Brand new to smoking

[IlliniCathy]

I have always wanted a smoker.  Got lucky to find a stainless steel original for $75.  Needed lots of clean up but smoking a rack of ribs right now.  I would welcome any help I can get as I have no user manual.  A couple of initial questions.  Should I buy the aluminum pucks?  What flavor of pucks should I buy?  Can’t wait to learn more!  And eat more!

[Edward176]

Hello IlliniCathy and welcome to the forum and Smoking. I use the aluminum puck so I don't burn up extra pucks needlessly. If you want a 3 hour smoke you place 9 pucks in the chute (20 minutes per puck) and the 3 aluminum pucks on on top. The smoker needs the 3 extra pucks to push your wooden pucks through the smoke generator to the hot plate. As for flavour that's all up to you. Most people experiment with different wood and end up with a favourite 1,2 or 3 depending on what meat is being smoked. There are several charts recommending what wood goes best with what meat, again this is your preference.  Enjoy...

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi IlliniCathy;

Welcome to the forum.

A good choice for wood to begin with would be either hickory, or pecan, or apple. You can venture out from there. I believe a have a pdf manual that will include your model. If I locate it I'll post it on google drive and provide you a link.

The best way for us to help you is for you to ask specific questions.

[manxman]

Hi and welcome to the forum. As Habs says asking specific questions is the best bet as food smoking is a very diverse topic and often more art than science as long as a few basic rules are followed for example food safety... and reading the BS manual!

Experimenting is part of the enjoyment, I have smoked many different things and had some epic failures along with the successes. Typically I now cold smoke using whisky oak or apple usually a variety of fish, cheese as well as bacon. Less often do hot smoked briskets, pulled pork, ribs and cold smoked garlic for example hopefully showing how diverse food smoking can be.

Have fun 

[Habanero Smoker]

Below is a link to the Bradley Smoker Manual that you have. It includes all the models that were in production at that time. You only need to review the first several pages.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cxiULncHRpQUxyhxbCLPx0aRY7qxStgW