Burning Down the (Smoke) House

[Kummok]

I was recently recalling with fondness, the time when my dad burned down the entire smokehouse with lots of meat still inside. He was conducting our annual "forest fuels managment" annual cleanup burn around the ranch, and didn't notice that the fire was creeping toward our 12X12 cedar board and batt smokehouse!  Then there was the time I struck out on my own to show my new bride how to smoke trout in my newly purchased Little Chief. First time smoking for me and my dad had given me his brining recipe, but forgot to include the smoking part. Not wanting to impress her with "raw" fish, I smoked the perfectly filleted wild trout for what I thought would be an appropriate amount of time...about 26 hours, even getting up in the middle of the night to feed and stoke the pan. We ate "smoked trout chips" for weeks!

Sooooo I got to thinking that, for all the "new to smoking" folks scanning through the forum, how about some real life experiences where things, smokerwise, DIDN'T go as envisioned?!?! Sometimes the threads can make it sound like we're all experienced pros, never making mistakes....a few of our REAL experiences should serve to remove any fears that a smoker probie might have about turning out perfect batches every time [;)]

So, let's hear the humorous, the terrifying, the sad, and the downright pitiful stories that make us all smile AFTER the crisis has passed [:D]

P.S.
A side note to any new scanners on this thread, don't let the gold Admiral Stars on this forum throw ya......they just mean we gab a lot on this forum (sometimes when we SHOULD be stirring more brine than excrement[;)]

Kummok @ Homer, AK USA

[CLAREGO]

TALIKING ABOUT THAT CHIEF MODEL OF A SMOKER. THE BRINE RECIPES THAT THEY INCLUDE WITH THE MODEL WAS GOOD ALL EXCEPT THEY ALWAYS WENT OVER THE AMOUNT OF SMOKE. FIRST TIME DOING IT I USED ABOUT 3 PANS OF CHIPS SMOKED FOR THE USUAL 16 HOURS (THINK NEVER HELD HEAT !!!!!!!) AND CAME OUT LIKE EATING A HALF BURNT FIRE LOG !

[nsxbill]

Hi Clarego,

Keep posting, but please turn off the all caps.  Difficult to read and netiquette  demands it... All caps is the same as yelling at us.  We are just too mellow to be yelled at! [:D]

Bill

<i>There is room on earth for all God's creatures....on my plate next to the mashed potatoes.</i>

[whitetailfan]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nsxbill</i>
<br />Hi Clarego,

Keep posting, but please turn off the all caps.  Difficult to read and netiquette  demands it... <font color="red">All caps is the same as yelling at us</font id="red">.  We are just too mellow to be yelled at! [:D]

Bill

<i>There is room on earth for all God's creatures....on my plate next to the mashed potatoes.</i>
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
That makes "PEACE AND TRANQUILITY TO ALL" an oxymoron.


"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB

[oguard]

I had a Little Chief before the Bradley.The chief worked well for what it was.My first smoke was some salmon,I got a recipe from my father that was step by step including rinsing off the brine before putting in the smoker.What I didn't realize is you really had to srub that salt off.Well long story short, ended up with some really salty salmon[xx(].You would think a third generation smoker would get that right[:I]Look forward to reading some more stories[:D]
Keep on smokin[8D]
Mike
p.s.When you look back on the screw ups it's funny even if it was real bad at the time[;)]

[St. Helens Smoker]

Well, I see I'm not the only one to have some "experiences" with the "chief" smokers....and sadly, they were my own damn fault...

When I was about 10 my Dad got interested in smoking, but didn't feel he could spend the extra $$ on a toy, so I saved my pennies and got him one of the lil versions of those smokers...he got a brine recipe from a friend and ajerky-smoking we was headed, brined the hell out of that sucker, just forgot that rinsing part....Dad choked it down over the next few weeks....called it great "beer jerky"[:D]

The second that jumps to mind, is when my missus was going to school and I was working quite abit to make ends meet....gotta lil version of my own to take care of the various fish that followed me home from my moonlighting on a charter boat.  Started a batch before work, so that I would be there to check it when it was ready to be pulled out.  Just wanted to have the missus add a couple pans of chips during the course of the day.

Ended up working OT that day, so called the missus and said you need to pull it out at the 8 hour mark....she interpreted to mean that it had 8 hours to go...got home and to my surprise, there was my smoker still kicking out smoke at 0400 in the morn (bless her she got up to put in a fresh pan[:D])  Well it turns out she had been filling that pan very religiously "cause I knew you really like a lot of smoke"..turns out there was nearly a bag each of apple and cherry chips used on this one batch...

Pulled out the "fish leather" and made the mistake of trying to eat it...hate to admit to it, but about 25 pounds of prime winter black-mouth salmon went into the flower bed that night...

[St. Helens Smoker]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">THINK NEVER HELD HEAT !!!!!!!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">-Clarego

That's why at least up here, the box the smoker came in was one of the most important pieces of equipment you could own....you unpacked that sucker carefully, so you could take that box and shove it back down over the top....if you were really high-speed you cut a flap to pull the pan through without removing the box.....at least that's what I heard, wouldn't advocate going against all those "safety warnings" don't ya' know[8D]

[Fuzzybear]

Rubber chicken...it was an awful "fowl" experience unless one likes rubber and acrid smoke/burny flavours!  Or the neighbors asking if we had a fire going on (smoked the neighbors too!)  LOL![:D]

"A mans got to know his limitations"
Chattaroy, WA - USA!

[CLAREGO]

sorry about the caps im on so many pcs on one giving time training to be a net security admin.

[Kummok]

St Helens: You reminded me of when we not only SAVED the box, we VARNISHED the box to make it weatherproof and last longer....talk about making a dollar stretch[:D]

Kummok @ Homer, AK USA

[CLAREGO]

the problem with my model was it was a front end model had a door so i couldnt use the box

[tsquared]

This is a hijack, Kummok! The best use of a Little Chief I've found is to use it as a remote smoke chamber for the BS so you can cold smoke salmon! I inherited one from my dad when he moved into the retirement home. He gets a big grin on his face when I show him what I've done to it and an even bigger grin when I give him some of the product!
Tom

[Kummok]

Dang, Tom....hadn't thought of that! Course, how could I...all I smoke is salmon [:p]  I've been giving my old lil chiefs away since I "refined" to Bradley. Better hang onto the last one I've still got, since this is my year of smoker horizon broadening[:D]

Kummok @ Homer, AK USA

[oguard]

Kummok,I was about to give my lil'chief away when I heard about using
it as a smoke chamber.One of the young guys at work is interested in
getting into smoking.I guess he will have to buy his own.Like I said before,the chief does well for what it is and a great starter for salmon.[:)]
Keep on smokin[8D]
Mike in B.C on a sunny morning[8D]

[CLAREGO]

wow!!! never thought of it i could of just bought the bradley generator and cut a hole in the side of it and bam had a smoker about 100% better [:)] KIDDING!