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temperature recovery in BDS6 with fan???

Started by DocZ, December 09, 2007, 10:11:43 AM

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DocZ

I smoked my first batch of fish a couple of weeks ago and had mixed results. I could have improved the outcome by checking on the status visually along the way but didn't want to alter cooking/heating times by opening the door. What I took from this 18# experiment tells me:
1) to not use the bottom rack despite the CCW fan.
2)look at the fish in process of tempering after the cold-smoke is done(duh).
3)I relied too much on the maverick probe reaching 140F in the bigger sized pieces and the batch of salmon was much too dry. (six hours of tempering needed to reach 140F, internal!!)
This leades me to three questions:
1)What is the experience of others on this forum regarding temp recovery times after opening the door for inspection? does the standard heating element have the guts to recover quickly?
2)Using Kommock's recipe" times sounds more like my old protocol, but has anyone verified that internal temp of 140F? Maybe it's not that important for fish eaten quickly or vac'd and fridged or frozen? I'm used to a product that will flake but is moist enough at air temp to be succulent and almost juicy(omg, I miss that!).
3)Oh yeah, any good work arounds for the overcooking on the bottom rack? Maybe try to fit a larger fan in there?
Any feedback is appreciated <`))>><

Habanero Smoker

I find that when I am smoking fish, the cabinet recovers fairly quickly, because you are using low temperatures, but what also helps my cabinet recover so quickly is that I have a temperature control device that will run the element at maximum power until the desired temperature is reached. The biggest load of fish I have every smoked at one time was 9 pounds.

I don't use a meat probe to monitor the fish internal temperatures. I try the arrange the trays so that all the pieces on the tray are approximately the same size and thickness. Once I increase the cabinet heat to 170°F, I begin checking the internal temperatures with an instant read thermometer (I have a thermapen that make take the readings fast and accurate). I'm getting pretty good at guessing when to check the internal temperature. While checking the internal temperatures I will rotate the racks top to bottom, and front to back every so often for more even cooking. Also some trays will get down faster so I will pull them out, while the others are still cooking.



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