Commercial smoke ovens can help you add a whole new dimension of flavor to your restaurant's menu. Smoked food is becoming popular all over the country, so adding a commercial smoker to your restaurant can bring in new customers and if you form a competition smoking team, you can take your smoke oven on the road and gain notoriety for your restaurant and your recipes.

If you don't know how to operate your new commercial smoker, find training and information online, such as:

1. Videos that offer training and how-to tips for novice operators of oven smokers.

2. How-to books and manuals for BBQ and smoker oven education and training.

3. Classes and conferences to kick up your knowledge about smoke cookers.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Watch videos about smoke cookers to learn new food smoking techniques

Learning how to smoke foods the right way isn't difficult, but there are some techniques to master that will help you create the best smoked foods with your oven smokers or custom built smokers. Videos offer the advantage of being able to see what the finished food should look like, and what you need to do to turn out perfectly smoked delicacies every time.

I recommend: Pit master Chris Lilly offers how to barbecue and smoke training videos for a variety of different meats. BBQtv offers training videos for a variety of BBQ and smoking subjects, from how to smoke almonds to creating your own custom smoker cookers. Barbecue U offers barbecue basics including "The Art of Smoking."

Check out how-to books and manuals on how to smoke food in your commercial smoker ovens

It's not hard to learn how to operate smokers cookers, but you do need to understand the nuances of which wood to use with different meats in your smoker, what types of rubs, sauces and brines to use, and how long to smoke your food. Many manufacturers offer comprehensive training books and videos to help you learn the best techniques for your commercial smoker ovens.

I recommend: The Sausage Source offers a book "Mastering the Craft of Smoking Food" by Warren Anderson that is a comprehensive guide to the art of smoking with your electric smoker oven or brick oven smoker. Bradley Smoker, a smoke ovens online site, offers training books and videos to help you operate your new smoker oven. Traeger Grills, a manufacturer of electric smoker ovens, offers information on cold weather smoking and much more.

Attend conferences and professional organizations to learn cutting edge techniques for oven smoking

BBQ and smoking conferences often offer competitions for everything from the best sauces to the tastiest smoked meats. They usually offer some great educational resources, too. Attend these conferences to get the most out of your wood fire or electric smoker oven.

I recommend: The National Barbecue Association (NBBQA) offers a yearly conference with educational events throughout the event. The California BBQ Association offers the California BBQ University every year, with dozens of classes on smoking and BBQ with your commercial smoker oven.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  What's the difference between BBQ (barbecue) and smoking? Nothing, really. BBQ usually refers to long, slow cooking over wood smoke with flavorful results. That's opposed to grilling, which is actually cooking directly over high heat for a short amount of time. So, if you're looking for smoke ovens education and training, look for BBQ information for the best instructions on your cooking method.

Commercial smoke ovens allow you to turn out deliciously authentic smoked foods that have become wildly popular among American consumers within the past decade. Pulled pork and Texas-style smoked beef brisket are just two of the many sought-after dishes prompting many restaurateurs to add smoked foods to their menus. Imparting true hickory-smoked flavor to meats, poultry, fish and cheese requires more than just dousing the foods with artificially flavored smoke extract. It involves roasting those foods in a specially designed smoke oven that you can use indoors or out.

If investing in a high performing commercial smoker oven is beyond your means, you can buy more affordable smoker equipment that allows you to prepare the same hickory-flavored foods by conventional oven smoking and even on stove tops. When it comes time to purchase smoke oven equipment, you have many options available to you:

1. Save time and money when you do the smoking yourself with commercial smoker ovens.

2. Design your own smoker oven and have it built to your specifications.

3. Buy smoker cookers to use in your conventional oven or on your stove top.

Action Steps
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Smoke your own foods with a commercial smoker oven

If your menu relies heavily on smoked foods, it's cost-efficient to do the smoking yourself.

I recommend: Zesco Products supplies the Alta Shaam Halo Heat Cook & Hold Smoking Oven. This state of the art product uses wood chips to impart a true smoked flavor to foods and comes equipped with a timer allowing you to set different degrees of smoked flavor, depending upon your preference. Instawares offers the Chef System Electric Smoker Oven in different models, which regulates the holding temperature so that when you finally serve, your food tastes as if it you just made it.

Order custom built smokers when standard smokers don't suit your needs

If you're a professional smoker who's looking for a unique product that's just not available from restaurant equipment wholesalers, or a standard smoker just won't fit into our restaurant's floor layout, consider having a smoker custom built.

I recommend: Beech Ovens has emerged as a market leader in high quality commercial cooking equipment, serving customers all over the world. The company builds smokers according to its clients' exact specifications. KCK.com, operating out of Kansas City, builds handmade custom commercial rotisserie smokers, including gas grill smokers and smoker wood fire boxes.

Turn your conventional oven or stove top into a commercial smoker

Perhaps your budget doesn't allow you to purchase a separate smoker, or you just don't have the room for one.

