Rookie Question. When I adjust the oven temp during cooking I always seem to stall the process and the temp drops like my IRA. I basically have to power down and start from the beginning. The most recent example: While cooking a pork shoulder I set the pre-heat temp at 280. Once I put the shoulder tried to adjust the cook temp to 250 by following the same process as I used for the initial setting: I pressed Over Temp Set/set the temp to 250 using the arrows/pressed Oven Temp Set again. At that point it starting dropping well past 200 and I had to turn off the smoker and start over. Seems like it should be easier than that. Anybody know what I am doing wrong?
When you first place the meat into the smoker the meat is going to absorb quite a bit of the cabinet heat and this is normal. Even if you do not drop the temp you should see a decrease because the element is only 500W. With a dual element or 900W element mod there is enough horsepower to compensate for the energy absorption of the meat. I would leave the cabinet temp at 280F for at least an hour before dropping it down to 250F. As the shoulder starts to reach temp the cabinet temp will increase.
The correct way to get cabinet temp is for the probe to be located below the lowest rack of meat. I do not have a DBS but I believe that sensor is built into the cabinet. And is located higher in the cabinet and that would place it above the meat causing a lower temp reading.
In other words do not concern yourself too much ;)
When you adjust the digital, you press the oven temp and set using the up/down
buttons till you get the temp setting you want. No need to press it again.
If you are opening the door and putting a cold hunk of meat in the cabinet the temp
of the cabinet will drop, but the cooking temp it is trying to cook at will stay the same.
Others do it different ways, but I:
Take meat from fridge and let it rest on the counter at room temp for 1
to 2 hours.
Pre heat the Bradley to at least 260*
When I insert the meat, I leave that temp at 260* for an hour or two to
combat the coolness of the meat.
Then I set the box temp to the desired cooking temp.