New MES 30 in Grand Rapids, MI

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matthewb

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 11, 2013
2
10
Grand Rapids, MI
Glad to be here and looking for some help. I have always been interested in smoking, now I get to give it a try.My wife surprised me with a smoker for my birthday. We planned to feed everybody with oven roasted pulled pork, but she has known I wanted a smoker for a long time so I got an early present. She got me the MES 30(I have done some brief reading and caught onto the abbreviations).We plan to have people over this Saturday for a party. What I want to do is assemble and season the smoker this evening, and smoke the pork on Friday. I know it would be best served fresh, but I am nervous on making sure it gets done on time, so I would rather smoke it the day before to ensure I can feed our guests.My main question/concern is how often do I need to reload the wood? The manual states to use wood chips only, but from some reading I see a lot of people use wood chucks successfully. What is the average reload time on each wood source? I would like to be able to leave it alone for hours at a time so I can do other things to get ready for the party.
 
Hi Matthew! 
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 to SMF!!! We're happy you found us! You've come to the right place, we have over 50,000 members who just love to share their experience and over 1,000,000 posts describing it! Yea that’s right over 1,000,000!

 

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Would you do us a favor and add your location to your profile, it helps others to know where you are when they offer advice, Thanks!

 

You might want to check out  <a href= http://www.smoking-meat.com/smoking-basics-ecourse.html>Jeff's Free 5 day E-Course</a>, it will teach you all the basics plus a whole lot more!
 
Thanks for the welcome. Not sure why my first post didn't have proper formatting, I did split it up into paragraphs when I typed it. I even tried to edit it, but those didn't take(I previewed this time and the paragraphs still aren't working).Thanks again.Matt
 
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 to SMF!  We are so glad you joined us! 

If you didn't read the Terms of Service notes.....please do.  There are a few things that everyone should know about those pesky little rules before plunging into the forums. Rule #11......"Off Site Links are not allowed here at SMF" is something new. There are other simple guidelines for all of us to remember as we interact here.

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Kat
 
Welcome to the forums, Matt! Glad you've joined us. You've found a great place to learn and share ideas on our favorite pastimes...grilling, smoking, and curing great food! There are lots of friendly and knowledgeable folks here who really enjoy helping one another. Just ask any time you need help and you'll get plenty!

I'm with David...the AMNPS is the way to go in your MES.

Red
 
Hiyas Matt, I have an MES30 also. Basically you are going to want to get 1. a remote thermometer, 2. an aux. smoke generator.

Why? 

The remote thermometer is so you can enjoy the advantages you get with an electric smoker. No fire tending required. You can sleep without guilt at night. Pulled Pork and brisket are long smokes, even longer depending upon how you smoke them.

The auxillary smoke generator gives the ability to smoke like a fired pit vice an electric. Using pellets you can increase your smoke time from 1.5 hours to 12 to 18 hours. You also gain the ability to more types of smoke.

An electric smoker will usually get the meat temperature up to 140 degrees fairly quickly (depending upon you), and even Jeff has stated that the ability to absorb or take on smoke starts decreasing at about 140. So, if you use the chips in the first place, you might see how it handles the smoke.

There is alot more differences to fire smokers and electrics, but this is Roll Call and I hate to get all caught up in explainations here. Its just not the right place. Here is where ya come to say Howdee and get a bit of guidance toward the forum's abilities.

Its a great place, great people, and the search engine is bustin apart at the seams with all kinds of info. It won't help ya get the garage painted but it will explain how to smoke things you never thought about.

So relax, research, discuss, inspire, but mostly enjoy the smoke.
 
Matthew
I have an mes 40 and use small chunks. The one thing you don't want to do is oversmoke so don't go putting clouds of white smoke on the meat. Better to have a mild smoke flavor than a bitter oversmoke. As for doing pork the day before I happen to like it a bit better after an overnight rest as the flavors seem to meld together nicely. As for the suggestions for a temp monitor and smoke generator......get them. The mes can be way off on temps. A maverick et732 (or similar) will give you accurate readings for the meat and the smoker. And an AMAZN smoke tray will free you up from babysitting the chip loader. Best of luck.
 
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