Saying hi

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Saying hi

Postby Garci76 » 26 Mar 2017, 11:58

Hi all, just joined. Have a chicken in the smoker for the Mrs on Mother's Day...will be done but not at the 150°C as recommended! Will start a new thread for advice on how to get the heat up...for now I'm going to blame the only charcoal I could get at short notice.
Garci76
Still Raw Inside
Still Raw Inside
 
Posts: 4
Joined: 26 Mar 2017, 11:44

Re: Saying hi

Postby Garci76 » 03 Apr 2017, 16:38

So, on Saturday 1st April 2017 I had my smoking epiphany. To give a bit of background, last year I was using a Brinkman which with a few mods and more luck than judgement, turned out a couple of decent briskets; but also frustrated me endlessly by being so unpredictable when it came to temp control and duration maintaining it. This year, as a present to myself I invested in a ProQ Elite Excel with the hope that I could get some more predictable results. Sadly, my weekend of seasoning the smoker didn't go as well as hoped with temps low and burns shorts; but after following a few threads on here I decided to follow the principle that 'you don't put 2 star in a Ferrari' etc etc and made an effort to buy some decent fuel. I'd been using some Bar-B-Quick briquettes that were the only non-instant lighting fuel I could find in Homebase, and they were rubbish. Smoked awfully when lighting and barely got the unit up to temp before cooling down. I looked on-line and undecided between heat beads and Big K restaurant grade, I've ended up with a stash of both, and on Saturday with a brisket rubbed and ready I embarked on what I hoped would be a set-and-forget smoke.

I covered the bottom of the charcoal cage with Big K and then poured in a whole 4kg bag of heat beads for good measure. I then filled my chimney with some more Big K and set it a lit on the burner of my gas grill. 25 or so minutes later the coals were glowing properly red - almost translucent with heat - and I poured them on to the full basket. I had elected to go with a foiled water pan, and a foiled ceramic pizza stone instead of water, and 20 minutes or so later the smoker was running at 150°C. I adjusted the vents a bit and got it down to 120° and at about 2015 I put on the brisket. I kept notes every 45 minutes or so of how the temperature was doing and tried to adjust the vents and watch the impact. Just after midnight it was up to 129° so I closed some of the vents and went to bed. At 4am a timely intervention by my 7 month old baby coughing, woke me up and I checked the thermometer to see that the smoker was down to 99°. I decided that it wouldn't be a proper test if I didn't try the vents so reopened some and by the time I was back upstairs in my room the temp was at 107° and rising. By the time it hit 130° I was back outside and half closing them again! At 0920, some 13 hours after I put the meat in, the temp finally began its unstoppable decline, but with the meat at 77° I decided I was happy enough and took it off for 2 hours of foil-wrapped resting in an insulated cool bag.

The end result was pretty impressive but I was probably happier with finally being able to have reliable fuel that enabled me to properly use the vents to control temp than the meat itself. I feel a corner has been turned and the whole experience was invaluable. I can now trust the smoker to run all night on one big load of quality fuel. The one thing I would change is reverting back to filling the water pan - I reckon that would even out some of those temperature peaks and make it easier, but I know that for some a ceramic plate is preferred. Perhaps mine just wasn't big enough to make a difference.

I do have some photos, but they're currently exceeding the size limit! Oh well...first world problems.
Garci76
Still Raw Inside
Still Raw Inside
 
Posts: 4
Joined: 26 Mar 2017, 11:44


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