hello!

[ilog4me]

Hi all! My name is Jake and I'm from central Michigan. I bought a Bradley 4 rack smoker last fall and am looking forward to learning slot from all of you. I have seasoned it and made an attempt at a simple brisket, but am having trouble getting it up to temp. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find my answer in here!

[Saber 4]

Welcome from Texas, I went to High School in Canton Township and spent a lot of my spare time and summers on a friends ranch in Jackson near the prison back in the late 70's early 80's. Use boiling water in your puck bowl to help with heat recovery and remember if you're looking you ain't cooking, the more you open the door the more the unit has to work to bring the temps up.

[tskeeter]

Jake, with a Bradley, patience is the key.  The Bradley was designed as a low and slow smoker, so it only has a 500 watt heating element.  This presents some challenges when smoking large cuts of meat, like many briskets are.  So here are some of the tips that others here have developed.  Preheat your smoker to higher than your smoking temperature.  This will make more heat available to transfer to the cold meat you put in your smoker (the wall of the smoker, racks, etc. act as a heat sink).  Many folks here preheat to 250F or so, then reset their temperature to their smoking temperature when after they have put the meat in the smoker.  When you fill your puck bowl with water, use boiling, or near boiling, water.  Water will absorb a lot of heat, so putting cold water in the puck bowl just makes the heating system work that much harder and extends the time it takes to get the smoker up to your desired temperature.  To take more advantage of the heat sink idea, many forum members keep a foil wrapped brick or two tucked in the bottom of their smoker.  The brick heats up during the preheat, and releases the heat it has absorbed to the cold meat.  In the spirit of "if you're lookin, you ain't cookin", a remote thermometer is helpful to monitor the progress of your smoking/cooking.  You can keep track of what's going on without opening the smoker door and letting a bunch of heat escape.  And, as counter intuitive as it sounds, keep your vent open.  For a big piece of meat, like a brisket, about half way open.  If the moisture that what you are smoking doesn't have a way to exhaust from the smoker cabinet, it is trapped in the smoker absorbing heat.  Open your vent and the temperature will actually increase.  (Note that trapped moisture will condense on the top of the smoker and drip down on what you are smoking.  The dreaded "black rain" doesn't taste good, at all.)  When smoking a lot of meat (30 pounds of pork shoulder at once), I will sometimes do the smoking in the smoker, then move the meat to house oven to finish cooking.  You can run the puck burner after the smoking portion of your food preparation is done, without damaging the puck burner.  The puck burner adds about 25% to the heating capacity of a Bradley.  And, as much as possible, protect the vent of your Bradley from the wind.  Although a Bradley is pretty well insulated, wind just seems to suck the heat out of the smoker.

Hope some of these ideas might be helpful to you.  Learning to use your Bradley is a lot of fun and creates some delicious food.  Happy smoking!   

[ilog4me]

Thank you all for the great tips! I will definitely give them a try.

[Smoker John]

Welcome Jake

[beefmann]

welcome aboard , enjoy ... above is  great advice. also set the meat  out on the  counter an  hour  before  placing  into the  smoker, this  also helps  keeping the box temp hotter.

[ilog4me]

I found my problem. My cord wasn't all the way plugged in! Warmed up to temp in a jiffy! Thanks again to all of you.