Painful learning curve.

[Cheech]

Today was the second day with the DBS.  Day one yielded miraculous results in the form of two chickens and two venison tenderloin.

Today was a painful setback.  I had a single venison backstrap to smoke and I scorched it.  I had it marinated and then wrapped in bacon and I cooked it way too hot...it's basically inedible.  I set the temp to the same I had it last time but didn't account for the fact that I had two big chickens in there absorbing heat the whole time.  This time all the flaming fury the DBS could generate was focused solely on my backstrap, which, sadly only had a thin sheath of bacon for armor.

How should I approach this next time?  Lower heat?  Shorter cook time?  Both?  I had it set on 230 but eventually backed it off to 210 as I realized the extent of my error.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated...venison is costly...it takes a lot of hours of hunting and processing so I treat it like gold.

[GusRobin]

Was the temp too high or did you keep it in too long? 230* is not that high in cooking in the Bradley.
Also if the meat was lower than the temp sensor than the meat saw a higher temp then the 230*.

[watchdog56]

You might want to put a temp probe in the meat to make sure you don't get well done venison. Maverick makes some good ones.

[Quarlow]

You might want to put a temp probe in the meat to make sure you don't get well done venison. Maverick makes some good ones.

Agree, you really want to cook by internal temp for doneness.

[Cheech]

What's a good model thermometer to get?  I don't mind spending some money to get a quality product.

[tailfeathers]

I use a maverick. It has two probes, one that monitors the temp of the smoker (the Bradley one isn't very accurate) and a meat probe that monitors the IT (internal temp) of whatever you are smoking. Works very well and appears to be the choice of most on these forums.


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[NorthShoreMN]

I use a maverick. It has two probes, one that monitors the temp of the smoker (the Bradley one isn't very accurate) and a meat probe that monitors the IT (internal temp) of whatever you are smoking. Works very well and appears to be the choice of most on these forums.


I also use the Maverick. Actually have two for those times where a second piece of meat is in smoker.
They work very well

[Tenpoint5]

There are several models out there. Bradley even has one of their own. I have the Maverick ET-73, the ET-732 and the Igrill. They all work great, just depends on how much you want to spend and what you want it to do.

[ragweed]

I have a single probe PID for the smoker.  Bradley's temp probe and a Maverick PT100 for the meat.