Hi folks,
first post - howdy...nice web site.
It's probably noteworthy to tell you all that I did a lot of research on
various smokers over the weekend to make a purchase decision.
THEN BELOW ALL THIS BABBLE, I ACTUALLY HAVE A QUESTION. :)
The struggle to decide...
It was either one of the Bradleys or the WSM. Both got great reviews. It was a struggle down to the final moment of order.
My decision came down to these personal preferences:
1. I don't want to tend the smoker like I've had to in the past (every 20 to 30 minutes
stoking the fire or adding wood). Current unit is an old Brinkman barrel type with firebox on the side.
2. I wanted to be able to run the unit on my deck without worrying too much about burning the
house down. Although I have read on your forum that I need to be sure to keep the vent open
and the unit clean (trays, etc) to help reduce risk of fire due to potential grease or moisture buildup.
3. Wanted to be able to run the unit overnight for a long-run pork butt or similar with the above noted
caviats about keeping the unit safe.
4. The questions that kept going through my mind were :
1. cost of bisquettes vs cost of charcoal vs convenience; I finally rationalized that the extra cost of bisquettes was not an issue because I'm a convenience kind of guy at this point and I don't expect to be smoking stuff every other weekend. Now if the food comes out tasting as good as your forum suggests, then maybe that will change. The WSM users all say to buy one of those chimney starters. That got me thinking about the hassle of charcoal and how my last chimney starter sort of melted halfway into a big smoke using my brinkman. One of the rivets on the handle overheated and popped off (thankfully the bottom one, but it still was yet another charcoal hassle).
2. While I've read the WSM can run unattended for the long periods I sometimes require, will the wind possibly blow it out while I'm not vigilantly tending it. I don't think that would maybe happen very often, but it has happened with my brinkman. Sometimes the charcoal I had in my garage was not completely fresh and maybe had some humidity in the briquetts and therefore harder to start and harder to keep going. So, this could be a valid issue in my humid environment (Savannah, GA).
3. Will a gust of wind blow over the WSM while it's lit up on my deck. Probably not because I've heard it's relatively heavy and pretty stable, but it is tall and skinny and it could happen.
4. On the pro side of the WSM, will our bunny eat the power cord on the Bradley? If she gets to it she will. She hangs out on our deck quite a bit. Sounds wierd but it is something I have to deal with. Anyway, it occured to me that I'd be unplugging the unit after each use anyway. I'll find a way to hide it from her.
5. cost comparison - WSM is about $80 cheaper. I actually wanted the digital Bradley but I was trying to keep my wife at bay, so settled for the OBS.
6. Flavor issue. Sorry guys but I'm not yet convinced about the "bisquettes burn cleaner" thing (to make any appreciable or noticeable difference). I'm certainly no expert, but that sounds like marketing to me. Hey, maybe I'll prove myself wrong; who knows. And, the smoke ring issue. Neither the OBS or WSM make much of a ring if any, but I read enough about the NO2 factor to finally understand it does not affect the flavor. I read that I can get that effect by using Morton's Tender Quick.
So, that's about it.
WSM with cover and tons of bisquettes on order. ;D
NOW MY QUESTION; if anyone is still awake -
* I want to cook something good for Christmas Eve dinner (six adults). My Mom will be making a turkey for Christmas day, so turkey is out. I know there's lots of Bradley recipes. But, I thought I'd just ask folks what is a really kickin recipe they like that I could start with?
Thanks.
-- Jeff
Hi jeff and welcome to the forum.
Your purchase of a Bradley smoke is in the right direction for home smokers. You wont be babysitting it like you would be a wood, charcoal or gas smoker. However you will still need to rotate the racks which is no biggie.
I have my BS on the deck, under the gazebo and in the garage. Yes you must keep the vent open atleast 1/4 way or full open. Never close it when smoking because of moisture wil leak out the bottom of the door and backup into the smoke generator which will cause a failure.
I clean my racks, water bowl and v-tray in the dishwasher and leave the inside of the smoker alone to get crusty (it smokes better)
Always use your v-tray in the proper position and dont cover it with foil, you need the vents on the v-tray open.
