Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

So I've had my MES for about two weeks now. I've done chicken, ribs, tri-tip, and I did yellow tail tonight. So far, I've determined that I like it, except that the remote sucks balls. Also, the wood doesn't seem to burn as well as my old vertical brinkmann. The chips don't really burn all the way, they sort of just char and then stops generating smoke. Then I add more chips to get smoke, and they don't really burn because the new ones are sitting on top of charred ones and aren't really getting hot enough. Wassup with this?



I dumped these onto the cement so that I could add fresh chips for smoke =/

 

You are almost there. The factory chip delivery system sucks (IMO). They never burn to complete ash. Go to amazenproducts.com and drop for smoke generator. 8-10 hours of perfect smoke in any flavor you wish. Then you'll have a true "set it and forget it" smoker that produces excellent product.

 

I sort of figured that would have been one of the recommendations. That does seem like a great way to go with the MES

 

I've not had any experience with electric, but that's what I love about my ELS (egg-like smoker). I load it up once and it delivers 3 or 4 hours of great smoke and 225 degree heat, followed by another 4 to 5 hours of heat with minimal smoke without ever touching it. I've never hot-smoked anything for 8 hours this way and thought "hmm, not enough smoke!" If I had an MES, I'd load it with chips for the first 2 or 3 hours then just let the heat do the rest of the cooking and try it. You might not be able to tell much difference.

Just my hypothesis.

 

Smokin-it has some really good forums and recipes and their smokers are awesome, way better than that POS Bradley... I hate that thing

 

That's kinda the drawback with an electric, once your chips/dust what ever is gone, the element produces nothing but heat, your charcoal is still producing some flavor. I like 6-8 hours of TBS (basically the same as you are suggesting) depending of course on what I'm cooking.

 

My Mastercraft burns the wood chips completely to ash. Manual feed, adequate heat control. Nonetheless I've had to repair it a couple times, and I am considering a new one.
BTW did he say REMOTE CONTROL? What's up with that?

 

my smoking-it I have gotten 8+ hours of smoke. I use about 6ounces of wood vs 3-4 for shorter cooks. it's super efficient I think the trick is to have one thats well insulated

 

Yeah it came with a remote.. I was pretty excited about this because it displays both smoker & meat probe temp, but it doesn't really function that well.

 

I'm smoking a pizza today. Love the taste of the pizza with the smoky flavor.

 

Anybody use pellet smokers??

 

I use a traeger, will be buying a yoder once this one is done. Which I don't see that being for a long while.

 

Good stuff! I had a Traeger Junior which I got more than my money's worth out of. Yoder's are nice! Since I had just purchased my new Taco, I had to settle for a less expensive option. I have a Louisiana Grills LG700. I like getting all the grief from those who say it ain't a real smoker. Well, it gets the job done for me!

 

I spent years cooking on a stick burner, and still have two of them and a charcoal grill, and a propane grill. I use my traeger lil tex more than any of them. I can set it and forget it. I use a maverick dual temp probe so I don't have to get up and check the temps. I've put many years in with the stick burners and won't go back. The pellets are so much easier for me to use on a daily basis as I use mine just about ever day so it makes "smoking" much simpler.

 

I'm looking at a Traeger Texas Pro, I was going to go get it from a local dealer a few weeks ago but ended up working a TON and haven't been able to get there before they close for the day (why would a place like this close at 6pm ). I'm hoping that I can go get it Saturday. I'm taking it you like the traeger? Which of the pellets do you prefer? I'm torn on the Traeger pellets or going with another vendor that seems to be highly rated.

As for smoked pizza OH YA thats some good stuff, my best friend and I have smoked a bunch of them on his smoker. Last batch we did we smoked a brisket first then once that was done we made a nice BBQ/Pizza sauce mix (BBQ by itself was strong flavor the pizza sauce mix toned it down) put that as the base, made some nice caramelized onions put those on and chopped up some brisket with a real high quality mozz cheese. Smoked it till done. YA BUDDY was that good.

 

Best brisket in the world.. New Braunfels smoker for 18 hours at 210-225 degrees. Watched a video from Aaron Franklin of Franklin's BBQ in Austin for the best tip ever. He NEVER said a word about it, but in the video is a water pan between the fire and the meat. I use a stainless dog bowl, works perfect. Wood of choice is a mixture of pecan and live oak, only because that is what falls/gets trimmed in my yard. I put the meat in an aluminum pan and cover after about 5-6 hours of initial smoke. I have also tried adding beer/apple juice to water pan but personally cannot tell a difference in flavor. If you have to use a knife to cut your brisket, then it is not done right! This particular brisket was 17 pounds, thanks HEB!!

 

Never had A LOT of flavor from traeger pellets. I personally use "Q pellets" and have enjoyed the flavor. I mostly use hickory, but the competition blend also produces nice flavor.

As far as Traeger, I always loved my traeger junior and got good use out of it. Not a bad smoker by any means, I just think you could get better. Currently have a Louisiana Grills LG700.

 

I had been looking at the Green Mountain Grills also. I had settled on the Traeger because I read that all the issues they had when they started to manufacture out of country had been solved. That and I liked the size and features on the Texas Pro. I checked out the one you have looks nice, also looked at the larger one and the Country Smoker. The build quality good on these? Might be something to consider also as I'm not planning to go out to the traeger dealer until this weekend since they close before I'm off work.

 

I agree. I got an amazn smoke generator the big tray not the tube version and I love it. Fits perfectly in the MES30 too. No more adding chip or white smoke.

 

@pudge151 Where do you place it?