Well I got a small raise, effective next week so I went ahead and ordered the A-Maze-N pellet smoker, along with extra dust and pellets. I hope this gives me the consistency I'm looking for. I like fiddlin' if I have time, but I wanna try a brisket in the MES, and I imagine I'll be glad to be able to do other things while it's getting yummy! I'm thinking about a cherry/hickory mixture... any thoughts?You can smoke other meats with peanut hulls and I sometimes do use them on beef and pork but peanut smoke is on the mild side so I mix some hickory, apple, cherry or sea grape with them when doing that. I smoked some burgers tonight with sea grape alone and it was a mellow smoke flavor. Milder then hickory.
I was adding chips probably every 15 minutes. I could have extended the time periods by adding more each time but I enjoy fiddlin' when I'm sitting with the smoker and I get better and more consistent smoke using the smaller amounts and short intervals.
You won't believe how easy everything will become!Well I got a small raise, effective next week so I went ahead and ordered the A-Maze-N pellet smoker, along with extra dust and pellets. I hope this gives me the consistency I'm looking for. I like fiddlin' if I have time, but I wanna try a brisket in the MES, and I imagine I'll be glad to be able to do other things while it's getting yummy! I'm thinking about a cherry/hickory mixture... any thoughts?
Hi All,I have been using my MES 40 for about a year now and think I've got it doing exactly what I want it to do. The one thing I figured out is that if you open up the vent all the way, the heat will escape faster than if you close it off, but the up-side of this is that this causes the burner to stay on more which in turn burns the wood chips better and causes more smoke. The addition of the AMNPS made all the difference in the smoke. I place it down low on the bottem rack (laterally across from the burner) and just lay a piece of foil across the top to maks sure that none of the juices/fat/grease from the meat drip into the pellets. I also use the pellets in the smoke burner and have gotten amazing results from the unit. For Christmas, I smoked a 19 pound Beef Rib Roast (prime rib) for 4 hours at 230 degrees using cherry pellets. I then finished it off on the grill for about 15 minutes at a high temp to crisp it up a little. Let it rest for 30 minutes loosely covered and it was the best prime rib we've ever had. My neighbor came by late (too late for dinner) so we gave her some to take home. At midnight, she called to tell me that this prime rib was "orgasmic". She said it was the best she ever had. I've cooked just about everything in this unit and can't find any fault with it especially with the addition of the AMNPS. Between that and the Thermopen, I'm one happy smoker!
I pulled the Prime Rib at 125 degrees knowing it would increase some. This is the first time I've done a Prime Rib in a smoker so it was a bit of an experiment. As it turned out, 125 was right on the money. It got up to between 135 to 145 in different spots because it was thinner in one are and thicker in another. It was absolutely fantastic. By the way, I only filled half of the AMNPS with pellets because I didn't want too much smoke. My father-in-law is an 86 year old Englishman who made the comment "Now THIS is a meal". Coming from him (and he likes his beef rare/med-rare), that was the best compliment he's ever given anyone regarding food!