Use water in your pan all the time unless your doing jerky. With jerky you want it to be a dry smoke.
Bisquettes vs charcoal ??? ??? i would say prob around the same price unless you buy cheapo charcoal. The wood burns clean and you wont have a stokin smoke flume like other smokers. All in all the Bradley is top of the line. I have had many kinds of smokers and the Bradley is the best.
Your reading has you on the money in alot of ways. As far as smoking something foe christmas, chicken is a good starter and easy.
Whatever BS you get you wont be dissapointed.
Hope this helps some
nepas
Thanks nepas,
I was considering running it from the garage since I could open up some double doors
on the side of the garage. I think the unit would be better protected, but I'm wondering if I'll
turn my garage into smoke-house smell. Probably so, I guess.
I've read that sometimes folks retrofit a larger water pan in some smokers. Wondering if
you all have heard of any successful larger water trays that would last longer and not mess
up the unit.
Quote from: jeff_smoke on December 08, 2008, 08:36:08 AM
Thanks nepas,
I was considering running it from the garage since I could open up some double doors
on the side of the garage. I think the unit would be better protected, but I'm wondering if I'll
turn my garage into smoke-house smell. Probably so, I guess.
I've read that sometimes folks retrofit a larger water pan in some smokers. Wondering if
you all have heard of any successful larger water trays that would last longer and not mess
up the unit.
My garage does not smell like smoke, also mine is not drywalled yet and i do open the door some. Some have used larger pans, i have a few times like a square foil pan.
nepas
Welcome to the forum Jeff!
I've used a disposable foil tray in place of the water bowl, many a time and they work very well! Smoke house smell in the garage is just a side benefit! ;D
C
Good info guys, thanks !
See; now you all got me thinking about making a closed in smoking area
where those double doors are...a sort of mini-smokehouse. :)
-- Jeff
Quote from: jeff_smoke on December 08, 2008, 09:01:40 AM
Good info guys, thanks !
See; now you all got me thinking about making a closed in smoking area
where those double doors are...a sort of mini-smokehouse. :)
-- Jeff
Naaahh just let the whole garage smell good!! My wife will ask when I'm smoking again when the garage doesnt smell like Hickory anymore during the summer. During the winter it always smells like hickory.
I have a question for you. I noticed that you have the "WSM, a cover, and tons of bisquettes on order" Why the cover and bisquettes for a WSM? OOOOOOPPSS!!!!! LOL
Good catch there Tenpoint - ;D
Ok, let's try that again.
* Bradley Original Smoker, Black
* Bradley All Weather Cover 4 Rack
* Bradley Oak Bisquettes 48 pack
* Bradley 5 Flavor Varity 60 pack
* Bradley Mesquite Bisquettes 48 pack
* Jim Beam Smoking Bisquettes 48 pack
Anybody tried the Jim Beam yet? Didn't actually see it on the Bradley site.
Quote from: jeff_smoke on December 08, 2008, 10:54:25 AM
Good catch there Tenpoint - ;D
Ok, let's try that again.
* Bradley Original Smoker, Black
* Bradley All Weather Cover 4 Rack
* Bradley Oak Bisquettes 48 pack
* Bradley 5 Flavor Varity 60 pack
* Bradley Mesquite Bisquettes 48 pack
* Jim Beam Smoking Bisquettes 48 pack
Anybody tried the Jim Beam yet? Didn't actually see it on the Bradley site.
And a pork butt, briskit, chicken and dont forget the fattys ;D
nepas
My favorite of everything I have done so far is the Beef Rib/Ribeye Roast. Absolutely the best prime rib you have ever had, and it only takes a few hours (~4) to get the IT to 135*. It will be a big hit on Christmas. I'll be doing one!
If you are going to have turkey for xmas then maybe some appitizers?
ABT's - stuffed, smoked jalapenos
Fatties - seasoned, stuffed beef or pork
Pistachios - smoked, you can never make enough of these babys
Cheese - most any kind smoked
Good luck,
pens
Standing Rib Roast sounds like a really good Christmas Eve project. I'm researching recipes. Thanks.
