Greetings from Utah

KyNola · November 25, 2009, 01:35:43 PM

BB,
I think you may be on to something. You need one rack to hold the bird. That leaves all the other racks free to hold ice I would cold smoke that dude, paying attention to the temp in the cabinet to keep it down. If necessary, you can always open the door a crack to let heat out. Yes you will lose some smoke but there will be plenty on the bird. Before I got my cold smoke adapter that's what I did when I smoked cheese. After the cold smoke period, take it to your house oven and roast as normal.

KyNola

Habanero Smoker · November 25, 2009, 02:05:04 PM

You can easily rig up a cold smoke box with a cardboard box and some heater hose. I've used this type of setup for many years, prior to purchasing the Bradley cold smoke adapter; and I find I still occasionally use the cardboard box setup.

Cold Smoking with the Bradley Smoker

babybacks · November 25, 2009, 02:30:01 PM

Thanks KyNola and Habanero for the replies.

HS, that cold smoke box looks easy enough to build, thanks for the link. Do you ever have problems with the cardboard box starting on fire? The burner plate gets pretty hot, just curious if this is a fire hazard or not.

The low temperature tonight is 25 degrees, so if I can build that box (and maybe pack some ice in as well), I should be good to go.

I've never actually cooked a turkey in the oven. Any advice on finishing in the oven? Should I go low and slow, similar to finishing in the Bradley? Should I wrap the bird in foil?

Thanks again for all the help, I'm starting to be hopeful this will turn out well. :)

Mr Walleye · November 25, 2009, 05:03:16 PM

Babybacks...

All may not be lost yet...

One other option is to bypass the temp slider switch while you are cooking the turkey. I have the DBS so I can't give you the exact instructions for this but I know I've seen it on the forum. I'll have a look and see if I can find it.

If you choose to do this, the heating element will be running full out. This will mean you will have to keep an eye on your temps and if it starts getting too high you will have to unplug the tower from the generator (this will keep the smoke generator running).

I'll have a look for the post.

Mike

KyNola · November 25, 2009, 06:22:38 PM

BB,
If you choose to roast it in the oven after the smoke period, set your oven at 325-350 and roast until the IT is 165. I wouldn't wrap it in foil prior to roasting.

As for Habs great idea about the cold smoke cardboard box adapter, if you do it right you won't have to worry about the box catching on fire. With a 25 degree low tonight I'm assuming the high tomorrow won't be much. If you don't want to risk the cardboard box adapter, which works great, put some ice in the tower and cold smoke away!

KyNola

Mr Walleye · November 25, 2009, 06:23:50 PM

Babybacks

Ok... I robbed this description and photo from Habs post on his additional heater mod but you should get the idea from it. He describes how to remove the face plate below...

This photo shows the wiring that goes to the faceplate. This is an old photo that was taken when I had replaced my faceplate a few years back. To take the face plate off; first remove the three small screws on the top, and the three larger screws on the bottom. Note two of the bottom screws are located inside the feet that are a part of the faceplate.

In Habs photo above you can see the 2 white wires entering the picture on the right side. What you can't see in the photo is the connectors on the wires. You need to unplug them and connect the 2 wires together (the 2 that are coming from the heat element and not the 2 that go into the temp slider.

I believe the 2 wires have a female spade connector on them. To make a temporary bypass just put 2 male spade lugs on a short piece of wire (at least 18 gauge, 16 would be better), one on each end. Next plug this wire you made into the female ends.

Patching in with a short piece of wire will make the whole process easily reversible.

Mike

ArnieM · November 25, 2009, 07:43:52 PM

BB, the box, if you choose to use it, won't catch on fire. The SG heating element is only something like 125 watts.

If it's going to be 25, you shouldn't need it anyway. At that temp I just crawl under the down comforter. ;D

Do a cold smoke. Calculate the oven cooking time at 325-350. Subtract about 5 minutes per pound. Do 2-4 hours of cold smoke and then get it into the oven. Pull it at about 160-165 and let it rest. Don't FTC it - skin doesn't stay crispy. If it's browning too much in the oven, put an oiled foil tent on it for a while.

