New smoker, the nerd way

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howdydo

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 28, 2014
24
10
Hi all,

I was gifted/borrowed a Brinkmann Electric Gourmet smoker, last weekend.  I am completely new to smokers, although have read up quite a bit, and know the basics of getting some great meals.  I know they aren't regarded as high quality, but I am already setting plans for modding it to meet my needs and probably last for quite a while.

I already have the oven seal rope to seal up the gap in the lid area, and I have a PID controller I am attempting to wire up and get working properly, to make the smoker more my style of gadget (set and walk away for a while).  There's another post I just made in the gadgets section (forgot the name) that I ask for help with the PID controller.  Its baffling at times.

I hope to be smoking some really good meals in the near future, and this will go on for a very long time.

Thanks for all your knowledge, interaction, and support on this forum.
 
Howdy, welcome and you are on the right site to get great info from the many experts here(not me
icon_biggrin.gif
). Wonderful folks with a wealth of knowledge
 
Welcome and have fun with your new endeavor. There are plenty of like minded individuals here to help you with your style of "smoking". I mean no offense to you or others, but may I offer the " old style" opinion that the only true smoking is done with wood and a true smokehouse. Again, just introducing you to some of the opinions you may run across. Just like the charcoal vs. gas grilling debate, so goes the electric, gas, charcoal, pellet vs. wood smoking debate. Personally I love the time and effort involved in tending to a wood fired smoke house and the satisfaction in the finished product of smoked meats or sausages the way my father and grandfather taught me. There is a certain romance in the tending of the smokehouse that can't be achieved with electronic controlled temperature "set and forget" type of cookers offered today. Anyway, just a purist spouting off on his old fashioned beliefs. Hope you get lots of support and answers from all the great posters involved with this great forum.
 
Glad you joined the group. The search bar at the top of any page is your best friend.
About anything you wanna know about smoking/grilling/curing/brining/cutting or slicing
and the list goes on has probably been posted. Remember to post a QVIEW of your smokes.
We are all smoke junkies here and we have to get our fix. If you have questions
Post it and you will probably get 10 replies with 11 different answers. That is
because their are so many different ways to make great Q...
Happy smoken.
David
 
texas.gif
  Good evening and welcome to the forum, from a beautiful and warm East Texas. Lots of great people with tons of information on just                        about  everything

               Keep us Posted 

                    Gary
 
Welcome and have fun with your new endeavor. There are plenty of like minded individuals here to help you with your style of "smoking". I mean no offense to you or others, but may I offer the " old style" opinion that the only true smoking is done with wood and a true smokehouse. Again, just introducing you to some of the opinions you may run across. Just like the charcoal vs. gas grilling debate, so goes the electric, gas, charcoal, pellet vs. wood smoking debate. Personally I love the time and effort involved in tending to a wood fired smoke house and the satisfaction in the finished product of smoked meats or sausages the way my father and grandfather taught me. There is a certain romance in the tending of the smokehouse that can't be achieved with electronic controlled temperature "set and forget" type of cookers offered today. Anyway, just a purist spouting off on his old fashioned beliefs. Hope you get lots of support and answers from all the great posters involved with this great forum.
I absolutely understand your stand on this.  I have always loved creating things that will automate tasks, I am a software tester, and hope to soon become a Linux/Unix admin, so spending time to create something that will do something else for me, on a monitored cycle is kind of what gets me interested in things.   Also, I think I will be getting/trying a charcoal smoker too, I think those would be pretty good as well!!  heheh

I think the electric smoker makes it easy to keep the temp stable, and focus on other things, like internal temp, wood for smoke, recipes, etc.  I am really stoked about the possibilities right now. 

Although, I need to figure out my controller first, I think I'll just order another one that many people say works dependably.  I should have known not to go with the Chinese knockoff PID controller.  Pretty high DOA rate.  Oh well, its Amazon, I can just return it.

Happy smokin'!
 
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Howdy, welcome and you are on the right site to get great info from the many experts here(not me
icon_biggrin.gif
). Wonderful folks with a wealth of knowledge
Yeah, I know from the very little I have seen already form this site, that there is a great collection of people that know about smoking, building/modding smokers, and all the rest.  I think I will learn a lot here, and will try so many things.

I am an Italian living in Arizona, so I think the ABT are going to be among the firs things I try.  I think my GF will love those.
 
 
Glad you joined the group. The search bar at the top of any page is your best friend.
About anything you wanna know about smoking/grilling/curing/brining/cutting or slicing
and the list goes on has probably been posted. Remember to post a QVIEW of your smokes.
We are all smoke junkies here and we have to get our fix. If you have questions
Post it and you will probably get 10 replies with 11 different answers. That is
because their are so many different ways to make great Q...
Happy smoken.
David
I will absolutely be taking a lot of pics during my smoking trials and tests.  :)
 
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