I recommend: Camerons Products offers a wide selection of high performing stainless steel cookware and accessories for smoker cookers. The company offers free shipping on any order over $100. Chef's Catalog sells a stove top smoker that's available in large and small sizes. Buy one or several to smoke your meats, poultry and fish. The company has been carrying name brand cookware since 1979.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Add special flavors to your smoked foods by experimenting with different kinds of wood smoker chips in your smoker oven. Use flavors such as maple, apple or persimmon.

Whether you run a barbecue restaurant or a food service establishment with a few smoked foods on your menu, a commercial smoke oven is a vital piece of equipment to impart a mouth-watering hickory-smoked flavor. Before you purchase a commercial smoker or even small-scale smoking indoor smoking equipment, brush up on key terminology to ensure you order the unit to suit your establishment’s needs. Distinguishing terms like “cold smoking” and “rotisserie,” for example, will help you buy a smoke oven with the options you’ll use the most.

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Channel pan slides

If you'll be smoking or holding multiple trays of food in your smoke ovens, ensure you find a version with channel pan slides that can hold the large containers securely. If centered properly, you'll be able to move the pans in and out without tipping the entire unit.

I recommend: Instawares discusses channel pan slides in its product descriptions and also offers a downloadable version of the unit’s spec sheet for additional details.

Rotisserie

Ensure the maximum smoke and flavor in your barbecue offerings with a rotisserie smoke oven. Because the foods are contained in rotating racks, the smoke oven will provide even heating so meats don't need as much tending during the cooking process.

I recommend: BBQ Bonanza discusses the benefits and operation of a rotisserie smoker. The site also discusses other rotisserie and smoker models.

Cold smoking

Although hot smoking adds smoky flavor throughout the cooking process, cold smoking can also become a simple flavor enhancer. Some smoke ovens allow you cold smoke foods like fish or chicken for a short time, and then complete the cooking process in the oven or on the grill.

I recommend: Zesco describes available cook and hold ovens that also offer a cold smoking feature for flavor and tenderizing.

Wood chips and chunks

The key to flavoring meats with a smoke oven, wood chips and chunks feature additional flavors (like whiskey, apple or mesquite) to create new smoked taste sensations. The smoking chips are also available in different forms like pellets or logs and selected based on the size of the smoker.

I recommend: Barbecue University discusses the different types of wood chips and chunks and how to use them with smoke ovens and grills to give your foods the best smoked flavor.

Dry rub

Although some barbecue enthusiasts swear by wet brining or marinating their meats before cooking in a smoke oven, others stand behind the dry rub as the best flavoring technique. Experiment with a variation of ingredients in the dry rub to complement the flavor of the wood chips and chunks you use in your smoke oven.

I recommend: Avalon Wine discusses the benefits of dry rub coating over a wet marinade and offers a recipes and cooking instructions to use with your smoke oven.

Smoke box

If you want to test smoked items on your menu before investing in a large smoke oven, consider a smoke box that can impart the same flavor on an indoor or outdoor grill. Using wood chips similar to those used in a smoke oven, a smoke box can go from the grill to the oven to finish the cooking process.

I recommend: Get photos, descriptions and cooking tips for barbecue smoke boxes through Camerons Products.

By cooking with smoke ovens you can add a whole new level of complexity to your restaurant menu. Smoked foods do take longer to cook initially, but the result is well worth the wait. If done properly, the meat cooked in oven smokers falls off the bone and is tender. Depending on the wood chips you use for the smoking process, you can vary the flavor of the meats.

As you look at smoke ovens types and styles for your restaurant, there are a number of things to consider, the first of which is cost. Can you sell enough smoked meats to justify the cost of a commercial smoker? You should also consider how much space you have available for an electric smoker oven in your kitchen. While you can get a variety of sizes, the smoker box is still going to take up space. Other considerations should include whether:

1. You want an electric box smoke oven.

2. You can get by with an oven or stovetop model.

3. You need a portable model to take to catered events.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Cook goods in a commercial smoker

Commercial smoke ovens allow the chef to prepare meats to his or her specification, hours before it's time to serve them. A bit of time on the kitchen grill reheats refrigerated, pre-cooked smoked meats to the point where they taste like they just came fresh off the grill.

I recommend: SmokinTex offers a complete line of commercial smoker ovens. You can choose smoker cookers with multiple racks so you can cook large quantities of meat at a time. Take your commercial smoker oven to the next level with a pull-behind trailer model called the Big Pig from Mobile Grills. You can smoke a whole hog in one of these or use the various racks to smoke vegetables and meats.

Convert your regular oven or stovetop into a smoker oven

This type of smoker over consists of a pan with a rack to elevate the meat from the wood chips you use for smoke. The principle of slow, steady cooking is the same for oven or stovetop smoker ovens.

I recommend: Cameron’s Professional Cookware has a number of pieces you can choose to convert your regular oven or stovetop into a small smoker oven. You can also find a stovetop smoker oven on the Chefs website.

Consider custom built smoke ovens

If you are oven smoking uniquely sized meat cuts, you may want to consider custom built smokers. You can design these smoke cookers with the racks just the way you want them as well as a size to fit into your restaurant. You can find custom built smokers in a variety of smoke ovens types and styles.

I recommend: Beech Ovens can create custom smoke cookers for your business. For portability to catered events, let the designers at PartyGrills.com create a custom smoke oven for you.