Too Hot Salmon

bugboat · November 15, 2005, 03:14:28 AM

Just got my Bradley today. Was excited to get it seasoned, so I could smoke some frozen salmon or fresh steelhead (if fishing is good). While
I was seasoning the smoker I played with the temperature setting to get a "feel for it". With the smoker box unpluged and only the smoke generator making heat, the cabinet temp still would only come down to about 160 degrees. And that is with an outside temp of 40-45. I do want to hot smoke the salmon or trout. But most good recipes call for starting out at around 100 degrees. I also understand with food in the smoker the temperature will be lower. But with a small batch of fish I feel that the temperature is still to high. Also the wood pucks were almost completely comsumed before droping off into the water pan.One was no longer in puck form, just burnt pieces, the others were about the size of a half dollar. Is the smoke generator getting too hot? I here you can put ice in the smoker to lower the temp. But I just need to know if my smoker is working right or is something wrong?

jaeger · November 15, 2005, 04:15:02 AM

bugboat,
Welcome to the Bradley forum!
You did not give a lot of info on the amount of time that you waited, the temp you started at and if you used the thermometer in the door etc. The Bradley thermometer is not reliably accurate. I would recommend using an oven thermometer that you know is accurate and comparing the temps. I don't think you will have to worry about keeping your temp at 100F once you have meat in the smoker.
As far as a puck turning to ash, when you put in wood pucks, the third to the last one will stay on the burner as that is as far as the generator can advance. The site admin here, Chez Bubba, is a Bradley dealer and he sells "bubba pucks". These are aluminum pucks that you put in the tube feeder last so they advance the last puck off the burner. I would recommend 3 bubba pucks. Here is a link to his site. http://www.chezbubba.com/
I am confident you will enjoy your Bradley for many years. Do a search on salmon and you will find a lot of great info.
Welcome aboard!!!

bugboat · November 15, 2005, 04:53:13 AM

The burnt up puck was not the last puck left on the burner. I also noticed that when a new puck advanced the burnt pucks were so small they did not fall into the water. They only fell after the next puck advanced. So that was a total of 40 minutes burning to almost nothing. Plus the time before it hit the burner, in witch it also starts to burn.
The 160 degree temp was a stabalized temp as low as I could get the thermometer to go(didnt actually time it), after cooling off the cabinet with the door open for quite a while. The temp just seemed to climb to 160 in 10 to 15 minutues, with the cabinet heat off. This temp was verified by a calibrated, digital, oven cooking thermometer.Actually the Bradely door themometer was real close to accurate. Any help would be
appreciated. I still think the temp is too high to get the results I want. The reason I bought the Bradely was that the smoke generator was a seperate source of heat and I could control it better. But I dont feel it is doing what I thought it would. Is it just me or the smoker?

tsquared · November 15, 2005, 05:00:11 AM

Welcome Bugboat! Glad to see another salmon smoker on the board. Did you have the cabinet unplugged rather than just turned down? I do that with mine when I want to do a batch of salmon strips and the temperature never goes much above 110. The other thing to try(if you didn't already) is to make sure the top vent is open more to get a faster air flo.If that doesn't do the trick, we can give you help with making a simple inexpensive remote smoke chamber. (I use one when I coldsmoke for making lox.)
T2

bugboat · November 15, 2005, 12:06:08 PM

Yes the smoker box was unplugged and yes the damper was opened fully.
I know I could make a cold smoking box. But I really dont want to cold smoke. I just want to controll low heat. Again I need to know if
my smoker is not working properly. You say your smoker doesnt go much over 110. That is what I want. What about the pucks burning?

After closer inspection, I burned a total of 9 pucks. (left it run quite a while while I was playing with temp comtroll. Only 3 of them were actully still pucks. The other 6 were just black ashes. The later might have burned in the beginning of seasoning when the cabinet temp was more like 300 degrees and climbing with the heat slider all the way up. I thought the idea of the Bradely was to not completely burn the pucks so you dont get the unwanted gasses from the wood. Mine is comletely burning the wood. The generator advances the pucks just fine. Its that the puck is to small to be pushed off into the water after 20 minutes.I'm using what appears to be a sample pack of speacial blend that came with my smoker.

tsquared · November 15, 2005, 03:00:56 PM

2 things. First, it sounds like you need to buy some bubba pucks from Chez Bubba. (I only buy 2, put them on the stack for the end of the smoking period, then put 1 more regular wood puck on top of them).) 2nd, try again with the whole smoker totally cold, not coming off of your seasoning heating like last time, using different wood than special blend.I find it crumbles more than other types. If that doesn't do it, I think it might be time to phone the company for a replacement generator.
T2

SMOKEHOUSE ROB · November 15, 2005, 10:56:15 PM

welcome bugboat, bebore you waste anymore pucks, test the smoke gen, to see if it cycles evrey 20 min? by turning it on push the puck adv button set a timer for 18 min when timer goes off sit by it and wait till it advances, it should be between 19 to 23 min at the most, if it goes longer then call bradley, also i wonder how old the pucks are you have? it could be burning too hot that would make them burn down, or they are too old, do you have any other pucks around?

bugboat · November 16, 2005, 03:02:10 AM

Thanks jaeger,tsquared,and SMOKEHOUSE ROB for the help. I think Smokehouse Rob was right on with the old dried out pucks. I started the smoker heating with no pucks at all. With 55 degree outside temp
and the smoker box unpluged the inside temp was 110 after one hour and 120 after 2 hours. It did look like the temp was still rising, however slowly. I find this temp acceptable. I then loaded the Bradely with pucks. The same sample that came with the smoker in a box labeled smoker + pack (seperate box than the smoker). Pushing the advance button three times and a new puck was on the burner. I checked the time and a new puck advanced after 21 minutes. The temp had raised from 120 to 140 in the 21 minutes that it took to burn the first puck. I then opened the smoker. The first burned puck did not fall into the water. It was very close to the edge. I closed the smoker and the "shake" from the door closing cause the puck to drop.
In the next 21 minutes it took for the next puck to drop, the temp went from 140 to 156. This burned puck was even smaller than the first, and again, did not fall until the shake of the door closing made it fall. I stopped after that.I assume the pucks are starting to self consume and start making there own heat. Exactly what the Bradely is supposed to prevent.

Tomorrow I will buy some new pucks. I plan on smokeing my steelhead in apple and alder.

Fishing was good today. Caught 3 steelhead and a bonus lake trout. The steelhead are on brine right now. I used Kummok's recipe for the brine. I'm really excited to start smoking tomorrow. There's supposed to be snow and 35 mile an hour winds, so I dont think I will be doing any fishing. On vacation all week, so I have plenty of time to play with my Bradely.

tsquared · November 16, 2005, 04:58:21 AM

I'm showing my ignorance here Bugboat. I didn't even know they HAD steelhead in Michigan. What a great day fishing--3 steelies! I just repowered my boat as both large and small motors were thrashed and hauled it home today. I am dying to get out this weekend and give them a whirl. Supposed to be lots of spring(king) salmon around. Good luck smoking!
T2