General Usage Questions (NEWB!) MES 30

[SonnyE]

Not always true.
Some guys have had near tragedies from putting pellets in the MES Chip Drawer & having them flare up.
Depends on the air flow, the distance from the Heating element & the bottom of the chip drawer, dryness of the pellets, etc, etc.
That is why they don't recommend it.

Bear

OK. MY pellets wouldn't burn in MY OEM smoker. YMMV. LOL! o_O
But they burn great in my mod. :p (A shameless plug...:oops:)
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Proximo,
And I only have 3 places for sand:
The Beach.
The Kids sandbox.
And between my bricks.

I run my smoker dry (no water), and no sand or ballast of any kind.
When I get to wondering, I remember Alaskans smoking their Salmon for winter hanging over small smoking fires in the open air.

 

[GaryHibbert]

In case Gary misses this;
Some people put sand in their water pan as a heat sink, instead of water, because water adds too much humidity to an MES.
I recommend you use sterile "Play" sand, and cover it with foil to keep it from getting all kinds of grease & fat drippings mixed into the sand, creating a real mess.

I never did this, because I don't want my MES to have to heat up a pan of frozen sand, and Mrs Bear would never allow me to heat it in her oven before Doing a cold weather Smoke. However it must work, because I know at least a few of Fine Smokers using this method.

Bear

Yep. What John said. If I have my head on straight, I bring the "sand pan" inside to warm up overnight. If I don't, then it goes in the oven. It's clean, so Miss Linda doesn't have a problem with me doing this--although I seem to recall I "neglected" to mention it until after the fact the first time I decided to try it. LOL
Gary

 

[Proximo]

Spoken like a True Pennsy' Scientist::)
Try it both ways, so you know what you like best.:cool:

Bear

Today I FINALLY got the chance to fire this bad boy up. Doing the "pre-season" as I type this.

I'm already finding out why everyone says a good meat probe is a necessity. The temp read on the MES unit has been significantly lower than the Maverick ET-732 probe so far. And based on the toying around I did with the Maverick beforehand, I'm pretty confident in it's accuracy.

I have the MES set to 275 for 3 hours (as the manual instructed). It actually heated up faster than I expected, which is nice to see (it's not incredibly cold out at the moment, but cold enough). The temp on the Maverick maxed out at about 315, approximately 35 minutes in. Almost an hour in it's stabilized at about 298-302. The MES is consistently reading about 25 degrees less (it's floating around 275). I wanted to use both the "BBQ" probe and the "food" probe so I stuck a small piece of sweet potato in there with the food probe in it, ha.

One question, how long after the pre-season is it okay to actually smoke something? I wanted to try smoking something today. Should I wait till this thing cools down entirely and then re-start it? Or is it safe to throw something in once the 3 hours is up?

 

[SonnyE]

According to Masterbuilt, once the Pre-season is done, you are good to go.

I found nothing saying to wait.

I, however, did let mine cool down. Then, I ran it empty with chips just to give it an additional smoke seasoning.
Probably totally unnecessary. But part of my reason was to see how mine did at lower temperatures. And since I am interested in Cold smoking, my result was dismal. It did work OK at 200*, and my Salmon came out delicious. But I wanted better control of my smoke.
So I pursued doing a modification.

I was at my local Lowe's Home Improvement center yesterday and happened on the mailboxes. I found 3 under $20 that were painted steel. So if you decide to jump on a mod, the plane Jane mailboxes can be found.

 

[Proximo]

According to Masterbuilt, once the Pre-season is done, you are good to go.

I found nothing saying to wait.

I, however, did let mine cool down. Then, I ran it empty with chips just to give it an additional smoke seasoning.
Probably totally unnecessary. But part of my reason was to see how mine did at lower temperatures. And since I am interested in Cold smoking, my result was dismal. It did work OK at 200*, and my Salmon came out delicious. But I wanted better control of my smoke.
So I pursued doing a modification.

I was at my local Lowe's Home Improvement center yesterday and happened on the mailboxes. I found 3 under $20 that were painted steel. So if you decide to jump on a mod, the plane Jane mailboxes can be found.

