EECB--Wattage=Smoke

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morkfrompork

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Apr 7, 2015
109
14
Valrico, FLA.
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Fellow Cheapskates.

Brand new to the forum and smoking da meats.

Been drooling over Myron and Tuffy`s food for quite awhile so finally made the plunge.

I`ve had the EECB-Electric El Cheep-O Brinkmann  for just a little while now, with around 7 smoking's under my belt.

Been sticking to chicken thighs and pork chops, because they are cheep and on sale most of the time.

Kind of mixed results, since I`m trying different rubs, marinades, and woods.

I do have ONE  question though.

I found an aluminum, no stick coated WOK for cheep and cut the handles off of it to use as a wood holder.

It`s a really good fit, with like a 1/2" less diameter than the smoke chamber(?) and 2" under the water pan.

It holds a goodly amount of wood chunks and being 1/16" thick it holds the heat very well.

NOW THE QUESTION,

Will this thing do any harm sitting on the heating element?
 
Update on this seemingly dead thread
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Doing up a couple of Pork Roasts the BOSS brought home.

She said, go forth and smoke.

Did all the prep, including the silent prayer..Please great god of da meat, let this go well.

Anyhooooo...Watching every half hour or so and all seemed well.

Internal temps were going just like they should, ready to off load at 145 for wrapping and resting.

Temp gauge I put on the lid was doing it`s thing.

Looking good and normal until I went out and looked at the gauge..

300+ DEGREES

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What happened was the WOK full of wood was on FIRE.

Flames up above the water pan.

Evidently the element got the WOK hot enough for COMBUSTION.

Good thing the meat hit 145, so grabbed it and figured I`d deal with fire later..Meat comes first
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Anyhoooo....the fire is out. The house is still standing. The Boss dosen`t know, and we will all swear to keep it that way.

I`m not giving up on the WOK. Thanks to some others input, I put some legs on the WOK to keep it up, off of the element and am going to add a pizza pan with holes for a lid.

I`ll see how that works out.

But as far as FIRES go, I`m all done wit dat.
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 Unfortunately,  while I saved the meat from the FIRE, it ended up being 2 steps from inedible.

The amount of smoke generated reached a point where it stopped imparting good and tasty and became bitter and-according to Da Boss-HORRIBLE TASTING
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.....

After munching down some myself, trying to hold back the tears of failure, the best I could come up with was

"It`s not ALL that bad"

But it was.

Now the WOK sits on it`s 3 little legs, mocking me in the garage.

I`ll keep it as a reminder that MORE is not always BETTER, but MORE can be BITTER.

That thin blue will trump voluminous and white.

That you will improve, cause with this you truly have to eat your mistakes.

Live and learn as they say
 
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This will end this dead horse thread.

I ended up TOTALLY  cleaning out the smoker.

It had a nice looking, shiny black layer of creosote covering all of the inside.

If I let it stay, I think it would taint everything I put in there???? Would it?????

AnyHooooooo....

Sprayed the innards with some oven cleaner, and let it sit.

With some rubber gloves and a scraper, I peeled that gunk out of the smoker.

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Oiled the insides and gave it another cure cycle.

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Now, with a clean slate, I started over with a rack of spares.

Did the 2-2-1 on em and they came out
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...

MORAL OF THE STORY

More isn`t always better.

Creosote tastes very bad.

Sometimes following directions really does work

 
Glad it worked out for you. The E-ECB is pretty limited but once you figure it out it can produce some great food.
 
Mork, you said the wok was non-stick coated?  As in Teflon?  That's probably what made your meat taste bad.  I suspect before you discovered the fire your smoking area was smelling very bad, chemical-wise, out there.  If I was you, I'd try removing whatever coating is still on the wok (belt or disk sander?) and try again.  
 
 
Glad it worked out for you. The E-ECB is pretty limited but once you figure it out it can produce some great food.
I`ll sure agree that this little red bullet can be a dream-n-meat killer.

That said, I`ve got handle on ribs that seems to work.

At least Da Boss likes them, Da Boy likes them, I like them..Heck, Da whole clan likes them.

Still a bit hit-n-miss with other stuff, but it is what it is.

For the money and a bit of determination this EECB will produce some pretty decent food.

Thanks for the reply.
 
Step 1: give the Brinkmann another good cleaning.
Step 2: list it on Craigslist. You should be able to get $25-$30 for it.
Step 3: take the money from the sale of the Brinkmann, add another $25-$30, and gather the required parts to build a mini WSM.
Step 4: start enjoying BBQing instead of fighting it.
Been there, done that with the Brinkmanns. Had an electric in the early 90's and tried a couple charcoal models about 5 years ago.
All I can say is they're a great first step but they're so frustrating and limited they're really not worth the effort. For the $60 it costs, the mini WSM is hands down the absolute best smoker in its price range.
 
Step 1: give the Brinkmann another good cleaning.
Step 2: list it on Craigslist. You should be able to get $25-$30 for it.
Step 3: take the money from the sale of the Brinkmann, add another $25-$30, and gather the required parts to build a mini WSM.
Step 4: start enjoying BBQing instead of fighting it.
Been there, done that with the Brinkmanns. Had an electric in the early 90's and tried a couple charcoal models about 5 years ago.
All I can say is they're a great first step but they're so frustrating and limited they're really not worth the effort. For the $60 it costs, the mini WSM is hands down the absolute best smoker in its price range.
I hear ya..and agree with the ECB being an effort, but like all first steps, it would be rather remarkable to start out at a run.

I have a couple of racks of spares sitting in the thin blue right now.

What a chore finding space for the st. louie cuts and all the trimmed goodness.

I`ve already been looking at some up-graded smoke boxes for my new addiction.

Been leaning heavily on a cabinet style and found this one that is speaking to me.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Masterbuilt-PRO-Dual-Fuel-Smoker-20050412/202904343

It checks all the boxes on my want list and the dual fuel feature sure dosen`t hurt any.

Still looking at the pros and cons of it.

Thanks for the reply.
 
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