New Member intro and new Digital Bradley Smoker.

[bullsi1911]

Hello, all!  I wanted to share my recent experience with acquiring and the first uses of my new smoker

My wonderful bride bought me an Original Bradley Smoker for Christmas.  It showed up with a manufacturing defect in the smoke generator (puck tower leaned like 10 degrees away from the smoke box).  Called Bradley, and the very helpfull tech on the phone suggested that I pry on the tower mount with a butter knife...  I was a little reluctant to do so, and then I noticed that Cabelas had a sale on the Digital Smoker for the same price as where my wife got the bought the Original.  So, being a guy that is easily impressed by buttons and flashing lights- I made the swap.

I live 10 minutes from a Cabelas, so I go pick it up.  Unpack it, and the back and bottom of my new smoker is caved in from a really hard blow somewhere along the line.  No damage on the box was visible.  Just my luck.... So I swap this one out at Cabelas.  This one had the same 'puck tower lean' that the first one had.  So I tried the butter knife trick and whaddoyaknow- it worked.

I finally have a complete and working smoker.  Run the first seasoning cycle.  Everything runs great.  I run my first real smoke while the wife is on a business trip- 2 small pork loins rubbed with salt and pepper.  Turns out perfect.  I used some of the extra space in the smoker to smoke a couple of heads of garlic and a selection of peppers that I use to make some dips for chips.  I ate pretty much everything I made by myself. 

Run the second smoke- Baby back ribs from Costco.  4 hour (Guinness 6 pack) smoke, a light basting of BBQ sauce (the wife demanded it- I wanted to go 'nekkid' for the first rib smoke) in the last 20 minutes.  Turned out awesome.  During the smoke, I smoked some more Garlic, some tomatoes and Jalapenos- used it to make salsa.  Some of the best Salsa I have ever had- and I worked for a Gourmet Salsa company for a long time. 

So, tonight I am firing up the smoker for a quick 1 hour to smoke some more veggies for another batch of salsa and also to do a cold smoke on a tenderloin steak then rest it in the fridge overnight and grill it tomorrow- a recipe that I found doing a search here.

So far I am loving this thing.  After a rocky start, the Bradley has demonstrated itself to be a great piece of equipment.  Any tips, tricks, hints or things you wish someone had told you when you started on the Bradley?  Anything else I should know?

[Mr Walleye]

Hi Bullsi1911 and welcome to the forum.

I'm glad you hung in there, it certainly is worth it even though you had a few problems to get ironed out. The only suggestion I would add is when you cold smoke your steak, wrap it in plastic wrap over night in the fridge. This seems to allow the smoke flavour to permeate the meat better.

Sounds like you are well on your way & good luck!  ;)

Mike

[Ontrack]

Congrats on the new smoker and welcome to the forum. I had the same leaning tower on my digital, and several others have also. I popped mine back into place and have had no trouble with it at all. As for suggestions, read from the wealth of knowledge on this forum. I would suggest buying bubba pucks and a Maverick ET73 (or similar) thermometer if you haven't already. As a rule of thumb, change the water after 4 hours, always keep the vent at least partially open, and keep the door closed as much as possible. A brick or paver beside the water bowl is also a trick for retaining heat. The only other hints I can think of right now pertain to a certain meat or whatever you may smoke. These are some of the basics that I learned from this forum, hope they help.

[bullsi1911]

Can someone explain what the "bubba puck" is, and where I can get them?  I have read that I need them but I don't know why.

[Mr Walleye]

Basically the smoke generator requires 2 pucks to push a puck onto the burner. At the end of you smoke you will have a puck on the burner burnt to total ash, one next to it will be half burnt, and the one closest to the generator will be unburnt. The solution to wasting a puck on each smoke (the half burnt one) is to use bubba pucks. They are solid aluminium pucks. You load you generator with the wood pucks you want, then load the bubba pucks on top of them. I use 3 bubba pucks that way the final wood puck gets pushed off into the water bowl. With the bubba puck sitting on the puck burner also seems to help keep the burner cleaner as well. Some people only use 2 bubba pucks and add a wood puck onto to push the bubba puck onto the burner.

You can buy them from a member's site (BeGolf25) here on the forum:
http://www.yardandpool.com/home.php?cat=22
Mike

[bullsi1911]

Gotcha.  Thanks for the info.

So, I smoked 3 beefsteak tomatoes, and 2 huge whole jalapeños and made more salsa.  Used the same wood (apple) this time, but the smoke smelled a lot more bitter and overpowering.  Might be that there was no pig flesh is the box making it have an overall scent of wonderfulness.  But the salsa turned out awesome.  I'll write up a recipe one of these days and post it.

