Hot spots

whitetailfan · September 24, 2004, 04:29:37 AM

Anyone else notice hot spots in their cabinets? It reminds me of a hot spot on a gas grill.

I did up three batches of sausage this weekend. The tray closest to the heat lamp got a ridiculous about of heat compared to the rest of the cabinet. I used up all 4 trays and had three rings of sausage per tray. I know that the lamp would be hottest on the bottom rack, but even from back to front there was too significant a difference for my liking.

Factors would be a full load of meat which would inhibit circulation, but it was sausage, its a hollow ring, it should not have stopped any circulation in my mind. Secondly I have to move the heat slide way up the scale to maintain cooking air temp so the bulb was glowing hotter than on a smaller project, but I really dont think this is beyond the capabilities of the smoker.

Basically, I was quite disapointed in the performance of the smoker on that project, and you all know I love my smoker. I'm really disapointed given that Bassman Jack was smoking sausage in the same configuration I was, but he DOUBLED his racks and did up 24 rings at a time compared to my tweleve and he never complained about problems.

whitetailfan
"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB

MallardWacker · September 24, 2004, 01:58:21 PM

White,

Last weekend I did a brisket and a rack full of Pablano and Jalepenos. The Brisket was on the second from the top and the peppers on top. I let the peppers stay in there for the first five hours and when I pulled them out I noticed that the peppers closet to the back of the smoker were in some cases almost burned. I have noticed this before typically on my lower racks and just thought it was because it was so close to the heat source and I rotate to help the problem, but this was the first time I relized that it definately is hotter along the back wall(all the way to the top rack). I guess because a pepper is so tender I had never really noticed it before.

Side Note: My Maple Bacon comes out next weekend.

SmokeOn,

mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie

If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...

Cold Smoke · September 24, 2004, 11:20:00 PM

Whitetail, I too have noticed that I had hot spots on my last batch of polish sausage I smoked. I had to rotate individual sausages -not the entire racks. I had all four racks filled. If I recall correctly it seems the sausages closest to the sides were cooking far faster than those in the middle. It was a bit of a pain to have to keep a close eye on them. I was also having to watch the temp way too much as I was trying to keep the temp below 160* so as to not render out any of the fat in the sausage. That whole batch was a big disappointment.[xx(][V] Sausage came out way too salty. I made a batch of chili recently to use up some of this stuff and the chili enherited a lot of that salt.

For what it's worth- that was the third recipe I've tried from that great sausage recipes book- Rytek Kutas. Bacon was way too salty as well as the polish (beer) sausage recipe. Slim Jims ended up in the garbage. I'll ensure I cut the salt by 75% of what his recipes call for. The best sausage I've made to date was the stuff from Hi Mountain- very tasty!

Cold Smoke

jaeger · September 25, 2004, 05:07:58 AM

Whitetail,
Sorry to hear about your unfortunate results. I haven't tried sausage yet but I appreciate the information on other users results.I think Bassman rotated his racks once halfways through.

Cold Smoke,
Thanks for your info. I have made several different sausages at the retail level using a commercial smokehouse. A lot of the sausage was make with premixed seasonings. The few that I make regularly with a seasoning recipe usually called for "about" the same amount of salt. Check the recipe that you used and see if these amounts are common with other recipes that you have looked at. The amounts of dextrose should also be similar. I plan on using a premix seasoning on my first batch, but I am also going to try Bassmans recipe.

Thanks for letting us know what your results have been so we don't all have to follow the same curve.[:D][8D][:D]

Habanero Smoker · September 25, 2004, 02:37:10 PM

I've noticed hot spots also. As most people have stated, there are hot spots from bottom to top, with the hottest temperatures towards the bottom, but also from back to front, with the hottest temperatures towards the back. Last Sunday I was smoking a 12lb. turkey and two 4lb. chickens. The turkey was on the second shelf, and the chickens, which I butterflied were on shelves 3 and 4. When I was pulling the chickens out I noticed the side of the turkey that was toward the back was cooking much faster than the side facing the door. I then turned the shelf so the side of the turkey that was facing the door was now facing the back. I seemed to have caught it in time, because the turkey seemed to be evenly done.

This post has given me an idea. I have the Maverick ET-73. I am going to run the BS, with just one empty tray. On that tray I am going to place one temperature probe on the back of the tray and the other on the front of the tray, and monitor if the readings to see if there are any differences. Then I will move the tray one shelf to the other. This should give me some idea of the temperature range from back to front. Then I will but a second tray in - one tray on the top with one probe and one on the bottom with the second probe, and this should give me the difference of temperature from top to bottom. Although this is far form a controlled scientific test [:D], this should give me some baselines as to the temperature ranges in my BS. Maybe others, who have the ET-73 should also try this and post their results.

whitetailfan · September 25, 2004, 04:16:39 PM

Good thinking Habanero
My thermo is single probe only and seems to have crapped out on me this weekend[}:)]. According to it, the ambient temp outside the smoker was 135deg, so I should be able to cook with a Bic lighter.[:D]

New batteries did noy help either - back to Radio Shack!

whitetailfan
"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB

Cold Smoke · September 25, 2004, 06:04:02 PM

Jaeger, thanks for the suggestions. I won't give up with my quest to make another recipe from this sausage guru's book but what I will do before adding any salt is to fry up a small sample first and determine how much salt I should put in before stuffing them. Better than throwing it all away. I will also likely use the premixed stuff when I want to whip up a quick batch of something. Those are almost foolproof. And that's exactly what I need. [:)]

Cold Smoke

nsxbill · September 25, 2004, 06:49:12 PM

A nice internal stirring fan would be very cool. Don't know how you could do it in the Bradley, but moving the internal air with some kind of induction system using internal air seems like it would be a possibility to solve the hot spot problem. It would be nice not to have to rotate the meat half way through. A little fan would be all that would be necessary. Any ideas?

