Floyd County, home of the Friday night bluegrass jamboree!
Running a
Masterbuilt 44 inch propane with mods. Cold smoking with an
AMNPS.
Right now, I'm concentrating on cheeses and spices. When the weather cools (September?), I'll start smoking butter.
Jim
I got the 30" Sportsman Elite Electric, got the
AMNPS smoker for it, did a mod that I will be posting soon somewhere on the forum that added 3 more racks to the top giving me a total of 8 racks, so 1.5" wide strips mostly 8" long I will be able to get 40 sticks per rack, still working on the screened racks, have a friend that may be able to get me SS screen cut for the racks, maybe, got the meat sources, 3 of them, just need to find out what quantity they can give me, want to try and get like 4-6 15-18 lb eye of round roasts or maybe a sirloin tip at the same weight, it has that fat vein though, but seeing all will be wet brined/cured and smoked as well as dried and vacuum sealed, probably do not have to worry to much about that little vein, and I got a sort of nice Slicer for about $300, a 10" 1/4 hp that should be fine for slicing up jerky and could use it for many other slicing ventures, going with Pop's recipe with a few added ingredients I have seen touted on the forums, going to get some analog probes and set them up, I want at least 2, but have not purchased them quite yet, but going to do jerky for my first run, the probably some pulled BBQ pork and beef, got all my ingredients coming as of this evening, got my cure #1 today and got the regular sugar locally, everything else is coming in bulk, so all I have to worry about is buying meat from here on out for quite a while, friend gave us a vacumn sealer and just need to get the bag roll and will be set to store some around for next year and the next few after that :)
I am as excited about beginning to brine as well as brine/cure as I am about cold/warm smoking, I have done allot of smoking but only on a side burner barrel style smoker..............and never brined............... cannot believe I have missed out on the brining for so long, especially for home cooked meals outside of curing, but I have a sweet spot for jerky, have always bought it, not I am gonna make my own, can't wait :)
Guy
PS - this venture has been a little pricey, so I sacrificed on the smoker size, but also I wanted to go analog, in case things get a bit crazy in the future, I will not have to worry about electronics, and on a summer day, and even winter unless we have a bitter cold day here I could most likely do all my cold smoking without even using the electric, noting this smoker has very controlled inlet and outlet air, I could easily get in the low hundreds with just the
AMNPS :), plus I liked the design as it may be regarding the air intake and exhaust, I think it will work really good for cold/warm smoke under 150, even if I went 200 on some stuff, it would not require much more help from the burner in that case even, so should save some money on overall electric as well :)
Can't wait to test the foodies !
Also cannot wait to brine what we cook for dinner like chickens steaks chops and the sort :)
