My Journey With My New Smoker

[walleyehunter80]

Well I got a Bradley digital 4 rack smoker for christmas.

Last night I got a 3 pound sirloin roast that was on sale for $3.19 a pound. I brought it home and froze it half way and then took it back to the store to have them slice it into 1/4" slices for me.

I brought it home and trimmed all fat off it and then covered it in a 50%-50% Soy Sauce/Worcestershire Sauce mixture. Left that in a 1 gallon ziploc bag in fridge for 12 hours. Mixing it by had every so often to keep all meat in contact with mixture.

I then took it out of ziploc and drained excess mixture through a strainer into sink. I let meat air dry and come to room temperature for 1 hour.

After seasoning my smoker for 1 hour at 150 degrees the meat was ready to go in. I set my oven timer for 5 hours and 150 degrees and my smoker timer for 2.5 hours.

I checked on the jerky after 4 hours and it was done, some of the thiner pieces were over done. The next time I do this again I will check the jerky after 3 hours and remove the ones that are done and let the thicker pieces finnish the last hour.

The Soy Sauce I used was La Choy Original, the Worcestershire Sauce I used was the Heinz Brand. The wood I used to smoke was the Bradley (Alder) puck style.

The flavor of the jerky is very good and would recomend this to anyone, I just wish I would have pulled some of the meat off sooner.

I have some salmon and lake trout in brine right now and will be in smoker tomorrow 3 pm. Will post results.

Josh

[KEN W]

It will take you a few smokes to figure out how your new smoker works.In my Masterbuilt there is a hot corner in the back right.Anything there gets done faster than the rest.

[OnAFly]

I went back and forth on smokers for about a year before I finally pulled the trigger on one on sale at Cabela's last spring, a Masterbuilt Digital. It's probably been one of my better purchases of the last few years as it has gotten a lot of use in the last year.

It's a blast mixing your own spice blends and tinkering with others that you'll find on sites like this one. I think the Pastrami has been my personal favorite so far. My wife likes the ribs and the pulled pork.

BTW, Walmart has bone in pork butt for 2.09$/lb. I'm not a huge fan of Walmart, but for that price, I'll deal with it.

[walleyehunter80]

I was going to ask you guys what cut of meat you like best for doing jerky, and where you usually find it the best priced?

Would a locker be the best? You could just call and have them slice it all up before you get there!

[reinhard1]

sam's probably has the best price and i would use bottom round. dont need a tender cut for jerky which is more expensive. sometimes cub has a buy one get one on bottom round or sirloin tip. i would think they would slice it for you if asked and orderd. we used to slice them all the time but used the saw with a boneless blade set at the thinnest setting. we could not use the slicer for raw meat. used that for slicing boneless hams or summer sticks for people. cross-contamination. there are times when they have top round on sale also which is very lean. but as a rule bottom round is the cheapest, but not cheap lately. good luck.

[Leaky]

Deleted and moved post.

[bak2MN]

I did a piece of salmon just before Christmas and used the special blend pucks. I set the smoker at 170 and cooked the fish to 155 with smoke running whole time and turned out great.

[walleyehunter80]

Smoked Salmon & Lake Trout

Ok I had 25 pounds of Lake Superior lake trout and salmon. I bought the Hi Mountain Gourmet Fish Brine Mix (Authentic Wyoming Recipe). It contained 2 pouches of mix that needed to be mixed with 1 gallon of drinking water each. It was to be in the brine for 24 hours and stirred every so often. Once the brine is done the fish needs to be rinsed well and then air dried for 30 minutes before being placed in the smoker.

I pre heated my smoker to 160 degrees then aranged the fish on the racks as to not touch each other. I smoked the fish for 4 hours and checked the internal temp. (it was only at 130 degrees) and I needed to get it up to 155 degrees. So I turned the smoker up to 190 degrees and could only get the internal temp up to 135 degrees.

I brought the fish into the house and finnished it in the oven. The outside temp was 12 degrees and am sure that was the reason for the poor abbility to keep the temps inside the smoker.

