Question For Maryann

[cjs]

Afraid you wouldn't see this soon enough if I posted in the smoke thread, but I'll add the info to it later.

Maryann, how long do you smoke your 'baked' potatoes? I'm getting ready to smoke my beautiful golden trout and thought I'd try the potato also. Don't have time to pre-bake it, but I'll try microwaving it (never done this) to almost done.

If I don't see an answer in time, I guess I'll leave it in for about one hour.

[labradors]

Just guessing, but with how much less time it takes to cook fish, wouldn't something like smoked potatoes be easier to coordinate with steak, a roast, ham, whole chicken, etc.?

[DFen911]

Well I bake my potatoes for 1 hour and 15-30 minutes at 425. I would imagine smoking a potato would take hours.

[Old Bay]

I think fat absorbs smoke more than carbohydrates--so a potato would need to be sliced and at least buttered to keep it from drying out over a super long smoking time to let the butter absorb some smoke. There is a method that wraps a potato in foil and puts it in the coals--maybe if you poked holes in the foil it might get smoke--I don't know. You know if you par boiled a potato, sliced and buttered it and smoked on low heat it might work. I'm not sure the result would be worth the trouble.

[Gourmet_Mom]

I may be crazy, but didn't Jean preface this post with how long Maryann smoked it AFTER pre-cooking it?

"Don't have time to pre-bake it, but I'll try microwaving it (never done this) to almost done."

[cjs]

What? did Maryann get a life away from us??????????????

Labs, I wasn't coordinating anything - just testing smoking different goodies.

I 'zapped' the potato in the microwave for 3 min. on each side, then smoked it for 1 hour - nice flavor. Will post more about the smoking in the thread upstairs.

[Mare749]

Sorry Jean, Ron's on vacation this week so we're in and out a lot.

About the potatoes, according to the book that came with my smoker, you can cook any veggies in the water pan. We tried it once and weren't impressed enough with the results to do it again.

As an experiment, I decided to try putting some "unbaked" potatoes in the smoker to cook along with the meat. The result was a potato that was still hard in the middle, and had a hard crust. Not edible.

This got me thinking that maybe the potatoes needed to be cooked first. So, I cooked a few in the microwave until they were actually done, then rubbed them with oil and put in the smoker for an hour. This worked out pretty well and gave the potatoes a light, smokey flavor.

After doing this a few times, we decided that our favorite way to "bake" potatoes is on the grill. So, now I micro for a few minutes to get them started, then finish on the grill. I do sweet potatoes the same way except that I wrap them in foil for the grill because they burn so easily.

What I haven't tried is Old Bay's idea to slice the potatoes and put them in the smoker, and that might work. We do this on the grill sometimes. I slice potatoes (usually red) and an onion, toss with olive oil, and my own version of seasoned salt, wrap in foil, then onto the grill. Since Bill said that the items to be smoked need fat to absorb the smoke, this could work. May try it one day. Thanks for the idea, Bill.

[cjs]

I have been 'grilling' baked poatoes for quite a while and I love them fixed this way - in fact all baked potatoes in the summer are done on the grill. But, I don't do any pre-cooking, just cook on the grill raw.

I'm anxious to try the twice-baked sometime today with the smoked tato.

I forgot Ron is on vacation.... Having fun?

[DFen911]

Ah ok..now the light goes on. Lol I guess reading helps

[Mare749]

"I have been 'grilling' baked poatoes for quite a while and I love them fixed this way - in fact all baked potatoes in the summer are done on the grill. But, I don't do any pre-cooking, just cook on the grill raw."

I'm starting to think that a lot of times, simplicity is in order, especially with good, fresh ingredients.