Smoking venison sausage ,jerkey,hunter sticks,and bacon.

[jeremyd]

Started processing my own deer this year. I got a deer during bow season. Used my dehydrator for the snack sticks and jerky. Came out great but want to up my game with a smoker going forward and for making sausage. Obviously MES is the go too. But which one? So many choices and gen models Im lost. Then add in mailbox mod?? Smoke tubes?? If possible $300 is on my higher side of the budget. But I am a buy once cry once type of person. So I'll spend what I have too. Suggestions,advice...please. Thanks

 

[poacherjoe]

Craigslist has lot's of barely used smokers. I was in your situation and got lucky and hit the jackpot on a SmokinTex 1460 for 450 bucks. Good luck!

 

[Brokenhandle]

If you go to bearcarvers signature he has a post about alot of the mes smokers and different generations that he has tested himself. Along with all his step by steps which are easy to follow with all his instructions. Have used several myself.

A huge thank you to Bear for them!
Ryan

 

[tallbm]

Started processing my own deer this year. I got a deer during bow season. Used my dehydrator for the snack sticks and jerky. Came out great but want to up my game with a smoker going forward and for making sausage. Obviously MES is the go too. But which one? So many choices and gen models Im lost. Then add in mailbox mod?? Smoke tubes?? If possible $300 is on my higher side of the budget. But I am a buy once cry once type of person. So I'll spend what I have too. Suggestions,advice...please. Thanks

Hi there and welcome!

I am biased but to me the best MES you can buy is a $40-50 used one off craigslist and then you do a simple rewire to it and buy a PID controller and for about $200 you have an electric smoker that kicks the crap out of any smoker Masterbuilt makes new or otherwise lol.

Academy will almost surely have the best deals on new MES units right now. Make sure you get the 40 inch unit because the 30 inch are just a little small for whole racks of ribs or briskets, etc.
Also I would get the most plane unit you can and save the money for the thermometer and AMNPS, etc.
MES Bluetooth has never been reported to work so skip it. The meat probes are always way off so skip it. I find the window to be useless though some others like it. I just despise cleaning it all the time and once smoke gets rolling you can't see anything anyways but that is just me.
So again, get the simplest and least expensive 40 inch unit you can find and use the savings for other things that are a MUST have :)

You would also want to get the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker tray (AMNPS) and a bag of pellets. I prefer the mailbox mod but many go without it with success, it's up to you but you can always move to make a mailbox mod if you need. The AMNPS tray will give you up to 12 hours of hassle free smoke using pellets of wood dust. It's a must have for anyone who wants to have perfect smoke with no fuss.

Finally without fail get a good remote wireless thermometer with dual or more probes (I like 4 minimum) because the MES or basically any smoker never reports a correct smoker temp at rack/meat level. Also the meat probe that comes with the MES is also just plain wrong so with a minimum of 2 probes you can use one to measure smoker temp at rack level and the other to measure the internal temp (IT) of the meat. Having 4 or more probes means 1 for rack /smoker temp and 3 for meat or any combo of meat and racks you need (2 racks 2 meat, 3 rack 1 meat, etc.)

I hope this info helps and let us know what you pull the trigger on :)

 

[Brokenhandle]

Tallbm, would like to talk to you more about pid controller for mes. Read several threads and you seem to be very knowledgeable about them. But don't want to hi Jack anyone's thread

Ryan

 

[jeremyd]

I do do some smoking on the weber so I already own a maverick wireless temp sensor. But Alot of good info guys, thanks

 

[Brokenhandle]

I bought my analog mes 30 on sale a few years ago for $ 95. But did a search on auber's pid on here and found a post tallbm had on them. Gonna order one, on sale for $ 139 until 12/2. My mes is typical with temp swings and hard to control temps

Thanks tallbm!
Ryan

 

[tallbm]

I bought my analog mes 30 on sale a few years ago for $ 95. But did a search on auber's pid on here and found a post tallbm had on them. Gonna order one, on sale for $ 139 until 12/2. My mes is typical with temp swings and hard to control temps

Thanks tallbm!
Ryan

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