moisture in smoker

pensrock · December 02, 2007, 01:13:11 PM

Hi, I just got my Bradley smoker yesterday and tried it out twice. So far, I have been disappointed with the results. It seems there is a lot of moisture inside the cabient. I have been smoking venison sausage which had been dried before putting into the smoker, then I allowed the smoker to come to 150 degrees for 45 minutes then applied smoke. I opened the door after two hours smoking to rearrange the trays for a more even smoking and water puddled up coming out the door. Is this from the water bowl that catches the burned bisquettes? Do you have to put water in the bowl? I have had much better luck with my old homemade smoker than this expensive one. I hope I can resolve what I am doing wrong. If anyone has any ideas I would really appreciate it. When I made my first test run yesterday, I did not rearrange the sausages during the run. The bottom rack turned brown only on the bottom of the sausage, the top rack did not even turn color after 3-1/2 hours in the smoke. Yesterday I opened the damper 1/2 way, today it's open the whole way. It's about 25 degrees outside, the smoker is on a deck with one side closed in so the wind will not blow on the smoker. I'm open for any tips, I plan to smoke sausages, cheeses, pepperoni sticks poultry and salmon. Many of the recipies look tasty and I'm sue I'll be trying some of them also. Thanks in advance, Greg.

acords · December 02, 2007, 01:19:36 PM

you need to have water in the bowl to extinguish the pucks. Make sure you have a positive flow out the vent on top, and that should help vent moisture.

pensrock · December 02, 2007, 01:21:22 PM

The first run yesterday, it was 1/2 open, today it was fully open.

acords · December 02, 2007, 01:29:19 PM

How is it for you today?

pensrock · December 02, 2007, 01:37:59 PM

Still a lot of moisture and the bottom sausages seem to get most of the smoke, thats why I opened the door after two hours to rearrange the meat. Water still puddled out the door and the sausages were visably wet.

Habanero Smoker · December 02, 2007, 01:42:09 PM

I don't have any ideas as to what can be causing that much moisture, when you only have sausage. You had your vent open far enough. The water bowl will not produce that much. Do you happen to know the relative humidity or the dew point when you were smoking? If the relative humidity was high and the dew point close to the ambient temperature that may prevent the moisture from escaping the cabinet on cold days, but that is a guess. A good indication of high relative humidity or dew point is a lot of moisture build up on top of the smoker by the vent. If you have the original raise the front end up about 1/4", if water does build up that will prevent the moisture from possibly seeping into the area where the electrical circuit is locates.

With sausage you don't have to use water in the water bowl, but you may get a bitter tastes on your sausage, because the water is to extinguish the pucks preventing the bisquettes from burning too long an producing resins. For long smoke, especially meat that contain a fair amount of fat, you need to keep water in the bowl.

Wildcat · December 02, 2007, 01:42:56 PM

This is a little confusing to me. I do not even have a problem with chicken. Is your V pan put in properly? It should be V and not ^.

pensrock · December 02, 2007, 01:53:44 PM

Yes the V pan in installed correctly. I did not see much, if any moisture around the vent. I just now went out and removed the sausages and there was water pooled at the door again. I did notice that all the water was gone from the pan. I ran the smoker for four hours today. I was not real pleased with the way the sausage looks either, some are very dark while others are very very light in color.

Wildcat · December 02, 2007, 01:58:03 PM

Other than what HS mentioned I have no further guesses. I know with some things you want to be sure the meat does not touch the sides of the cabinet or you will have a puddle. I have not done sausage, but have never had the type problem you are describing with anything else.

Habanero Smoker · December 02, 2007, 02:05:50 PM

When I smoke sausage I start with a bowl around 3/4 full. I use about the same temperatures you do and I have plenty of water in the bowl after 4 hours. I generally don't have to add or change the water during the entire smoking/cooking times.

What are you using to monitor the cabinet temperature. Are you using a thermometer probe, to check the accuracy of the interior temperature. The door thermometer is not that accurate, mainly because of it's location. Even if you have the digital, you may still want to use a probe.

Other then that, it's a mystery to me as to why there is such a moisture build up.

Arcs_n_Sparks · December 02, 2007, 02:10:17 PM

pensrock,

This does not sound right. I have done sausages in the BS without any moisture issues, and it would be surprising that you would have water puddling unless you have a cold surface that is condensing out moisture. 150 sounds a bit low for sausage (Rytek recommends 160-165 to an internal temp of 152). I lay the sausages flat on the racks, and rotate top to bottom & front to back after about half way.

Also, why is the pan running out of water? I've never had it go dry over four hours.

Arcs_n_Sparks

Mr Walleye · December 02, 2007, 02:11:34 PM

I can't understand it either Greg.

I have never done sausage but plan too in the future. I do jerky on a regular basis, including ground jerky. I usually do 10 lbs at a time and I mix in a cup or two of water to make the meat run through the jerky gun better. I will then use 12 racks in my DBS and although there is a lot of jerky in there I don't get any pooling of water.

How big of a load are you doing?

Hopefully StickBowCrafter see this and comment. He does a fair bit of sausage and may have some thoughts.

I'm sure you will get things fine tuned with everybody's help.

Mike

pensrock · December 02, 2007, 02:16:08 PM

I though it was odd that all the water was gone from the bowl. I only filled it halfway. There is no door thermometer, I have a digital unit. I wonder if the heating element is causing the water to boil and cause steam? How would I put another thermometer inside the unit? I had about twenty pounds of meat in the smoker.

Mr Walleye · December 02, 2007, 02:23:56 PM

Most around here us a Maverick ET73. It is a dual probe thermometer that monitors your tower temp and the internal meat temp. It also has a remote that you can use to monitor the temp from a distance. It also has alarms. It really is a must have.

Mike

pensrock · December 02, 2007, 02:30:38 PM

I just looked at the temp probe you suggested on EBAY. It is about $45.00 plus shipping. How do you run the wires inside the smoker? I guess you could just let the door close on them. Also assuming you are using all four racks where would you suggest putting the probe?