Before I smoked the veggies, I threw a small sirloin steak  in the smoker and cold smoked it.  Smoked for about 40 minutes, then vacuum sealed it and let it do it's magic in the fridge for 24 hours.  Fired up the grill last night and started to grill it with just kisher salt and fresh cracked pepper seasoning.  Of course, because of my aforementioned bad luck, I ran out of propane when only one side of the steak had been lightly grilled.   So, plan B- into the oven to cook it off.  Turned out awesome.  This technique definitely deserves more investigation!

Anyone have any suggestions for my next smoke?  The lovely bride wants to do a brisket, but I'm thinking of doing a small boston butt.

[begolf25]

bullsi1911,

Welcome to the board! Glad you were able to get things worked out and get smokin.

I would love to hear some of your salsa recipes.

My only suggestion would be to check out the Recipe Site - http://www.susanminor.org

One of my favorites are the ABT's (Atomic Buffalo Turds) http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=25/"

Enjoy!

Bryan

[SmokinHotMama]

Bullsi1911....  Hiya!  Welcome to the forum...  I have to tell you...  I am really looking forward to hearing about this salsa recipe.  I love veggies and I think that smoking them would make them that much better!  YEY!   ;) 

[bullsi1911]

My problem is I never write anything down.  I just throw it all together, and add more of what I think is missing.  So my recipes are very vague.

I'll try on this one.

First, I split 3 beefsteak tomatoes into quarters, and de-seeded them.  I cut the tops off of 3 huge jalapenos and put the tomato wedges and jalapenos on the top rack of the smoker and smoked with apple at 200 degrees for 1 hour.

-Then, split a large onion in half.  I cut up half the onion and put in food processor with 4-5 cloves of smoked garlic that I smoked earlier and froze.  whirl that together to chop up the onion and garlic very fine.  Drop the mix in a large bowl.  Sprinkle pinch of kosher salt on top.
-Chop the rest of the onion by hand and drop in the bowl. Sprinkle another pinch of kosher salt.
-Dump a drained can of sweet kernel corn in the bowl.  Dust with fresh cracked pepper
-Cut 10 grape tomatoes in half and spin in the processor with as much cilantro as you want don't pulverize, just chop.  Dump in bowl. Another pinch of salt on top of that layer.  Grind some pepper too, ifn' ya wanna.
-Dump in a mostly drained can of diced tomatoes in the food processor with 3 rough cut large fresh jalapenos- seed and de-vein if you want mild.  Spin in processor to chop, but not liquefy. Dump in bowl.
-Dump a few capfulls (5 or 6) of red wine vinegar over the top of everything in the big bowl.
-Put bowl in fridge

-Drink a beer or two.  Then rub your eye and end up macing yourself with all the capsicum on your hand from the jalapenos.  Wander blindly around the kitchen while cursing.  (This has to be a very vital step since I do it every time I make salsa)

-By the time you can see again, the jalapenos and tomatoes should be done in the smoker.  Peel skins from the tomato wedges, toss in food processor. 
-Chop up the smoked jalapenos (seed them if you must), and throw in processor.  Spin to chop a bit finer, but not to liquefy.
-Dump this last mix on top of the rest of the layers in the big bowl.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper again.  Now fold everything together in the bowl.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Serve with lots of chips and beer.

[hillbillysmoker]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your adventures. I look forward to reading your posts.

[winemakers]

 :o

at least you avoided the bathroom break :'( :'(

mld

[neophyte]

Hi there,

I also recv'd as a Christmas gift from Cabela's.  Thanks for the tip on the leaning tower, my husband was more concerned about that than me.  I have already seasoned and am going to try two pork tenderloin's tonight.  What temp did you use?  and about how long did they take? 
Any input would be appreciated.  PS My husband was reading over my shoulder and was ribbing me because he wanted to try smoked tomatoes and I thought they wouldn't work...now we'll have to try it along with the garlic...YUM

[SmokinHotPapa]

ummmmmmmmmmmmm papa likes smoked garlic try it you wont be sorry!!!!

[Buck36]

1911 glad to hear you did not give up on the Bradley after the initial problems. You will love using it and the tips on this forum.

....more importantly glad to hear the Guinness 6pk had no damage!

[bullsi1911]

I have already seasoned and am going to try two pork tenderloin's tonight.  What temp did you use?  and about how long did they take? 
Any input would be appreciated.  PS My husband was reading over my shoulder and was ribbing me because he wanted to try smoked tomatoes and I thought they wouldn't work...now we'll have to try it along with the garlic...YUM

I smoked the tenderloin for 4 hours at 220 degrees. Oh, you will love the garlic.