Author Topic: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner  (Read 65778 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline BrewerDave

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 50
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #29 on: February 03, 2015, 11:18:41 AM »
Chief,
the top door held smoke pretty well, even with the maverick probes inside. I think i might run those through the top vent next time. I don't like beating the wire up too much. I'm going to try the sand trick next time.

Whats the lowest temp you can get your smoker to maintain?

Offline Chief Mac

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 199
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #30 on: February 03, 2015, 10:18:21 PM »
Dave
Those cables are a little too expensive to pinching in the door. I think that was my 3rd mod on the smoker drilling a hole in the side of smoker, installed a silicone grommet in the hole and I can run 3 cables through it easily.
As for your question about minimum temperatures I have a few answers for different scenarios. #1 In the summer with gas burner on, wood chips smoking, 190 deg. with cold water and ice in the water pan. This takes a group of tending to the smoker and 4 hours of this takes the fun out it for me.
#2 Winter with gas on burning wood chunks and water in the pan I can hold 155 deg. But in these 2 cases with flame turned down so low wind blowing around the smoker base has blown out the flame a few times.          (Winter ambient temps below 50 deg., Summer temps above 75 deg. )
#3. Winter with no gas, after starting wood chunks with out the water pan 78-85 deg. I did my first cheese smoke using this method for 1 1/2 hour smoke.
#4. Winter with no gas, 4 pieces of charcoal lit and wood split chunks and cold water and ice the pan the temps finally evened out between 72 -78 deg.  I smoked more cheese for 2 hours and 40 min. I had to replenish wood 5 times during this smoke along with 1 more piece of charcoal. I put to much wood on the 2nd replenishment and the temps started to climb towards 90 deg. so I opened the door got more ice for the water pan and things settled back down. I will never do anything on this smoker using items 1 or 2. I feel confident with item #4.  I have one more scenario to try: I purchased a 12" pellet tube smoker and I want try it by itself.  Smoke salt?
I am trying to upload an pic of my smoker: Item1= Water pan resting on the upper rail for for the lowest rack. #2 Foil lining for the water pan( easy cleaning). #3 Foil cover over the sand to keep sand clean. #4. Wood chip bowl.    
  CM
Weber Genesis E-320
Charbroil - CB600X Gas Smoker
Landmann Smoky Mountain Electric Smoker
PBC
14" Kingsford Charcoal Take Anywhere Grill
A Maz N Tube Smoker 6" & 12"
GrillGrates
Anova--Sous Vide Device

Offline Pam Gould

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6831
  • Lima, Ohio..Lost in middle America
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #31 on: February 04, 2015, 03:04:27 AM »
Dave
Those cables are a little too expensive to pinching in the door. I think that was my 3rd mod on the smoker drilling a hole in the side of smoker, installed a silicone grommet in the hole and I can run 3 cables through it easily.
As for your question about minimum temperatures I have a few answers for different scenarios. #1 In the summer with gas burner on, wood chips smoking, 190 deg. with cold water and ice in the water pan. This takes a group of tending to the smoker and 4 hours of this takes the fun out it for me.
#2 Winter with gas on burning wood chunks and water in the pan I can hold 155 deg. But in these 2 cases with flame turned down so low wind blowing around the smoker base has blown out the flame a few times.          (Winter ambient temps below 50 deg., Summer temps above 75 deg. )
#3. Winter with no gas, after starting wood chunks with out the water pan 78-85 deg. I did my first cheese smoke using this method for 1 1/2 hour smoke.
#4. Winter with no gas, 4 pieces of charcoal lit and wood split chunks and cold water and ice the pan the temps finally evened out between 72 -78 deg.  I smoked more cheese for 2 hours and 40 min. I had to replenish wood 5 times during this smoke along with 1 more piece of charcoal. I put to much wood on the 2nd replenishment and the temps started to climb towards 90 deg. so I opened the door got more ice for the water pan and things settled back down. I will never do anything on this smoker using items 1 or 2. I feel confident with item #4.  I have one more scenario to try: I purchased a 12" pellet tube smoker and I want try it by itself.  Smoke salt?
I am trying to upload an pic of my smoker: Item1= Water pan resting on the upper rail for for the lowest rack. #2 Foil lining for the water pan( easy cleaning). #3 Foil cover over the sand to keep sand clean. #4. Wood chip bowl.    
  CM
Have you thought of putting the ice pan right above the smoking unit? It seems to cool it off much faster for me anyways, I found that if I freeze a gallon jug of water, that is stays for me. But here in Ohio, it is cold smoking weather. Time for more cheese for the summer.  Gotta stock up..TLG likes my smoked cheese, need them for the gathering in September. Pam  .☆´¯`•.¸¸. ི♥ྀ.
Blackstone 22" Griddle
Cook Air
Cobb Grill w/ rotisserie
SRG
BEESR
G2G
CB tabletop propane grill
Cobb grill with rotisserie
22" copper colored Weber / rotisseriw
Uuni pizza maker
Lodge Cast iron Hibachi
tons of cast iron
Anova
Member #3

