- Sep 14, 2025
- 16
- 45
I picked up a MES 30 (20070910) that had been used twice for $40. After testing out heat control yesterday (empty), I decided to take it for a spin with some sausages and sticks today. I planned from the start to finish with a poach as the variability on the MES temps were just too great, so wanted a safer way to finish without courting fat out!
Started out with a batch of Wedzona Kielbasa and dried them for an hour. After that, I loaded the sausage links into the "cold smoke" box on my RecTeq which sits at about 155° on low. Loaded the now empty MES with a batch of spicy snack sticks (50/50 pork/beef, sheep casings) to dry for an hour. After an hour, I loaded in my OnlyFire pellet maze for smoke, and bumped the MES temp to 105° (which spiked to 145°). The sausages got four hours in smoke, then a bath, and the sticks got five hours of smoke before poaching.
While the temp swings and ~25° low reading on the MES aren't ideal, I can see myself having some fun with this little unit. I do have a PID on order, so that should fix the temp swings, my only other main desire is more capacity.......which will eventually be solved with a custom wood smokehouse build.
Some pics of the fun today.......
Results of yesterday's grinding, mixing, and casing:
Wedzona on the RT, and then blooming on racks after cold plunge:
View attachment 1757892564613.jpeg
Spicy sticks on the MES (about three hours of smoke here), then blooming on racks after cold plunge:
....and, just for fun, this is the temp graph from my ThermoWorks Signals for the Snack Sticks......
Started out with a batch of Wedzona Kielbasa and dried them for an hour. After that, I loaded the sausage links into the "cold smoke" box on my RecTeq which sits at about 155° on low. Loaded the now empty MES with a batch of spicy snack sticks (50/50 pork/beef, sheep casings) to dry for an hour. After an hour, I loaded in my OnlyFire pellet maze for smoke, and bumped the MES temp to 105° (which spiked to 145°). The sausages got four hours in smoke, then a bath, and the sticks got five hours of smoke before poaching.
While the temp swings and ~25° low reading on the MES aren't ideal, I can see myself having some fun with this little unit. I do have a PID on order, so that should fix the temp swings, my only other main desire is more capacity.......which will eventually be solved with a custom wood smokehouse build.
Some pics of the fun today.......
Results of yesterday's grinding, mixing, and casing:
Wedzona on the RT, and then blooming on racks after cold plunge:
View attachment 1757892564613.jpeg
Spicy sticks on the MES (about three hours of smoke here), then blooming on racks after cold plunge:
....and, just for fun, this is the temp graph from my ThermoWorks Signals for the Snack Sticks......
