Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Good quality I think. Heavier duty than Traeger, similar to Green Mountain. I looked at those as well. The main reason I like mine is the controller. It holds temps way better and more consistently I think. Again, I really enjoyed my Traeger Junior and do not dislike Traeger, simply preferred Louisiana Grills.

 

Ill give anyone with a traeger a tip, find better pellets. You can find real wood pellets that don't ash near as bad as the brand name ones do.

 

I put it on the lower left. Next to the wood tray. Below the drip pan. I'll get a pic tomorrow

 

Got it as a gift... Wasn't sure about it... ~6 months later. I have to say it does a pretty good job. Advice.. Don't soak your wood chips and watch your temps... I put a thermal heat gun to it and at the lowest setting its ~250. It went up to ~550. Wished it could go lower. I like to slow cook between 200-225.. The Wood box is Finicky at times as well..it can be a bitch when it's hot and you want to take the box out do to the "latch" system... It's a little dirty too...

 

I ended up getting the Traeger Texas Pro. I looked into the the others mentioned here and all the Green Mountain Grills and Rec Tec but couldn't find anyone who was close enough for me to go see and purchase. Rec Tec seems to be well built but the looks were a bit flashy for my tastes. Grill was mostly assembled when I got it finished the assembly and followed the first time fire up per the directions. Then later on Saturday I did some steaks, rubbed them with bone sucking sauce beef rub let them sit a while, put the traeger on smoke put the steaks on for 30 mins then cranked up the dial to high and grilled them the rest of the way. Came out mighty tasty.

Now I need to order some different pellets going to look into the Q pellets mentioned earlier had to get the traeger ones this weekend as that's what the local dealer sold. Looking forward to some good smoking this coming weekend.

Trying to decide between a brisket or maybe some ribs.

 

Awesome! Good to hear your enjoying the grill already! DAILY use is recommended! Brisket sounds great! I haven't done a brisket in a while. Maybe this weekend....

 

for those of you wondering about fitting an A-maz-N smoke generator tray in the MES 30 here you go...See it there to the left of the manufacturer wood tray. It's tight but it fits. I would highly recommend one if these or their Tube version to anyone with an electric smoker. you can get 4,8,12 hours of nice light even blue smoke from them depending on how much you fill them. I found it annoying to be replacing the wood chips every 20-30 minutes and getting uneven smoke because of it.

 

That's a tad different from mine. Is yours designed for pellets or dust? Mine had four runs and was a bit to wide to fit where you've got yours, I fixed that problem with a Dremel. Now it fits perfect.

 

mine hold pellets

 

I built my own with an old propane tank. It gets the job done

 

Where were you able to find the tank? I've been wanting to do this.

 

Got the hook up from a buddy that works at the plant that mfg's them. It was a leaker. If you get a tank, make sure not to blow things up cutting it.

 

Yeah OK, mine is the dust model. My "dividers" are just like the edges of yours, not pyramid shaped.

 

Ok guys, my wife's family is having a BBQ cook-off this weekend. It's just a small thing with about 7 different people competing, but there has been a lot of trash talking so there are bragging rights to be won. This is the first cook-off so we are going with chicken this year. I am experienced in BBQing but know I don't know everything so that's why I'm here.

Here's what I was thinking of doing. I am planning on cooking boneless chicken thighs wrapped in cream cheese and bacon, and of course the chicken will be marinaded and rubbed with other seasonings. This will be taking place on an OLE SMOKEY pit with a mixture of charcoal and pecan wood and Sweet baby rays will probably be the sauce used. Let me know what you guys think and any input / tips and tricks are greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Wow, how did I miss this sub-forum. I'm a cooking smoking BBQ fool when I have time.

I have a decent gasser I don't use anymore
MES30 Analog relegated to cold smoking for fish and jerky etc. Made mods to it, added a fan to the back with speed control and put a chimney on top.
Weber Performer with the propane starter, picked it up cheap on Craigs
My Pride and Joy, a Yoder 640 pellet smoker. Toss 4 pork butts on it at 10 PM, get up at 5 AM and pan them, go back to bed. Back up at 10 AM and see where I'm at.


Yep, four briskets, not real big packers and beans, for a Air Force friend for his annual picnic!


I like to cook! 3 10 lb butts and beans!

 

Q pellets are good. So is Lumberjack. They have two nice mixes, one for beef and one a bit sweeter for pork and chicken. There are others. Depending where you live. Best to Google and look around. If you pellet a lot might look at getting a 1-1/2-1/4 pallet delivered. Options abound to cut costs.

As long as it's not the 'essence of chemical Traegar pellets' you'll do great! Look at Owens BBQ for specialty pure pellets and their pellet tube and pan smoker to add that special flavor.

Once The Traegar dies look at Yoder smokers.

 

Chicken thighs with the cream cheese in the middle and wrapped like a rolled loin? I'm sure that's what you mean. Cream cheese will drip out since it's so soft, not good unless cradled in an ABT. Atomic Buffalo Turd Jalapeno. Use sliced swiss has bit of salt, cream cheese has a tendancy to oversweeten stuff like this. You need heat to counteract it. Be fine with a mix of spices like sage/bacon cooked crisp and crumbled/thyme/small amount of Siracha/salt/pepper. Bit of olive oil and mix those bits and smear it on the smashed thighs (a meat hammer), remove the skin first. Then rub in the mix, add the cheese slices roll them up then take the perfectly trimmed skins and roll them up, should be about 2-3" wide. Might tie them if you think they will fall apart. If you use bacon as a wrap and toothpicks your fine. Cook slow for about 45 min, 225f, finish at 350f with a drizzle of 10% bacon grease and 90% Sweet Baby Rays. And yea, you do the bacon roll just right on the outside and get the internal temp to 165 and perfect bacon, you win!

Ohh a small drizzle of the SBR mix drizzled on the mix before you wrap them.... winner.

LOL, I just came up with that, never made it.

Figgure it out, kinda a drunk rant .

 

Your drunk at 7 am?

 

Yea, I'm Pacific time and I get off at 4 AM. I hit it hard quick. Even keel, for a bit then off to bed. Used to have weekends off, the money bastards changed that so they can keep their Hampton homes etc, layoffs, glad it ain't me. I get night diff,so $37 an hour ain't bad in Vegas. Saving 30k each year between the wife and me in 401k and other stuff. I'm 58, get ready save now.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm hoping it won't die for at least a few years here My guess is like many things in life now once that 3 year warranty is up it will magically stop working.

I will check out the pellets you mentioned, I didn't want to buy their pellets that day but it was sadly all the local dealer had I had read they use oil from hardwoods to get the flavor which makes for very little smoke flavor. I was also looking at BBQr's Delight pellets which seem to have a good reputation but no one local has them so I will have to order and get shipped in if I want those.

I had looked at a bunch of different pellet smokers, I wasn't thrilled on the Traeger but I guess a lot of the issues they had once they shipped the manufacturing off shores have been corrected and the later reviews have been a lot more positive. Doesn't seem to be a whole lot of dealers for pellet smokers here in the area of MI I'm in or if there are I'm just too blind to see them lol. I figure I will break myself in on this one and then when I get another (and I will) I can deal with having it shipped in as I will still have one to cook on (hopefully).