Hey Sonny, thanks for the info. Just finished my "pre-season" up a little bit ago, but now we've got snow rolling in for the afternoon/evening so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. Tomorrow morning should be clear so hopefully my 1st real smoke will take place then.

Glad to hear your salmon came out nice! I've never been great at cooking fish so I'm going to stick to pork or beef for my 1st few smokes at least, ha.

Thanks for the heads up on the mailboxes. I may be looking into those in the future. Was actually just at Lowes this morning to pick up an extension cord......surprised the cord the MES comes with is only 5 feet. Probably the only disappointment I've had in the unit so far.

 

[SonnyE]

Hey Sonny, thanks for the info. Just finished my "pre-season" up a little bit ago, but now we've got snow rolling in for the afternoon/evening so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. Tomorrow morning should be clear so hopefully my 1st real smoke will take place then.

Glad to hear your salmon came out nice! I've never been great at cooking fish so I'm going to stick to pork or beef for my 1st few smokes at least, ha.

Thanks for the heads up on the mailboxes. I may be looking into those in the future. Was actually just at Lowes this morning to pick up an extension cord......surprised the cord the MES comes with is only 5 feet. Probably the only disappointment I've had in the unit so far.

Snow... Damn. Sorry to hear that.
I hope tomorrow is better for you. Stupid Groundhog anyway. ;)

I think you might be amazed how easy it is to smoke Salmon. I fish at Costco in the freezer section. Two bags (6 pounds) costs as much as a California fishing license, but hey, it's a sure thing. And they are clean fillets individually wrapped and flash frozen. If you ever decide to try your luck... :)
If you ever get interested, feel free to start a conversation (Like a Private Message) and I'd be glad to give you some pointers.

My Doc has banned me from Beef. But I still do some Jerky and a roast now and then. Cholesterol tried to kill me once, but didn't get the job done, just made me ornerier.

Yep, just file the mailbox idea until you decide. I felt the price was quite reasonable.

I run my "outdoor kitchen" on one form or another of extension cord. Right now I'm using a 50' #10 AWG cord I use to use for our RV. That booger handles up to 30 amps, so it can run a smoker with a ton of room to spare. (Because it is there)
Of course, the house circuit is only 20 amps at the circuit breaker. But there is no doubt it's good for the smokers needs.
If you go too big on extension cords, no loss. But if you go to small, the tool at the end suffers. So rule of thumb, get a bigger gauge when you can. ;)
#14 ~ 15 Amps. #12 ~ 20 Amps. #10 ~ 30 amps.

Well, I have 48 minutes left on 'Stage 2' of my ribs. First batch in my MES 30. Then it's un-foil and finish in the 3,2,1 Ribs-a-thon.
Just a single rack today to test.... But when I sauced and wrapped in foil, boy howdy, they looked go enough to eat already.
Nobody else wants me to change my Rib Recipe. And that's fine, I understand. But doin Baby Backs in this Smoker-Oven thing is sure nice!
So far looks like just me, and the dog, for supper. And I know he won't complain. He can hardly wait as it is... :D

 

[Bearcarver]

Hey Sonny, thanks for the info. Just finished my "pre-season" up a little bit ago, but now we've got snow rolling in for the afternoon/evening so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. Tomorrow morning should be clear so hopefully my 1st real smoke will take place then.

Glad to hear your salmon came out nice! I've never been great at cooking fish so I'm going to stick to pork or beef for my 1st few smokes at least, ha.

Thanks for the heads up on the mailboxes. I may be looking into those in the future. Was actually just at Lowes this morning to pick up an extension cord......surprised the cord the MES comes with is only 5 feet. Probably the only disappointment I've had in the unit so far.

Yup---No reason to wait, AFTER your Break-in/Seasoning of the MES.
And I would keep one eye on it for a couple smokes, just in case, and keep it from going much over 300° if you can.
Just adjust your MES to get the proper temp on your 732.
That snow just got here about a half hour ago---Still calling for 3 to 5" tonight.
I shot a couple Grundsows last year, but I guess I didn't get the right one!!

