatility
It goes without saying that the smoker should be versatile enough to cook your planned menu, and future-proofs your business. Can it produce a variety of items across a range of temperature? What about its shelf dimension - some machines are all-rounders, others better for large cuts? Foods come in different shapes and sizes, so the interior of your smoker should reonfigure easily to meet your needs. You might only want to batch-cook (i.e. load food, close door, press Start, and not return until the job is done), or have access to the smoker throughout the cooking process? How likley is it that you'll want to Cold Smoke; does the smoker give you the flexibility to Cold Smoke? When buying a smoker oven you're primarily paying for its ability to cook - if cold smoking is the focus of your business, do not invest in a smoker oven! overnight cooking
Your smoker should be able to work overnight - large cuts take a long time to cook. Choose a smoker that can run overnight without your attention. Will smoke-giving wood need topping up? Will it automatically switch to Hold mode when the cooking time or meat internal temperature is reached? Maintenance & Support
operation
Although wood-burning commercial smokers take a significant amount of skill and know-how out of the smoke-cooking process, there will still be some 'fire management' involved'. And even where smoke-giving products are only used for flavour, ash still need to be dealt with.. The airways in your smoker should be easy to clean. Ash should be easily removed and disposed of - spoonful quantities of cold ash are easier to handle than log-size, and possibly still glowing remnants. Is the maintenance schedule sufficiently straight-forward that a 12-month plan can be easily shown on one laminated A4 sheet? cleaning
Inner accessories should remove quickly, and the interior should be .easily accessible. Complicated configurations will collect grease and smoke resins that are difficult to clean. A large rotisserie is less easy to manage than a static-shelf unit. Expect the possibility of someone having to enter the oven for deep-cleaning and maintenance purposes. For all smoker-types, drippings should exit the machine during the cooking process. Food flavour and safety are affected by fat in the cooking chamber. Consider that slow-smoked food sits in the oven for a long time, that's more time to take on the 'off' taste of hot fat. Similarly, slow cooking to render-out fat will produce a lot of hot fat that could become a fire hazard if it remains in the smoker. Freshly collected juices make significantly tastier sauces and gravies than scorched drippings! Service & support
Will the smoker come with mandated service intervals, or can it be maintained on a needs-only basis? In the event of a problem, can it typically be repaired on-site by a competent person or will it need a qualified technician? Are spare parts readily available in the UK, or will they typically have to be requested from overseas? But it's not just about the metal! Does the manufacturer have knowledable, experienced and accessible UK representatives, with a 360-degree perspective of barbecue and smoked food? Can the manufacturer's customer service be contacted at no cost via Skype? Do they have a User Forum with helpful information? |