cooking time & temp

[GABJR]

Saturday I put on a 10 lb ham to smoke.I set the oven temp to 300 degrees & kept the damper closed After 6 hours, the oven meat temp read 187 degrees. my meat probe temp read 120 degrees. Is this normal or am I being impatient ?

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Gabjr;
Welcome to the forum.

You really don't want to keep the vent closed. This causes smoke and moisture to back up into the generator, which can cause you major headaches in the future. I'm not sure what you mean when you say the "oven meat temperature read 187°F. Are you talking about the meat surface temperature, or the cabinet temperature. I sure you are talking about the cabinet temperature, but I just want to make sure. If it is the cabinet temperature, and it only reached 187°F after 6 hours, then I would say that is way below the average recovery time.

You didn't mention if you cured the ham, was it commercially cured, and/or was it partially cooked. That would have a lot to do with cooking times, but still it would not hinder the performance that much. What are you using to monitor the cabinet temperature? Did you allow the meat to sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours, before placing it in the cabinet?

[GABJR]

the ham was partially cooked. I let it sit out for about 1 hour. The 187 degree came from the front panel of the digital smoker box that says oven meat temp. The weather was in the 90's with no wind. Should I try checking the temp with just the oven on using my probe through the vent & compare to the oven meat temp ?

[kiyotei]

I would run the smoker without anything in it.  Let it heat up for about an hour and check the internal temp using the door thermometer and also a digital meat thermometor.  If it does not heat up to 250+ after an hour, I would contact Bradley.  My smoker had a defective temp shut off sensor and so the heat kept shutting off way to early.  The smoker should be able to heat up to about 350 (when empty) before the thermo sensor shuts off the heat.  I've found that the smoker has a large temp variation between top and bottom racks.  So when taking a temp, take it from the middle shelf of the smoker, not the top.  6 hours set at full temp should have heated that meat up to 190 or greater.  How big a ham was it?  Did you eat it or throw it out?

[Habanero Smoker]

the ham was partially cooked. I let it sit out for about 1 hour. The 187 degree came from the front panel of the digital smoker box that says oven meat temp. The weather was in the 90's with no wind. Should I try checking the temp with just the oven on using my probe through the vent & compare to the oven meat temp ?

Yes! If you have a separate probe I would try that, along with Kiotei's suggestions.

The other possible thing that could have happened, could have been moisture build up in your cabinet. If that ham had a lot of moisture in it, moisture could have built up in the cabinet. When you have too much moisture, it will keep the cabinet temperature down.