- Feb 2, 2010
- 3
- 10
I got a Brinkman Electric smoker for peanuts because it had 3 dings in the lid where someone tried to put it back into the packaging wrong, and the legs appear to have dinged the lid as a result. Well I hammered them out, and assembled it.
The past month or two, since I tried to sign up here, I made Smoked Bacon from pork rib bellies, Canadian Bacon, Smoked Smelts, and Pastrami. I had problems initially because the smoker ran way too hot, and more cooked things than smoked them. I came to the conclusion that the reason for it was that it had been designed to both smoke and grill, but having only the one heating element, and no way to adjust its output, and no temp gauge or temp control, it just put out 1500 watts continuous and cooked things, whether you ;liked it or not. As a result, my smoked smelts came out too tough. I went and found a small tabletop grill with a 900 watt element and replaced the 1500 watt one with it for smoking. This seemed to help a lot when I smoked the Pastrami, as it took 9 hours to get to about 170f.
I've been smoking using fresh prunings from my apple, pear and cherry trees, so in other words, each time I smoke something, I just go trim trees enough to keep the smoker running.
Not sure what I'll try next. I still have another 10 lbs of pork rib bellies, 15 lbs of boneless pork loin, and 20 lbs or beef sirloin tip roasts that I used for the pastrami, so I'll probably just do them, tweaking the recipes as I go, from here.
The past month or two, since I tried to sign up here, I made Smoked Bacon from pork rib bellies, Canadian Bacon, Smoked Smelts, and Pastrami. I had problems initially because the smoker ran way too hot, and more cooked things than smoked them. I came to the conclusion that the reason for it was that it had been designed to both smoke and grill, but having only the one heating element, and no way to adjust its output, and no temp gauge or temp control, it just put out 1500 watts continuous and cooked things, whether you ;liked it or not. As a result, my smoked smelts came out too tough. I went and found a small tabletop grill with a 900 watt element and replaced the 1500 watt one with it for smoking. This seemed to help a lot when I smoked the Pastrami, as it took 9 hours to get to about 170f.
I've been smoking using fresh prunings from my apple, pear and cherry trees, so in other words, each time I smoke something, I just go trim trees enough to keep the smoker running.
Not sure what I'll try next. I still have another 10 lbs of pork rib bellies, 15 lbs of boneless pork loin, and 20 lbs or beef sirloin tip roasts that I used for the pastrami, so I'll probably just do them, tweaking the recipes as I go, from here.