Bill

MallardWacker · September 26, 2004, 12:47:00 AM

Bill,

I have heard this batted around over on the [}:)]<s>cookshack</s>[}:)] forum. You think we have hot spots. They have a bit more of a problem do to the fact of no vent . Some folks have tried a muffin fan and all it does is get goooop-up'd, the reason it does, again no vent for the moisture to leave the smoker.(there is so much moisture in a cookshack, when cooking wings the company recipe states you need to finish the wings off in the oven). With what I smoke, these spots are easy for me to work around and most of the time I don't worry about them. But I don't do sausage either, I can see where that cause an issue.

SmokeOn,

mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie

If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...

whitetailfan · September 26, 2004, 11:08:17 PM

I know what you're talking about Mallard, normally I'm quite happy with the smoker, and I noticed the inconsistent temp issue early on in my smoking, especially with jerky. It cooks up at the back a lot quicker than the front; however, as you pointed out, normally there is a simple work around. Every project I do I have rotated racks up/down and front/back and this has provided an even cooking result.

The problem is that the sausage somehow exagerated the inconsistent temp to a "hot spot" issue.

Bill, I agree with your idea about a fan. I was just thinking about that issue this weekend when I was talking to my brother who wants to fix up our old smokehouse on the farm. I recommended that he find some kind of fan to circulate the air and get a more consistent temp. The problem is getting that idea into our smaller smokers.

I dont have a plan figured out yet, but my first thought was of a computer fan. I think that they run on low voltage, and perhaps we can rig up a battery pack to juice it, and then get it inside the smoker and run the wiring through the door or chimney[?][?][?]

whitetailfan
"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB

Chez Bubba · September 28, 2004, 02:42:52 AM

I'm not an experienced sausage guy (yet) but why couldn't you point an external fan down the bisquette feed chute? Seems like that might do it to me & you don't have to worry about gunking it up.

Kirk

http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?

nsxbill · September 28, 2004, 04:30:08 AM

I think it would drastically affect temp to pump cold air in through the biskette tube, and unlike the charcoal or gas, the little lamp in the bradley wouldn't be able to keep up.

Bill

jaeger · September 28, 2004, 05:31:35 AM

I think the fan is a good idea. You would have to experiment with the amount of air blowing in. Another idea for sausage, what if you folded up some heavy foil a couple of times and place it in the smoker as a shield to defect the direct heat away from the bottom rack?

MallardWacker · September 28, 2004, 03:05:19 PM

I may be wrong on this(and the Hen Mallard will agree with that on many of subject) but however I would think that you would only need a small amount of air circulation. In my past life, we used brushless DC motors/muffin fans that cooled VERY hot(400deg+) fusing sections(very simular to computer case fans). In this fusing section there is a lot off gasing of silicon based oils which just about caked up on everything. These fans seemed to work great for that. They ran on 12volts with very little current draw, I would think that if you maybe apllied half that(or maybe less) that would adequate. I think placement would be important but I think you could find a place that this would work fine and not get gunk-up'd, maybe the lower part of the smoking area.

SmokeOn,

mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie

If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...

whitetailfan · September 28, 2004, 04:29:11 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Chez Bubba
 I'm not an experienced sausage guy (yet) but why couldn't you point an external fan down the bisquette feed chute? Seems like that might do it to me & you don't have to worry about gunking it up.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Kirk, exluding nsxbill's comments about adding cool outside air, what did you have in mind, just a household, summertime, simple, table fan?

I wonder have much flow you would get past the biscuits in the feeder tube because you would want this to be running the whole time you're smoking...do you think there's enough room, or were you thinking of an empty feeder tube?

Good idea[:)]

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by MallardWacker
 In my past life, we used brushless DC motors/muffin fans that cooled VERY hot(400deg+) fusing sections(very simular to computer case fans). In this fusing section there is a lot off gasing of silicon based oils which just about caked up on everything. These fans seemed to work great for that. They ran on 12volts with very little current draw, I would think that if you maybe apllied half that(or maybe less) that would adequate.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Mallard, tell me more about muffin fans, they sound tasty[:p] Is a computer fan run on 12VDC? If so how do they convert it? (If you say they use a converter then I'll just add the laugh here[:D]) How hard would it be to rig up a battery pack?

I'm quite serious about exploring either of these options, because if it would cut down on rack rotation it would be worth the effort, but if it eliminates overdone edges where you're not proud of your project then it is very worth while.

whitetailfan
"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB