The importance of seasoning your Hero Smoker & Grill
Understanding smoker seasoning in more detail
What is smoker seasoning?
Seasoning a smoker is also called curating, since the process prepares the smoker for cooking. Just as you season meat and prepare it for cooking, you season smoker before it’s first use. Sound complicated? It’s not, all it essentially involves a bit of cleaning and oiling to get your Hero Smoker & Grill ready.
Why season your new Firesmiths Hero Smoker & Grill?
There are many benefits as to why you need to season a new smoker, but primarily its to ensure the cleaning and removal of any leftovers from the manufacturing process as well as preventing your new and shiny smoker from rust and other natural elements.
Make sense so far? Here is the benefits in more detail:
1.Remove manufacturing leftovers
While you may think your Firesmiths Hero Smoker & Grill is ready to use when it first arrives, and it technically is, it’s not. Confused? Let us explain. When our smokers is produced and shipped out, it still has some remnants from it’s manufacturing process. There might be some leftover dirt, metal shavings, oil, grease, adhesives, or more. We don’t want these things to end up on your plate. Not only will they affect the taste of your first few cooking sessions, but they may also introduce harmful metals into your body. With seasoning, you can easily get rid of all the dirt and debris left in the smoker after the manufacturing process and make it completely safe to use. In fact, we recommend you do this for any other type of braai’s as well to keep you safe with happy future braai days from the get-go.
2. Rust protection
Seasoning is also taking preventive measures to increase the life of your smoker. It specifically targets the smoker’s surfaces that are not rust-proof. When you use a smoker, the moisture will gradually oxidize the metals, and you might start seeing rusting after many cooking sessions. Seasoning will put another layer on these metal surfaces that prevent moisture from coming in contact with the metal. As a result, the smoker will keep looking great and will last longer.
How long does it take to season your new Firesmiths Hero Smoker & Grill?
As you can guess from the steps outlined above, the whole process of seasoning can take anything from 2-3 hours. We recommend a 3-hour minimum for the Hero Smoker & Grill prior to first use. We know you are excited to get cooking but it’s well worth the effort and time since you will be preparing your Hero Smoker & Grill to give the best outcome in terms of flavour, performance, and lifespan. The best part is you do not have to do all of this repeatedly. Re-seasoning, so to speak, can be done every year or sooner depending on usage and would normally take the same time, which is a few hours.
What about maintenance after seasoning?
Your seasoning responsibility is not completely over, even after seasoning. Though you do not have to oil the surfaces again, you do need to ensure you properly clean them after use. You will need to remove all the ash and food leftovers, but without removing the coating you put on while seasoning. It’s different when you’re doing a thorough once a year cleaning. In that case, you can wash out the Hero Smoker & Grill with soap and water, scrub everything and then season it again.
Why clean your smoker after seasoning?
The ash in the ash pan and charcoal basket should be cleaned regularly. If you allow it to sit, it can absorb moisture and ultimately cause rusting. That’s what you’re trying to avoid with seasoning in the first place. You can gently scrape or wipe out any remaining ash deposits out of the smoker. Any food built-up can be removed with utensils. The idea is to partially clean the smoker after every use so that it’s ready to use the next time and that the oil coating stays intact. How often you may need to thoroughly clean and re-seasoning depends on your usage. As a rule of thumb, once a year is good enough to keep the Hero Smoker & Grill cooking efficiently.
Final words
Now that you know all the ins and outs of how to season your new Firesmiths Hero Smoker & Grill, you can go ahead and prepare for all those delicious and juicy smoking and braai sessions. Seasoning takes a bit of time, but it’s quite simple and totally worth it to do! If you are still stuck on what to do, please feel free to contact us