Hello folks:
I have a 1st gen MES 30 digital smoker and a masterbuilt "cold smoking" attachment.
I smoked my first batch of cheese Sunday evening. The temp outside was around 10. I loaded the smoker with cheese, loaded the cold smoker attachment with maple chips, truned on the cold smoker attachment and let it do it's thing.
About an hour later I went back to check how things were going, made sure the chips were falling down onto the element in the cold smoker box, and checked the temp inside the smoker. I truned on the main smoker unit to see what the built in thermometer said, and it was 33 inside according to that. Reading on the forums here, it seems to be a consensus that you will get more some penetration if the temp is above 40. So I turned on the main element for a few mins. Now the inside them was reading 70. So I shut the main smoker down at that point. Over the next three hours the temp slowly dropped to the smoker to 53. I extracted the cheese, vaccum sealed, and put in the fridge for a couple week nap.
I cut off a corner of one of the blocks durring packaging, and I did pick up some smoke. Horray!
Here's my question(s) for anyone still following: Have any of you rigged up a temperature controller on an MES so you could create a setpoint under 100? I do this in my homebrewing fermentation chamber (chest freezer) with an STC1000 homade controller. I could try to rig up this same controller on my smoker, but it is only rated to service 10 amps. Maybe someone knows how many amps the coils in the MES 30 pulls?
Thanks for your help! - Ben
I have a 1st gen MES 30 digital smoker and a masterbuilt "cold smoking" attachment.
I smoked my first batch of cheese Sunday evening. The temp outside was around 10. I loaded the smoker with cheese, loaded the cold smoker attachment with maple chips, truned on the cold smoker attachment and let it do it's thing.
About an hour later I went back to check how things were going, made sure the chips were falling down onto the element in the cold smoker box, and checked the temp inside the smoker. I truned on the main smoker unit to see what the built in thermometer said, and it was 33 inside according to that. Reading on the forums here, it seems to be a consensus that you will get more some penetration if the temp is above 40. So I turned on the main element for a few mins. Now the inside them was reading 70. So I shut the main smoker down at that point. Over the next three hours the temp slowly dropped to the smoker to 53. I extracted the cheese, vaccum sealed, and put in the fridge for a couple week nap.
I cut off a corner of one of the blocks durring packaging, and I did pick up some smoke. Horray!
Here's my question(s) for anyone still following: Have any of you rigged up a temperature controller on an MES so you could create a setpoint under 100? I do this in my homebrewing fermentation chamber (chest freezer) with an STC1000 homade controller. I could try to rig up this same controller on my smoker, but it is only rated to service 10 amps. Maybe someone knows how many amps the coils in the MES 30 pulls?
Thanks for your help! - Ben