BRADLEY SMOKER | "Taste the Great Outdoors"

New Members => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: Cambridge Canuck on January 03, 2014, 04:17:23 PM

Title: A frigid Canadian Greeting
Post by: Cambridge Canuck on January 03, 2014, 04:17:23 PM
My first post. please be patient. Bought a Bradley this past summer and is killing me to see it stored in my garage......saw some good posts and will try to vent out the garage door and get back in to the swing so smoking with this great smoker. Any ideas ? Please pass them along.....
Title: Re: A frigid Canadian Greeting
Post by: Saber 4 on January 03, 2014, 04:48:53 PM
Welcome from balmy Texas (44 F), I've read a lot of posts from up north of people just opening the garage door and putting the smoker just outside the door and smoking with no issues if the wind isn't coming from the wrong direction. If you have a probe thermometer you might try hanging it through the vent and do a trial run or season it if you haven't already and see what temps you can get out the garage door. That will give you a chance to try some heated bricks or boiling water in the water bowl to see what works best for heat recovery for you. Then you can do your first meat smoke with confidence, or you could even just use your smoke generator and cold smoke some cheese and hard boiled eggs to get your juices flowing.
Title: Re: A frigid Canadian Greeting
Post by: UncleAl on January 03, 2014, 04:58:36 PM
Welcome from Michigan - I have mine set up in the garage and vented outside. You should try Saber's suggestions the boiling water and hot bricks really help with the recovery time. Good luck and if you have any questions there are a lot of great knowledgeable people on this forum.
Title: Re: A frigid Canadian Greeting
Post by: seb bot on January 03, 2014, 05:25:34 PM
Welcome from a fellow Canadian!
Not sure if you're looking for ideas for making it easier to smoke in the winter, or ideas for recipes to try...

If you're looking for some good ideas for recipes try this site, it's the "official" recipe site for the forum, seems to be the tried and true successes...
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/ (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/)

If you are looking for ideas to help deal with the cold there are a few threads about that, and Saber's suggestion about maybe doing a trial run to see how it copes with the cold outside temps is a good one. Most important thing I have found to help with heating issues is to keep it out of the wind.
( Some people have used how water heater blankets, or made sheds/shelters, and a lot of people have also modded their smoker so it has a 2nd element so it will heat faster and struggle less to keep at temp.)

If you're not inspired to tinker with your smoker or set up, you could always do some cold smoking to tide you over, maybe some cheese or almonds?

Good luck, hope you get your smoker out!
Title: Re: A frigid Canadian Greeting
Post by: tailfeathers on January 03, 2014, 07:34:37 PM
I have mine outside and have been using it all winter. It is on my back patio under an awning so isn't exposed to the elements other than ambient temps and it is in a corner where it's protected from the wind unless it's strong out of the SE. And it gets plenty cold in SD believe me!!


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Title: Re: A frigid Canadian Greeting
Post by: ragweed on January 03, 2014, 07:38:04 PM
Welcome from Nebraska.  I smoke just outside the garage too and unless the wind is strong from the SE, I do fine.  8 F today and the OBS did the job on some Hillbilly bacon.
Title: Re: A frigid Canadian Greeting
Post by: NorthShoreMN on January 04, 2014, 06:20:54 AM
Welcome from Minnesota . I use my digital smoker outside in N E Minnesota year round. It's in a wood shelter to keep wind off. I did make a "cozy" out of aluminum foil bubble wrap for it when the temps get too low.
Title: Re: A frigid Canadian Greeting
Post by: beefmann on January 04, 2014, 06:51:27 AM
welcome aboard, some of the others have you  pointed in the right  driection