Pens, it's interesting how many people use smokers for cold smoking
cheese and nuts. I was surprised about that. I'm thinking there must be something special about
doing it yourself vs buying store bought smoked cheese or nuts.
Do they come out fresher tasting or something?
I was also just reading posts from a couple other new members and I checked out the ET-73.
Looks like a must have for me. Checks both meat and internal smoker temperature and is a remote? Wow, sounds great.
I also need to get some of those fake bisquettes. Recommendations ?
I'm also wondering why Bradley has not addressed this obvious need for their products.
I guess they could say that it's already been addressed by 3rd parties, but it seems
like those should come with the unit by default; not an add-on.
QuoteI'm thinking there must be something special about
doing it yourself vs buying store bought smoked cheese or nuts.
Do they come out fresher tasting or something?
With store bought smoked cheese for example you are stuck with the amount of smoke they put on it which is designed for "Mr Average" and may even be liquid smoke........ doing it yourself means you can smoke the cheese you like to the smoke taste you want! ;) :D
Thanks Manxman for the explain.
I guess you're either another early bird like me, or it's pretty late for you depending on time zone. :)
I just ordered the ET-73 and I just realized that I also ordered quantity 1 of the bubba pucks thinking
"pucks" plural meant the required 3 pucks. So, I had to place a separate order for the other two. Uhhhh.
Anyway; it's nice that you can get both at yardandpool.com. But, their description should be Bubba Puck (singular),
or they should just have the required three pack. imho.
QuoteWith store bought smoked cheese for example you are stuck with the amount of smoke they put on it which is designed for "Mr Average" and may even be liquid smoke........ doing it yourself means you can smoke the cheese you like to the smoke taste you want!
Correct, also most stores do not carry the variety you can make yourself.
Good info;thanks guys.
My unit is scheduled to arrive tomorrow from Amazon. I'm kind of in shock
because I ordered it online on Sunday and got their free shipping option.
I'm all excited to get started with my new man toy. I know I have to burn
it in first. That will be some good practice.
I also found out that my Dad gave the thumbs down to having another
turkey for Christmas dinner just after having one for Thanksgiving. So, I'm
offering up the smoked prime rib. If anyone has a really good PR recipe, I'd love to
try it.
Thanks.
W E L C O M E to the Forum jeff_smoke!
The best smoked food I have ever had, I made myself in my OBS. That includes smoked nuts, pork butts, Beef brisket, Turkey, chicken, jerky, etc....
An unfortunate side effect is that I don't enjoy going "out" for BBQ anymore...
I'm with you on that.
With my old smoker I've smoked some pork butt that
I just couldn't believe how much better it was than most
or maybe all the store que I've had.
But, stokin and tendin that thing for sixteen hours or
so especially throughout the night, is just a thing of the past for me.
My unit should arrive today. I'm pretty excited.
Thanks.
Quote from: jeff_smoke on December 09, 2008, 12:40:56 AM
Standing Rib Roast sounds like a really good Christmas Eve project. I'm researching recipes. Thanks.
Pens, it's interesting how many people use smokers for cold smoking
cheese and nuts. I was surprised about that. I'm thinking there must be something special about
doing it yourself vs buying store bought smoked cheese or nuts.
Do they come out fresher tasting or something?
Not only does it come out better tasting, IMO, there is the satisfaction of doing it yourself which only adds to the overall project. That's just my opinion but I'm sure it's shared by quite a few here.
SD
For the prime rib, try a dry rub using salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and Lipton onion soup mix. Throw in a little paprika and/or cayenne pepper for color and heat. I personally like mesquite smoke on beef, but you can use what ever you like. 1 hour 40 minutes of smoke (5 pucks). Cook on max heat setting until IT reaches ~130* (med-M/R), let rest for 20-30 minutes before carving (it will continue to cook while resting, so don't think it's too early to pull). The beef rib ribeye I get from BJ's is usually about 12-14 lbs. I cut it into 2 pieces so that it fits on 2 racks. The last one I did took about 4 hours. My mouth is watering just typing this! It is without a doubt, the best prime rib you'll ever have!!!!!!
