Bought an electric smoker!

[xBa380]

Finally decided to splurge and bit and finally buy myself an electric smoker... I wanted one that wasn't cheap, but not crazy expensive either. After scanning reviews and all I could find, I landed upon and purchased the Masterbuilt 30" Electric Smoker.

I found the best deal at, you guessed it, Walmart.com but they rarley stock these in-store, so I am having it dropped off at my local WalMart and will pickup next week.

I'm really excited... Smoking food is a big passion of mine (brisket especially!) but using a little charcoal grill made it quite difficult, haha.

Anybody use this smoker? What are your opinions on it?

Happy BBQ'in!

 

[tom slick]

you just made me hungry!

 

[chevrofreak]

Smoking is awesome. Do yourself a favor and get some digital thermometers because the built in ones are rarely accurate.

Start low and slow, you don't want to heat the meat up too fast, that makes the pores close up and it slows the absorption of the smoke. Start off around 160-180 or so for a few hours before cranking it up to 225.

 

[farrarfan1]

Originally Posted By: chevrofreak
Smoking is awesome. Do yourself a favor and get some digital thermometers because the built in ones are rarely accurate.

Start low and slow, you don't want to heat the meat up too fast, that makes the pores close up and it slows the absorption of the smoke. Start off around 160-180 or so for a few hours before cranking it up to 225.


I'm going to respectfully disagree with starting out at 160-180 for a few hours. The temperature danger zone for bacteria and the toxins they leave behind is 40-140 degrees. The quicker you can get it to 140 the better. I like to start out around 250-275 then lower it to 225-230 as the meat temp approaches 140 on large cuts like brisket and pork shoulders.

Meat doesn't actually absorb smoke to any measurable depth. The particulates in the wood smoke forms a layer on the surface of the meat.

 

[pickled]

Originally Posted By: farrarfan1
Originally Posted By: chevrofreak
Smoking is awesome. Do yourself a favor and get some digital thermometers because the built in ones are rarely accurate.

Start low and slow, you don't want to heat the meat up too fast, that makes the pores close up and it slows the absorption of the smoke. Start off around 160-180 or so for a few hours before cranking it up to 225.


I'm going to respectfully disagree with starting out at 160-180 for a few hours. The temperature danger zone for bacteria and the toxins they leave behind is 40-140 degrees. The quicker you can get it to 140 the better. I like to start out around 250-275 then lower it to 225-230 as the meat temp approaches 140 on large cuts like brisket and pork shoulders.

Meat doesn't actually absorb smoke to any measurable depth. The particulates in the wood smoke forms a layer on the surface of the meat.


I concur with your assessment of the time/temperature sensitive foods (temperature abuse is a bad thing), but politely disagree on the smoke absorption observation. When properly BBQ a brisket will have a beautiful pink smoke ring that can be over 1/8" into the meat. The smoke ring is the result of excess NOx from the burning wood converting into nitric acid at the moist surface of the meat. The particulates and other carcinogenic compounds, that I find tasty as well, form the bark at the surface of the cut. The acid penetrates the meat surface and reacts over time to give you that cured corned beef look. You can fake a smoke ring by putting salt cure on your cuts, but that's just not cool!!

 

[chevrofreak]

I've done a pork tenderloin that had a smoke ring that was over 3/4" deep. I started it out at about 170 degrees with lots of smoke, then after about 90 minutes got the heat up to about 220 degrees and worked the meat up to an internal temperature of 180F, using less wood chips than the first 90 minutes. It was delicious.

Buy good quality meat and the risk of bacteria is greatly reduced. Costco meat department is your friend.

 

[farrarfan1]

Originally Posted By: pickled
Originally Posted By: farrarfan1
Originally Posted By: chevrofreak
Smoking is awesome. Do yourself a favor and get some digital thermometers because the built in ones are rarely accurate.

Start low and slow, you don't want to heat the meat up too fast, that makes the pores close up and it slows the absorption of the smoke. Start off around 160-180 or so for a few hours before cranking it up to 225.


I'm going to respectfully disagree with starting out at 160-180 for a few hours. The temperature danger zone for bacteria and the toxins they leave behind is 40-140 degrees. The quicker you can get it to 140 the better. I like to start out around 250-275 then lower it to 225-230 as the meat temp approaches 140 on large cuts like brisket and pork shoulders.

Meat doesn't actually absorb smoke to any measurable depth. The particulates in the wood smoke forms a layer on the surface of the meat.


I concur with your assessment of the time/temperature sensitive foods (temperature abuse is a bad thing), but politely disagree on the smoke absorption observation. When properly BBQ a brisket will have a beautiful pink smoke ring that can be over 1/8" into the meat. The smoke ring is the result of excess NOx from the burning wood converting into nitric acid at the moist surface of the meat. The particulates and other carcinogenic compounds, that I find tasty as well, form the bark at the surface of the cut. The acid penetrates the meat surface and reacts over time to give you that cured corned beef look. You can fake a smoke ring by putting salt cure on your cuts, but that's just not cool!!

We will have to respectfully and politely agree to disagree on the absorption issue, but I do not believe solid particles can penetrate meat by simply landing on it's surface.There is a product called Tender Quick that will make a beautiful smoke ring when applied to meat. It's simply a chemical reaction and has nothing to do with the presence of wood smoke.

 

[Shannow]

As was explained by pickled...the NOx is contained in the smoke.

 

[pickled]

I would have loved to have a bite of that one!!

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Check the Bradley Smoker forums (Google it). There are a great bunch of dedicated people over there with boatloads of rubs and advice.

Consider using a PID to control your temperature. I've had an auberins PID (Google it) since my Bradley was new and it's probably the best accessory I've purchased.

Low and slow is the best way to smoke/cook anything. You're better off to start low and slowly raise the internal temperature of the meat to safe levels.

I did a brisket over the weekend. Started with a 4 hour smoke 3:00 AM Saturday morning at 180 degrees. Then bumped it up to 200 degrees for another 9 hours until the internal temperature hit 185 degrees. FTC'd it for another 2 hours and the meat was tender, moist and full of incredible flavor.

If you really get into smoking plan to buy your spices online in bulk. Buying the grocery store packages is far too expensive.

 

[pickled]

Speaking of bulk spices...these guys have some great ones!!

http://www.aclegg.com/history.htm

 

[1sttruck]

My son made a smoker as part of his high school project. We used stuff that we had laying around;

1. a little cart with 2 wheels and a handle that I made to hold a larger aquarium, we put a door on it,

2. we noticed that the end was the same size as a Coleman propane stove, we had an extra that someone gave my son so a friend help my son to attach it to one end with a sheet metal box that they formed with a homemade brake,

3. the friend had some steel grating that he cut for use as racks,

4. we roll it somewhere, tip it on end, and use it. It works very well, is easy to control temps with, and we use wood chips for smoke as desired,

A few teachers asked my son if he'd make one for them :^)

 

[pickled]

Sounds pretty neat...do you mind posting a picture?