Bear

 

[tallbm]

Be sure your extension cord is 10-12 awg or so. If not u will not be smoking much since the smoker wont draw enough power over the weaker extension cord :-)

 

[Proximo]

UPDATE!:

Finally did my 1st ever official smoke, on Sunday morning-afternoon. 3 racks of pork ribs (St Louis cut).

Definitely made a few amateur mistakes, but overall it went off without a hitch, and the ribs were pretty tasty.

As far as the smoker itself is concerned, it worked great. I had zero technical issues with the unit.

Here are some random notes/thoughts-

• I didn't do anything particularly fancy in terms of preparing these ribs (wanted to keep it basic in case I ended up messing them up, ha). Just the typical membrane removal/cleaning, and I used some McCormick rub (Molasses Bacon), with a little bit of yellow mustard on 1st.
• My plan was to do a 2.5 hour, 2.5 hour (foil), 1, at 230 degrees (stole from one of Bearcarver 's step by steps) but it didn't go completely as planned.
• Also note, this was my 1st time firing up the A-Maze-N Pellet smoker. I used hickory pellets, and it worked like a charm. Literally smoked without interruption for as long as I needed it to. Pretty impressive. I also did NOT have a torch on hand, so I just used some alcohol gel to get it started and lit it with a regular lighter, and bam, ignited right away. Definitely would not smoke without the AMNPS. Dealing with wood chips would be too much of a hassle.
• My 1st error: So I wanted to put something above the AMNPS to keep any grease, etc from dripping down into it. I started by using one of those disposable aluminum containers, but the one I picked turned out to be way too big. I had the AMNPS on the bottom shelf, positioned above where the wood chip loader is, and the container was on the shelf above it. I noticed about 45 minutes into the smoke that the temperature was struggling to rise. Wouldn't go above 190. So I grabbed a smaller container and also cut it to size perfectly, and switched them out quick. The temperature started rising immediately and had no trouble the rest of the way.
• My 2nd error: So, I was worried about "losing" heat when I pulled the ribs out to foil them. I tried to compensate by jacking the temperature up right before I foiled them, but then the temp was too high for awhile after they went back in. Will not make this mistake again.
• Also note, I left the water dish empty. And I used foil to cover what I could during the smoke, to help with cleaning, and it worked great. Basically just needed to wash the window and shelves afterwards. And of course the AMNPS.
• Maverick meat probe worked great too. Randomly lost the signal a couple of times, but it came back after a few seconds.

I'll probably do ribs again for my 2nd smoke, and avoid a couple of the mis-steps I had yesterday.

 

[SmokinItUpHereBoss]

Just wanted to say that this thread has been an amazing help to me as well. Not only am I a newb to smoking, this is also the first online forum I have been involved with and have had a heck of a time trying to navigate my way through to find the info I need. Not a reflection on the forum itself, but my ignorance in how forums work. I had to ask my son how to post my first greeting in roll call!

Anyway, since reading through all of the great advice you guys have given I now have an AMNPS, some pellets, and a Maverick ET-733 on order and can't wait to start using them together. So far I have done three butts, two loads of fresh sausage, and a top round using different combinations of water levels and wood chips with average results. From now on, though, I will go with no water and try the AMNPS in the same position as suggested by Bear and used by Proximo.

Once again, great advice gents and thank you for helping us rookies get through these growing pains!

 

[Bearcarver]

Just wanted to say that this thread has been an amazing help to me as well. Not only am I a newb to smoking, this is also the first online forum I have been involved with and have had a heck of a time trying to navigate my way through to find the info I need. Not a reflection on the forum itself, but my ignorance in how forums work. I had to ask my son how to post my first greeting in roll call!

Anyway, since reading through all of the great advice you guys have given I now have an AMNPS, some pellets, and a Maverick ET-733 on order and can't wait to start using them together. So far I have done three butts, two loads of fresh sausage, and a top round using different combinations of water levels and wood chips with average results. From now on, though, I will go with no water and try the AMNPS in the same position as suggested by Bear and used by Proximo.

Once again, great advice gents and thank you for helping us rookies get through these growing pains!

It's Great to hear you're getting the hang of it !!!:)
Keep on Smoking',

Bear