Smoking When Outside Temps are Cold

JZ · October 23, 2011, 07:43:57 PM

I am about to start smoking some Salmon from this summers catch, about 150 lbs or more and I want to do double batches but when I tried this last year I had problems. I had the smoker on high heat during the entire smoking process and it never reached the temperatures recommended by Kummok. The fish on the bottom rear racks were overdone and the fish on the top racks were undercooked. When I did a single batch the fish were fine. I am not sure if it is an external temperature issue or if it is loading so much cold fish into the smoker at once when the outside temps are low. The outside temps are around 35F to 40F now during the day and below freezing at night.

I was thinking maybe I should set the smoker up in my heated shop with an exhaust connection from the smoker to the outside - but I think the shop will get filled with smoke when I open the door to check on the progress.

What do others do in cold climates?????

Quarlow · October 23, 2011, 08:46:18 PM

Amoking in the cold is not a problem, smoking in the wind is though. The wind will suck the cold out real fast. Protect it from the wind as best as you can.
Setting up in your shop is ideal. You won't get much smoke in there if you put a range hood over your smoker and vent it outside. It will suck most out and what is left just smells damn good. Many folks are set up this way.
The trouble you had with your fish is that you need to flip and rotate your racks as the cabinet is hotter at the back and the bottom. You should turn the racks front to back and top to bottom every 45 mins. to 1 hour. You should also only use the bottom rack if needed. If you are up to doing mods to your cabinet then a good addition is a fan kit which you can get from "Yard and Pool" they are forum members who have an onlins store.
But most of all if you have any questions just ask, we love to help and get you dialed in.

JZ · October 23, 2011, 09:48:41 PM

Thanks Quarlow.

I have question about the OBS internal temps.

If I am smoking outside and can't get the temps up to what is recommended and open the door to rotate racks I will loose even more heat ----- so what should I do? Not worry so much about the OBS internal temps and keep the OBS on high the whole time and rotate racks more frequently or leave the heat lower and smoke it longer?

Habanero Smoker · October 24, 2011, 02:09:45 AM

If you mean you were smoking 8 trays at a time that is a big load, make sure your vent is at least 3/4 open. Or you may want to load just four trays at a time. I have used Kummok recipe while it was in the 20's, and had no problem (I was using one element). Though I was only smoking/cooking four full trays.

Many of us place a brick or some other object that has a lot of mass to retain heat. Most bricks will fit next to the water bowl. When the door is opened, the heated brick help the cabinet recover.

Here are some other ideas:
Heat Recovery

JZ · October 24, 2011, 08:25:37 AM

Yeah 8 trays is what gave me the problem last time I smoked a bunch of Salmon. With 4 trays it was fine. I would like to use 8 trays because I have so much fish to process and I have seen other posts where people were using 8 trays --- maybe they were doing this in the summer though.

I like the brick idea and will give that a try using some rocks (which I have plenty of around here).

I might also try putting the smoker in my shop -- or maybe I will just stick with 4 trays.

Quarlow · October 24, 2011, 09:22:54 PM

Ok another thing to look at is the cord. If you are using an extension cord make sure it is at least a 12 ga wire and as short as possible. Also make sure you don't have a bunch of things on the same circiut you smoke off of. The Bradleys also don't like GFCI's for some reason.
The foil wrapped brick is great and I use 2 in mine, One down by the water bowl and one on the bottom rack if I am not using it. Wrapping it just makes it easier to keep clean. Once it gets yucky just put new wrap on it.

Habanero Smoker · October 25, 2011, 01:29:00 AM

Have you been keeping the vent at least 3/4 open?

I forgot to ask what temperatures are you getting, and what are you using to measure the cabinet temperature?

Quarlow · October 25, 2011, 07:45:28 PM

Good points Habs, I forgot to mention these. You have to keep the vent open so as to allow the moist air out. Moist air is hard to heat so you need to exhaust it. When you have lots of moist air inside you will struggle to get your temp up.
The other point Habs made is that of monitoring the temp. The thermo in the door is very in accurate and you should not use it for accurate temp control. Get yourself a good wire probe thermo. In fact you should have 2. One for your meat and one for monitoring the cabinet temp. The one for the cabinet should be placed right under the meat you are smoking. An easy way to do this is to hang a couple of paperclips from the rack you are using. Place them about 3" apart and then slide your temp probe into the clips. This gives you a real good indicator of the heat your food is receiving.

JZ · October 26, 2011, 08:28:04 AM

Thanks for the replies.

I don't use an extension cord and I have been using the temp gauge in the door. The vent is usually 3/4 to full open --- tried playing with this to see if I could get the temps up but nothing seemed to work. I can't remember what temps I was getting since it was about a year ago when I did the double batch --- I can't remember what I did this morning so trying to remember last year is a lost cause.

I have now moved the smoker into the shop and rigged up a wooden shroud over the smoker with a dryer vent pipe connected from it to a fan which blows the smoke out of the shop through a hole I have in the wall for my dust collector vent.
I had a trial run yesterday to see how it would work and it seems fine.

I think I will try a double batch now that the smoker is in the shop and I will use hot water in the bowl and a preheated brick.
I like the idea of wrapping the bicks and will likely give it a try when I get to the salmon smoke.

GusRobin · October 26, 2011, 10:11:54 AM

I wouldn't rely too much on the door thermometer. Depending on how your racks are loaded, the probe can be blocked and not give true readings. Best to invest in a remote thermometer. While most of us use the maverick, cheaper ones are available.

JZ · October 26, 2011, 01:17:24 PM

Does Wal mart sell remote thermometers or is this a specialty item that I will have to get at a place that sells
Bradley smokers?

GusRobin · October 26, 2011, 01:24:28 PM

they have a number of them online- not sure what they carry in the store.
depending on your budget, a lot of folks use the Maverick 732. Google it and you get a number of places that sell it.

JZ · October 26, 2011, 01:36:09 PM

I was just reading another thread where people were highly recommending a PID and I think that might be best. Then I don't have to keep checking the temperatures and fiddling with the Bradley slider on my OBS to try to get the setting right.

If I read this right the PID has temperature probes so I wouldn't need to get a seperate temp probe ---- is this right?

Sailor · October 26, 2011, 01:43:38 PM

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14_28&products_id=151&zenid=f7078bf44c1191020420c823d57db01b is the dual probe that most of use use on the Bradley. Has a cabinet probe and a meat probe. Once you use a PID you will wonder how you ever smoked without it.

JZ · October 27, 2011, 08:58:34 PM

I must be missing something!!!!

I moved the smoker into my heated shop, used hot water in the bowl, preheated the smoker to 250 deg, preheated the SG, put a really hot brick next to the water bowl and after I added the fish (4racks) the temperature only got up to 150 deg after 2 hours.

I forgot to mention that I was using a Halibut recipe that called for 2 hours at 200 to 250. This worked great last time I usedit but last time I only smoked about 1 pound - this time was more like 20 lbs.