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  1. bob the noob

    Slicing bacon ?

    A good commercial slicer works great, and you can sometimes find them for a good deal on Craigslist or such sites. Difficulty in slicing depends on how long it's smoked also. I smoke mine for 24 hrs and the outside dries a little bit.  Even with my big slicer I need to put the slabs in a...
  2. bob the noob

    Smoked Chedder

    You can do cheese in a cardboard box 'cause it's cold smoked.  You'll need: Cardboard box, flexible dryer vent, dowel rods, soup can, lump or two of charcoal, cooling rack. Go to a hardware store and get some flexible dryer vent, normally comes in a small box, along with a couple small dowel...
  3. bob the noob

    Score on a fridge.......... Yeah

    Make sure it's a Frost Free model... You need to keep a constant humidity in the chamber so the meat slowly dries.  If it's not Frost Free you'll have to much humidity and will likely get bad mold on the outside of the meat.
  4. bob the noob

    SQWIB'S Killian's Kraut (not too winded)

    I would caution a couple things: 1) make a brine with distilled water and non-iodized salt to use in the bag.  Tap water has various things to kill microbes and that's not what you want to do.  2) don't seal it tight, the fermenting cabbage will release gasses that may be enough to rupture the...
  5. bob the noob

    Help - First try cold smoking bacon- I have a couple of questions

    Last few batches I've done have been 23-24 hrs with hickory and maybe some apple.  Make sure you keep your smoker temps around 70-80 degrees.  Lower than 60 and I've found it takes longer to get a good smoke flavor, 90 or hotter and it starts "sweating" and stretching on the bacon hooks. I...
  6. bob the noob

    flavor injector's

    I have the one from Butcher-Packer.. if you search their site it's the "Meat Brine Pump", holds 4oz and comes with a big needle and one with tiny holes all over.  Dang thing is solid, comes apart for good cleaning.  Well worth the $30 if you want one that will last longer than the plastic kind.
  7. bob the noob

    Looking for Detroit, Michigan pellet source...

    Hey everyone, long time no post. I just ordered a pellet smoker from Amaz-n-smokers after getting the dust based smoker and loving it.  I've seen several people here love the pellet smoker too so I'm sure it'll be great. I was wondering if any of you knew of a place that sells pellets around...
  8. bob the noob

    Jerky Shelf Life

    You probly want to use something that's food safe, like this: http://safetycentral.com/moisabdespac.html
  9. bob the noob

    SMF smartphone app- tapatalk is ready to go

    If it has pics I'll need to get a drool proof case...
  10. bob the noob

    SMF smartphone app- tapatalk is ready to go

    Odd, I was able to log in via my phone just fine.   I used DolphinHD which is a different browser though, and I have the UserAgent set to "Desktop" so web sites see me as a normal computer, not a mobile device. If you still want to use the stock android browser, you can get around this by...
  11. bob the noob

    The "How-to" for making an Arduino controlled smoker

    I believe the original code that I started with had a blower motor that would turn on at varying percentages to keep the temperature with a charcoal system. It might be possible to use that code to control an extra piece of hardware to vary the voltage to the element, but honestly that's a...
  12. bob the noob

    The "How-to" for making an Arduino controlled smoker

    I'm not sure about the 220 vs. 110 thing, I've got a 220V element running on 220V. I was talking about the Relay and was trying to say that the arduino puts out 5V so as long as your input trigger on the Relay can take that it doesn't matter what you control on the other side of the Relay as...
  13. bob the noob

    The "How-to" for making an Arduino controlled smoker

    I'm using a 220 element. At the time of the build I figured more power was better but I've since found that's not the case. The element heats so well and the fridge holds heat so well that once it's up to temperature it doesn't turn on often/long enough to make the wood smoke. I'm gonna set...
  14. bob the noob

    The "How-to" for making an Arduino controlled smoker

    Right, you'd just put the IP address of the Arduino board, like http://192.168.1.30 or whatever you set it to. If you were out of the house you could just set port forwarding on your router to connect to it.
  15. bob the noob

    Food Recall

    Yeah, I got this on the bottom of my receipt when I got groceries at Kroger the other day. I guess the only way to know your spices are "clean" is to grow/make them yourself.
  16. bob the noob

    The "How-to" for making an Arduino controlled smoker

    Well, it depends on what you have laying around and what way you go with it (electric or charcoal). Arduinos range from 30 bucks to 55-60+ for the Mega (more ports/inputs/outputs) The wifi shield is about 55, but the company that makes it just came out with their own Arduino board with...
  17. bob the noob

    The "How-to" for making an Arduino controlled smoker

    Not a problem... I had some rather frustrating moments and didn't want others to go through the same stuff. And there's not to much to building it really. You could probly build one in a day or two with it all hashed out here. Not to say there won't be a few problems here and there, but it...
  18. bob the noob

    The "How-to" for making an Arduino controlled smoker

    Hi Steve, I'll try to answer your questions below... 1, Can you have more than one smoke program loaded in the Arduino and pick which one to use? so when I turn everything on I could pick a regular smoke temp and monitor like you have done, or I could pick a sausage program so it would do 120...
  19. bob the noob

    Slicer recommendations

    Keep an eye out for one on your local Craigslist. I found mine for $100 bucks, it's a mid 50's Berkel commercial deli slicer. Runs like a champ and slices anything I throw at it. Well, he was asking $100 or trade for something so I gave him a spare 19" LCD monitor I had. On average I see...
  20. bob the noob

    A couple of Chuckies for the first smoke

    Man, these old fridges sure hold heat well. So well so that I've got a small problem, not enough smoke! I've got the oak chunks in a pie tin right on the heating element, but it only turns on a little bit to keep the temperature. The little bit of heat it gives off to maintain the temperature...
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