Smoking Duck,
I totally agree. I really got that sense when completing one of my pork butts
after sixteen hours of smoking. I'm going to try smoking some nuts pretty quickly.
btw; I'm burning in the smoker tonight. I've run about six pucks through it. I'll
shut it down in about twenty minutes. Really cool watching the puck mechanism work.
I will say that the seasoning instructions were off though. It says to set the temp to
between low and medium and in 5 minutes it should be at 150 degrees. It took about
25 minutes to get there and after I turned up the heat to almost high for awhile.
Thereafter, I lowered the setting to between medium and low and it stayed steady
at 150. It's very warm tonight too here in Savannah, so cold was not a factor.
No big deal, but for awhile there I wondered if I had a defective unit.
And, manderso shares his recipe. Thanks so much ! If your mouth is watering
just talking about it, then I'm going to try it out verbatim. I'll update probably
after New Years since I'll be away after Christmas. Thanks again; I really appreciate it.
This smoker is so cool. Can't wait to get started.
Great forum too. Thanks everybody for the welcome.
-- Jeff
Hi,
I was eager to test out the smoker but didn't have a whole
lot of time since we're in the middle of the work week.
So, I decided to try smoked ground beef and see what it would
taste like in spaghetti. I figured it would either be pretty good
or horrible. The only bisquettes I received in the mail so far
are the Jim Beam, so that's what I went with.
Anyway, I smoked the beef for about an hour at around 125 degrees
using six bisquettes. Then finished off the cooking in a skillet, added some jar sauce and
spices including some ground red pepper for a kick.
It came out pretty good. I only cooked the sauce with the beef
for about 25 minutes because I was starving by then. It had a nice
subtle Jim Beam flavor. If I do it again, I'll let it simmer for at least an
hour. Both my brother and wife said it was really good too.
This weekend I'm planning on a trial small rib roast.
Congrats on your first smoke Jeff!
Smoked getti is favorite in this house also! You'll find that a bit of smoke in all of your dishes is a great thing! Hey and weekend is almost here, time to do some serious smoking!
C
Might be hard to do in your neck of the woods, but if it gets cold there at all, smoke some mozzarella and then shred it and use it on a pizza. Mama Mia!
SD
Thanks WestTexasmoker and Smokin Duck.
Lots of stuff I have to try including the mozzeralla.
I went to the store after work and had intended to buy the thickest steak
I could find and first quick sear it on my infrared grill, then finish smoking
it with mesquite. But, I ended up buying a 4 rib, standing roast that I'll smoke tomorrow.
It's not prime, but it's probably pretty good. They've been aging it since Thanksgiving,
so I'm hoping it will be pretty tender.
I'm going to try manderso's recipe/method that he was gracious enough to share.
I picked up the Lipton onion soup mix along with the roast.
I had mentioned to him that I was going to follow his recipe to the letter, but I am
going to do a couple things slightly differently. I think I'll go with a milder wood to
start out. I'm sure any wood including mesquite will be tasty, but the majority of folks
say to choose a milder flavored wood like oak, cherry or apple for rib roast. It's just that
for $80 bucks I want to be careful. The other thing I plan to do is take the roast out of the smoker at
about 110 degrees, then put in the oven at 400 to get a bit of that nice rib
roast coating on it. I'll take it out at 125 and let it sit in foil, towels and cooler
were it should reach about 135.
I like prime rib kind of rare. I can always throw a slice into the oven for a few minutes
if my wife would like it a little more done.
So, I'll let you all know how it turns out.
Thanks again for your feedback.
I would put the (cold) smoke on the steak first, then finish on the grill.
You know, I almost asked that question since that seems to be
the most popular method. I was thinking it would be easier to
get to the right meat temperature if slow smoking til completed.
At some point, I'll try it both ways. Thanks for the tip.
I'm reading up on and installing the ET-73. I had a pretty hard time
getting the back cover off of the transmitter. First, the instructions
didn't say how to get the clip out of the way in order to get to the
thumbscrew. For all I knew, the clip could have been part of the cover
since there is a hole in the clip to stick a screwdriver (which doesn't work
well anyway as the slot is designed for a thumbnail or penny.)
