New member from Barrie Ontario Canada

[smokinjoes]

hey all,

I'm Joe from Barrie Ont.  I just got into smoking recently, I purchased a cheap offset smoker for an inexpensive way into smoking meat.  

Turns out you get what you pay for lol.  Go figure.  I was sooo not happy with the cheap offset smoker, mostly in it's inability to retain heat.  I was never off the hook, in and out and in an out checking temps adjusting air flow, adding wood, ect.

Thats about the time I started to tinker with my broil king bbq, which is great at holding heat (infact I have to prop the lid open to keep temps low enough) and holds 20lbs of liquid propane in the tank :)  

I built/devised many smoking devices some worked quite well some not so.  I had used chips, chunks, pellets basically everything except sawdust, then I ran across the a-maze-n pellet smoker.  This was exactly what I was trying to do, no more trial and error which I was basically done with anyways, but I did not have anywhere close to 11hrs of smoke with my devices so it was still a big bonus for me.

I bought the amnps and have been mostly happy since...  I say mostly b/c the only drawback I found to the amnps is the fact that the pellet combustion is in the cooking chamber and depending on how humid you get that chamber your smoke can suffer from lack of oxygen :(

if I ever upgrade the grill/smoker combo I will be adding one of these  http://www.smokai.com/products/ssg-1100 the smokai it is a step above what I am doing by pulling the combustion out of the cooking chamber and using a venturi system.  Its a little more money than the amnps but wow, it looks like it just smokes the competition lol.

I've done 3 roasts now,

1) a pork shoulder (didn;t turn out well I paniked in the stall and added heat and ultimatly pulled it early, it was hard to pull but still tasted good),

2) a 12lb butt, I learned my lesson about eh stall, and started the day before, and just let it go through the stall no wrap it rested for about 8hrs while I slept (17hrs on the grill came off at 3:30am lol) and pulled it 2 hrs before guests arrived.  This was epic, my best ever

3) a 5lb blade roast I followed Bears post here http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/99125/chuckie-step-by-step-with-qview everything worked out well except I didn't time this one as well and ended up trying to pull it without a rest, I only got enough for 2 sandies, and stopped let it rest in the oven @ 180 for an hour or so and it came apart nice after that.

Thats about all I can come up with for an into to me and my smoking so far.  Hope to see everyone on the forums.

 

[atomicsmoke]

Welcome Joe from down the road (400/401).

It seems you've done a lot of reading here.

Looks like you went thru the same growing pains as I did. Amnps in your broil king grill (good machine-made in Canada) will do the trick until you decide to go for a dedicated smoker. All comes down to finding the sweet spot for the pellet tray. For small jobs I use the same setup.
Don't kill yourself with over control. Shoulders are very forgiving. Hot or low, you will get them right. Unless you are pressed for time.

Good luck.

 

[smokinjoes]

Hey howdy there neighbour.  I actually grew up in the east end, Kennedy station area, now in Barrie. I bet its quicker to get to your area from Barrie than Scarborough lol.  

I did chose this forum b/c I saw some other locals on here its a small world on this little internet thingy :)

It's nice to see members close to me.  

I would really like to get an actual pellet smoker, but they are pricey damn.  It is extra hard to see that money spent on a pellet grill since the wife is not very fond of the 'smoke' taste, bah humbug I say.  until then it is the broil king and me :D

My recent blade roast this past weekend was a big hit with the wife.  She is not fond of the 'smoke' flavour but loved the pulled beef... woohoo huge win for me lol.

A few more cooks like this and maybe I will get my pellet grill after all :)

cheers

Joe

 

[gary s]

  Good morning and welcome to the forum, from a warm cloudy, and rainy looking day here in East Texas. Lots of great people with tons of information on just about  everything.

Gary

 

[atomicsmoke]

Joe,
I was also looking at a traeger before. Then decided to go with Masterbuilt two door (dual fuel). Much more affordable, works reasonably well. Easy to modify for cold smoking (you already have the amnps). The only smoke that left me unsatisfied (on Master built) was fish. It does not do well at controlling low temps. But for brisket, butt, chicken, ribs - no complains.