MES 40 - Learning the ropes

[wino]

Just picked up an MES 40 a few days ago and have tried BB ribs and chicken breasts so far.  The information here is very helpful so I thought I would jump in and join the conversation.

My first BB Rib attempt was much like @Topless... realized later I did not remove membrane and also did not wrap.  In addition to that I will now crank the temp up a bit from what it shows... they did take longer to reach temp than advertised, but not by too much so I think the MES 40 is pretty close to temp.  In spite of that ribs were very tasty but still going for the fall off the bone thing.  I learned quickly that overfilling the stock wood tray is a bad thing...

Did chicken halves yesterday with apple and it was very good... I overcook a bit but other than that very happy.

I have the upgraded(larger) wood tray on the way and just had to get a A-MAZE-N-PELLET-SMOKER 

 from Todd based on everything I read here.

I do wonder how much success others have had with the upgraded wood tray since I would like to see if I can get good result from the original setup and use AMAZNPS for longer overnight smokes.

Looking at the chicken wing recipe on the banner for today... that looks good!

Thanks to all.

 

[hkeiner]

I do wonder how much success others have had with the upgraded wood tray since I would like to see if I can get good result from the original setup

For hot smoking at 225 temperatures or so you can get good results with the upgraded wood tray as well as with the original small wood tray. You just need to learn (1) how many chips is enough (but not too much) to put in the chip tray and (2) how often to refill the chip tray.

 

[bigbob73]

Remove the heat shield from the small one. Makes a big difference.

Sent from my PD_Novel using Tapatalk

 

[wino]

Thanks!  I will try both of those suggestions!

 

[stovebolt]

 While I had good results by adding holes to the heat shield on the small chip tray, I liked the large one due to the fact I could use chunks for a longer smoke time. The large chip pan is deeper, which sets it right on the heating element. If you can get even a little distance between the element and chip pan the large one works well. Nothing compares with the

AMNPS though. It's a super accessory for the MES40.

Chuck