Once I figured out how to get the clip off, I turned the thumbscrew
clockwise as suggested, but it didn't open. I was afraid I'd break the
cover by prying open. After messing with it for awhile, it just popped open.
Turns out that if I turn it clockwise all the way to the right, that is actually
too far. I had to turn almost all the way to the right to get it to come free.
I read some of the posts about why the on/off switch is inconveniently inside the
battery compartment....weather being the reason. You can see the thin
rubber seal that the cover border sits on top of. So, I can see why the
switch is inside, but boy did they make this overly difficult. I think the
typical snap on cover would have been the way to go. A snap piece would
hold the cover on at least as tightly as this plastic screw. I was also surprised that
the plastic screw detaches from the cover itself. It just falls out.
I hope the operation of the unit is better than this cover design.
Well, last night I put together the rub using manderso's recipe.
Since there's onion pieces in the lipton mix, I put the mix, sea salt, whole peppercorns
and the other spices in a grinder and mixed it all up into a nice powder and rubbed it
on.
I forgot to take the roast out of the frige to bring the temp up some, so that's my
first mistake. My schedule calls for this being done at lunchtime today, so onward...
Despite my issues with the battery cover of the ET-73, it set up easily and it's just
the coolest thing to be able to sit in the comfort of the sun porch (man cave) and wait
to be paged. I guess the novelty will wear off, but it's just fun watching the internal
smoker temperature go up in real time. The meat temp has gone up one degree so far.
I suppose I can live with the on/off switch of the transmitter being inside the battery
cover. It wasn't really that big a deal once I was able to get the cover off.
I'll take a couple of photos when done. I took one of the roast before the rub too.
Well, we're at 104 degrees internal temp on the rib roast.
Temp on high in the smoker is 246 degrees and holding pretty steadily.
I've decided I'm going to have a look at the outside of the roast
at 110 degrees. If it looks like it has a bit of crust to it, I'll just
finish it off in the smoker to 125 degrees. Otherwise, I have the oven
preheated to 400. We'll see.
More play by play....
I put the roast in the oven at 110 degrees up to 125 degrees.
After removing it from the oven, I noted there was more of a nice
crust to it. So, I think I'll be glad I did that. meantime, I wrapped
in foil and encased in towels. Got about another 20 minutes before
carving. I also checked the temp with another thermometer and it
was right on 125. So, the ET-73 is on the mark.
Sounds great Jeff!
We're sitting here droolin' & waitin' for pictures! :D
Mike
That's exactly what I'm trying to do, but can't figure out how to attach. :)
In Help under "Attachments", all it says is something like - If enabled, it allows you to browse and attach files,
but doesn't say a word about how you tell if it's enabled or more importantly how to do it if it is enabled.
If some somebody can help me out here, I've got a few nice photos. ;)
I at least knew to take them in very low resolution for forums.
Jeff,
Sign up for a free videobucket.com account. Uplaod your pictures to videobucket. Then when loaded on videobucket, click on the IMG url and paste into the body of your message here.
SD
Jeff
Here is a link to instructions on how to post your pictures.
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showpost.php?p=768&postcount=11
Mike
Thanks Mike.
I'll post them later when I have some time.
The roast came out really good. I like the rub. I think I would not use quite so much smoke next time
and maybe a wood that is milder. I used three cherry and two oak.
The ET-73 worked great. All in all; pretty successful first big smoke.
Thanks for everyone's input !
Below is a url to my personal web site. It doesn't preview, but maybe you'll be able to click on it.
http://home.comcast.net/~jeffhale2/site/?/page/Smoked_Rib_Roast/ (http://home.comcast.net/~jeffhale2/site/?/page/Smoked_Rib_Roast/)
Congrats! That's the best part Jeff!
Playin' with recipes till ya get them dialled in to your taste! ;)
It's all good! :D
Mike
Thanks Mike,
it was lots of fun too. I think ribs are next. :)