Chef's Guide: How To Use A Bradley Smoker

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What makes a Bradley Smoker so good?

• Completely consistent smoke volume – the automatic bisquette feeder means the smoke is totally controlled and remains at a steady slow, smoulder.
• The bisquettes burn for 20 minutes at a time – never reaching the high burning points at which flavour is distorted by resins and acid released from flaming wood.
• This reliable heat and smoke means your food’s flavour is pure and clean.
• Ultimate hands-off cooking! The Bradley Smoker produces high quality smoke for up to 9 hours, without any need for adjustment.
• Choose your smoking profile. Bradley Smoker bisquettes include maple for a rich smokiness, hickory for strong smoke flavour, or apple and cherry for sweeter milder smoking effect.
• Clean smoke. The smoke produced by Bradley bisquettes is four times cleaner than that from loose chippings.

Is the Bradley Smoker really so good? Yes! Chef Cai ap Bryn specialises in cooking game meat, and loves the Bradley Smoker for its incredible consistency.

He explains: “Smoking food can be quite a complex thing, when you’re dealing with fire and charcoal. Traditionally, it takes practice to get it right - you need to understand temperature hotspots and constantly tend the smoke levels. But with the Bradley Smoker you basically plug in and play! The consistency of the smoke is what makes the Bradley Smoker so brilliant. I have the digital model, and it’s so easy to use. You set it to the right temperature and time, and it works perfectly every time. It’s a bit more family friendly too – because you’re not outside nursing it every five minutes! You can leave it on its own, and you know it will be consistent.”

What can I cook in a Bradley Smoker?

You can smoke anything from meat to olive oil in a Bradley Smoker.

• Use your Bradley Smoker to make meltingly tender pulled pork, or fall-apart brisket over a 9-hour smoke.
• Choose something that needs a much shorter smoke – such as chicken or game birds.
• Try smoking seafood, oysters, and of course salmon.
• Or experiment with eggs – smoking just the yolks, or try smoked soy eggs for a bowl of ramen.

Jose L Souto is Senior Lecturer in Culinary Arts at Westminster Kingsway College (alumni include Jamie Oliver and hundreds of professional chefs in the UK’s top kitchens). The college has three Bradley Smokers.

He explains: “We make all our own smoked salmon in them – both hot and cold smoked. We do smoked chicken. Smoked venison, smoked eels, cold-smoked sea bass. Cheese, oils, vegetables. We smoke cauliflower – then do a delicious cauliflower soup. As long as you understand the rules of the food, and what temperature it needs to reach to be safe, there’s almost nothing you can’t do!” He adds:

“I challenge anyone to cook a smoked chicken in the Bradley Smoker and not fall in love with that machine!”

Unusual hot smoking ideas

Hot smoking often gives you incredibly flavourful ‘extras’ to turn into stocks and soups. Jose explains: “After hot-smoking salmon or chicken, we take off the outer layer or skin – to get the tender meat inside. But don’t chuck anything away! I make a smoked salmon stock using the smoked bones and skin. In the summer, I use the stock to make a leek and potato soup then chill it down with cream to make a classic Vichyssoise, topped with the hot smoked salmon. Or I do a smoked chicken stock using the bones and skin, for a fantastic winter soup. Totally delicious.” 

For Cai, the smoker is essential for cooking game: “One of the best things I’ve cooked recently on the Bradley Smoker was my wild boar ribs. I covered the ribs with American mustard and my own rub mix. Then I put it in the smoker at 250F, for 3 hours, using hickory wood. Then I wrapped it in butter and honey under foil, and smoked it for another hour and a half. The first 3 hours is to get the smoke flavour really deeply infused – the second smoking under foil is to cook it faster, and keep it really moist. I took it out once it reached temperature, then I mopped it with a sweet vinegar sauce - for that classic reddish BBQ glaze. They tasted as good as they looked!”

Can I cold smoke in a Bradley Smoker?

Yes, simply use the cold smoke adaptor to cool the smoke before it enters the chamber, and you can cold smoke almost any ingredients you like! Try cold smoking oil or garlic for campfire marinades and sauces. Or cold smoke fish, seafood and raw bacon. 

Cold smoking doesn’t alter the texture of the food in the same way that hot smoking does – there’s no cooking. Which, for Jose opens up even more avenues of flavour: “Take a steak – simply pat it dry, then use the cold smoke adaptor to smoke it for 5-10mins. It will look exactly the same as when you put it in, but the smell is amazing and smoky. The smoke flavour gets in really deep to the raw meat, so when you come to cook it on a griddle or a plancha, it tastes like it’s been on an open fire.”

Which fuel should I choose for a Bradley Smoker?

The Bradley Smoker comes with its own bisquettes – and these compact fuel pellets are key to the smoke’s consistency, and pure flavour.

Jose explains: “The Bradley Smoker bisquettes burn away and produce the gentle smoke. After 20 minutes, the machine knocks the chip into cold water and extinguishes it. So you never get any of the acrid black smoke that’s produced when wood starts to burn too quickly. The Bradley Smoker eliminates the risk of any of the tarrish smoke reaching your food – it’s always just really good quality smoke.

“A common misconception is that if you use apple wood, the food will taste of apple. But the wood types are about the intensity of the smoke, not the fruit flavour. I cook a lot of game, and the flavours work well with fruit woods such as apple or cherry.”

Browse all Bradley Smoker Bisquettes here

Which Bradley Smoker should I choose?

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