The fish turned out good but not great. It has great smoke flavor, just not salty enough for me. I usually brine my fish with a salt/water mix of 20% salinity for 10 hours and then smoke the fish for 3.5 hours at 160-170 degrees. When I do it this way it turns out perfect. This was mix that I wanted to try, I would use it again if I had to but prefer the 15% salt/water brine. I will be buying a new salinity tester in the next few weeks to come.

[Farley]

Did you turn off smoke and close the damper, that might help your smoker jump up to 190 a little faster when you want to adjust like that. As long as you know the inside temp of the smoker is at 190, it doesnt matter what the temp is outside.

Some meats also plateu, meaning the internal temp will climb and climb then it will stall, maybe for 15 minutes, maybe for and hour, you got to power through that and not adjust temp, the meat is braeking down during this period, and its what makes it tender. But I dont remember ever experiencing a plateu with fish.

"Good food takes time" and "It's done when it's done" are two sayings that have helped me make some great foods in my Bradley.

And for the record I've never had good lake trout out of my smoker. Only tried it once or twice but I remember the salmon was waaay better.

[hockeybc69]

I havent had good luck with lake trout either the couple times I made it.

Salmon,,,, NEVER a problem.

[OnAFly]

Pork especially will stall out. Mine does for up to two hours for butts. It's a little frustrating, but you have to be patient and just go do something else for a while.

[walleyehunter80]

Lake trout is the best fish that could ever be used for smoking. The fat layer on them is nice and thick and will keep them very moist and flavorfull!

But in order to get that thick fat layer you need to have the larger fish, 6+ lbs, the best ones for smoking are the 12+ pounders.

Salmon on the other hand will smoke well any size.

[walleyehunter80]

got the smoker rolling again this morning makin another batch of the same jerky I made before, only this time I am using 5 lbs top round roast sliced 3/8ths inch thick. ($5.40/lb)

I have another 7 lbs of bottom round roast ordered that I am picking up in a hour and a half (3.40/lb) that I am going to do in a natural salt/water brine and just smoke it without any other seasonings.

also I built a smoker stand that I will post pictures of later, its not done yet but will finnish it this weekend, all thats left is putting the doors on the front.

[reinhard1]

looks like your having some nice jerky comming up. over the years i have sliced a lot of beef of customers for jerky. bottom round was what we sliced the great majority of the time. those who ordered it usualy waited for a sale like the buy one get ones. another one to look for is when they have sirloin tip on sale. often times when this goes on sale the price of thin cut sirloin tip stead is lowered.

they are usualy packed 4 to 5 slices per pac. if not thin enough you can take a dough roller and pound them thiner and cut them into strips. no waste at all. top round is a nice cut of meat, but bottom round is usualy the cheapest as a rule and lean. i'll be looking forward to the picture of the smoker. good luck.

[walleyehunter80]

The last of the bottom round is ready to take out in 15 minutes, I have the top round in a old fashion brine right now and boy does it smell good.

As soon as the bottom round is done I am going to pull the rhino out of the garage and get them doors finnished and mounted. Will get pics on after.

Yes bottom round is nice and lean, but more expensive, makes great jerky!

[walleyehunter80]

My post from earlier this morning (8:29am) is wrong, when I wrote top round I meant bottom and so forth

[reinhard1]

ya, i saw that, and i knew you meant bottom round. anyway i think you got some fine eating comming up. good luck.

[walleyehunter80]

Got the smoker rolling again, great night to smoke too (no wind). Does anyone know if the bradley teflon coated racks are dishwasher safe?

[reinhard1]

i have never had teflon coated racks for a smoker. however i have had teflon coated pans ect. in the instructions at that time it said to use warm water, dish detergent, and a non abrasive sponge or pad to clean the pan or pot. good luck.

[delcecchi]

I have put non-stick pans in the dishwasher many times. Doesn't seem to hurt them. On the other hand, a soak in some soapy water and a swish with a sponge works just about as well, unless I dripped down the outside.