There's more than one way to skin a cat ;D

classicrockgriller · November 25, 2009, 08:12:15 PM

BB, I cold smoked some cheese and temp outside was 50.

Used no adaptor, no ice, nothing just smoke and cabinet temp never got over 90.

babybacks · November 25, 2009, 10:28:31 PM

So...I ended up making a cold smoke adapter from a cardboard box and some dryer vent tubing (as suggested by Habanero) and was testing it out when I read the thread from Mr Walleye. It sounded fun to re-wire the smoker, bypassing the switch, so I did just that and now the heater element is glowing red. Thanks for the great instructions. I took some pics of my wiring job, I'll post them when I get a chance.

Anyhow, it looks like I have a good temporary solution until my shipment comes in, and as a bonus, I now have a cold smoking rig for future use (unless my kids destroy it first). ;D

Thanks everyone for the help, it feels great to be smoking again, hopefully the bird will turn out well.

classicrockgriller · November 25, 2009, 11:20:11 PM

BB, Mr (Mike) Walleye is that kind of person. He is always ready to help and is always accurate with his answers.

Mr Walleye · November 26, 2009, 07:46:59 AM

Quote from: classicrockgriller on November 25, 2009, 11:20:11 PM
BB, Mr (Mike) Walleye is that kind of person. He is always ready to help and is always accurate with his answers.

Thanks CRG... I'm blushing. :D

Seriously though, everyone on the forum has always been a great help to me over the years and I just try to "pay it forward" to repay the excellent information others have posted.

It truly is an awesome site.

Mike

KyNola · November 26, 2009, 07:48:35 AM

CRG, You're assessment of Mike was dead on.

Mike, well said.

KyNola

babybacks · December 01, 2009, 07:29:38 AM

When I talked to Bradley last week, they said the faceplate would ship via overnight shipping, and would be there by Friday. So I picked up 3 racks of loin back ribs on Friday (to cook on Saturday), and the part didn't show up. Nor did it come yesterday (Monday).

That is 2 broken promises by Bradley. Until now, I don't think I've seen a single post about Bradley's service that wasn't positive, unfortunately my first experience dealing directly with the company has been nothing but frustrating to say the least. >:( I was even researching other non-Bradley smokers over the weekend.

Update on the turkey: The flavor was good, but it was a little dry. I'm not sure what happened, but my suspicion is that it was the inability to create a steady temperature in the smoker.

The ribs were edible, but weren't nearly as tender as they usually are. It seems you really need a constant, steady temperature to make good barbecue. Fluctuating the smoker temperature from full blast to off doesn't seems to work very well.

OU812 · December 01, 2009, 07:58:35 AM

I'm a little late, been on vacation, but welcome to the fun.

Sorry to here of the service troubles you are having with the folks at Bradly but I'm sure they will make it right.

Hope you get your smoker up and running soon.

classicrockgriller · December 01, 2009, 08:31:08 AM

Quote from: babybacks on December 01, 2009, 07:29:38 AM
When I talked to Bradley last week, they said the faceplate would ship via overnight shipping, and would be there by Friday. So I picked up 3 racks of loin back ribs on Friday (to cook on Saturday), and the part didn't show up. Nor did it come yesterday (Monday).

That is 2 broken promises by Bradley. Until now, I don't think I've seen a single post about Bradley's service that wasn't positive, unfortunately my first experience dealing directly with the company has been nothing but frustrating to say the least. >:( I was even researching other non-Bradley smokers over the weekend.

Update on the turkey: The flavor was good, but it was a little dry. I'm not sure what happened, but my suspicion is that it was the inability to create a steady temperature in the smoker.

The ribs were edible, but weren't nearly as tender as they usually are. It seems you really need a constant, steady temperature to make good barbecue. Fluctuating the smoker temperature from full blast to off doesn't seems to work very well.

When Brian sees this post, He will found out where the problem of shipping was.

As far as your food not what you expected, there is a learning curve in all products.

Maybe you might want to think about a PID for tighter controls of your temp.
Re-read some of the post on successful smokes.

I don't think this many people made mistakes buying Bradley's.