Hello all. I've been lurking a while and decided I should join.
I live in eastern Washington. I've been smoking and bbq'ing for quite a few decades. I'm a big Weber fan and have a 22" Performer kettle and a 18.5" WSM. My wife has a Weber gas grill we use for quicker cooks.
I've used the heck out of my WSM. We recently really upped our sausage making volume. I've used the WSM for a lot of smoked sausages and smoking our own cured pork bellies. We recently acquired a Meat Your Maker 1hp grinder and one of their 15lb sausage stuffers. We have been doing enough that the KitchenAid just wasn't cutting it any more. As much as I like the WSM, it's just not ideal for lower temps, like 140 for snack sticks and some sausages. I have an Amazn pellet tube, and tried that and various snake methods, but struggled getting consistent lower temps and being able to ramp up reliably as needed for some snack sticks and sausages. I just ordered a Masterbuilt 40" digital, the one without the window. I also ordered one of their cold smoker attachments. I'm going to fabricate a rack for hanging sausage in it, with ideas garnered from these forums. I thought about moddinng ann extra door for the WSM and adding an electric element, but decided a different unit made sense for us. I'll still use the heck out of the WSM. For typical smoking temps I find it so amazingly easy to hit and maintain temperature.
I'm looking forward to learning more from these forums, especially with regard to sausage making. We grind a lot of loose breakfast and Italian sausage, but also do quite a bit of cases sausages. One of our favorites is a 50/50 pork/beef sausage we call our general purpose sausage. It get's smoked to 155 internal temp and we enjoy it for breakfast, or used like a Kielbasa for dinner dishes. We have one of the raised hangers for the WSM, which has been great for warmer smokes, but I really struggled with lower temp consistency and being able to somewhat reliably ramp up the temp. I think the MES 40 will be a good addition.
I live in eastern Washington. I've been smoking and bbq'ing for quite a few decades. I'm a big Weber fan and have a 22" Performer kettle and a 18.5" WSM. My wife has a Weber gas grill we use for quicker cooks.
I've used the heck out of my WSM. We recently really upped our sausage making volume. I've used the WSM for a lot of smoked sausages and smoking our own cured pork bellies. We recently acquired a Meat Your Maker 1hp grinder and one of their 15lb sausage stuffers. We have been doing enough that the KitchenAid just wasn't cutting it any more. As much as I like the WSM, it's just not ideal for lower temps, like 140 for snack sticks and some sausages. I have an Amazn pellet tube, and tried that and various snake methods, but struggled getting consistent lower temps and being able to ramp up reliably as needed for some snack sticks and sausages. I just ordered a Masterbuilt 40" digital, the one without the window. I also ordered one of their cold smoker attachments. I'm going to fabricate a rack for hanging sausage in it, with ideas garnered from these forums. I thought about moddinng ann extra door for the WSM and adding an electric element, but decided a different unit made sense for us. I'll still use the heck out of the WSM. For typical smoking temps I find it so amazingly easy to hit and maintain temperature.
I'm looking forward to learning more from these forums, especially with regard to sausage making. We grind a lot of loose breakfast and Italian sausage, but also do quite a bit of cases sausages. One of our favorites is a 50/50 pork/beef sausage we call our general purpose sausage. It get's smoked to 155 internal temp and we enjoy it for breakfast, or used like a Kielbasa for dinner dishes. We have one of the raised hangers for the WSM, which has been great for warmer smokes, but I really struggled with lower temp consistency and being able to somewhat reliably ramp up the temp. I think the MES 40 will be a good addition.
