New BDS Owner w/couple questions and just saying hello

[Joe831]

Just wanted to introduce myself and say that I have really enjoyed the information contained within this forum.

I purchased the BDS on Amazon and it arrived on Monday. Monday evening I purchased 20lbs of pork butt cryovaked and put Jans seasoning on both of the butts. One is in the fridge and I put the other (approx 8 lb) in the BDS yesterday evening at 9pm.  Smoked for 4 hours with Hickory bisquets and at 1 am changed the water pan and inserted an aluminum pan under the butt with 18 oz of room temp sierra nevada.  Oven has been set at 220 and the butt is currently at 178* after approx 14 hours.  Smells great outside and looking forward to the end result.

One regret though is that I did find this forum after ordering the BDS.  I have already ordered the dual probe PID and am thinking about getting the 900 watt element from grainger.  Having known what I do now I would have went with the OBS because I did notice the digital temp being about 30* dif from my analog and digital thermometers.  No biggie, just would have saved some cash.

Primary reason I bought this smoker is for Salmon but I thought I would break it in with something simple and easy such as a butt.  I commercial fish in Alaska for Sockeye and brought back about 140lbs of it filleted with almost half of it being King Salmon.  I love smoked salmon and cant wait to get to it.

I do have a couple questions.
1.  Should I leave the SG on after the smoking is done to help with the temp of the oven after the smoking is done?
2.  After removing the water bowl from the smoking period is there a need for it if I put an aluminum pan with a form of liquid under what I am cooking?

Thanks for the great advice/recipes/tips and info.

Joe

[beefmann]

Joe

welcome to the forum and enjoy, at this  point in time  yes  leave the smoke generator on , it helps maintain the temp, faster recovery and  shortens the cook time a lil, also  a 14 hour cook time is not un heard of,,,  let the butt go till 185 or 190 you should be happy.

after the smoking  process there is no need for water, however you  do want to put the bowl back in to catch the liquids from the meat or you  will have a  huge mess from the fat .

on another  note i usually put  orange soda in the bowl to add flavor to the  meat  while it is  cooking

as for the 900 watt element , install it  with a fan or blower it  will help with circulation, even box temp and cook times

here is what i have done

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=17329.0

the heater and blower came from grainger, the motor mount was custom made from a  metal shop and the housing inside also was made at the  same  metal shop, the blower is an updraft furnace blower  4 inch dia, and about an 1 1/4 deep. grant you  it  is a  little bit of  work  in the  long run im glad i  did,,, this heater mod was done in late 2008 and been  running strong  with no failures

[Scotty Dog]

Hi Joe, and welcome to the forum.  I am new to the Bradley family and spend hours looking over this site for new ideas and ways to use my BDS.  Where is your base camp?  I live in Kent, WA.  I am in the process of setting up a cold smoke chamber so I can do some cheese and other low temp smoked meats.

[Joe831]

Thanks for the tutorial link beefman.  I will probably go with something similar.

Scotty I am located in Monterey, California. 

Current temp is at 188 on the butt.  Have alarm set for 190.

[mikecorn.1]

Any pics?:D


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[Joe831]

Heres some pics on photobucket.  Can you view the link?
http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/gg214/GiuseppeM/BDS/

Damn thing fell apart on me and the bone pulled right out too.  FTM til this evening. 

One question.
When I finished smoking last night around 1 am was the only time I opened the smoker.  At that point in refilled the water bowl above halfway and also insertred an aluminum tray with one and half beers in it.  When I pulled the butt out about an hour ago almost all of the beer was gone and the water in the bowl was gone.

I was hoping to use the beer/dripping mixture to apply to the meat this evening for dinner but there is almost nothing there (you can see this in the picture in the above link).  How often should I open the smoker to refill the bowl during the "oven" stage to refill the bowl?

[beefmann]

Joe,

if you  are  looking for a  pid controller as well,  here is my  latest

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=25377.0

[mikecorn.1]

Nice looking pics.


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