Offline Chief Mac

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 199
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #32 on: February 04, 2015, 11:10:14 PM »
Dave
I think I was able to get this picture importing finally figured out. Again, as I tried to show you what my smoker configuration looked like this time it may work.
Items explanations are: Item1= Water pan resting on the upper rail for for the lowest rack. #2 Foil lining for the water pan( easy cleaning). #3 Foil cover over the sand to keep sand clean. #4. Wood chip bowl. I hope this is a bit more informative.
CM







Weber Genesis E-320
Charbroil - CB600X Gas Smoker
Landmann Smoky Mountain Electric Smoker
PBC
14" Kingsford Charcoal Take Anywhere Grill
A Maz N Tube Smoker 6" & 12"
GrillGrates
Anova--Sous Vide Device

Offline BrewerDave

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 50
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #33 on: February 05, 2015, 10:43:40 AM »
I will be buying these items this weekend. Outstanding

Offline BrewerDave

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 50
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #34 on: February 08, 2015, 05:45:52 PM »
Chief,

I bought sand today and I have ordered a set of dampers to be installed and tested later. Can you post a picture of the probe wire grommet in the side?

Offline Chief Mac

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 199
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #35 on: February 09, 2015, 03:16:44 PM »
Dave
As per request, I am attaching two pics one of the outside and one of the inside of the right side wall of my smoker. The first picture outside of the smoker, shows the location of the grommet. I drilled a pilot hole 1 1/4" from the rear handle attach bolt. I used a 3/8" drill, (or close to it?) to make the final hole for the grommet. The ID of the grommet is about 11/32". I believe I purchased the Silicone grommet at Lowe's for less then $2. I am giving you the dimensions as I tried to remeasure the holes with out pulling the grommet back out, so you can use the hole sizes as a very close reference. I can get 4 maybe 5 probe cables through that hole. The bottom line is get a grommet to fill your requirements or needs, then drill your holes.  The 2nd pic is the inside of the smoker and the orientation of the cables. I have the shorter probe cables so I wanted to make sure that I could access any of the four rack positions without pinching or chaffing the cables on any hardware. This why the hole position is between the 2nd and 3rd rack rails. 
CM



Weber Genesis E-320
Charbroil - CB600X Gas Smoker
Landmann Smoky Mountain Electric Smoker
PBC
14" Kingsford Charcoal Take Anywhere Grill
A Maz N Tube Smoker 6" & 12"
GrillGrates
Anova--Sous Vide Device

Offline BrewerDave

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 50
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #36 on: February 10, 2015, 07:44:40 PM »
Excellent addition. My weber dampers came in the mail yesterday so I will be adding those soon. I have another idea to get my temps down too. That will be a summer thing.

Offline BrewerDave

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 50
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #37 on: February 10, 2015, 07:48:08 PM »
I'm curious. Have you done a dry smoke in this configuration? When I smoked the (awesome) beer can chicken, the only question my father had was,"can you make this with crispy skin?".
He enjoyed it but he is a deep fried chicken freak. I figured a smoke run without a pan of water would do the trick.

Anyone?

BD

Offline Chief Mac

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 199
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #38 on: February 10, 2015, 10:09:28 PM »
Dave
I have not really tried purposely to do a dry smoke in this unit. When I say purposely I mean while using the factory chip/water pan it would evaporate out within 2 hours and then I was constantly adding water. The temps would start climbing when ever the water pan needed replenishment and this would be a constant battle on long smokes. That's why I put in the larger water pan and I always use it. I have tried a beer can chicken which IMO negated the beer because I have the 1 gallon water pan with water, so I did not do that again. The problem with the chicken skin is low temperatures which we are smoking at, less than 250 deg.
You have to get temps over 300 deg. for that skin to get crispy. I do my beer can chickens on my Weber gas grill. When I smoke chicken if I want crispy skin, once the chicken heats to 155 deg. I pull it off and finish it on the Weber grill for 10-15 min and it gets the chicken internal temps. to 165-168 and crispy skin.
Dave if you would please keep me posted on the damper modification.
Thanks
CM
Weber Genesis E-320
Charbroil - CB600X Gas Smoker
Landmann Smoky Mountain Electric Smoker
PBC
14" Kingsford Charcoal Take Anywhere Grill
A Maz N Tube Smoker 6" & 12"
GrillGrates
Anova--Sous Vide Device

Offline BrewerDave

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 50
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #39 on: February 11, 2015, 12:41:32 PM »
will do.

Offline BrewerDave

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 50
Re: New to me smoker. Season and inaugural smoked dinner
« Reply #40 on: March 14, 2015, 05:14:14 PM »
I tried all kinds of mods, but I just installed a new electric element and controller on it today. A definite improvement. Below is a picture with the smokestacks and dampers in place...

150305_005 by thatbrewerdude, on Flickr

150306_004 by thatbrewerdude, on Flickr