Second Cook/Smoke

[Habanero Smoker]

Excuse the long post, but I wanted to cover as much as I could. This smoke/cook was to test the temperature probes, and a Recipe Sequence created by the Bradley CookTool. I smoked a small 3lb. pork loin seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I seasoned it about three hour prior to placing it in the smoking. I used the Chile Cumin bisquettes, and smoked for 2 hours. I wanted to smoke for 2:20 hours, but accidently advance a bisquette. But that is a moot point, because the cook was finished in 2:10 hours.

The ambient temperature was 74°F at the start of the smoke and 84°F at the end. The smoker was in the shade until the last 30 minutes or so. It kept the temperature within plus/minus 2 degrees, except for a brief time when the sun hit the smoker. After the sun it the smoker, the smoker temperature range was plus/minus 6 degrees, until it stabilized at 223°F. Even with the widest range in temperatures, I still consider this tight temperature control. The vent was set at half open. I still want/need to test the temperature accuracy with a third party probe, because the two cooks I've done were shorter than I had expected.

The Recipe Sequence was: Pork Loin
Step #1 – Preheat; Temperature 225°F, Time: 1:00 hours.
Step #2 - Temperature 225°F. Time 2:20 hours; Smoke 2:20 hours; Probe #1 140°F
Step #3 – Continue to cook Temperature 225°F; Time 3:00 hours; Probe #1 140°F (Step Not Needed)

Step #1 – The time was too long, and this step may not be needed. The smoker was up to temperature in about 20 minutes. In the future, I may just manually preheat the smoker. About 5 minutes before Step #1 cycle ended, I loaded the pork loin and connected probe #1. You should practice attaching and detaching the probe, before you do a smoke/cook.  I followed Bradley's suggestion of placing an aluminum pie plate on another rack under the roast to catch drippings for easier cleanup.

Step #2 – After the first step the Smoker went on to this step. The smoke cycle light came on, but the bisquette did not advance right away. Bradley program this smoker not to advance the bisquette until the burner reached the proper temperature. After 7 minutes the bisquette advanced, and I saw the first visible signs or smoke about 2 – 3 minutes later. A 7 – 10 minute delay from the time you place the meat in the smoker until it starts smoking, may not be an issue for most smokes/cooks. After one hour of smoke I removed the pie pan, and place a 13 x 9 pan that contained 2 lbs. of chicken wings. I forgot to record the recovery time. After everything cooled down I checked the bisquettes, and all were completely burned, except for the one I accidently advanced.

Probe #1 would only display the set temperature of 140°F. The only time I could get it to display the actual temperature was to toggle the probe off, then on again. At which point it would display the current temperature. Another toggle off/on would reset the probe to 140°F. Towards the end of the smoke cycle Probe #1 indicator light did start blinking to indicate it reached the target temperature. I verified the temperature with my ThermaPen, which indicated only a 1°F difference. The chicken wings were done about 20 minutes later.

Overall it was a very satisfactory cook. I really liked the flavor of the bisquettes, and feel that it will do well on fish, poultry, and pork. You can definitely smell the cumin, and there are plenty of dried pepper flakes throughout the bisquettes. On the pork it added a light flavor of toasted cumin, roasted peppers with a slight hint of heat. The color was a nice golden shade. On the wings the flavor was better, and the heat was a little more noticeable. I don't know how it would stand up to a heavily seasoned piece of meat, though there is a recipe for Smoke Moroccan Lamb that is printed inside the box. I would definitely use these bisquettes again. The base wood seems to be oak, but it could be alder.

At this time I'm not a big fan of creating your own Recipe Sequences, and loading them into the smoker.  The probes are supposed to read the actual temperature, but it didn't during this cook. I'm not sure if the Recipe Sequence over rides that. My next cook when I use a probe, I will manually set the settings.

Other things notice during the couple of cooks I've done. The door is difficult to close, and I have to hold the smoker with my left hand, while I slam the door shut. The audible alarm is useless, in that you can barely hear it, even when you are within inches of the smoker. The sides of the smoker gets hotter than my dual element modified Bradley. At 250°F, you can barely hold your hands on the sides, and some areas seem hotter than other areas.

The area of the bisquette dispenser gets the hottest. So if you preheat, be careful if you load the bisquettes after the preheating stage, because the feeding tube is hot. If you plan to use the lifting hook, get that out of the storage area prior to turning the heat on, because if left in the storage area it becomes too hot to handle. Also the lifting fork should come with its own instructions. :) It took me awhile to learn how to use it in lifting the trays, and even longer on how to maneuver and lift the water and rendering bowls.

The blue indicator lights are barely visible in daylight, and the three red indicator lights can not be seen at all unless I got within inches and cuff my hand to shade the area. The Child Lock is very annoying, and there should be a way to disable that.