Hello from the Frozen North (Wisconsin)

[aij]

Hello,

We recently moved to Wisconsin. The wife is from the South, and misses "proper Southern BBQ", so I got her a smoker for Christmas. (BDS76P) Of course, now I get to be the one who figures out how to use the thing!  :P

My first smoke went well, other than a temporary weird error. I made a little brisket and it was falling apart and delicious by the end. I have since learned you're supposed to get a whole brisket when smoking, rather than just the little cut of one. The error I had was that it said E on the smoker side and started beeping. I tried jiggling the connectors and accidentally unplugged/rebooted the thing and when it turned back on it was fine. Anyway, that was around 25 F outside, but with no wind.

Today, I will give it another shot. It is now 20 F outside with 3 MPH wind, but it will be getting cooler and windier throughout the day. I decided not to wait until tomorrow (Sunday) because it is expected to be -5 to -10 F throughout the day with 17 MPH winds (-20 to -30 F with wind chill). The Bradley did get up to temperature today so we'll see how it goes. Worst case I end up finishing it in the oven.

Does anyone know what the environmental requirements are for this thing? (Particularly, minimum operating temperature?) The owner's manual didn't have much in the way of specs.

Thanks,
aij

[manfromplaid]

keep it protected from the wind. that sucks the heat right out of the smoker. use very hot water in the bowl and a foil wrapped brick in the bottom of the smoker helps to retain some heat. preheat to a higher temp and keep the door closed.(if your looking you ain't cooking) I am in alberta and use mine all winter. there are a number of posts about small sheds or garage setups that help with colder weather. good luck 
jeff

[aij]

Thanks for the advice manfromplaid.I have it on the back porch, which has walls on 2 sides and a roof over the top, but it's still exposed on 2 sides. Fortunately there's not much wind now.

What position do you recommend for the vent? In the first hour or so after I added the meat, it only got back to around 133°F with the vent fully open, so I tried closing it and after 20 minutes it's now up to 151°F. (I know you're not supposed to seal it off completely.)

One thing that may be causing it to struggle is that I added a lot more meat this time. 1 eye round roast, 2 pork shoulders, and about 6 chicken breasts. (Beef on top, pork shoulders on 2 middle rack although I could have fit them on one, and chicken on the bottom.) I imagine it would take a fair bit of energy to heat all that meat since I put it in straight from the fridge, but last time I felt a little silly for having burned a whole $10 box of smoke bisquits on a single smallish piece of meat.

[tskeeter]

Good advice, MFP.

AIJ, if you are going to be smoking year round, you might consider a smoker shed of some type.  I use one to get the smoker out of the garage, so the smoker is always set up and ready to use, and to keep my smoking supplies and tools together and handy.  The shed provides the added benefit of protecting the smoker from the wind (nearly always an issue here) and the heat from the smoker and the vent pipe increase the temp inside the shed by a few degrees.

I use a plastic snap together shed.  Other forum members have built a number of good looking and highly functional wood sheds.  If you check out the Non-Bradly equipment and Acessories forums, you will find several examples.

One of the things I tend to do is to smoke larger quantities than are required for a meal, then vacuum pack and freeze the surplus.  Pulled pork freezes particularly well, so I can have pulled pork whenever I want.  To reheat the pork, I defrost the pork, then steam the meat with apple juice for a few minutes, until it is hot.  (This is the quickest method I have found.). I use just enough apple juice to cover the bottom of the pot about 1/8 inch deep, or so.  When the meat is hot, I use the apple juice and drippings from the bottom of the pot to sauce my pork.

[tskeeter]

What you've done with your vent sounds on track.  Wide open for an hour or so lets the heavy load of moisture that is present when you first put meat in the smoker exhaust from the smoker.  Then, closing you vent part way does seem to help with temperature recovery.  Most folks recommend keeping the vent at least half way open.  High moisture food, such as poultry, may work best with the ent about 3/4 open after the first hour.

You've got a pretty good load of meat in your smoker.  It'll take a while for the temp to recover.  (I have had situations where the temp never completely recovered.). Allowing the meat to temper on the kitchen counter for an hour or so before it goes in the smoker will help with heat recovery.

Many forum members limit the smoking part of the cooking process to four hours.  The belief is that longer smoking intervals don't add benough additional smoke flavor to justify the cost of biscuits.  For the flavor I use frequently (Apple and hickory), I buy the 120 packs to reduce the per puck cost.

[aij]

I would like to report success.

I ended up doing 5 hours of smoking and then finishing the beef and pork in the indoor oven. I'm pretty sure I could have just used the smoker in oven mode, but this way helps heat the house instead of heating the outdoors.

The chicken breasts nearest the heating element were the first to be done, followed by the other two (unscientific though because they also had different seasoning). Then the beef when the thermometer read 145 (although it was more medium well rather than medium rare), and last we took out the pork shoulder at 193°F. (The pork could have gone a little longer but it was bedtime, and we didn't want to leave it a lot longer.)