Finally picked up my Christmas present today

[Big Dave2]

My wife gave me money for Christmas that I was supposed to pick out an electric smoker with. I finally went and picked it up and it is seasoning as we speak. I've always been kind of a BBQ snob and never thought I would own an electric but I've had some really good Q made with electric smokers lately so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

 

 

[Getanet]

Nice. Have fun!

 

[SwivelDigger]

BD2,

  I have one like that. Had it about 3 years, very dependable. I’ve done everything in there from salt,cheese,fish, fowl, beef and pork. Have fun with your new one

[Big Dave2]

Seasoning has been successfully completed. Now to decide what is going on it first. I think ribs will be in order this weekend and maybe a fatty. Any other suggestions?

[leech~~]

20 minutes ago, Big Dave2 said:

Seasoning has been successfully completed. Now to decide what is going on it first. I think ribs will be in order this weekend and maybe a fatty. Any other suggestions?

 

Dave, your pretty good at making Spam, I'd go with that!

[Jim Almquist]

Something I like to do is to smoke country style ribs for about 2 hours and then toss them in a crock pot to finish. Another 6-8 hours on low and they are falling off the bone tender.

[ZachD]

Pulled pork is always a good one to do.

Or if you can get your hands on a tri tip

 

Are you going to use the standard wood chip tray or are you going to run it with an A-Maze-N smoker

I like the design of the new ones I have a older style blue tooth one.

I think it may be time for an upgrade

[waker]

Beef short ribs!!  Best thing I have made in my Master but not far from other things like a chuck roll, baked beans from the drippings of the short ribbs or chuck roll

or Mac and Cheese.

Have a great time!

Edited January 25, 2018 by waker

[Big Dave2]

11 hours ago, ZachD said:

 

Are you going to use the standard wood chip tray or are you going to run it with an A-Maze-N smoker

 

 

I'm going to try the standard wood chip tray for now but if that doesn't give me enough smoke flavor I will be buying an a-maze-n smoker.

[Big Dave2]

14 minutes ago, Big Dave2 said:

 

I'm going to try the standard wood chip tray for now but if that doesn't give me enough smoke flavor I will be buying an a-maze-n smoker.

 

On second thought, I think I will pick one up anyway for longer smokes. I don't want to have to put wood chips in that thing every half hour or so.

[waker]

https://www.amazon.com/Masterbuilt-20070112-Smoking-Digital-Smokers/dp/B008DF6WWE

Masterbuilt does make an attachment for cold smoking and longer smokes. Works great. I believe 4 hrs of smoke in one hopper fill. 

[PurpleFloyd]

I have the cold smoker attachment. They work ok in some ways but it tends to bridge and plug up in the chute and chunks work better than small chips. I burned one up and got it replaced under warranty.

 

My redneck hack for it was to take an air pump and use it to inject air into the chamber to boost combustion. It really cranks out smoke when you do that.

[tacklejunkie]

You will enjoy that one.  I have the same brand and I mostly smoke lake trout and they turn out perfecto

[leech~~]

On 1/24/2018 at 7:05 PM, leech~~ said:

 

Dave, your pretty good at making Spam, I'd go with that!

 

Dave, you may think I'm kidding but I'm not. I like fried Spam as well and adding some smoke to it may make it a lot better fried. Nothing better then fried smoked ham!  Line up 4 of those babies on a rack and letting her go. Dang, I may have to try that myself now that I'm thinking about it!

Edited January 26, 2018 by leech~~

[Big Dave2]

Maiden Voyage today. These 2 little baby back ribs racks are going on the new smoker in about 5 minutes......

 

 

[Big Dave2]

I guess I need to practice a little more with the electric smoker. The ribs were good but not quite what I had hoped for. It was nice to be able to keep a low, steady temp for once without spikes and to be able to cook these for the full 5 hours but I thought that would lead to more tender ribs. Like I said, the ribs were good and they were probably about as tender as competition ribs should be but I usually shoot for a little more tender than that, almost falling off the bone. I seem to get that at least half of the time cooking them on my Weber grill with off-set coals so I thought that keeping the temps lower and cooking for a longer time would make them more tender but that's not what I got. 

 

I would have liked a bit more smoke flavor but my wife liked it with less smoke than I usually get. I filled the chip box up 3 times in the 1st 2 hours and once more in the last hour after the foil came off because I wanted to smoke the mac and cheese. The mac and cheese came out perfect. Usually it is easy to over-smoke cheese and noodles.

 

 

[delcecchi]

Do you foil them?    3-2-1 method is supposed to guarantee fall off the bone.   Smoke 3 hours, wrap in foil and cook 2 more hours, unwrap and cook another hour.     I have never done that myself but might next time.  

[bobberineyes]

Looks great big d!! I used to do same after the foil but it seems that's when they dry out some. So now they don't come out of the foil until they hit my plate..

[Big Dave2]

3 hours ago, delcecchi said:

Do you foil them?    3-2-1 method is supposed to guarantee fall off the bone.   Smoke 3 hours, wrap in foil and cook 2 more hours, unwrap and cook another hour.     I have never done that myself but might next time.  

 

Yes I foil them for 2 hours. For baby backs it's usually more like a 2-2-1 because the racks are smaller. Spare ribs you can do 3-2-1.

3 hours ago, bobberineyes said:

Looks great big d!! I used to do same after the foil but it seems that's when they dry out some. So now they don't come out of the foil until they hit my plate..

 

Sometimes when I take them out of the foil after the 2 hours, I can barely transfer them back onto the smoker grate because they are ready to fall apart. These were not that way. It's almost like they needed to be foiled longer but the meat was pulling away from the bone pretty good already. I smoked them at 225°.

[Grainbelt]

Y

3 hours ago, Big Dave2 said:

the ribs were good and they were probably about as tender as competition ribs should be but I usually shoot for a little more tender than that, almost falling off the bone. I seem to get that at least half of the time cooking them on my Weber grill with off-set coals

 

They just weren't quite finished to your liking yet, they needed a little more time. I like to probe mine with a meat thermometer not only for temp, but how easy it goes in. I would think the Weber has more airflow, the burner never turns off and usually higher temps for convective heating. I cook with and without foil, it all depends on what kind of bark I want to achieve. Cooking without foil creates the best bark results. 

Edited January 28, 2018 by Grainbelt

[Big Dave2]

8 minutes ago, Grainbelt said:

 

They just weren't quite finished to your liking yet, needed a little more time. I like to probe mine with a meat thermometer not only for temp, but how easy it goes in. I would think the Weber has more airflow, and higher temps for convective heating. Cooking without foil creates the best bark results. 

 

I'm sure you are right but I'm not sure how much longer I could have kept them in as the meat was pulled away from the bone a good 1/2" or more.

[delcecchi]

Could it have just been the particular slab had more or less collagen or something?     Hog got more exercise?  

[Big Dave2]

1 hour ago, delcecchi said:

Could it have just been the particular slab had more or less collagen or something?     Hog got more exercise?  

 

Well I did 2 slabs and they were both the same so I don't think that's the answer but who knows.

[delcecchi]

Just wondrring.  Do the same thing, get different results.  

[otterman91105]

I have a masterbuilt 30" and i do 2-2-1 for baby back ribs and they turn out amazing everytime. Maybe it was just the ribs?