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As someone who has never done any smoking before, I'm interested in trying. I have a built-in grill in my backyard that has a "smoker tray" for wood chips and I was wondering if that would be adequate for proper smoking? This is the grill in question: http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/ZGG3631CSS.html with the smoker tray above the 2nd large nob on the right. The tray is pretty narrow, so I'm not sure it would hold a huge number of wood chips, so I would have to replace them fairly regularly.
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Apr 5, 2012 22:52
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| # ¿ Apr 16, 2024 12:36 |
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Alleric posted:Good info The fan you linked seems like a good idea, I'm just concerned that it's battery powered and the one review I found on it through Amazon is less than stellar. I might try to rig up a standard fan that feeds through the hole in the side of the grill to see if that helps with the convection of heat. If all else fails, I'll look into a dedicated smoker. edit: I'm wondering if a PC fan would work for circulation? Would the heat from the grill be too much for some of the plastic parts on the fan? Cyborganizer fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Apr 6, 2012 |
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Apr 6, 2012 17:02
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Phummus posted:(It started getting dark so I finished in the oven). Glad to hear I'm not alone in this. To report on my first "smoking" experience from yesterday, all I have to say is I picked the worst possible time to try. The combination of babysitting a smoker while also trying to babysit a newborn (not alone, but helping the wife) ended up being quite the task and my results were "meh."* As a recap, I used my backyard's build-in grill that has a "smoker tray." Much less than ideal, I know, but I figured I have the grill so I might as well give it a go before going off and buying a dedicated smoker. So, I got a 5lb pork shoulder, brined it overnight and did a pretty generic rub. Venting the grill ended up being more of an issue than I had anticipated as there were a number of slits and slots that needed plugging with foil to get the air/smoke flow going in the right direction over the meat. Even with the foil, smoke was spewing out of what seemed like every corner of the grill. Temperature control was a whole other story. The small burner for the smoker tray was my main source of heat, but it couldn't always maintain the 220-225 range. Turning one of the main burners on to its lowest setting was way too much, so it ended up being a lot of trial and error (emphasis on the error) with the venting and burners and my temps ranged from 200-250 or so. For the smoke portion, I ended up going through a lot more wood chips than I thought I would need. I actually ended up having to go buy another bag to make it through the day. The smoker tray actually helped produce nice smoke (thin, blue as you call it), but it went quickly and needed frequent refills. Throwing in the baby thing, I tried to maximize the time between renewing chips by using a lot of chips at once so I could go longer between checking on things. Otherwise, I'd have to re-chip every 15-20 minutes it seems. By about 6 hours into the smoke, I hit 151F and after it sat there for an hour I decided to try the foil trick. 5 or so hours later I'm sitting at 170F and it's getting dark and I'm getting tired/frustrated. I knew coming in that it would take time, patience and attention, but I guess I underestimated things. I ended up taking the meat and throwing it in the oven at 225F. Being sleep-deprived from the newborn and just exhausted in general, I just couldn't do the smoker anymore. I figured the smoke flavor had penetrated enough (it sure penetrated my once shiny silver grill), so I just wanted to get it to 195 and be done. The transfer happened at about 8pm (baby goes to sleep at 8:30, so I go to sleep at 8:31) and it didn't hit 195 until 1am. My thermometer alarm woke me, so I wrapped it in foil, a towel and threw it in a cooler for an hour. I woke up an hour later and pulled it and went back to sleep. I didn't even taste it because I didn't want to have to brush my teeth again (I was THAT tired and I'm in the dental field) and I wanted to make sure I had some good homemade bbq sauce ready to go with it. So now I sit at work thinking about yesterday's events contemplating my next smoking endeavor. I think I've realized that I don't have the time at this point of my life to babysit something else, so I'll probably end up getting an electric "set and forget" style smoker. It seems like the folks in here who use it seem to like the final results. I'm looking forward to trying it tonight with my homemade slaw, though.
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Apr 10, 2012 20:15
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There is a definite possibility my temperature readings were off either based off my probe placement or calibration. My grill just isn't very efficient at maintaining heat and the venting was a huge issue. I will definitely look into the wood chunk option to replace the chips. I'll have to look at the average chunk dimensions to see if they'll actually fit in the smoker tray. Even though the process of smoking left a slightly sour taste in my mouth, it was quickly replaced by the sweet, smokey, porky taste of what seems to be a pretty successful end product. The meat had a very smokey flavor and a pretty decent smoke ring. My wife was even impressed despite her annoyance of me spending an entire day to make it. It was a bit dry, but once it's got a bit of BBQ sauce on it, it tastes great. It may not be perfect, but it's good enough that I want to continue smoking.
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Apr 11, 2012 22:09
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It looks like there's a new model of the Masterbuilt electric smokers (both 30" and 40") that have some design changes that claim to eliminate the hot spots that could be found in the older models. Here's a link to the 30": http://www.basspro.com/Masterbuilt-30-Electric-Smokehouse-with-Viewing-Window/product/11090613460022/243644 I'm tempted to pick one up, but I'm wondering if the AMNPS can still be used on it or if it's even necessary with the changes they've made.
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May 8, 2012 18:21
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Trastion posted:Has anyone used the A-MAZE-N-TUBE-SMOKER with an electric smoker like the MB 40"? I know someone posted about it a while back. Just wondering if it actually helps get more smoke in an electric. I use the original a-maze-n pellet tray with my (newer model) 40" MB and it works great. I set it at the lower left under the water pan area with the outer wood chip cute pulled out about an inch and a half. I normally light it from both ends to extra smokify things.
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Sep 30, 2014 19:39
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| # ¿ Apr 16, 2024 12:36 |
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Trastion posted:Do you only use that then? Or still use the electrics box for chips too? Does it give more smoke flavor and better smoke ring penetration? I just use the a-maze-n and it gives off plenty of smoke if your airflow is right. You'll never get a true "smoke ring" in an electric, but you'll definitely get the flavor.
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Sep 30, 2014 20:30
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