Gourmet Smoked Foods the Easy Way

In an age of so many fast food chains, time savers or straight out of a package to complete a meal, I still find my taste buds desiring the flavors which are only achieved through home cook meals or the out door flavor of smoked entrees that can not be obtained from a TV dinner or any fast food chain. However, there are some easy steps to making a gourmet meal that taste as if it has been smoked hours upon hours without spending the price eating out at a top restaurant or the cost of owning expensive smokers.

I discovered using a smoke bag. Well, let's say the joy of eating food cooked from the smoke bag as my wife did do all the work.  SAVU Smoker Bags that are available through Melanie's BIG ACRES Gourmet Foods



The SAVU Smoker Bag is a fabulous product patented by a Finnish company. Melanie Yunk, President of Melanie's Fine Foods, is the creator of the award-winning Big Acres® Gourmet Sauces and distributor of gourmet goodies for kitchen & grill. She had read an article about the smoke bag product from Finland and tried it out. Today she now offers her customers this superb product through www.bigacres.com  where I was introduced to this easy to use tool that makes food delicious.


What is a Smoke Bag? It's an easy to use aluminum foil bag with smoking chips inlaid in the bag. A simple no mess system which offers smoke flavors currently in Alder or American Hickory. The smoke bag allows you to place the food or foods to be cooked in the bag providing smoke flavor as it cooks. It can be used inside the home without smoking up the kitchen, on the grill, go camping or yachting. A must for those special smoke flavor tasting dinners.

Why I like it? We smoked foods in the Kitchen stove before using wood chips soaked in water then placed in a heavy cast iron skillet under the food we desired to cook receiving the smoke flavor. That process works but it has flaws. It will smoke up the oven heavily so when open, it goes through out the kitchen. The smoke alarm goes off, the wife demands to open all the windows and doors and air out the house. And if that wasn't enough, there is those wood chips to clean out and throw away. Then the skillet to clean and then the cookware to clean. The smoke bag does it all, and once the meal is cooked, simply open carefully to not get burned by steam, pour contents on to your serving tray and discard the bag. It was that easy.

What we did...Using the Hickory flavor smoke bag, Tammy selected to cook Pork Ribs. Normally, I would be doing outdoor smoking spending several hours slow cooking the meat after the spice rubs are applied. By using the bag in the stove, time is surely saved cooking the ribs in about an hour. The bag also helps keep the meat tender. That is a must. Tender, full flavor and the bag only cost $3.50 which is about a dollar cheaper than burning wood coals.

Tammy placed the pork ribs on the kitchen counter wrapped in a towel allowing it to sit and become room temperature. The towel acts to protect the meat while airing but also dries the surface before applying her mixers of spicy rubs. Once the meat reached the room temperature, she applied her selection of spice rubs.
Then placed into the smoke bag following the directions provided for by the manufacture. Tammy cooked the ribs as instructed on the directions for the smoke bag, and then during the last 10 minutes, she removed the bag, added Chipotle Maple BBQ Sauce and then placed it back in the stove finishing the marvelous meal. The smoke provide rich Hickory flavor, the Chipotle Maple BBQ Sauce was the special blend to add with her earlier rubs and the ribs tasted as if we were at the Championship of Texas BBQ competition. Tender and flavorful.

Oh, I even offered to help clean up as it was a simple toasting away of the smoke bag and wash the dinner plates. Yes, it was that easy. I really enjoyed how great the food tasted and Tammy enjoyed not having the broiler to clean or to wait several hours on slow cooking outdoors. However, this bag can also be used outdoors and because it holds heat inside, will speed up that all day affair to about the same time it required indoors. Another advantage is if you are camping using a public grill in a park, the contents are secured inside a bag meaning you don't have to clean off a mess often found on those camp sight grills. If cooking on a gas stove, often use when camping or used on the boat, you now can have that delicious smoke flavor that you could not achieve before. Tammy was so impress, she now plans to do the Alder Wood for a fish recipe she has. There is sincerely no easier way to have gourmet smoked foods than using SAVU Smoke Bag.

Each SAVU Smoker Bag package includes usage instructions, cooking chart and recipes.

• Natural Finnish Alder or American Hickory wood chips create real smoked flavor in minutes!
• Quick and easy, no turning of the food or the bag.
• Complete meals in one bag.
• Anybody can do it, the SAVU smoker bags offer a fool-proof cooking method.
• No chemicals or glue.
• Low fat cooking.
• Keeps oven and grill clean.
• Safe and easy cooking on public picnic & campsite barbecues.
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